Mr. John Hurtado's Website

I just viewed fellow classmate John Hurtado's personal website for our final blog assignment. I found his artist statement to be very well written. It is brief, to-the-point, yet very informative of his personal background and interests. I particularly enjoyed his statement that the whole world is not just black and white but many shades of gray and other colors in between. This is an opinion that I share with him, for one of my greatest interests in human behavior is morality and from what I've seen the defining line between what's right and what's wrong is not always easy to define.

I noticed that Mr. Hurtado knows a thing or two about graphic design and it truly shows in his personalization of his website. It is also reflected in his stamp which is very intricate in its artistry. I also thought his photos were very interesting, in particular the shot entitled "One Step Closer" which was taken from a low angle perspective (the camera was positioned on the floor" and depicts the hallway going off into the distance. The one thing I must negatively comment on is the fact that I was unable to open his blog from the link he provided, but such is a trivial complaint. Overall, I though Mr. John Hurtado did a great job on his personal website.

The Design work of Frank McCarthy

In 1969, the year when my favorite film "Once Upon a Time in the West" was released in America, Frank McCarthy was one of the most prolific graphic designers for theatrical posters of major motion pictures. His impressive resume included the poster art for films such as "The Great Escape," "The Train," "The Dirty Dozen," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service," to name a few. Mr. McCarthy was indeed a most suitable choice for the artwork of Leone's larger-than-life horse-opera. The poster for the film has the four central characters of the film played by Claudia Cardinale, Henry Fonda, Charles Bronson and Jason Robards emerging, in a way, from the smoke of a steam locomotive which passes through the lower half of the frame. On the far side of the track is the protagonist, Bronson, fanning his revolver and in the foreground the three pistoleros are shown being gunned down. The most interesting piece of the artwork has to be the gunman closest to the foreground, for his death is the most exaggerated of the three victims. He is depicted as reeling backward from the obvious impact of the bullet, caught in mid-air with outstretched hands and a gun which has just left his now bereft palm.

The artwork, which presents a somewhat epic feel, perfectly suits the gritty western saga. The characters in the upper half of the poster seem to rise above the worldly actions below the film's title in the center frame. This lends to the larger-than-life presentation of the film's actors. Sergio Leone was infamous for his extreme close-ups of eyes, hands, and faces, which often gave his characters a tremendous presence on-screen, a trademark the actors absolutely loved. McCarthy obviously did his homework here. Also, the tagline of the film, although unfitting, is situated nicely above the focal points of interest. The words "There were three men in her life. One to take her..one to love her-and one to kill her" do not embody what the film is truly about, but the red small font does not draw attention away from the more important details of the poster.

The original 1969 poster for Sergio Leone's "Once Upon a Time in the West" as illustrated by Frank McCarthy can be found here: http://chasness.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/once_upon_a_time_in_the_west.jpg