Class Reflection 4/27

Yesterday's class was a slow day because I was unable to work on my project. I am waiting for the glowsticks in the mail; they should be arriving tomorrow. However, I did do some planning for my project. I have decided to link the glowsticks together and make them into a fence. It will then hang between two trees on the edge of Thornden Park. I want to film the process it takes to put this together, and show this footage as documentation for the final critique.

Learning Reflection 4/20

The in-process critique was very helpful for me today.  The idea that I want to carry out for the street art project is creating a glowstick mural.  I was able to discuss this idea with my peers and come up with a few different ways for going about this project. I had originally planned for the glowstick hanging to be placed on a building, preferably on the quad. However, I am now considering creating a wire frame for the image, and tying the glowsticks on to the frame once they are cracked.  This activity would have to be carried out in the dark, so I was thinking of doing it somewhere on campus because I feel as though it is safer at night than an unfamiliar location off campus.  I am also thinking of suspending the image between two trees.  I just need to find some wire that is strong enough to hold a large amount of glowsticks. I am still unsure of how large this  project is going to be, so I ordered 100 eight-inch glowsticks off of a bulk discount party store website.  

Street Art Sketches: 4/20

Grades as a Discourager

I know that I work better when I do not have the pressure of grades pushing down on me.  I am told by almost all of my professors that grades do not matter, and I completely understand that they don't. However, my parents do not see it the same way.  I feel as though anyone outside of students and faculty in art school do not understand this mindset.  I am unable to be as creative under pressure as I would be making art on my own.  This is why I enjoy painting and making things so much during my free time.  My work is much more creative and free this way.  I need to find a way to psychologically trick myself into this mindset for all aspects of my work.  At this point, I am unsure what to do other than to simply ignore the grades. 

Learning Reflection 4/13

I feel as though my photoshop skills were really improved while working with the absent image project. I am satisfied with my first project (the removal of people walking on the street, while leaving the shadow); however, I am going to chose another image with more meaning to work with for next week.  So far, ideas I have are a photo of the Taj Mahal, or some other important building.  

I am looking forward to the street art project we're starting to work on. I am thinking of possibly making words out of plexiglass or some other type of clear material and placing them around the city.  I love the fact that this project is so open to materials and locations.  

"Stealing the Mona Lisa" response

"One primary reason that artists create images is to distract other people from looking at the artists herself." -Darian Leader

Looking makes people uncomfortable, myself included.  I can almost always feel a gaze, which I think is something that most people are sensitive to.  There is something about the eyes that is so powerful and intimidating; if the onlooker is a stranger, it makes the eyes even more so.  Gazing seems to indicate that there is something wrong, or some sort of spectacle.  Spectacles are more interesting for the spectator than for the person involved in the spectacle, because they are being called out by onlookers.  I agree with Leader's comment to some extent.  I am sure that in some cases art is created to distract from the artist.  The actual work would then become the spectacle rather than the person; it is almost as if the art takes the heat of the stares from the onlookers instead of the artist.  Art can take judgements and gazes much better than any human can.  However, I also think that art calls attention to the artist. Whenever I view a piece of art, I try to draw conclusions about the creator. I think about what they were perhaps intending with the work, the emotions inherent in it, and the meaning behind the choice of medium. These questions all lead me back to the artist, so I believe that someone cannot always hide behind their creativity.  Art is soul and emotion in physical form, therefore it is a piece of the person that created it.  When someone gazes at a piece of artwork, there is no difference between the artist and the art itself.  

Learning Reflection: 4/6

Things I learned today in class:

I have no previous photoshop experience, so today's lesson was especially helpful.  I now know how to utilize tools such as the healing tools that are essential to use in the upcoming "Absent Image" project.  So far, I am unsure which image to work with for this project.  I want to some kind of iconic image, but have been unable to find one that is suitable.  

Before this class, I had no idea that you could specify the resolution on a Google image search.  This tool will prove particularly helpful when looking for an image that will not have large pixels when dragged into photoshop.  

I am aware that this project will take a lot of practice in order to seamlessly digitally remove part of an image.  With this in mind, I intend to find an image in the next day or so, and start practicing in photoshop.  

