Self Visualization

My intent with this project was to make the connection between me, my body and journey with the power and structure of a tree, a form of a plant that I have always been inspired by and have related too. As I painted different parts of my body, namely my leg, stomach, and chest I used a lighter painting style, the branches getting smaller and more delicate as they rose to my neck. My concept for my triptych was to portray the stability and power of the trunk of the tree for I have always had powerful roots in family and friends. The branches on my stomach show my growing up and branching out. The branches on my chest and neck are my outstretched ready to grow up and out symbolizing my future. In these three separate but seamless uses of body parts I wanted to metaphorically show my growth of my life in three parts.
My final concept for displaying my image would be to print the image out on canvas using the wide format printer so that the image would stand around 3 feet tall. This would allow the image to be large and striking however still maintain the images intimate feel going along with my self visualization concept of painting myself nude. If this image was taller I feel like people would dismiss the image because it would be human size and therefore to familiar. I would print the image on canvas so that it would have stability and a richer visual quality. Overall I’d hope the overall effect would be an intimate visually engaging and mentally questioning image.

Handmade Book/Poem Visualization

Self Visualization

lost flash drive :-(

Word Visualization

I chose the word grow for the word visualization project. I used Myriad Pro font and increased the letter size by 20 points each letter. I then used the pen and paint tool in illustrator to to construct the "r" into a tree trunk, as if growing.

Dandelion by Julie Lechevsky

Dandelion

by Julie Lechevsky

My science teacher said

there are no monographs

on the dandelion.

Unlike the Venus fly-trap

or Calopogon pulchellus,

it is not a plant worthy of scrutiny.

It goes on television

between the poison squirt bottles,

during commercial breakaways from Ricki Lake.

But that's how life

parachutes

to my home.

Home,

where they make you do

what you don't want to do.

Moms with Uzis of reproach,

dads with their silencers.

(My parents watch me closely because I am their jewel.)

So no one knows how strong

a dandelion is inside,

how its parts stick together,

bract, involucre, pappus, 

how it clings to its fragile self.

There are 188 florets in a bloom,

which might seem a peculiar number,

but there are 188,000 square feet

in the perfectly proportioned Wal-Mart,

which allows for circulation

without getting lost.

I wish I could grow like a dandelion

from gold to thin white hair,

and be carried on a breeze to the next yard. 

The trueness of this poem struck me. I would like to construct a book project that illustrates the many facets of this poem. The strength of a dandelion, how tough this disregarded weed is and later on the ethereal nature of each seed blowing off into the wind, free to travel wherever the wind may blow it. 

Self Portraits/Female Potrayals

Ciu Xiuwen

Though Ciu Xiuwen's Angel series uses light colors and serene architecture and landscapes, her portraits hold a deeper meaning. I feel the women or adolescent girl she features in her artwork is a symbol for all girls, teenage females, and women. Her portraits do not symbolize individuality which I believe is the common theme of portraiture, however, the repetition of the female figure gives a figure for each women viewer to relate to. It is the viewers portrait that Ciu Xiuwen captures. She showcases this one girl which becomes a vessel for other women when viewing the artwork to relate too.

Her artwork subtly portrays the struggles and emotions that women go through as they age and indirectly the trials that all girls and women face, the issue of motherhood and maternity. Her artwork portrays crossroads, exhaustion, frustration, as well as many other

 emotions that a girl or women could relate too. She places her subject, this young women, in a public setting creating an odd effect of private emotions in a public space. Overall everything in Ciu Xiuwen's artwork invites you to think about women in the 21st century and the struggles they face. 

Cindy Sherman

Cindy Sherman's work is sexual yet strong. Her portraiture showcases the vulnerability of a women wile also portraying her as strong and having power over herself and her sensuality. I feel this is because her portraits are so simple. Using a simple composition and focusing in on her subject matter lets her capture a moment in time and highlight the essence of her subject matter making the ultimate intimate portrait. 

Cindy Sherman turns the portrait of a women into magic. Because she focuses on a singular women in most of her photography and film stills, you are forced to look at this women, and only this women. What emotion is she portraying? Is the feeling being portrayed sorrow, frustration, sadness, uncomfortableness, confidence, worry, longing? Cindy Sherman's portraits focus on emotion and her lens becomes a window into her subjects soul.  

