Chris Metze is an abstract, Canadian/American artist who is best known for his mixed media artwork and his paintings. He studied painting and sculpture in Vancouver at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. He is represented in many art galleries across the United States. The main galleries he is represented in are the Kathryn Markel Arts in New York City and the Simon Gallery located in Morristown, New Jersey. Chris Metze is part of the current abstract movement.

          The biggest thing that has affected my work is his layering. Before, I did not find layering in artwork that important, but the more I have looked at his work, the more I have seen how layers make things look better. Perhaps the best thing that I like about his work is how he varies his textures. This adds to the painting and the layering. One thing that I find interesting is how he uses a series of non-organic and organic shapes to top off his works. The painting on the left is my favorite because of the texture on the lighter brown. On top of this textured brown, there is kind of a ghostly white blob that adds to the layer affect. I can tell that he has put a lot of time into his work because of all the small detail that went into each small object/shape he has painted.

http://www.chrismetze.com/#/Bio/

          Vincent Van Gogh was born in 1853. He is considered by many to be a post-impressionist. The impressionism movement happened in the nineteenth century. Impressionism is an art form that uses small but visible brush strokes to create a realistic painting. It is said that he died from a gunshot wound in 1890.

          This style of painting is one of my all-time favorites. I like how Vincent Van Gogh would use a smaller brush stroke on areas that he felt need more attention. Because of this, you tend to look at the fain details in each of his paintings. An example of this is Starry Night. In Starry Night, I pay more attention to the village below the hills. In Self-Portrait, I first looked at his face because of the massive amount of detail that was put into it. Perhaps on of the most useful techniques I learned when studying him was how to capture somebody’s eye and how to make it follow through or recycle through the work of art.


 http://www.vggallery.com/misc/bio.htm 

http://www.vangoghgallery.com/misc/bio.html

        
          When most people think of art, they think of visual art as in paintings and drawings. People do not often think of art as a broad topic. Art can be in the form of a music, dance, product, ability, paintings, books, websites, etc. The definition of art is the ability or application of the human creativity. In our education system today, we are practically being told that art is not as important as other subjects like science or math. We are becoming more and more “standardized” and kids are being forced to retain more and more information. This information is distracting them away from their artistic ability and is often decreasing their creative ability. Art is what built our society today.

          Most successful businesses start with a crazy idea. An example of this is Microsoft. When Bill Gates first showed his work to Xerox, they thought he was crazy and insane for his thought that people would want a personal computer. Now look at him and how successful he is. What I have noticed is when many teachers give me a project, they tell me to write a paper or make a PowerPoint. This often limits my ability to show my full potential and impress others. The more we are limited to things like this, the less creative we become.

          It seems that the importance of art in education is going downhill. Because of this, we are coming less creative and more standardized. What most people look at in education is what job it will get you. Really they should be looking at what skills that course is giving you. This is especially true now when we can’t even tell what will happen to technology or the economy next week. Shouldn’t education be better-rounded and not just based on the four main subjects? I think education should be giving you the skills necessary for future, not fact about the past. One of these skills is the skill to be creative. This skill is intertwined and repeatedly used and practiced in the arts. Because of this, the arts are, and should be, as important as he four main subjects.