Project 3 "Ecology"

Our assignment for project 3 was to take 20 photos and arrange them in a series with the theme of "Ecology". I get nervous with any camera other than a Polaroid camera, so thinking about what to center my project around had me thinking about this one constantly. I wanted to display Nature "framing" man-made objects and as I move through the series I wanted the photos to change from the "nature-framing-man" to "man-framing-nature" and in the middle of the transition show a balance between the two with neither dominating the photo. The first ten photos, the viewer will witness more pleasing pictures because I found that when nature is the frame the pictures do appear more pleasing to an earth conscious individual. For example, a park picture with beautiful, bountiful trees with a man-made rock path cutting through. The middle photo is a balance of man and nature, not very pleasing if you ask me. The final nine photos are man-made objects (ex. buildings, parking lots etc.) surrounding and framing nature. I ended the series with a strawberry framed by the entire city of Charlotte, giving the viewer a chance to weigh each and decide if this is a balance that should exist.  Moving threw the series I wanted people who are not that aware of environmental issues to possible become more aware. They will think the first nine are gorgeous and then see the ugly reality of what we as a people have done to that beauty. Man cannot frame nature the way nature frames us. I would hope that after the viewer sees the series they would have a greater incentive to help make a change. I found myself throughout this assignment wanting to venture further on and take more photos because after you take one you instantly think of how you could find another more intriguing view and more ideas pop up. I planned on taking between 75 and 100 pictures but ended up with 165 because you want to keep trying to better the last. After wandering parks in Concord, walking the greenway and strolling about in Uptown Charlotte I too was seeing the ugly truth that man cannot come even close to being the frame that Mother Nature is. Thank You ans enjoy.

 

daily notes

We didn't have class today but I still had concepts on the mind. I got out of school at 5 and went to the park for the second half of my photo shots. It was hard finding sun light this past week and once again i was in the rain. got some cool shots though. Sunday it didn't rain so I was downtown getting some shots on the greenway and in  uptown, projects coming together, see ya Wednesday.

Daily notes

I've been going over what we discussed in class wed, and thinking about my other classmates ideas. Lots of cool ideas came up. I started veiwing some of the artist in our reading and art21's and found inspiration for my project. Edward Burtynsky's photo series of mines and quarries sparked my interest. I cant find that many mine or quarries in the area so I will be doing a series of photos: 10 with man made objects framed by nature and 10 photos of natural objects framed by man made objects.Wish me luck.

Edward Burtynsky

I visited his web site and viewed his projects, "quarrys" was very cool, as a teenager we hung out in 2 different quarrys in Durham and they are really great places for photography. I've never seen such a variety of different pictures of quarrys, it never occurred to me to make a photo collection of them but it was very neat to see Burtynsky to it. He also has other series just like "Quarries" called "mines" and "oil". We saw some of his work in class that delt with frakking and the chemical waste which his horrible in nature but his photos of the red waste are very powerful and can be used to fight against such environmental problems, its a new way of viewing the destruction besides watching the news.

Mel Chin

I viewed some of Mel Chin's ecology works and some other political works. I watched art21 and saw his ideas for Detroit's "Devil Night"  which was beyond me even though I would like to see a house pivot and expose the under belly, but not to find a night-crawler farm. I think its ambitious to try and tackle a project involving the burnt down homes in Detroit, respect. The video game that involved old nomad tribal rugs was cool in that it kept these patterns alive and shared them to the world in a different media. I can respect his political passion in his art but some I didn't follow. I'm not that political so there may be a disconnect. I am a big fan of his "revival field", those plants are cool and it is amazing that you can collect the metals from them. The science behind it all is very cool.

daily post

Today in class we received our new project assignment. The theme is "ecology". This seems like a broad subject. I've already used a tree in my first project which was probably more ecology than play now that i think about it. We saw some examples in class such as maya Lin whose work i've seen before. The Vietnam War Memorial is her most famous work but I liked the skating rink she did in the park in Grand Rapids. I also like Goldswothy"s work. I've seen video of the spiraling leaf snake in the stream which is also cool. I like being in nature and outdoors, when I lived in Colorado I spent days in the wilderness and would find myself also doing leaf art and stacking stones just out of habit, not for art but just to be active with nature.

Project reflection/critique

I saw some cool presentations in class. I liked the animation and color of Jacob's "anxiety guy", I think his looked real professional, wished it was longer but I can't say anything in those regards. The others I liked were comedy based. The "drunk robot " was hilarious and I liked the "lego" clip also. I wished I had thought of legos first, would have been cleaner and more enjoyable I believe. It hit the "time" theme for me because it took me back in time when I played with them all the time. Overall I thought everyone's were good considering how difficult this assignment was for me. The theme of "time" was on display in many forms and was entertaining.

Daily Notes

Throughout the week we have been visiting other classes to see what they have to offer. Not one of my favorite activities, I felt as though we would be getting in the way of others working. I did enjoy the print making room because i used to work in the field. I really enjoyed digital media, I can'y wait to start learning more about computer driven art. Glad those 2 days are over though and ready to get back to work.

