Free Project

For our last project, all of my brainstorm ideas completely changed last minute this weekend. I decided to capture photos of the four classical elements of the environment (Earth, Air, Fire, and Water).
My intentions were originally set out to do that balloon idea (which actually I used one shot in the end). After the balloon photo shoot, the pictures didn't really turn out like I wanted them to. Also, to make matters worse, my photoshop trial ran out, and I could not edit them the way I wanted to in this amount of time.
Here are a couple of the failed photos:

I was really inspired by Rosie Hardy & Alex Stoddard's work. 

A group of friends and I went camping this weekend, and I decided to bring my camera along. I ended up really liking how the photos all turned out, and it brought a whole new idea to my head. The four classical elements of the environment. 

Earth

Air

Fire

Water

last project

For this last project, I have been brainstorming ideas since day 1. A couple weeks ago, I thought of doing a photo shoot revolved around the theme "It's my party and I'll cry if I want to". Yesterday I got a couple of my friends to help me out and we put up balloons all over my dorm room wall. I still have to edit the pictures, but I'm not sure that they turned out like I wanted them to.

But yesterday/today a group of us went camping, and I brought along my camera. I took a lot of pictures that came out really well, and I thought of a completely new theme that revolves around "fire and water" complete opposites.
I've been really inspired by Rosie Hardy's photography.

Right now, I am downloading the trial run of Adobe Light Room from Adobe's website & I am going to try to edit the pictures to see if they come out like the vision in my head.

Free project

For my project the media I have to use is photo. I was thinking about doing a theme that involves "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to". Lately I've been listening to a lot of music from around that time and it got me thinking about how that song kinda of relates to how stressed I am about school ending. School is so much fun, but all of this work is stressing me out to no end. I was thinking about getting a ton of balloons and confetti and then in the middle of all the fun chaos is a pissed off girl.

I also had another idea about doing an American theme. My friends and I always talk about our American pride, so I thought it would be kind of fun to do a theme based off of that.

My brain is still running with ideas because it's so hard to chose because this is so open ended!

Ecology - Project

For this art project, the first thing that came to my mind when it comes to Ecology was leaves.

One of the last things that I had to chose from was found object, so I decided that building a tree out of sticks from my yard and then I decided to buy fake leaves because the leaves that I picked died.

My concept for this project was to show how this generation has taken nature for granted. Kids these days don't play outside in the Yard for hours like I used to, they play on their iPads instead. The fake leaves represent the plastic that the new generations have come to be so attached to.

Guest speaker

I absolutely loved the guest speakers work. I feel bad, because im blanking on her name right now, but her work was so inspiring. I loved the piece where her husband was grabbing at the star. All of her work really spoke up about what the meaning was and was really powerful. It made me want to go out and take pictures. You could tell that so much heart went into each piece.

Daily post

Today in class we watched two videos and I didn't really care for either of them. The second one especially I didn't really like. It was really slow and boring, and I don't really see how it was art. Some of the photos that we looked at we're cool, like the one over looking the factory, but the the ones were it was from the junk pile I didn't like that much.

Ecology project

For my Ecology project. An idea I have at the moment is to collect a bunch of sticks and leaves, and create a tree out of the sticks and paint the leaves different colors that you normally wouldn't see in nature and attach them to the stick tree.

The one problem I have with this is that, there really is no meaning behind what I want this piece to say. I just think that it would be a cool idea to make.

Tony Ourlser

I just do not understand Tony Oursler's art.  As the book states, it is demented, and tormented.  The first question that came to my mind was just, why? Tony's answer was that he wanted the despicable to seem tolerable. 

Out of researching his pieces more the only one that I actually liked was this one below:

I think this one caught my eye because it wasn't disturbing to look at. It reminds me of a cloud. 

I really do like his style of using videos, to create a 4D effect of his work.  I wondered why he chose this style. To my surprise, the book states that he does his work NOT to create emotion. 

I found myself wondering how I would react if I ever saw any of his work. I do not think I would like it one bit. The book states that noise plays of screaming and crying. It makes me question his statement of how he does not mean to create emotion, when he has such nerve-racking displays of work. 

So after reading, I am left wondering still why he does what he does, how he even thought of it in the beginning, and how he choses what features to display.

Lost in nature

Today we went to reedy creek park but once Katie and I got there we thought we were suppose to meet at the nature center, but turns out it was the rock house. So we ventured through the mud, spider webs, and bugs to find out that we went in a giant circle. So we decided to go and see what that music play area was all about and hung out there for a good while. Even though we didn't get to see the rock house, it's safe to say that I definitely got enough bonding time with nature.

Fantasy Project/weekly post

For my fantasy project, I decided to go with a mythical creature from the ocean. I cut up an old undershirt and scribbled blue, pink, and green sharpie all along the back of it. On the back, I made it look like an old washed up ripped shirt, by cutting slits throughout the back and the sides. On the front I added translucent colorful (blue, purple, pink) glittery ribbon to the front of it to look like scales. I also curled up some ribbon and attached it to the sides. Along with the front of it, I attached shells to a string so that when I did my swaying movement, they would 'clack' together.