Learning Reflection 3/31

I am pretty excited about our mural projects!  I will be working with Adele's, and learned quite a few things about illustrator that we will be utilizing to make this mural happen.  We decided to stage each separate window of the mural and photograph them, and then work with the images in illustrator to create a stencil out of cardboard.  I know more about Illustrator than I do about photoshop, but I did learn a few new tricks, such as the different style effects, to apply to these pictures.  We were thinking of using four colors per image, totaling in 16 different stencils; however, using my printmaking background, I think there are some images that we can treat as a reduction print to save cardboard. 

I also learned more about photoshop while attempting to help Adele in her tessellation. It was much more difficult to work with than mine was, so it ended up being a better learning experience for me. Teaching something to someone else always helps enforce things in my mind much better than trying to figure it out by myself.  

Learning Reflection 3/23

Response to class on 3/23:

I was pleasantly surprised with my stereogram! I was able to finish three different stereograms in class, but still plan on spending more time fine tuning them. I found that text is very hard to work with because it is so easily lost in the image. I have been trying different levels of random dots to attempt to bring out the words, but have not been able to find the optimal level just yet. Also, when creating my tessellation out of construction paper, I decided to play around with color. This turned out to be a good idea because I have three different options when choosing a selection of the tessellation in photoshop. The only thing I am dissatisfied with is how the program distorts my image after adding the text. I know that this distortion is essential in order to achieve the desired effect, but I feel as though it does not work well with the cups that I used in my tessellation. The website is very fun to play around with, and I'm glad that it is something that I can keep using after this project. 

Learning Reflection 3/11

Before Tuesday's class, I was very confused on what image should be the latent image, and what should be the dream content. Talking about this confusion helped me clear this up. I struggled during class with trying to figure out how to disguise my Post Secret, which states "I wish that just for one day, everyone would say exactly what they wanted to say." I tried thinking of things that make people say things that they might not say otherwise; these things include alcohol, lack of sleep, etc. 

I learned that tessellating these objects and concepts that I came up with is no easy task. I was not able to come up with a good tessellating design during class. I know that I am going to attempt to use the actual text, "I wish that just for one day, everyone would say exactly what they wanted to say," for the hidden image. However, i am still working on the objects to use for my tessellating design. 

I am curious as to how we are going to put these two images together to create the 3D image. What are the steps to make this happen? I know we are probably going to go over this next class, but I am still curious.

Learning Reflection 3/2

I am truly looking forward to our next project. I find dreams fascinating, mostly because I am unable to remember any of mine; but when I do remember part of one on that rare occasion, it connects in the most amusing and creative way to what is going on in my life at that moment. I also love Postsecret, and look at the website when it updates every week...I have read the books, and am trying to go to see one of the shows. I am curious as to how we are going to make the image 3D. I remember as a kid I was obsessed with those images. I'm excited to be able to create one myself!

I found it very helpful to have someone else write an artist statement for my mural proposal. There are several new points of view that I am able to bring into my artist statement. It was very challenging to write for someone else; however, this exercise helped me think in a new way while looking at someone else's work. 

The demo of gluing and cutting for the mural proposal gave me a good idea on what is expected in this project. I realised that I needed to trim some of my edges, and I also cut down my presentation board so I could have an even border on all sides.  

Artist Statement: Mural Proposal.

My whimsical mural design will be entirely hand-painted with cool, rich tones of the sea.  The painting will extend halfway up the building, and stretch the entire span between two of the barred windows.  The design itself pictures a woman's face amidst the tossing waves of the sea, and her hand arching above her face holding a ship in a glass ball.  I juxtaposed the human face and the ocean to show how humans and nature are connected on a primitive level.  I think it is important to bring natural images into a city such as Syracuse, because nature is not as big of a part of everyday life.  Although this image does not have any significant ties to the culture of this community, I have designed it with the intention to spur the imagination of those who view it.  I enjoy the freedom of interpretation that images have the power to create; I feel as though it is fun to let loose and create something for the joy of creating.  

Learning Reflection 2/23

I found the vast range of ideas that my group came up with for the mural project to be very interesting.  I saw ideas that utilized the ground as part of the mural, which is similar to the NationWide and paint advertisement that was shown in class.  This made me realize that the subject of these murals are completely open; however, are they supposed to relate to the Syracuse community in some way? I only ask this because after looking through websites of recent murals, the content seems to be wide open and oftentimes random.

