Artistically Speaking: What Makes “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” A Rift In The Wrong Direction?

Have you ever been REALLY good at something but then you start to feel that you’ll slowly lose the ability to do it? That’s a common issue with most artists or really anyone who creates consistently. But the magic is that there may not be thousands of others who think the same as you do.Continue reading “Artistically Speaking: What Makes “Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart” A Rift In The Wrong Direction?”

North Poll: A Hallmark Special

As some songs would have you believe, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year (ahem! That should be October!). As someone who grew up with Christmas as a big holiday in our household, I have noticed how much Santa and his friends have developed over the years. You have the timeless, classic Coca-ColaContinue reading “North Poll: A Hallmark Special”

Breaking Down Art History: Holy Hands and Feet

The Foreshortened Christ by Andrea Mantegna features exactly the title of the painting: a foreshortened Christ. Christ lays with a cloth draped over him with the holes in his hands and feet exposed as his mother and Saint John. The painting is enveloped with dread and sadness as we watch the Virgin Mary mourn theContinue reading “Breaking Down Art History: Holy Hands and Feet”

Breaking Down Art History: Michelangelo the Sculptor

Michelangelo Buonarroti is perhaps best-known for his paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, but Michelangelo’s true passion was sculpture. One of his most iconic sculptures is his statue of David, but his David, while being a very beautiful piece of sculpture, does not amount to the sheer power and emotion of the Pieta.Continue reading “Breaking Down Art History: Michelangelo the Sculptor”

Breaking Down Art History: What’s that thing?

Hans Holbein the Younger was one of the leading artists of the Holy Roman Empire who painted The French Ambassadors using oil and tempera paint. The French Ambassadors depicts Jean de Dinteville and Georges de Selve standing on either side if a shelf with an array of many different objects, all with meaning behind them.Continue reading “Breaking Down Art History: What’s that thing?”

Breaking Down Art History: Lectures of Fidelity

Giovanni Arnolfini and His Wife is a painting by Jan Van Eyck during the Early Renaissance period in Europe. The painting depicts Giovanni Arnolfini, the Lucca financier “(who had established himself in Bruges as an agent of the Medici family),” along with his second wife, whose name is unknown (Kleiner). It is implied that theContinue reading “Breaking Down Art History: Lectures of Fidelity”

Breaking Down Art History: Three’s Great, But Four’s a Crowd

After the death of Marcus Aurelius’ son, Commodus (r. 180 – 192 CE), there was civil conflict, and a general named Septimius Severus became master of the Roman world. His family portrait was painted with tempera on wood and it features himself, his wife, Julia Domna, and his two sons, Geta and Caracalla. What makesContinue reading “Breaking Down Art History: Three’s Great, But Four’s a Crowd”

Breaking Down Art History: Woman as a Spectacle in Art

Mary Cassatt was an American Impressionist in the mid 1800’s. Her subject matter mainly included women in leisure activities, or sometimes in the privacy of their homes living a domestic lifestyle. In one painting of hers, The Woman in Black at the Opera, Cassatt’s subject is a woman dressed in black using her Opera glassesContinue reading “Breaking Down Art History: Woman as a Spectacle in Art”

Artistically Speaking: The Importance of Originality with Nickelodeon All Star Brawl

A popular genre of video games are fighting games; They collect a specific fanbase unlike any other. (For better or worse…) Fighting games seem pretty simple: you put a couple of dudes together and make them punch/kick each other and sometimes wave a sword. I may be simplifying it but only for anyone unaware ofContinue reading “Artistically Speaking: The Importance of Originality with Nickelodeon All Star Brawl”

How the Art Style of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing Series Helped Make it a Successful Franchise

The Animal Crossing series is a Nintendo franchise that allows a social, interactive, and creative play style. Originally released in 2001 in Japan for the Nintendo 64 as Animal Forest, the series has flourished and grown with every game that has been released. The franchise was created by Katsuya Eguchi and Hisashi Nogami and mainlyContinue reading “How the Art Style of Nintendo’s Animal Crossing Series Helped Make it a Successful Franchise”