Venice and Florence were powerful city states during the time of the Italian Renaissance. Venice was a port city which meant that all the exotic wonders of the world could be found there. This lead to experimentation with color that other European cities couldn't come anywhere near to emulating. Color was such a huge part of Venice that people created whole businesses that involved the making and developing of pigments and dyes. It is no wonder that Venetian art was known for its "colorito"...

"Art for arts sake” from French slogan “l’art pour l’art” —expresses a philosophy/concept that the intrinsic value of art, and the only “true” art, is divorced from any didactic, moral, or utilitarian function. In Greek, these works are described as autoteles (aut- + telos, meaning self + goal) or “autotelic—complete in itself.”

We've got another Short But Sweet for you this week! Lauren gives us the run down on three museums you may have never heard of. Enjoy!

Dior was born in Granville, France in January 1905. His father wanted his son to go into politics but Christian was interested in the arts. He opened a successful art gallery with a business partner which closed during the Great Depression. During World War II, one of Christian's sisters fought in the Resistance and was eventually caught and sent to a concentration camp. She was eventually released and Christian created his first perfume in her honor, Miss Dior.

In Hinduism there are four goals in life while on earth and a person should aspire to all four. These four goals are: Dharma (righteous living), Artha (wealth earned through the pursuit of a profession), Kama (human and sexual love), Moksha (spiritual salvation).

Fairy painting started in Victorian England and is uniquely British. It was heavily influenced by Shakespeare, especially Midsummer's Night Dream and The Tempest but was also influenced by books such as The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser and The Rape of the Lock by Alexander Pope. Cultural issues, the difficulties of the Industrial Revolution, poverty and the fast changes in society were overwhelming for the general populous. People found their happy place in Fairy Paintings.

Deconstructionism, by it's simplest definition, is the process of taking concepts apart and putting them back together again sideways or inside-out.

This week Jo and Alisha talk about their favorite Scottish ruins.

Azure, indigo, sapphire, cobalt, beryl, cerulean,cyan, ultramarine. Incase you didn't get our little hint, on this episode Julia and Carolyne discuss the color blue and its influence in art history. Our topic was inspired by the Blue episode of the BBC documentary A History of Art in Three Colours.

This week we have a special guest, our very own Courtney Davis, who is an Assistant Professor of Art History here at UVU. Courtney has been our special guest a couple of times now so she's a pro at this podcasting thing and it was lots of fun having her back, especially to talk about the subject of David.

This is our 100th episode! It is an exciting milestone for us and we want to thank all of our listeners for sharing this journey with us! We also want to thank all of our alumni whose work in the podcast over the years we treasure! We have included messages from some of them in this episode. We miss you Marie, Kenna, Mary, Megan, Chloe, Zach, and Lauren!

This week Carrie and Alisha talk about their favorite church architecture. There are some pretty amazing feats of engineering and design in this list!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day and all things wonderfully Irish, Jo and Alisha delve into a little bit of lore and legend! Enjoy.

Probably as far back as recorded history artists have gotten kicked out of their homeland, either for being "subversive", outspoken, political or just a little bit to much of a free spirit. Here are a few artists who have been exiled.

This was an especially fun episode to record because it was a listener request! We are so happy that it was requested because the more we learned about Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the more we fell in love with his art and personality.

It's almost Valentines Day, the day of love, and in honor of that day we here at Arts & Facts have compiled our own list of the top 10 smooches (kisses) in art. This has been a fun episode to research and we hope you enjoy listening to it as much as we had recording it!

Abstract Expressionism is an art movement that developed after World War II in the United States and is considered the first American art movement to become an international art movement.

Lauren and Alisha talk about Classical Revivals through time in Italy, England, France and the US as well as other countries. This is a great basic over view of classical art and architecture.

Some of the most well known artists through out history did their best work while trying to beat out their rival. In this weeks episode Jo and Lauren discuss Great Artist Rivalries

Carrie and Alisha talk about Byzantine art from the illuminated manuscript to mosaics and Hagia Sophia.

If you have only a handful of coins, you have an art collection! (Corny, I know, but it’s true!) As we exchange money daily we hold the intricate artwork of countless artists who receive little fame for their work. In this episode we focus on 3 American monies packed full of history and symbolism.

Happy Holidays everyone! For our holiday episode this year we all got together to talk about our favorite Winter Wonderland scenes and the artists who created them! This was a lot of fun to record, we hope you enjoy. (Listen all the way to the end to hear our impromptu rendition of Jingle Bells.)

Today on Arts and Facts Jo and Alisha talk about Greek and Roman gods, their similarities and differences and how they are portrayed in art. Check out our blog to see all the images at artsandfacts.blogspot.com.

Born in 1941, Dale earned a Fulbright scholarship, studied at the Rhode Island School of Design, and taught glassblowing for years. He’s a prolific artist and has pieces all over the world, receiving numerous accolades for his contribution to the artistic community.