I really liked this week how we got a work day. It really helped me manage my time for the week, with other homework. I also liked the fact that we could get opinions on the process of our work. Going to the mint was really neat too. I really loved the fantasy, fairytales, and fear exhibit, that I actually went for the second time the other day. My favorite piece was the tar carriage/ wolf. Also, when we researched Nick Cave, his work was really inspiring. I loved his work of the bushy colorful wearables that would create so much movement and sound when the performer moved in them.

Lorna Simpson + Fantasy Project

Only knowing that Lorna Simpson is a photographer, I began to wonder what kinds of photos she takes, and what they reflect. I also want to know what her artwork style looks like, and if she has done any other work besides photography

Lorna Simpson is a very accomplished artist. She has had many exhibitions in her career. Her work represents the struggle between the master and the slave that Sojourner Truth fought. Her work reflects a lot of African American's battle with racism. Her style of her work in all of her photography is the effect of using black and white. Later in her career Lorna has branched out into filmmaking and she includes other genders, races and identities in her work.

After reading this I began to wonder why she decided to branch into film making, and what is her reasoning of all of her work being in black and white. I also want to know why is all of her work focused on one topic.

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After last class period, I began to think of what to do for the fantasy project.
There are just so many options when it comes to fantasy. I want to make something the either revolves around aliens, or mermaids, or even a completely made up figure. I need to go to good will and try to find something, and maybe that will give me ideas.

Power of society

For this project, I chose a tie to represent power. A tie can show power in many different ways. I burnt my first tie to show that power can be corrupt. That people can have power for all of the wrong reasons.

My second tie represents the power that unemployment and struggle can have over you. 

The third tie represents the power of money. People thrive off of money. Money can tear people apart and bring people together. It represents the power of the economy. 

My last tie is to show that power can be good. The power of love. If its love for your significant other, or love for a passion that you have. Power can have a good effect over you when it is positive.

Overall I am really proud of myself for this project. These images came out exactly as I wanted them to. Usually I have a vision in my head, and its hard to get it off of paper, but I thought I did a nice job of portraying power through ties. The only thing that I wish I had done better was find the right words when describing each one.

Last weeks summary

Last weeks classes for concepts were very interesting to me. That Monday gave me a lot of ideas on what to do for this project. This project for me has probably had the most ideas that I want to work with. Then on Wednesday we went to the Mcall center which was awesome. The art in there has been my favorite so far even if it wasn't that big. The building itself was just beautiful to me on its own. I really enjoyed the comb collection of art. It was very clever and creative.

Power project idea

For my project I just thought of Another idea that I want to write down before I forget. I will take my dads old ties and use it as a found object and then destroy it and glue it back together on a poster and maybe even use it as a stamp. And it will all be used to symbolize the bumps in the road to get to power. Or how power can inevitably destroy you and you begin to fall back down the ladder.

Shirin Neshat

Before reading this, I wondered what kind of art Shirin Neshat does. I would also like to know the reasons to why she creates what she does. The last question I had was what is the process she goes through to create her work.

When reading this I discovered that develops her culture into her work.  A section of her work includes video installations.  Her most popular video is Women Without Men.  In 1973 she moved from Iran to the United States to pursue school in California. She quickly discovered the change in people's physical appearance and public behavior.  In her work she goes back and forth between these two worlds that she knows. She tries to combine the elements of social, cultural and political in her work.  

My questions now include what the the school in California offer to her to make her want to move to another country. Another question is what is her next project, and then my last question is how long does it take her to create her videos.

Krzysztof Wodiczko & Kara Walker

Krzysztof Wodiczko's art does not make any sense to me. It is just weird and I do not like the projections he uses, they are creepy (especially the one with the face projections)

Kara Walker's art really tells a story behind her work. Even though it is just the silhouette, you can still see the message that she is trying to get by. Her slavery pieces really show a deep meaning.

Daily post

Today in class we talked about power and what we can do with our projects. I came up with two ideas. One is to make a video of people of all ages writing their weakness on a card and then ripping it up and showing that you can overcome your weakness and gain control of it. My second idea was to do something along the lines of overcoming your weakness again and having a painting of a backbone. But I need to figure out how I could incorporate that one into the themes that are left for me to choose.

After that we watched videos on two artists. The first one Laylah Ali created art that I have never seen before. Her art was very original and had a good underlining meaning to each piece. My favorite ones by her was her dodgeball series. I also really liked her doodles before she even painted. 


Then we watched a video on Cai Guo-Qiang and it was cool to see his style of art and how he would use gunpowder to create his pieces. I also really liked his installations of the car flipping and the arrows in the tiger. 

Critique - time.

