The Big Idea Project

CRIT:
I found the critic to be really confusing on this one. When making the project, I was going to make it so that the outside had a bunch of ads wallpapered, and on the inside have it be blank. The idea was an interpretation of how I felt bought advertisements. As I was making it, I was told to change it into a trap, sending the message that advertisements are a trap to consumers and to leave the outside blank wood, as if it were a rabbit trap or something. As we did critics, I was then told I should have wallpapered the outside with ads, which completely threw me though a loop.

In the end though, I felt that the ads were better left on the inside, because a trap needs to be plain, since you want to throw off the person that it is a trap. I think the plainess of the outside really works with the deception of "Trap." You don't expect it to be one, but it is. There should have been more ads taped to the inside though, to give a more cluttered appeal of advertisements in our society.


photos are by Dana

Story LINE: Mark Making Project

CRIT

For this project, we did individual critics, where the artist wasn't allowed to present their art work. The idea was to see if the viewer understude the intention of the marks made, without being told anything about the work. The piece I made went over well. I was proud that a lot of people understood the feeling and word that I was going of with this piece. I enjoyed the critic mostly because of the creative input they came up with, not to just improve the concept and idea, but for other ways we could work out a project with our knowledge of pop culture.

Mark Making: In Class

Wash 2D: Mark Making Homework

  2D—LINE 
 
Mark making

• draw 100 parallel lines with your eyes closed
• attack the page with a mark making tool
• draw 200 lines. 100 with each hand at the same time
• crumple paper and smooth, then draw lines (4 minutes)
• fold paper and smooth, then draw lines (4 minutes)
• tape your page down, write your name 100 times with your eyes closed
• tape your page down, write a thought over and over until the page is full (~10 minutes?)

Bring drawings to class on Monday. Photograph each carefully (no arm or camera shadow). Experiment with cropping and/or zooming. Post 5 most interesting photos before Friday.

Wash 2D: Gesture drawing practice

In WASH 2D today we practiced gesture drawing by using fingers, wrists, elbow, shoulder, and even our bodies to make one singe movement repeatedly while listening to a few pieces of music. It was very fun and very tiring. I found that using only my shoulder to make a repeatability moment was super difficult after a minute into it.

The human composition to our dot project proved to be a big challenge to my group. We had some troubles getting ready because of the difference of opinions in our group. Our first go with the project was a production piece, where we used our bodies to paint the dots on paper. It, sadly, didn't go the way we had planned.

After class, we decided to have at it one last time, even though it was Valentine's day and all. After a slow start, we went a head with one of our first ideas. To contribute, I ran off to Wal-mart to get two new umbrella's and by participating as a model.

After everything was in order, the picture process went by smoothly. So smoothly in fact, it only took us an hour and half just to shoot the photos.

In the end, I think I learned a great deal about my group and how to work with them. We may still need a bit of work, but it's a process. In the end, I think we did pretty good, and I hope next time, we'll be able to get through the project at a much faster rate.

Photos: Line in Nature

Photos:

Line Story: Darkened Fear

Darkened Fear

The darkness invaded without a sound.  A slow and creeping shadow of fear.  It did not come suddenly, and maybe that would have made the fear less profound.  It built upon itself.  Made itself.  Brought together by nothingness, from nothingness.  The night was living.  It hung out just beyond the doors.  Creeping close to the light that cut it open. 

It did not bleed.

Things grew from the shadows.  Living nightmares born from nightmares.   It shaped into being just beyond vision.  Teasing, tormenting.  Swirling around me as it choked the very voice from within my throat. 

The night cages the living.

I was trapped within the light by my fear.  I fear every night, for as long as my memory.  For, within the shadows of night, my imagination soared.  My imagination gives power to the night.  Gave it a weapon to use.

As a child, I would build an army against the night. The Bear Army, I had called them, and blankets were my fortress and my bunker.  I built a Wall of China around me, and I posted tiny bears just inside it.  They looked out for me.

I tried to seek my imagination upon itself.

The fear of the dark never seceded, and it never stopped being tormenting.  It was living and wasn’t ready to die just yet.

“You’re too old to be scared of the dark,” my mother would scold me so. “It just your imagination, sweetie, so go to bed.”

She did not understand.  The night held no power on her.  The things in the dark did not manifest just outside of vision, as it did for me.  She did not wonder what swirled in the darkened windows.  Did not fear the darkness that peeked from under her door or hid under her bed.

My imagination danced wild within the dark.

I would stay up late into the night from fear.  My lights on and my mind busy.  I passed time with books and games.  I would glance at the dark from time to time, and when sleep would be too desperate to be ignored, I’ll shin a hall light upon my bed.  My sword against the night.  It would protect me when my eyes were closed.

“It is not so silly that humans do fear the night,” my psychology professor once said, “This is because it is not uncommon that horrible things take life under the shadows.  It has been so for so long. It is nature.”

The night made people vulnerable with the unknown.  Bad things happened then.  The night concealed it.  It made bad things more powerful.  It made bad people feel invincible. People start to anticipate, grow anxious, and fear blooms.

Photography: White Space

Photography: Rhythm and Repetition

Photography: Dots

Wash 2D: Dots Cubed

Develop a series (6-8) of rhythmic text textured backgrounds (6x6”) using newsprint
(your topographic contour and magnetic studies will guide your use of the negative space), four to five varied solutions that harmonize or contrast with the formal and conceptual components of composition. Create two to three 3D (2 inch minimum depth) cardboard or cardstock armatures, include rhythmic application of text. For final piece you will combine dots or squares of selected compositions with rhythmic collaged studies and extrapolate its entirety into three dimensions. Use blackened
found objects to recreate the dots/squares to match scale from original composition. This object/composition will need to be mounted on the wall. The XY coordinates may be either 6x6” or 8x8”; the Z coordinate (depth) will vary but must have a minimum elevation of 2 inches. Additionally

3 Final Dot Compositions

I went back to school Wednesday, after I saw the doctor for my follow up after the car wreak. In class, we were to present our 15 Dot Compositions and have our table grade what was Proximity, Similarity, and Continuance. Since I was out, I didn't have the 15 compositions. It was fun though, looking at all the interpretations.

I had to pick out the three on my own, so I don't have the nice third-person view of what to put in this critique. I picked these three, because to me they are visually pleasing to look at. I'm a very organized person, and I like a certain order in things.

The first picture is my interpretation of Proximity. The two largest dots are grouped together with the proximity of size and distance, while the little dot isn't within the group because it is furthest apart.

The second picture is my interpretation of Continuance. The dots converge in size, making the eye move to the center, and the dots are aligned into a line that crosses the page adding dynamics to the piece, but also an invisible line for the eye to follow.

The last picture is my interpretation of Similarity. The size to the objects make you want to group the smaller two dots together, while the largest dot stands alone.

---

In Class

  

  

15 [6x6] Dot Compositions

We took our 30 sketches, picked 5 out of each category (Proximity, Similarity, and Continuance) and recomposed the image onto a 6x6 piece of Bristol board.

I like how the dots look so much more professional on the board than in the sketchbook. The black and white contrasts bests. My sketchbook has a slight beige tint to it.

30 Dot Sketches

I've been trying to catch up in class these past few days after my car wreak. This is the remake of the 30 sketches showing Gestalt's theory of Proximity, Similarity, and Continuance.