Friday, 9/30/10. 10 Quotes

I am king of my fragile dreams - Moxy Fruvous

They don't advertise for killers - Blade Runner

Don't know where, don't know when - Vera Lynn

You don't have a clue - Eliott Smith

Its a game of chance to you - Eliott Smith

Welcome to the real world - The Matrix

Of course it's dark, it's a suicide - The Royal Tenenbaums

I see your picture from the train - Belle and Sebastian

They are hypocrites so fuck them too - Belle and Sebastian

What would I do to believe? - Belle and Sebastian

Wednesday, 9/27/10. Text as texture crit.

Updated with Frame. I decided to add a frame to separate my piece from the wall. I also decided to give it an open top, so I could preserve the piece's feel of outward growth. I also separated the edges of the frame so that it's diagonals could be seen, which I feel also enhances the piece's outward growth (instead of limit it, which I was afraid a frame might do)

In the critique of my piece it was said that there was no negative but only positive conflict in my piece. This conflict was the contrast between the white magazine paper and the brown newspaper, as well as the difference between the straight lines of text belonging to the radial pattern and the more chaotic pattern on the magazine print part of the piece. They said that my piece was very harmonious and almost hypnotizing with the way everything sort of flowed out from the small dot. They also liked the gradual change in elevation of the white pattern. There was continuance created by the radial flow and branching out of the main design. There was also proximity because the dot from which the radial pattern comes out feels distant from the other dots, in a good way. The use of white magazine created the separation and similarity of the two colors and patterns of text. Closure also existed, they said, because one person saw a gnarled tree in the picture, and another saw antlers..they said all of this strengthened the work. They loved the selection of dots and how the newsprint in them moved against the grain of the other newsprint. They said this made it distinct and more interesting to them, and that they couldn't think of a better way to do it. With the materials, again they liked the contrast created by using two different types of paper. They thought that I selected the best piece from my accordion book to implement, and that I even improved upon it. They said that the edges of my square could have been a bit neater, and that the newspaper seemed rough on it, it was suggested that I could have curled the strips around the edges to make them seem smoother.  They liked the flat presentation of it on the wall. They said a frame would have disrupted the outward flow of the piece, and that raising it off of the wall would detract from my 3d pieces. Personally, i am not sure about this, but cannot decide on a proper frame. My accordion book had a good variety of textures that were all interesting to them, and the pieces all seemed well selected and presented. The space between them helped distinguish each piece, as did the arrangement of the pieces. They said the craftsmanship of my book was good and they liked how I did the binding, which appeared seamless. A couple of my pieces had peeled up a bit, so I need to re-secure them.

Sunday, 9/26/10. The Human Dot

In critique it was said that the flesh tones of our limbs added interest to the pictures, as did the white bottles cleverly disguised negative space. However, our photo's could have been cropped better.

Thursday, 9/23/10. Final Text as Texture and accordian book

 

To make my accordion book,I used two long strips cut out of black construction paper, fused together with a smaller strip. After the backing was complete I folded it on marks that I had measured previously. I then just had to space out my textures and attach them with spray adhesive.

 

 

In Progress: tracing and cutting. I also cut strips of newspaper and put them in a bowl so I could just glue them on later and not have to go back and forth between cutting and gluing.

 

Thursday, 9/14/10. The Human Dot brainstorming...

Sunday, 9/19/10. The Exquisite Corpse Two

                                                                                                                              
My Corpse: "The humid lawnmower recited an anonymous canyon"                                                                                                                                                       
I probably walked around for about a half hour and took about 30 shots before I got this one. My thought went through various stages, at first I wanted to get a picture with a macro shot of something green with a wierd, "canyon like", point of view drop in the background; but I couldn't find a shot that I liked for this. I eventually found this rusty bridge with some leaves growing on it and for some reason it struck a cord. It made me think of earth growing and reclaiming, a place un-cut by man and mower for quite some time. I liked the composition of the piece with the angled and rigid bars against the organic and weaker leaf. I also liked how the lines and focus of the shot draw your eye. I was originally going to re-shoot this because my knee was in the way, but upon further thought I came to feel that it actually added to the narrative (personally). ...Perhaps it is the perspective of a person that has stumbled upon this scene, kneeling down to take a look at this sight, in the depths of an anonymous forest/canyon.

