Cave Art and More

                                                               Functions of Early Art

•  I don't think there was a specific message they were trying to send or say but that the art in the Lascaux Caves was most likely a combination of a nice way to pass the time for early humans as well as a way to record information. Some of the paintings could also be warnings such as the depiction of what looks like a man either getting ran over or attacked in some way by a bison. 
• I think there might be more animals then people in the cave paintings because the people might have  just recorded depictions of the wildlife in the area as a way to keep track of the various species in the different places they were travelling. Knowing what wildlife was around might have been more important then knowing what people were around at the time and given that it was hard work to make these art work they most likely chose to depict the most important things. 
• The cave paintings can tell us that the people in Lascaux Caves valued nature and took the time to make the animals very detailed to the point they used varying techniques and tools in order to create these cave paintings. There was also evidence of shells that were used as jewelry and were most likely an item used for trade.
• Some of the difficulties the cave painters faced were the differences in the wall textures, because the walls were different textures they had to come up with different tools and ways to paint the walls such as five grinding stones, three mortars, twenty-three limestone and schist plates, sixteen shells, flint tools for engraving and wood work, and bone tools such as assegais, eyed needles, awl, spall, a modified reindeer antler beam, and brushes. All of these items had to be used in order to make the amazing cave paintings not one item could be used throughout the cave.
• I think one possible function of the art for early humans, as stated above, could possibly be for a pass time, the paintings themselves are nice to look at and could've been nice decoration for the caves they stayed in, and they could also be used to help tell a story. Another use could have been for recording information about important or dangerous plants and animals in the area. The pictures could also been used as a sort of land marker showing they had passed through for other groups of early humans as well as for themselves to remind themselves where they had been.

                                                          Commonalities in Functions

• There are many commonalities we can see in the Lascaux Cave paintings and within modern art works such as having an appreciations and love for wildlife which is depicted in many modern pieces especially by famous artist John Banovich. We see the commonalities as well in art work depicting danger or battles like the man and the bison and art work of  our own battles and wars. We also have art work today of important landmarks and places as well as specially decorating important places and land markers which could have been a function of the cave paintings. Modern at serves many functions from self expression, a message, or just sharing some beauty which I believe is the same reasons for the cave paintings.

                                                       Introduce Us to Your Favorite Art

• My favorite type of art would have to be music, I can find a song I like in just about every genre of music. My top favorite genres would have to be rock and rap/ r&b.  The functions of music is to express yourself by telling a story, the story can be about your own life experiences, the experiences of those around you or completely made up. There is a lot people say with their music, music can be about falling in love or out of it, social and political issues, crimes, parties/celebrations, life changing events such as having a child or getting married, it can be about death and all of the up, downs and in-betweens of life. Music is so powerful that there doesn't even need to be words for it to send a powerful message. Different types of music definitely have their own culture. When you think of rock you tend to think or dark clothing maybe some scary imagery, loud, leather, studded belts and a disgruntled attitude towards the  establishment and conforming to societies rules. Within rap you get a similar dislike of "the man" and the powers that be as well, attire can be much different rap and hip-hop tend to use really bright colors and have cloths that are baggy opposed to tighter like in some genres of rock, big flashy jewelry and cars. Pop culture is known for sparkles, pastel colors and flashy costumes, a carefree attitude. All music has it's own culture as well as the actual different cultures from around the world that influence and create different types of music rap from around the world sounds different as well as rock, pop, country, and so many more. Going back to my two favorite music genres rock and rap I'd say the positive impact rock has on society is that there are many songs celebrating the under dog and songs about perseverance there is also many anti self harm and suicide songs within rock, some of the more negative influences of rock are the glorification of objectifying women and drug use one of the most synonymous sayings is sex, drugs and rock n roll which has a negative impact on the youth. There is also racial tensions at times caused by the constant argument and prejudices that rock is solely for white people and the counter argument that black people invented rock n roll. The positives of rap/ R&B is that it allowed the black community to speak and tell the world about the injustices that were going on as well as the up and downs of everyday life. The negatives of specifically rap come with the era of gangster rap and never really ceased, this type of rap changed the narrative to let me tell you the bad things that are going on, into do bad things and be a bad person. It helped perpetuate a negative depiction of the young black man and caused the rise of gang and drug violence within the black community.