I also became more adept at navigating through photoshop on a Mac.  This was accomplished through the successful printing of my amalgamation on the large 13x19" sheet of paper.  

After conversing with my peers on our ideas for the mural, I came up with several more ideas. I am still unsure on which one I will pick for use in my proposal, but this goes to show that collaboration between classmates stimulates ideas and allows for further development of my sketches.  

Mural Sketches 2/23

Mexican Mural Reading Response: 2/23.

First, based on this article, what would you say were the five essential elements of the Mexican mural movement?

One of the most important elements of the Mexican mural movement is the political aspect.  Paintings by the leading artists, such as Diego Rivera and David Alfero Siqueiros, incorporated ideas of the new Mexican government in order to get the population more excited over this new regime.  These murals served as a strengthener of Mexico’s national and cultural identity.  However, the Mexican mural movement was not confined to the borders of Mexico.  Rivera and Siqueiros were also very influential in the United States, and sometimes even controversial in the content they decided to depict in their murals.  The public art of this movement is often geared to evoke memories of patriotism through pictures of past war heroes.  The avant-garde style was dominant during this movement because artists studied in Europe, where this movement was prominent at the time. 

Second, compare and contrast the context of this movement with our present situation in Syracuse in 2010. If we are going to try to make a work of art for the public in Syracuse how are we going to have to approach this problem differently? What has remained the same between our context and the Mexican muralists' context?

I feel as though today’s murals are less politically oriented than they were during the Mexican mural movement.  The United States is not undergoing any drastic change in regime like Mexico was in the 1920’s and 30’s.  While looking at websites and blogs that contain pictures of modern-day murals, I realize that there is a lot more freedom in the content of this public art.  There are many abstract shapes and colors, and it makes me wonder what the meaning behind the mural is.  Murals created during the time of the Mexican mural movement most commonly contained people, and sometimes even rulers of the time.  The message was often obvious, and many people pictured in the mural were recognizable.  I do not think that the people of Syracuse would react in the same way as those living with political upheaval.  This is because there are other problems inherent in our society, such as sustainability that needs to be addressed.  Murals have the power to convey a message to many people at once because they are located in very public places; we should take advantage of this amazing opportunity and have our voices be heard in the Syracuse community. 

Amalgamation: Abbey Road.

Abbey Road: So many tourists take this shot when they visit London. It shows the power of pop culture and music on our society, and that the Beatles music is just as popular as it was years ago.

This is another popular tourist show of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. It is one of

standard tourist shots that "have" to be taken when visiting Italy.

Bathing suit ads always look the same: skimpy suit, model stance, seductive look. The models all have "perfect" bodies and are airbrushed.

Halloween costumes for girls are often just revealing versions of uniforms. I feel that creating an amalgamation from these photos will show the standard skimpy outfits worn by so many on Halloween. 

Hot cars are often photographed at the same angle: front left corner, doors up. 

Sketches 2/2

Plato's Republic Response

1. How many chairs are in Kosuth’s artwork? Explain your answer.

 

Between the chair, the photograph, and the dictionary definition of a chair, I believe that there two chairs evident in Kosuth’s work.  I do not consider the definition of a chair to be an actual chair.  This is because the words of the definition do not imitate the form of a chair themselves.  Yes, the overall description describes a chair’s form; however, there is no visual element on the paper, even though a picture usually forms in one’s mind while reading the definition.  This visual image cannot be touched. The chair in the photograph cannot be touched, either. The difference that makes the photographed chair different from the mental image is that the actual photograph pictures a chair that was actually there. 

 

2. Which, if any, would Plato consider the real chair (the photograph, the wooden

chair, the dictionary definition, or none of them)? Explain your answer.

 

I think Socrates would consider the wooden chair to be the real chair of the three.  The photographer of the chair is the imitator, similar to the painter described in the excerpts of Plato’s Republic.  Plato would not consider the dictionary definition of a chair, because it, too, is an imitator.  “The imitative art is an inferior who marries an inferior, and has inferior offspring.” –Plato’s Republic.  The artist who constructed the chair is the one true artist who started the design of the chair in the first place, therefore the wooden chair is the only real chair in Kosuth’s “One and Three Chairs.”