Sunday, 9/19/10. 8 Text as Textures

My Process: I would start with a thumbnail sketch, then blow that up to a 6x6 square for use as a blueprint...sometimes the end result strayed from this blueprint, for better or worse...it was a learning process.

Friday, 9/17/10. Lecture and Reading notes/summary

Bill's Lecture today was really interesting and informative. I immensely enjoyed him showing how modern art progressed because it made me appreciate it much more, as I can see the meaning behind it now. On top of this it made me think of the progression of other things and how much I take for granted. The reading also supplemented this lecture very well, and I will probably read it again.

These are my personal notes from the reading meant to refresh my memory:

photo

Niepce - view from window

Daguerre - shortened, first portrait

talbot – improved(paper)

Mathew Brady – civil war

impressionism

first artistic rev since renaissance. (france, born 1860)

color and light big>impression

short, choppy brush strokes

monet/manet/renoir/degas

post-impressionism (sauratF, ceszanneF, gauguin, toulouse-lautrecESCL, van goghESCL) (1880-1905)

Formal, near scientific

Emotion,sensation,color,light

cubism and surrealism grew out of.

Modern art - (France, school of paris) (no longer for patron) (after war>new york)

fauvism: exploding color, matisse, influenced by van gogh

greatist modernist sculptor – conastantic brasncusi

cubism(1908-1914), fragmented

russia broke, cubism split

-futurism> modern stuff, movement (boccioni)

-constructivism

-precisionism (in america) (blocky)

o'keeffe - american modernist

expressionism (express feelings)
Kirchner

nolde

kandinsky – non referencial first?

Klee-simplification

mondrian - geometry, not emotion, “pure” neo plasticism

Friday, 9/17/10 Cardboard Organic Project: Critique

My group described my piece as really appropriate, and much more on the representative/realistic side than stylized. They said there weren't any distractions, but there was one to me. In moving the piece around, the seams that join the needle bits became weaker and somewhat annoyingly bowed in (against it's curvature). This annoyed me a little...but I guess there wasn't much I could do about it. I suppose I could have made the piece smaller so it would have been less floppy and self-damaging...but then I would have lost the grand scale, and in recreating such a simple object, I felt the size was necessary. I also wish that I could have made the connections between needle bits more seamless, because you can notice the sections if you look at it. The rest of the critique was very encouraging, they liked the scratchy and rough detail on the pod part and how the needles came out of it, which made the two sections look very well integrated. They also said the ribs in the needles were great because it made the piece much more interesting to look at than simple, flat strips of cardboard. The points on the end were a nice touch, they said, because it made the piece look even longer and "needley". On a side note, I was bummed about the presentation of my piece, it's length made it difficult to find placement, and it's small diameter didn't allow it to stick out. I originally tried hanging it with fishing line between shelfs in the back, but after hanging it I decided the piece didn't look good...it ended up being obscured and too long to see both the tip and end well. I probably did most of the damage to the piece in the process of trying to hang it =/   ...maybe I could have tied it to one of the yellow electrical cords hanging from the ceiling to raise it up a bit, but even then I think it have looked more like a dead fish-creature than a pine needle.

Tuesday, 9/14/10. Cardboard organic project - Progress update # 4

Today I finished up my cardboard piece. I squished the corrugation on the edges of the needles (tendrils previsouly) and scratched/sanded the surface of them to make it look less like freshly cut cardboard. I then attached the needles to the core. I also found out that my object actually is a pine needle, and that they are supposed to be pointy on the ends...I didn't know that =/ (guess my reference needle was just broken) So, I set off to fix the points on mine (except one which I intended to look broken). I marked a taper with pencil and then, with a fresh blade, carefully cut along this guide. I was worried that this would mess up the piece, since it hadn't been accounted for in my original design, but the result turned out nicely (and I made sure to practice it on a scrap piece first).

Tuesday, 9/14/10. Square Critique

My group said that it was clear to tell the playful and periodic pieces apart. This, they said, was because the periodic one was much more symmetric than the playful piece, and the playful piece felt more dynamic. They said this distinction would hold true even if they were separated. They said my playful piece had closure, because of the boxes' cropping, as well as similarity because a few squares were similar in size. My periodic piece was said to have continuance and similarity, also because of the cropping, size, and similarity of the squares. They said I used the frame well, they liked the sense of motion that cropping gave the piece as well as the balance of positive and negative space. They thought that I could strengthen the piece by separating the 2 squares that look hollow in my playful piece. I see their point, but I like how it looks currently and I wanted it to appear like the box was resting inside the other so the piece would seem to have a balance of movement and stability, instead of just turmoil. They said that my craft improved, and that they looked good. The piece they chose to be my final composition was the playful piece. However, I really like my continuance piece from before and chose to go with it. It seems more interesting to me and I get a free flow of ideas out of it for my 'text'ure project.

