ok the order of these goes bottom to top. I tried to implement as many of the techniques I learned in the book as possible, but my knowledge of this stuff still feels a little scattered, especially with the layout rules and everything. I made a mock mailer for the Lenni Lenape festival I attend every year.
I wish this picture could be bigger but nothing else will fit. You get the general idea. Anyway, This poem "There Cannot Be a Sea" is by 2oth century Vietnamese poet Lam Thi My Da. It was written during the Vietnam war and translated for American audiences. I love the imagery in this poem and wanted to represent it true to Vietnamese tradition in art. The poem was intended to communicate the beauty of the Vietnamese people and culture and that's what I hope to achieve. I researched traditional Vietnamese art and found that they prefer to work off of dark canvases and that tapestries are a royal luxury and cultural expression. I was going for a rich, antique feel with lots of curves and movement.
For the self-visualization triptych, I wanted to use the old adage "hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil". In my life I often turn my attention away from things that remind me of obligations I have and stressful things around me. I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed and it can sometimes become overwhelming. I wanted to put a twist on the theme, however, by making "speak no" different. Whereas the others represent outside influences, I wanted "speak no" to represent all the inspiration I having blooming and boiling inside. Just as I am restricted by what others show and say, I am restricted in what I can express because I do not yet have a steady outlet for all my ideas.
the live trace/paint is extremely difficult when the image has many lines. I could not control the areas well.
I created a closed image of the border and the bottom of the woman's skirt, but I couldn't devise how to fill that group in as a shape. I would also like to learn how to make a perfect semi-circle.
Marina Abramovic’s self portraits are very dramatic with clear focal points and luxurious simplicity. While the simplicity and cleanliness of Cui Xiuwen’s work is all encompassing, Abramovic manages a clean image using lush textures in “warm” contexts. Her work is generally more relatable to the modern woman than Kahlo’s cultural focus and Xiuwen’s overt modernism. Her portraits tell the story of a middle-age women as the heroine of her own life. She obviously carries strong opinions and self-worth, having produced work that touches on politics, morality, and feminine identity. I find her work particularly significant given the modern emphasis on youth when it comes to emotional drama and self-discovery. I believe her work is an intimate look inside a woman who has seen a great deal but recognizes how much she has yet to learn.
Frida Kahlo paints to show pride in her cultural identity. Her look says it all: security, pride, confidence, as well as ethnic identity, acceptance and awareness. Where our modern culture pokes fun at unibrows as unsightly imperfections to be waxed or razed off our faces, Kahlo wears hers proudly as an emblem of her origins and earthly connection. Her style in both photography and painting mirrors this earthy quality and delivers and unexpected relatablility. As some of her works are abstract and quirky, her humanity is immediately evident. Whether or not it is intended, the message sent from the range of moods displayed in her work is that the fear of foreigners often blinds people to the fact that people, particularly women, are essentially the same everywhere you go.
Cui Xiuwen’s work is extremely clean and limited in color and style. She has an extremely unique style, but it is also very narrow. Though many of her works depict herself in early stages of pregnancy, the approach to the images is very detached and cold, providing great contrast to the subject matter. Another trend of her self portrait is the purposely poor photo-editing, where most of the surrealist images do not look like they occupy the same space. If it were not for the coordinating colors and forward-thinking makeup artistry, some works would look better suited in an entry-level Photoshop class. I can, however, appreciate the contemporary simplicity these works provide. Though they are sterile, they still manage to communicate femininity.
This project was an outlet for the challenges I'm facing in my life right now. Sometimes things that proclaim to be good often turn out rotten and harmful. The most challenging aspect of this project was getting the hands to look like they were within the same space and scale as the orange. Though the eye tells you that an orange is obviously not within the same scale, I had to manipulate the color of the light being cast on the the hands and the focus of the orange to make them appear within the same universe and space. the orange opening was also difficult because I had a great picture of an orange and a great picture of an open peel, but they weren't the same picture. after fiddling around with the layer masking, I finally achieved a somewhat realistic transposed image.
Since I've already had some experience in photoshop, I decided to check out the new features of CS4. This program is so much more user-friendly as everything I need is right on the desktop already. I had a lot of fun play around with the adjustments panel and it really helped to set the mood of my piece. Since I wanted the focus of the image to be the woman's dreamlike, mer-self, I needed the real woman to be less in focus and for the reflected image to be in high contrast. I played around with the new selection features in the curves adjustment and found that I could select white, black, and mid-tone points to really give the image a complex depth and feel.
Art nouveau is one of my favorite trends in 21st century art. The crisp and elegant lines and vibrant colors create an easy feel. I love the curves and style and I must include some aspect of this style in my pieces.
Theater is my one biggest influence as far as my style. I have a taste for the dramatic and I love when an image can keep your attention and keep you coming back. This is the logo of the new sequel to one of my favorite shows Phantom of the Opera called Love Never Dies. The image is haunting and powerful and is especially effective in it's simplicity and dramatic lighting. It also contains fine detail and gives a very antique and non-digital feel, even though it was obviously produced digitally.
My first reaction to Gregory Crewdson was confusion. I think I focused more on trying to make sense of the picture than the actual composition. As I read further, I discovered that inner questions are his intent. The only sense I could make of it was that all the pieces had something to do with small-town domestic life. His art reveals something about the true mindset of people we pass by every day.
Teun Hocks work is my personal favorite due to his simplicity and quirky humor. Unlike Crewdson, Hocks work is a quick laugh and the message is extremely accessible while also being beautiful. Hocks main series uses the same model so that the focus is on the action, not the person. He has an isolated and obvious focal point and does not use excessive wide shots like Crewdson. Instead of having to decipher his work, Hocks treats the viewer to his off-beat imagination.
Jeff wall is in great contrast with the first two artists wherein he uses more muted colors and has more serious subject matter. Though Crewdson did suggest a deeper meaning to the awkwardness of his work, Crewdson makes his somber tone apparent from the start. I viewed his main focuses as urban social interaction and the relationship of humanity to death. I wasn’t all together impressed with his composition but he is very raw as an artist and that is something to be admired.
Cindy Sherman’s style is extremely glamorous and is completely devoid of color, whereas the other artists relied on it. Sherman focuses more on value and its interactions with light in creating a “feel” for the subject. What struck me first was the eerie type of glamour in which she photographs and what it may suggest about her subjects. Of course, the period clothing suggests that the classic woman is timeless, but perhaps it goes deeper. I though she may be making a statement about how the media makes us forget the woman as perpetually human and seeks to make her an icon. Either way, she takes a route that is a step above mimicry and in doing so, she highlights the difference between what we are used to seeing and what she has laid before us.
