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1. For this final assignment, I decided to use a piece from Mark Rothko’s collection, specifically, my reinterpretation on “Number 19, 1949″. I love how Rothko uses organic shapes over a thinly brushed background and his complex color compositions to meet the simplicity of his shapes. The current museum location of this piece can be found in Chicago, IL at the Art Institute of Chicago. 

2. I changed this piece in a couple of ways to make it more of my own. I was very interested to see how the color composition of it would look with a different background. In his early days, Rothko primarily used black and white for his artwork so i decided to make the whole background of my piece black. I also changed a couple shades of the shapes to make the organic shapes pop out more on the canvas.

3. Mark Rothko has a very successful and interesting life. Rothko moved to America at the age of 10 and eventually studied art at Yale University on scholarship. Rothko also uses the color composition in his pieces to express basic human emotions. Rothko took a trip to Europe to study Renaissance art and ever since was deeply influenced by the art of Michelangelo. Before his fame, Rothko was a teacher at Brooklyn College to make extra money and was known to inspire his students. Lastly, Rothko was very anxious over his work and was often depressed many years of his life because of the stress.

4.  A piece of work I was inspired by this semester was “Squirtle” painting by Kuba Jackson. I think it inspired me because looking through his collection on Tumblr, I believe this is where Kuba started to excel with his on-canvas paintings. I believe many people are more artistic than they realize, but sometimes it takes time for someone to realize it. 

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Dada hw due 04/26

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For this weeks assignment I decided to do my own take at “Persistence of Memory” by Salvador Dali. I kept many things the same but decided to use more bright and vibrant colors. 

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This piece “Urban 2400″ is a landscape idea of a future civilization. I added abstract architecture and colors to make the piece more interesting.

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For this assignment I decided to mix a Wall Street theme into cubism. I cut out different shapes from a newspaper and used a stock chart in the backdrop to give it an old school style. I used some generic shapes as well as some custom angular shapes to make it more abstract. I finished it off by adding some color to make the artwork pop. 

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For this assignment, I decided to take a photo of my friend Kuba and then paint him with different colors that fit him. If you know kuba you know he is an outgoing funny kid with a lot of energy when he walks into a room. I decided to use different vibrant colors with the tress, sky and grass to match his happy and energetic personality. 

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For this assignment decided to paint some houses from the Bikini Bottom in SpongeBob. I thought the vibrant color scheme was interesting and would translate well to the canvas.

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For this assignment I wanted to design a poster that could help motivate individuals who are chasing their dreams, but maybe not seeing immediate results. Every success story is flooded with failures along the way and these roadblocks can be learning lessons for the future. I chose to use complimentary colors in the words “failure” and “success” to create a composition that helps the font pop to the viewers of this poster. I decided to hang this on a bulletin board in the library to help motivate people doing their schoolwork and possibly help them relieve some stress.

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For this weeks assignment i took a photo of my friend Nick outside on our house’s back deck. The complimentary colors we used were red and green. We chose to have Nick pose in front of the tall pine tree to fit the ‘L’ shaped compositional strategy. Nick is also standing vertically and his shadow creates an ‘L’ shape. This assignment helped me understand how different complimentary colors and compositional strategies can enhance a photograph. 

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For this project I thought the fridge in my apartment was the most fitting place to hang this. It will now be there for my roommates to see and know that I am always here for them when they need someone to talk to. 

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Nolan Tofte

(He/Him)

Owego, NY

Senior Finance Major

Favorite Artist: Pablo Picasso

Hobbies: Love to golf and travel

Favorite Quote: “Success usually comes to those who are too busy looking for it.” - Henry David Thoreau