Project 2: TIME

This project had my wheels spinning the whole time, no pun intended. After viewing Kentridge and Henson's stop motion in class and on YouTube I decided to give it a try. I've always been curious about animation and recently had questions about what GIFs were. Once the decision was made the panic and stressed followed, I've never done anything like this before and I thought I bit off more than I could chew. I chose to do the Dawn of Man because time as we know it only exist because it was created by man, so take it back to the beginning. The stop motion also represented time in motion. My tools consisted of a camera (digital rental from UNCC), a tripod white cardboard backdrop, air dry clay, clamp lights, pencil and pad, and a computer. I started with flat piece of clay and took a picture, marked it in pad tthen went back and trimmed clay from sides and started building up from center. I took a picture (with clay on hands), marked in pad and repeated 40 times (4 different times due to screw ups ex: flash, forgot to mark pics, camera moved). I then tried to plug pictures in "MakeaGIF.com" program but my files were to big,and not being camera savvy, I panicked even more. I eventually set it up through Powerpoint and it turned out better than first expected. Can't wait to try again in digital media, I learned a lot. Thank You  

Art 21

The artist in the Art 21 videos were all different from each other and Kentridge too. Kara Walker's silhouettes reminded me of kids coloring books without the color. I would imagine being at that instillation and feeling apart of an uncle remus book with the characters bouncing around me. I'm not a fan of Sally Mann's work. It has a dark feel to it (dead body farm) literally. Although she can make ordinary objects into great photos, the subject matter does not appeal to me. I love wood work so Martin Puryear work really spoke to me. I think most anything crafted out of wood is timeless in this day and age. His stone work has an even ancient feel to it which lends itself to the time theme. The piece he did with the crooked ladder ascending into the sky was a cool idea, with that endless ascension, we feel the time it took to create and can imagine the time it would take to climb into the sky. Overall I learned that "time" can be displayed any many different mediums.

William Kentridge

We watched a Kentridge piece in class, animated piece. This type of stop-motion inspired me in my project2 "Time". Kentridge and Jim Henson actually. I grew up loving the muppets and "The Muppets Take Manhatten" is one of my favorites. But his stop motion work we saw in class is what I will be drawing on for the assignment. Kentridge's work draws on the theme of "time" because of the median he uses. The charcoal is a rich drawing tool and you can see the erased scenes linger throughout the animation, looks really cool. "history of the main complaint" has a really dark and personal feel to it. By the end you feel as you have witnessed his whole process and really feel for the narration.

Daily notes

I've been going over ideas for our new project. The theme of project 2 is "Time". I had a few ideas such as stop-motion capturing a match burning, or george washington going through time, as indicated by the change of hats on his head. I'm extremely nervous about this one because i've never done animation and i would like to give it a try. I'm, reading up on GIF's and checking out Jim hHenson making his early cartoons. Wish me luck and good luck to all.

"painterparagon"'s project was a little confusing for me. It is probably because i'm not familiar with the genre of the piece. I was definitely interested in the dragon but I think the theme of play was lost in translation. Ryan had a very ambitious project but i think he needs to dumb it down for his audience who might not quite understand the theme he is trying to convey.

"rbezant"'s project was one of the more easy to follow ideas which works well with a diverse group of people. I immediately saw the play theme and wanted to approach the piece. I noticed that a lot of others jumped right in and played with the inter-changeable doll. Randal's work was clean and organized and I would call it one of the most successful projects of the day.

"cbaulieu"'s project was the Barbie dolls. The play theme was clear and present. Although I've never played with Barbies, my cousin has and she would have liked the project. If the toys were G.I. Joes then i would have been more enticed to play so I can see the potential. Overall I enjoyed the projects and can't wait till our next critique.

We presented our projects this week in concepts. I feel my project was received with mixed results. I could see that some people understood what i was going for and some did not. I think i was a little over ambitious because my vision would have taken lots of money and time and help. I think people have varying opinions on the state of the environment and it is certainly a hot topic, so making such a piece can have its own controversies.I learned a lot as far as scouting and planning an installation piece and know what to look for with future attempts.

project 1

I've been working on my first project through out labor day weekend. took a about a day to come up with a base plan. Still not sure if I'm on the right track. Its an earth awareness piece that i hope will draw different responses. I scouted locations, I would have liked a big maple or elm tree but do to the scale that i can afford ( money and time ), i had to resort to my local surroundings. I don't have a tree in my own yard so i eventually had to settle on a neighbors down the street, whom by the end of the day thought i was crazy. I then had to get sweaty and dig a hole beneath the tree to symbolize the earth sucking in the plastics. I like being outdoors and working in the yard so the the3me of play was always there. selecting the materials for the tree and the hole was also play, rearranging the pieces would be considered play also. The fact that this instillation can be set up a in any town and arranged anyway, by any gathering of people, and can never really be finished evokes the basics of play. I don't want trash in the hole, but objects of everyday use you don't throw away. My vision for the real piece in a perfect world with the proper resources is a huge tree in a field by itself and a huge crater beneath filled with toys and valued human objects of all makes and models. The tree would hold thousands of cardboard and paper products streaming from its branches. I believe i'm going to call it "Clean your own mess". Provoking all views, some might be mad others may see it as i imagine it, the world sucking up the things we've made from the earth itself. Everything comes from the earth and this is its return, not as a landfill, but as a portal. The plastic being sucked down to the magma of the center of the earth and being despursed back into basic elements. The paper and cardboard would fuse back into the tree before your eyes and youd be left with a bigger stronger tree, and a refueled earth.