Line Project
For many of us, as we live our everyday lives we often get so caught up in our routines that we don’t even realize the many different fascinating and complex ways of life. “When one goes up there, he leaves behind the mass that carries off and mixes up in itself any identity of authors or spectators” (92) Taking the time to remove yourself from the everyday activities of life enables one to truly take in all that life has to offer and see things from a new perspective. It can be especially interesting to observe from a great height and get an aerial view of the streets that you typically interact with on a daily basis. You inevitably notice new and different patterns that you were once unaware. It can be incredibly interesting to actually stop and take the time to observe the streets of a city that is generally very fast paced. For my project I chose to sit in my room and observe a specific corner that my window provides a clear view of. I took note of both the inanimate objects and alongside the inevitably interesting patterns created by all the different people. Additionally, I took note of the ways in which both people and objects that are controlled.
All the News that is Fit to Print
In today’s day and age, newspapers are one of the oldest forms of media. I was fascinated to learn that we’d be both deconstructing and reconstructing them for our next project. For the “All the News That is Fit to Print” project, I chose to deconstruct the newspapers and present them in a chronological order that represented the progression of my emotions as they intensified in direct correlation to the lack of leadership and chaos that continually increases in our country. Similarly to Sarah Charlesworth, I chose to highlight a specific attribute of the newspaper, the use of negative words and topics. I chose to express myself through the use of burning, tearing, and colors that typically represent negative emotions such as anger and or frustration. I decided that it might be interesting to burn the newspapers to demonstrate the way in which I’ve recently felt as though the world is going up in flames. I also found interest in the fact that the newspapers are already a temporary medium, meaning that burning them would make their lifespan even shorter and that much more temporary. As Benjamin Godsill mentioned when talking to both Charlesworth and Nate Lowman, there is something incredibly fascinating about the “impermanence” of the newspaper. The work created with them is temporary, but it’s okay because it represents a specific moment in time, a moment that becomes history immediately after being documented. In addition to the burning and tearing, I also chose to mark up the newspaper with sharpies. I used red sharpie to circle words with a negative connotation that I felt could somehow relate to my source of anger and frustration. I used black sharpie to emphasize one negative word for each paragraph by rewriting the word in a larger font and then underlining it with more red sharpie. I chose to utilize this method because not only did I feel that it would effectively emphasize the importance of these words, but because I also felt it was a nice parallel to the way in which people would often mark up the newspaper when they were looking for something whether it be a job opportunity or a new home. Lastly, I used watercolor to tie everything together. I wanted to bring the newspapers to life a bit more without making them feel too exciting and staying true to the already existing theme.
Discussion with Glendalys Medina
It was a pleasure being able to sit in with artist, Glendalys Medina as she spoke to our visual thinking class about her artwork, as well as her elaborate process that leads to such interesting bodies of work. Medina shared the ways in which she gains inspiration as well as an urge to create something new after looking at some of the many everyday objects that exist throughout her life on a regular basis. She explained how an object as simple as a boombox could be the foundation for a work of art, as the assortment of shapes can serve as different representations for a series of different emotions. This has inspired me and caused me to look at some of my everyday objects and think about the ways in which some of the different shapes that make up different aspects of life could potentially represent the way I am feeling at times. In addition to gaining insight on Medina’s process, the workshop also consisted of a hands-on portion. Medina took us through a peaceful, somewhat meditative activity that allowed us to wind down and relax, while also tapping into our emotions on a deeper level. She asked us to think about and visualize different memories and experiences and the emotions that we associate with them. After completing this activity, Medina had us imitate her creative process by taking a particular memory or experience and using different shapes (both organic and inorganic) that we could find to represent the way our thoughts made us feel. She also emphasized the importance of color and the choices we made regarding them. I found this to be a very interesting thought to keep in mind. Sometimes when I create work, I create it from the mindset of making something that “looks cool” or is visually appealing and while there is nothing wrong with that process, it can be very interesting to look at the results I get when I put thought into every decision I make compared to when I just let myself flow. I loved being able to be apart of the workshop with Glendalys Medina and I’m happy to say that I’ve been able to take a lot from the knowledge that she shared with us and apply it to my everyday life and artistry.
3-D Printing Project
The goal for our 3D printing project was to photograph an object that represents some aspect of societal conflict using the turnstable method. Initially, my idea was to photograph my roommate's old box from her McDonald’s happy meal. I’m sure it goes without saying, but recently throughout the past several years, McDonald’s has definitely received a significant amount of strife regarding their ingredients and nutritional facts, yet much of society (myself included) has chosen to turn a blimd eye to it. Seeing as this continues to be a relevant societal conflict, I felt the box that contains a McDonald’s happy meal would be the perfect object to shoot with. However, as I began to upload my images, I realized the Metashape software begged to disagree with me. My next attempt featured a crushed Canada Dry, following the whole unhealthy theme, but after that didn;t work either I began to stray from the prompt as I was just looking for anything that would work. My second to last attempt consisted of me utilizing the plastic “Falcon” toy from the movie The Avengers that was included with the happy meal. After three failed attempts, I changed directions and decided to photograph my beloved stuffed giraffe, Kelvin, who fortunately pulled through. Through this very long and extremely frustrating process of trial and error I was able to learn about some of the many dos and don’ts of the documentation process that occurs before actually printing.
Color Statement
Color has always been something that I think about in great detail when photographing anything. Color is a huge part of my process in regards to styling, lighting, location, etc. I especially feel that saturated colors in particular have always been somewhat of a trademark when it comes to my style. Although I consider myself to be very conscious of my use and implementation of color throughout my photography, I found the articles about color to be very informative and interesting. In the self portrait displayed above, I was very careful about setting up the lights, as well as the way in which I approached the manipulation of the colors in post production. This assignment was very interesting as it caused me to look at color from a new perspective. I always take note of color in photography, but I often find myself spending more time on the bigger picture, rather than looking at how there are an abundance of different colors and shades all throughout the image that complete the larger image.