Identity Essentials

Assignment: Shoot: a series of  photographs of a body, body part or a metaphor for a body part (my preference over naked genitalia—ie Georgia O’Keefe and her flowers).

I chose "Role of Age" as my category.

Exqusite Corpse

Assignment: Take a walk with your camera. Find and photograph images that express, relate, or otherwise are inspired by lines from the random-word poems we wrote in class.
Post the best three images to your blog, along with the text of the line that goes with them.

Poem:

Insane clown swim hard flower

Funny pebble drinking excited rat

Barbaric tree protest used rock

Photographs:

1) Hard Flower

2) Rock

3) Barbaric Tree

Photo Assignment

Assignment: Choose three photos :
1. one you have taken yourself that includes someone you know
2. one that has been taken of you by someone else
3. one that as taken by someone you don't know, of someone you don't know.
Analyze the motives and context of these three photos and answer the following questions about each in short, but thorough paragraphs:
a. what is the purpose of this photo; why was it taken? why do you keep it? why did you choose it for this assignment? What is its significance to you?
b. What is the emotional relationship between the photographer and the subject? how does that influence the way the picture was taken? How does it affect the way you look at the photo? What is the photographer' attitude toward the subject? What is the subject's attitude towards the photographer?
c. In what context is this photo intended to be viewed?, by who, for how long? Do you think you will still remember this photo in ten years?

Photo #1:

a.) There wasn't any particular purpose for this photo. I had my camera out, probably taking other pictures for WASH, and I decided to snap a shot with my boyfriend, Dillon, and myself. I kept this photo because I like it. I chose this photo for this assignment because it was one of the few photos I have on my new computer. It is significant to me because I love photos of Dillon and me.

b.) The emotional relationship between the photographer (me) and the subjects is that I want to take nice pictures of Dillon and myself. This influences the picture in that Dillon and I are leaning into each other to show that we are together. This makes the audience know that we are a couple. My attitude was to positive. I wanted to take a good picture. The subjects' attitudes toward the photographer are also positive. Dillon and I want to be photographed.

c.) To me, this photo is intended to be viewed as a captured moment of a couple's relationship. I don't think I'll remember this exact photo, but I will remember all that it stands for.

Photo #2:

a.) This purpose of this photo was to capture a moment during our very fun trip to Kemah. It was taken because I thought that photos on the carousel would be interesting. I kept this photo because I like it. I chose it for this assignment because it was one of the few that I have on my new computer. This photo is significant to me because it shows the awesome ostrich I was on while riding the carousel.

b.) The emotional relationship between the photographer (Dillon) and the subject (me) is fun. We were having fun and it shows in this picture. When the audience looks at this photograph they can see that I was having fun while on my ostrich. The photographer's attitude toward the subject was that of patience. He took a lot of photos before he got the one he wanted. The subject's attitude toward the photographer is that of knowing. I knew that this was the best photograph, the one he had been trying to capture.

c.) The photo was intended to capture a fun moment and the feeling of being a child again riding a carousel. I think I will remember this in ten years because it was the first time in a very long time that I had ridden on a carousel.

Photo #3:

 a.) The purpose of this photo was probably intended to be a portrait of this young girl. I kept this photo because I really like how the eyes are the focus. I chose it for this assignment because it fit the requirements. It is significant to me because of how great of a photo it is. 

b.) The emotional relationship between the photographer and the subject is probably that the subject is tired and wants to stop being photographed. I feel like this comes through the photo and out to the audience. The photographer wants to continue to shoot, but it struggling to keep his/her subject's interest. The subject it a little angry with the photographer because it's taking him/her too long to get the right photograph.

c.) This photo was intended to be a portrait of a young girl to be viewed by her parents (probably). I know I'm not going to remember this photo in ten years, but this girl's parents probably will. It is such a strong photograph.

Modular Madness!!!

Assignment: Construct a rhythmic, three-dimensional structure from many similar found objects. The finished structure may be gigantic, but must be at least larger than you.