Frida Khalo

Frida Khalo's work is cringingly honest. She tears her heart open and portrays herself extremely realistically and highlights her vulnerability as a women. Her portraits showcase her feminine struggles such as her miscarriage that have become a part of her. 

Khalo uses her portraits to showcase the problems in the world around her that effect her life as well as the death of family members and betrayal by friends and her husband. She lets these become her identity because her experiences shape her as a person and highlight what is important to her. Overall Frida Khalo's self portraits are a map to her soul that give us great insight to her thoughts, fears, passions, and hardships. 

Illustrator 1 Project

My first idea for my illustrator project was to change the mood of the initial photo. Contrasting with the feeling of the original photograph of being serene, my illustrator project feels eerie, evil, and she appears as a corpse, something which is rather disturbing. I feel like I was successful in accomplishing my goal of changing the mood of the photograph.

Illustrator Excersize

I am very proud of myself :-)

Final Digital Project 1/Excersise

Photo Project #1

Original photo for photoshop project #1

Digital Art 7-25

The introduction to digital arts opened my eyes to the fact that the term digital arts, computer arts, multimedia, or new media art, whatever you would like to call it, is a vast and expansive title for many different forms of art. As with many things computers were first thought of to aid the military, yet things slowly evolved. We began to think of this technoligy to aid artwork or just be the artwork itself. 

I think that laszlo Moholy-Nagy's Kinetic Sculpture Moving c 1933 is beautiful, even if a

 photograph. This new technology was much more than art soley produced by computers such as the artwork produced by John Witney and others. 

Technoligy could be used to give instruction to create works of art such as in Charles Csuri's Hummingbird 1967. It has beautiful line, and an engaging composition and theory. 

With all of this new technology came the idea to connect many people, weather for the goverment though file and text sharing, or weather it was Davis in Kassel Germany who got together a satilete telecast that connected 25 countries with many different performances!

Digital arts also connects people in many other ways. People from many different fields such as artists, programmers, engineirs, and designers all work together to create and invent. 

The debate over where and how to view digital art, should it be viewed in a gallery or should it remain on the internet, is a moot piont for me. We have something with enormous potential to expand and explore many facets of life, we should concentrate on that. 

Artist Comments

I loved Gregory Crewdon's artowrk. He took realistic almost ordinary scenes of everyday life, and using light and intuition, created a feeling of a private moment being captured. His images were intame and have a haunting and somewhat sad quality about them. Because of these feelings being brought up in me I became emotional invested. Who is the naked women in many of the images? What story do these narrative artworks convey? These images are beautiful in their own unique way. I am drawn in and want to see and know more.

Tuen Hocks uses lighting to set a mood of wonder. The scenes he creates are almost realistic yet he brings an element of wonder to his peices. There is an aspect that is unexpected such as Untitled (playing with train). It is almost magical to see the older man on a large set of train tracks as it loops around and becomes a small train, almost like a toy.

I did not have a strong connection wiht Jeff Wall's artwork. It had a sense of staged tradgedy. Some works were a bit absurd wile others were mundane. He takes ordinary everyday scenes but does not make me care or look twice such as in A View From An Apartment. He has a few intriguing compostions and puzzling pieces such as The Storyteller and the Volunteer and he has a definete personal style through his words vary and he is creative and works many different ways. However, overall I am not passionate about his artwork.

As I went through Cindy Sherman's work I was instantly struck by the subtle sensuality if not sexuality of her photographs, yet they have much more of a presense than just a women looking alluring. Her photographs are cheeky, unique, real, dynamic, and capture a women's essense and emotion all at the same time wile still being powerful and strong. What a feat. Even in some photographs or film stills when a women is crying, the real emotion is there! There is vulnerability and composure coexisting. She works all these emotions into her black an white photograps beautifully and keeps the fact that her work is "about the idea"..."not high art" so that people, such as me, are able to realte. Her simple yet well thought out compositions complete the beauty of her artwork. 

Inspiration

I love the small things in life that make me happy. Like when I get my favorite icecream or rock out to my favorite song on the car radio. It is all about finding what is special in everyday life, close to home, and make those seemingly insignificant details count for somthing. 

Like that feeling you get when you sit down in the locker room and strip off your socks after a hard game. 

Or coming home after a long day at work to your home. Thouse are the things that make life truely worth it. The precious moments nobody thinks much about.