Final Project- finished work.

artist statement:

When one goes on vacation, things appear brighter, more beautiful, and somehow better than the place we call home. Is it possible that this is reality? Or is the answer more likely that we only imagine that it is so?

       This series of photographs was taken during a recent trip to Hawaii’s Big Island. While there, I could not put my camera down, as every sight I encountered seemed somehow magical.

       I am interested in the value we assign to photographs taken on special vacations. Are they really as extraordinary as we believe? Or do we elevate their beauty from the emotional ties we have to them?

side note:~I took over 400 photographs like these on my trip. When I later went through to review them, I could not allow myself to delete any of them, even the blurry and out of focus shots. I have become so attached to these images, I almost have a superstition that  I need them all just in case I ever somehow forget the experience and need proof that it was not a dream.~

final project, so far

My final project will consist of a series of photographs taken from my recent trip to Hawaii. I have played around with cropping, and tweaking hue and saturation but do not plan on making any major changes to any of the pictures. This trip was a once in a lifetime opportunity for me and I am excited to print them so that after the class is finished I will have high quality copies to display in my home.

I have three more that I want to add to this collection. I'm not sure about the size for printing yet, so if anyone has thoughts about which sizes would look best.. let me know please!!!

muybridge final

I created this animation using the frame by frame option. I took several photographs of my daughter, and selected out her head and pasted them onto the muybridge frames. I uploaded a brush set of hair brushes to add onto the horse, as well as flower stamp brushes. I used those on the body of rider, in hopes of making the proportions not seem so awkward.

My style, I will lovingly refer to as "barbie-chic". I have finally given up the fight against pink and purple four year old girl with a princess complex as an artistic style. My four year old is not only my child, she is my best friend, entire peer group, and person I spend most of my time with. As she is not old enough to sway towards my more neutral color palette preferences, I have decided to embrace her influence and go with it.
I am happy with the result of this project. I feel like it is fun and humorous. This has been my favorite project of the quarter.

muybridge...

So far... this is all I have, would like to add more if I have time

3 final!!

This is the one I wanted to post for my final project

3 final

This is a very simple version of my family tree. It starts at the top with my grandparents on my fathers side and spans four generations. The blue/green circles indicate males and the purple represent females. The circles with gold starbursts in the centers show family members who are related to me biologically, while the ones without are people who married into the family. I would like to have been able to trace the family back further than my grandparents, but the lineage is pretty confusing and hard to trace.

proj 3

Have two versions of project 3... not sure which one I like, if I even like either.

These are both representations of my immediate paternal family tree. Not sure if the backgrounds are too confusing and I should leave a solid background, or if they add dimension.

assignment 3

I love the idea of doing a family tree for this project, but am a little stumped on how to make it visually interesting while still being able to tell at a glance what it is. Thought about using some sort of interesting tree template and inserting names into leaves. I don't know. There is a good chance that the final project will be totally different.

visual complexity...

I really like the idea of the family tree. Being able to look at a "map" of a family's make up, for me, has always been fascinating. This one in particular is mind blowing because of the fact that the artist took the painstaking time to research fourteen generations back in his own family. I know that I would never be able to go back so far for my own family tree in such a short period of time. But the more I think about it, the more I think that my grandparents would really enjoy seeing one for the Cooper family. It is definitely the direction I am leaning towards for the next assignment.

I highly recommend clicking below to see how gigantic this guy's family tree is

http://www.alexandercheek.com/images/family.png 

Final version, Project 2

My final image is not at all what I anticipated when I began. The only thing that is similar is the use of childrens toys. I decided to use a picture of children in a third world country as the background, and then use photoshop to add toys we associate with children from our country. I thought the contrast between poverty and abundance gives a disturbing feeling because we know that the children in this picture will never have access to the toys we assume are necessary parts of childhood here. I also added the three sections of grafitti in the background because I feel like they also are a contrast to the children. These kids will never have money to become slaves to, nor will they ever truely have the opportunity we relate with education.

project 2...