Saturday, 9/11/10. Notes from Friday's lecture and creative thinking assignment.

In lecture Friday we focused mainly on creativity. We did some exercises meant to provoke thought and went over some traits that the creative person may/should possess. One of the exercises we did was called The Exquisite Corpse (similar to mad-libs). This exercise produced an odd line of writing and we were asked to find or create an image that resembled our reaction/thoughts on this line of writing.

Mine was: The humid lawnmower recited an anonymous canyon.

What came to my mind was:

Friday, 9/10/10. Squares.

Wednesday, 9/08/10. Cardboard Organic Project - Critique & Progress update # 3

The critique of my cardboard piece went really well, there weren't really any negative comments. My group said that all I really needed to do was attach the core part to the tendril part and I'd be finished. They also said that the two integrated well together. The ribbing in the tendrils received praise because it brought the tendrils out of the 2nd dimension and gave it some form. My own critiques would be that the back of the tendril is pretty plain, but I'm a little unsure of what to do about it at this point. In the class time I had after the critique I managed to attach the segments of the tendrils to form my three final tendrils. I attached the segments by sliding the ends of two together and hot-gluing the cardboard strips where they met. I then wood-glued the excess "skin" down over the exposed ribbing (holding it down with pins) to make it as seamless as I could. The end result came out better than I imagined. I then tested how they would fit into the core and what the final piece would look like.

Wednesday, 9/8/10. Bill's reading notes/summary

Just a basic overview of art, well done. I really liked it.


Artists practical function
design

Artists other functions
record
give tangible form to the unknown (visualize)
give tangible form to feelings (portray)
offer an innovative way of seeing

On Creativity
“suspending judgments about what should be or actually is, in favor of what might be.”.

Creative traits:

Sensitivity – heightened awareness of what one sees, hears, and touches, as well as responsiveness to other people and their feelings.
Flexibility – an ability to adapt to new situations and see their possibilities; willingness to find innovative relationships.
Originality – uncommon responses to situations and to solving problems.
Playfulness – a sense of humor and ability to experiment freely.
Productivity – the ability to generate ideas easily and frequently, and to follow through on those ideas.
Fluency - a readiness to allow the free flow of ideas
Organizational skill – ability to put things back together in a coherent order

-be an informed observer rather than observer

-not all art is intended to be beautiful.

naturalistic – representational of natural world
illusionistic- so natural as to trick one into thinking it's real (tropme-l'oeil)
abstract – reference to natural world but not an attempt to duplicate exactly
stylized – exaggerated features of natural form
nonrepresentational – bypasses known forms and touches our senses and emotions directly

-art is always the expression of the artist

Monday, 5/6/10. Cardboard Organic Project - Progress Update #2

I decided to stay after class for a couple of hours to work on my cardboard project. I really wanted to get a bearing on where I was with it and to where I felt comfortable. I ended up putting the "skin" on the rest of my tendrils and laying them out to see how they would look (roughly) attached to the core.

I found that the best way to attach the skin was to set it down, apply a line of glue down its length, and then spread the glue on it for an even coat. I then simply picked it up at from the ends, flipped it over, and placed it on the tendril, making sure to press it against the ribbing so it would set right.

I still need to refine the tendrils with some curvature and mark them with detail.

^in my previous posts, my picture of the core was in a much lower resolution. This image better shows detail.

Monday, 9/6/10. Notes from Bill's lecture on friday.

Monday, 9/6/10. Dots...Final 4, now rendered and framed.

For greater variety in my final composition...I did end up enlarging the bigger dots in my similarity (top right) piece, as well as shrink the largest dot in my proximity (bottom left) piece.

To render them:
-I made some very light pencil marks to get the placement right
-I made the outlines of my dots with a fine pen (to prevent bleeding from compromising my edges)
-I filled the inside of the outline a bit with an ultra fine sharpie
-From here I either used a regular, "fine", sharpie or my "magnum" sized sharpie to fill in the rest (depending on their size).

^ I included a picture of my original thumbnail sketches for a bit of Before/After effect.