I really enjoyed this project. I had a lot of ideas in store for this project. I however did feel like I could of done better than how my stop motion video came out. I wish I made it longer than it was. I wanted to make a video showing that you have to go through the bad to get to the good. That time can literally heal all of the stress away. Something bad might happen to you, but it won't even matter a week, a month or even a year from now; eventually those angry emotions will fade away.

Daily Post

Today we did half of the classes presentations. It was really neat seeing everyones interpretation of what "time" was to them. I am excited to present mine

William Kentridge

Before I read about William Kentridge, I was curious about the process of how he makes his stop motion films. What materials does he use? How long does it take him to create a video? How does he get his concept?

While reading this I found out that he worked in the film industry, and was a director, writer, actor, and set designer. He made his first animated film in 1990.  He used charcoal in his movies, and would smudge and smear to add effect. Frame by frame he erases the charcoal and adds to it for the next movement.  I learned that each 6/7 minute video takes about three to four months to create.
I also did not know that Kentridge was a print maker, did video sculptures, and drawings. He also did operas, plays and puppet shows.

It made me wonder, why does Kentridge specialize in stop motion videos, if he is talented in all other kinds of areas of art. I also was curious on to why it takes him four months to make a film of seven minutes. I have made stop motion films before, and it would not take that long to create something of that length. I was also curious to as to why he choses charcoal as his medium.

The light factory

I really love going into the city. I always find it to be really inspiring. Photography is one of my favorite forms of art. A photo can tell so much even though it's from one perspective. I really enjoyed looking at all of the photos in the light factory. The first room we went into was my favorite. Those photographers are so talented and it makes me want to go out and take pictures with my camera. I will definitely be back to the light factory to look at the new pieces that they bring in in the future.

Daily post

Today in class we discussed what inspires us. I had to think about this one. When it comes to thinking of an idea, my best ones come to me late at night or out of the blue. Depending on what I'm creating depends on what I look at to get inspired. Out of everything on this planet however, music is what helps me create. creating is so much more fun when listening to your favorite song. Most of my projects have come out of listening to music late at night.

The Mint

Today we went to The Mint museum. It was nice to get out of the classroom and find more inspiration through the art in the gallery there. I really enjoyed watching the stop motion video. That is the kind of art that I like to create, so it was really neat to watch. I also really loved seeing the Andy Warhol prints that were there. I definitely have ideas for my time project now.

Today's class ( 1-30-12)

Today we talked about what the new project was going to be about, and that we should think outside of the box when it comes to 'time'.
We also went to the shutter art exhibit in the student union which was really awesome. I really enjoyed looking at the of the unique photographs and how the artist incorporated their photos into their pieces.

Mapping Project

For the mapping project, I had no clue where to begin. The topic has so many possibilities that I had no clue where to start. Paths instantly popped in my head when mapping was brought up. From there I decided to create an installation marking my paths I go around my room with string. Once I got to Michael's Craft Store to get string, it dawned on me that I could split it up, and add color. I decided from there to map out a path of my morning before I go to classes, and then at night when my classes are done.

It was hard to document on the string in one shot of a picture, but I tried to get different angles and view points to help the viewer solve the maze of where I go in the morning/night.

Here are a few pictures of my morning routine (wake up, eat, shower, etc):

Then I added a blue string to represent my night routine (hang out with friends, do homework, get ready for bed, etc): 

Week 2

This week was full of critiques. This was our first critique in this concepts class, and the project was mapping. It was really neat seeing everyone's interpretations of what mapping/maps meant to them. The projects ranged from songs to videos to paintings. I wasn't too sure what to expect on this first project, but after seeing how much free will we get on these projects has made me excited for the next one.

Text (Matthew Ritchie)

Before reading this text, I wondered to myself how Matthew Ritchie used mapping in his art work. I also wondered what the process was when he created his work. I also wondered what makes his work so popular
When reading this text about him, it was hard to understand. I kept having to re-read the paragraphs over and over again.  He uses mapping in his artwork to guide the audience along as they negotiate the functions that his artwork has to offer.  Matthew Ritchie's method of creating his art starts out as captivating the audience by the shapes and colors he uses, then after that the audience will realize that there is an under lining meaning to those shapes and colors he uses.  Then the third stage is the audience interaction.  The fourth stage (or plateau) is the metaphor stage, and then the last plateau occurs after looking at the piece of art. It is when the viewer leaves seeing Ritchie's view point.  When all of those plateaus are combined together, I gathered that that was what made his artwork so popular.
After reading this text about Matthew Ritchie, it made me question whether I go through the same methods as he does when creating. I also thought about what I am going to do for my own mapping artwork. I also thought about what style Matthew Ritchie has that makes him unique.

Day 2

The second day of class helped me get a better understanding of mapping. It helped me brainstorm for our project coming up. It was really interesting to learn about the artists. I liked Matthew Ritchie's work a lot.

First Day

Today was the first day of concepts. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, because I didn't know much about the class. Now that I know what the class is all about, I am very excited to do the projects in this class. I really like the idea that all of our projects are really open ended and allow us to really use our creativity.