Progression - Blog 5 .

 What is the most significant accomplishment in looking at your Midterm or Final? You can talk about technique in Photoshop, investigating your Big Idea, creating a meaningful artwork, etc.

My Midterm was my most significant accomplishment in this class. This piece was by far the most meaningful piece that I have created in a long time. When I was given the assignment I felt compelled to make a piece that not only fulfilled the Big Idea of Time but a piece that also was a social commentary. 

Also, this was also a new learning experience for me because I have never created a diptych before. I had to think about how I was going to compose the images in a way that both of the images were able to stand alone, but work together. The Photoshop techniques that I used were rather simple, but I did to try to use elements to ensure that the images were cohesive such as color and texture.

    Choose a project in the class and discuss your most challenging learning experience in Photoshop. Focus on a technique or concept from Photoshop that was difficult at first, but that you mastered by the end of the quarter.

The Edible Architecture Quiz was the most challenging project to me by far. I had trouble with the idea of blending the image of a fruit and buildings seamlessly. It certainly took alot of time to make and to figure out how to layer the different elements so that it created one image. I think with the completion of this quiz, I feel like I mastered this technique. 

Compare two projects from the quarter to compare and contrast how you achieved making meaning in the work. Try to showcase in your examples an improved capacity to making visual images that mean something as opposed to being a showcase of technique.

With  the projects there were times when I wanted to have meaning and there were times when I was just completing the project with more attention to technique. For example, in the Retouching quiz and the magazine quiz, I was  just concerned about the technical aspects of the project. I wanted to make sure it was realistic looking and I  wanted to master the technique itself. However, in my final I was so overcome by emotion that I wanted to make sure the viewer knew how I felt. Also, I wanted to include the subject of HIV/AIDS to raise some awareness while I was conveying my message. 

CHANGE .

I changed the idea of my final COMPLETELY .
I`m going off of my emotions. SO if My final doesn't match with the blog -- thats the reason .

Artist inspiration .

David Rokeby 


Installation art .

Cloud (2007)

 

long wave (2009)  

This artist appeals to me because of his use of space. He explores many types of big ideas in his works- time being one of the main ones. He has a good idea of balance and the way that things should be composed. In the work above, he had to decide where he was going to put each red sphere. How low how high they were going to hang? How many spheres should there be? What kind of movement to capture? Even though he is an installation artist, I plan to use these same principles in my piece to elevate my art. I want to pay more attention to slight detail, rhythm and space/balance. 

Abdi Farah

(from the collection "Luminous Beings")

Abdi's work has always inspired me from when I started to watch him on Bravo's reality series Work of Art: Next Great Artist. I was always inspired by the way that he would insert his opinion into his pieces. He wouldn't be afraid to talk about where he was raised, the social stigmas that he faced or how Blacks are feeling due to oppression. I also like the quiet power that his art has. Something about his work just makes you ponder. I wish to employ this strategy in my final. Sometimes its the small or the most simple things that can have the biggest impact. 

Blog 4.

1.    Write a rough draft of your artist statement for the final project)about 100 words). Include in your statement the following:

The big idea of time is one that fascinates me greatly. These final pieces are the continuation of the diptych done previously. I am exploring the idea of time in different factors: actual reality, remembrance, progression, memory etc. My hometown of New York City is the perfect way to interpret these ideas of time. NYC is famously known as being the “city that never sleeps”. But on a deeper level has seen the good, the bad and the ugly over the years and to document this in my work is something that I really enjoyed doing.

I employed the use of striking images and a well thought out composition in order to get my message across. My point was to get the viewer to stop, notice and feel something about my piece. I wanted to use this piece as a way to make a social commentary.  For example, I feel strongly about September 11^th and the way that people seem to forget this day more and more over time until it fades into oblivion.

I don’t know if I can see my work being used in a real world context such as a magazine, but I do see it being displayed online to spread my message and to get people to enjoy my piece.

2.    List three visual genres/visual culture/artists/ designers/ material culture that have influenced your work for the final. In making visual statements, artists and designers often augment other visual phenomenon. What influenced you? Make sure to include some visual references/ hyperlinks to illustrate your point. (example: My Big Idea is music and my references include jazz album covers from the 1960s, the music of Dizzy Gillespie, and the collage work of the artist Romare Bearden)

One of the things that inspired me for this piece was the musical Rent (Which was also set in NYC). I appreciate the playwright, Jonathan Larson’s idea of time. In the the famous musical number in the play Seasons of Love, the characters say “525,600 minutes/ how do you measure a year?”. With the idea of time he also couples a social message of fighting AIDS, which many of his friends died of.

Also, Andres Serrano inspires me. His pieces are singular subjects that are incredibly shocking and jaw dropping which I kind of desire in my piece. I used his most famous piece Piss Christ as a visual reference.

 Lastly, I used the art style of collage in order to construct my piece. I was inspired by Hannah Hoch and Kurt Schwitters style and color palette. 

3.    Name one new Photoshop technique that you will attempt to incorporate in your final. Be specific. You may use a hyperlink to a technique that you found on another website.

I plan to use digital distortion in my work.

http://www.computerarts.co.uk/__data/assets/image/1023169/varieties/7.jpg