Animals: Biomorphic Shapes and lines Ancient Art in Cave Paintings

Hand Prints as Signature of Artists Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for "Cave of the Hands") is a cave located in the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina Elements of Art & Principles of Design: Line (outline, sillouette) Shape (biomorphic, organic) Rhythm of Shape: repetition, movement Color (contrast) Space (overlapping to show depth)

Paintings were added, until a cave might have hundreds of different paintings, by many different painters.  Most cave paintings focused on hunters and animals. In order to reach the places where cave paintings have been found, Cro-Magnon man had to crawl on his belly, through mazes of narrow, dark tunnels, by the light of a flicking torch or a spoon-like oil lamp (which had to be hand carried and balanced carefully to hold the burning oil in the rounded part of the spoon - while crawling along on your belly), and carrying the paints he had carefully prepared, with no idea if he might run into, oh .. a cave lion or a bear, on the way.

Unity Prehistoric artists were able to demonstrate a knowledge and an affection for the animals they hunted, capturing the power of a bison, the fleetness of a horse and the gentleness of a deer.

Hall of Bulls Lascaux, France 15,000-13000 BC They drew stick figures for people, but the animals were well drawn, and usually filled in with natural colors, to give them even more shape and substance. Why? It might have had something to do with their religion or their rites of manhood. Nobody knows! It's a fascinating mystery.

Australian Cave Art Significant early cave paintings have been found in Kakadu, Australia. These are possibly over 40,000 years old. Dreamtime-story of creation

Native American Rock Art Native American rock art includes two styles of creation: pictographs, which are drawings or paintings made on rocks, and petroglyphs, which is when the images have been carved into the rock. These images were usually created in order to record the history of tribal events, but also included ceremonial images and even maps of hunting areas. The greatest concentration of Native American Indian rock can be found in the southwestern United States. Eastern Utah alone has over one thousand known rock art sites, and New Mexico and Texas also contain a wealth of sites.

Lascaux, France In 1940, 4 French teenagers accidentally discovered the cave. The cave contained more than 600 paintings and 1500 engravings that are carved into the walls. The most popular animal is the horse, followed by the bison. “Lascaux” is pronounced Lasco! Rhythm and movement in upper right corner Variety Space Overlapping

Lascaux Unity Repetition, rhythm In 1948, the Cave was open to daily tours for thousands of people. This created a huge problem for the Cave! The breath of the tourists created carbon dioxide that caused the paintings to deteriorate. Another problem was carried in by the shoes of the tourists - algae - that began to grow on the walls and cover the paintings. Calcite crystals also began to cover some of the paintings due to the high temperatures, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels caused by all of the tourists.

Ancient Romans: Pompeii Wall Paintings The Pompeian Styles are four periods which are distinguished in ancient Roman mural painting. The First style, also referred to as structural, incrustation or masonry style, was most popular from 200 BC until 80 BC. It is characterized by the simulation of marble. The Second style, architectural style, or 'illusionism' dominated the 1st century BC. This technique consists of highlighting elements to pass them off as three- dimensional realities - columns for example, dividing the wall-space into zones - and was a method widely used by the Romans.

Ancient Romans: Pompeii Wall Paintings The Third style, or ornate style, was popular around 20–10 BC. It leaves room for more figurative and colorful decoration, with an overall more ornamental feeling. This style is typically noted as simplistically elegant. Delicate motifs of birds or semi-fantastical animals appeared in the background. Plants and characteristically Egyptian animals were often introduced, part of the Egyptomania in Roman art after Augustus's defeat of Cleopatra and annexation of Egypt in 30 BC.

Catacombs Many scholars have written that catacombs came about to help persecuted Christians to bury their dead secretly. Christians also preferred burial to cremation (Roman style) because of their belief in bodily resurrection. There are sixty known subterranean burial chambers in Rome.

Early Christian Art These frescoes use animals as symbols in story telling (from the Bible).

Reverse Graffiti Project, San Francisco Reverse graffiti, also known as clean tagging, dust tagging, grime writing, green graffiti or clean advertising, is a method of creating temporary or semi permanent images on walls or other surfaces by removing dirt from a surface. Using detergent and a wire brush, the tools of many a cleaner, graffiti artist Moose works with advertisers to create innovative clean messages and slogans that inevitably turn into works of art.

Alexandre Orion – Skulls in Sao Paolo A few years ago, reverse graffiti artist Alexandre Orion adorned a transport tunnel in Sao Paolo with a mural consisting of a series of skulls to remind drivers of the detrimental impact their emissions have on the planet. Etching skulls on the side of the tunnel with nothing but water and a cloth. Hailing from Brazil, Alexandre sees his art work as a way of getting an environmental message across to those who ordinarily wouldn’t listen.