At first I wanted to go with buttons, but then decided that they would be too tedious. So I picked coffee lids because they were round like buttons, but took up more space. I started to glue the coffee lids into a sphere. When I got half way around the sphere Tam (the teacher's assistant) said it looked cool and I should leave them half open like that. So I did. Another student, Megan, gave me the idea to glue thumb tacks to the backs of my partial spheres and mount them onto the wall. It was a brilliant idea!

Word as Image

Assignment: Using black and white type cut from newspapers and magazines, create images that rhythmically articulate a square page.

My first square's theme is "Is This You?". It is covered in words that describe all kind of people. I cut the words really small because I wanted it to feel like a crowd of people. 


My second square's theme was "Give and Take". The square is covered in the word "TAKE" because it represents how most people just take. There is only a single "GIVE" in the center because it represents the few people that actually give.

Alexander the Majestic Squid

For the assignment information, see previous squid post.

I cut a chunk out of my cylinder and folded it over to create a cone-like shape for the head.

I glued my triangular tubes end to end to make the longer "feeding tentacles".

Then I covered everything in kraft paper and glued it all together!

Alexander the Majestic Squid (finished)

Friday Jan. 28 Lecture: Artist Sketches

Assignment: Choose 3 artists from the given list and sketch 3 of their works.

Process: I found 3 pieces that I thought I could draw. They turned out to be a lot more difficult than I expected. I have never taken a drawing class of any kind in my life (not counting elementary school art class).

(Click to photos to enlarge)

Henry Darger - In the Realms of the Unreal - Watercolor Paintings on Paper - About 1911 to 1970
Link to Photo 

Mies van der Rohe - Barcelona Chair - Chrome on Steel Frame and Leather - 1929
Link to Photo 

Alphonse Mucha - "Summer" from "The Seasons" Series - Color Lithography - 1896
Link to Photo 

8 Safari Texture Photos

Assignment: Take photos of patterns and textures and label whether they are translation, rotation, reflection, or a combination of the three. State what it is, where the photo was taken, and the date and time it was taken.

Process: I went around my room and my boyfriend's apartment and took pictures of things that were patterned.

(Click photos to enlarge)

Translation/Reflection - Shirt texture -  Dillon's apartment - 5:45pm Feb. 4

Translation - Bed sheet rhythm - My apartment - 6:10pm Feb. 4

Translation/Rotation - Quilt pattern - My apartment - 6:11pm Feb. 4

Translation/Rotation/Reflection - Scarf rhythm - My car - 6:pm Feb. 4

Translation/Rotation/Reflection - Shorts rhythm/pattern - My apartment - 6:12pm Feb. 4

Translation/Rotation - Jolly Ranchers rhythm/pattern - My apartment - 6:13pm Feb. 4

Translation/Reflection - Quilt pattern - My apartment - 6:14pm Feb. 4

Translation/Reflection - Quilt pattern/rhythm - My apartment - 6:15pm Feb. 4

Cardboard Progress: Alexander the Squid

Assignment: Take a small organic object and recreate it on a bigger scale out of cardboard.

Process: At first I wanted to stack cardboard circles on top of each other and trim them into a cone shape to make the head. So, I spent about 4 hours cutting circles out by hand because there isn't an easy way to cut cardboard circles.

After a while I decided that stacked circles were not going to work because they were all uneven and they were taking too long to make. So, I decided to roll a sheet of cardboard to make a cylinder. This took 10 minutes.

For the 8 regular legs, I plan on rolling kraft paper into long strips and glue them onto the bottom of the cylinder. For the 2 longer feeding legs, I'm going to create triangular prisms and glue them together.

Human Dots

Assignment: Use people to recreate the dot forms we made based on newspaper photographs.
(Click on images to enlarge)

Photographs-

Dot Forms-

Human Dots-

 

Process: I decided to take photos of my hands and Photoshop them into the shape of my dot forms. There wasn't really much of a thought process. That was just the first thing that came to mind and I thought it would be cool.