I think this will be my final version. I didn't get to post an image last week, so if anyone has any ideas for how I can make this better the feedback is much appreciated~
Thanks!

assignment 2

For assignment two, I don't have anything far along enough to post an image. I have gotten three usable images of toys from commercials off the net and have selected out the portions I will eventually use. I am undecided about the background still. I can't decide between a background with money scattered, or if I should find an image of a poverty stricken area in the United States and arranging the items to contrast the idea of what children are shown everyday on tv with the sad reality of many of their lives. My overall statement for this assignment is that kids are told everyday that the toys and other commercial goods for sale on tv are crucial for their happiness. But with the economic hardships that have touched so many lives, many families are struggling to meet basic survival needs. The hard times are not reflected at all in the excess of products that are in our faces everywhere we turn.

assignment 2 idea

My idea for the next assignment is to use pictures of products found in advertising during a 30 minute children's show. In just a short half of an hour time frame it seems that kids spend just as much time seeing commercials for products that are advertised in a way that make the kid desperate to have them, as they do watching the actual program. So, I thought I would jot down what each commercial in that half hour is for and then find images on the web pertaining to that commercial and combine them into one larger image. I feel like a visual representation of what kids are watching and buying into will be more powerful than numbers that describe it.

assignment one, final image.

    My final image was created by isolating portions of several images and then combining them all together in photoshop using layers and various masks. The images that I chose each represent (literally and figuratively) the pieces that make up who I am at this particular moment in time.

   The image as a whole is a little bet messy and overwhelming, which is exactly how I feel my life can be a lot of the time. The weather vane is distorted and skewed because I have never been able go in one straight line in any direction without being distracted. The sky and rock backgrounds are a reminder that it is just as important to dream as it is to stay grounded. My daughter is the one constant in my life that I never doubt or question. The silhouette of two people represents, to me, that it is important to let the people you care about know that you care because you never know what may happen.

   The Tiki images carry a double meaning. Spirituality is very important to me, but because of my upbringing around many different faiths, I think it is more important what you have inside than how or to who you express it.  I thought the multi-colored slinky looked a lot like a tornado, and I thought it was a good reminder that as long as I know who I am and what I stand for, then no disaster will take away what really is important.

assignment 1... so far.

"psychological self-portrait".... work in progress...

Darker with the Day: Interpretation

     George Rush's exhibition, Darker with the Day, consists of five large paintings which are displayed on what appears to be sheet rock which are painted with simple lines. The paintings and the background are all in neutral shades of black, white, and gray. Each of the paintings depict windows. The painting that is separate from the other four has been painted completely black where the glass would be. The other four paintings all show tables with different objects on them (such as gallon plastic jugs and cardboard drink cartons, and a candle). These four paintings are displayed one per “wall” in a four sided space facing each other. The painted backgrounds placed behind each of the paintings serve as a large frame around each piece. Viewers tended to walk past the initial painting fairly quickly and into the bigger space with the other four paintings. Many seemed to stand back and glance around fairly quickly at each of the remaining four paintings. I noticed several people (including myself) walked behind some of the paintings on the back partition perhaps looking for more paintings. Once viewers discovered there were no more paintings besides those five, they then seemed to travel the typical “art gallery viewing pattern” of getting up a little closer to each piece and spending more time with each one individually.

     In my opinion, the series of paintings represent a perspective of outside looking into a window. At different times of the day, the window is very easy, or very hard to look into from the outside depending on both the time of day and amount of natural light outside, as well as the amount and type of lighting from inside. This seems to parallel Rush's title for the collection “Darker with the Day”. The least detailed time of day from the outside looking into a window is when the sunlight outside is brighter than the lighting inside.

     Without having read the statement that came with the artist's handout from the class prior to the opening, it seems there are a few ways to interpret the collection. On a philosophical level, it could be said that from the outside, everything and everyone vary in the way they are perceived depending upon the circumstances both inside and out. On a more literal level, it could be simply that the artist is saying that you can tell a lot about a house and the people who live in it simply by observing a small fraction of their lives (such as what is on the table at any given point in the day).

     The paintings are interesting because the lack of color causes the viewer to notice the objects, the shading, and parts of the objects that are highlighted or darkened more. Also the use of lines on the walls behind the paintings seem to suggest branches of trees because they are around windows. If the windows paintings were not there, I doubt that the lines alone would so strongly suggest shapes of trees and branches.

Questions:

*Why did you select the particular items that were on the tables in the paintings?

*Were the paintings and backgrounds painted together as one piece or separately? How did you decide?

* Is there significance in the total number of paintings in the series?

Optimism/Pessimism

Optimism

Pessimism

 

Summer