Blog # 5

My most significant accomplishment during this course would be blending within my artwork.  As seen by my first works, I had a lot of trouble with this technique, yet was able to use it to the best of my abilities in my final.  Also, I learned how to use animation in my final project and that helped to convey my meaning without me explicitely stating it. 
Once again, blending was a concept that I had many struggles with.  In my second quiz, I had a whole lot of trouble with it...yet in my final projects I was able to display it in a more blended, skillful way.

In my final project I chose to convey identity through the eyes of someone else, my best friend Alex.  I used insight from her life and experiences she has had to convey what she feels is identity.  However, in most of my other works I created artwork that display how I feel identity is reflected by myself.  In one of my midterm projects, I chose to do somewhat of an x-ray type of image that reflected what I felt my identity was.  This contrasts with what was done in my final project, however, I think it works to add more meaning to my pieces and add value to the artwork.

Final Project

For my project, I chose the big idea of Identity.  I feel as though this is an idea that many of us struggle with in our day to day lives.  Personally, I have always been trying to figure out just exactly who I am.  What does my future look like?  What career will I have when I graduate from college?  Where will I end up through the course of my life?  All of these questions connect to my big idea of identity.  Who and what defines one's identity if any. Along with identity comes many other smaller ideas that united together to form the big one.  They include: respect, values, morals, diversity, viewpoint, integrity, culture, honor, self-expression.  All of these work in defining the person that we are. I chose to reflect personal identity as not only is it something I often question, but I feel that many other people do as well.  It is a major part of our society now and it is pressing that we shed light on the issue.  For my final project, I portrayed my best friend alex in a piece of artwork that reflects aspects of her life.  The images deal with how she identifies with herself and how others see her.  The phrase, “everyone dies, but not everyone lives” coincides with the animation of the eye going from grey to turquoise as the image appears to come to life.  Alex frequently uses this quote to describe life and I feel as though it fits perfectly with my piece of art.  I am very happy I was able to share this art with those around me and convey the big idea of identity, and idea that we all struggle with everyday.  Wecannot be afraid to confront this issue of identity, for  “committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A man finds his identity by identifying.” (anonymous)

Blog # 4

For my project, I chose the big idea of Identity.  I feel as though this is an idea that many of us struggle with in our day to day lives.  Personally, I have always been trying to figure out just exactly who I am.  What does my future look like?  What career will I have when I graduate from college?  Where will I end up through the course of my life?  All of these questions connect to my big idea of identity.  Who and what defines one's identity if any.  Along with identity comes many other smaller ideas that united together to form the big one.  They include: respect, values, morals, diversity, viewpoint, integrity, culture, honor, self-expression.  All of these work in defining the person that we are. I chose to reflect personal identity as not only is it something I often question, but I feel that many other people do as well.  It is a major part of our society now and it is pressing that we shed light on the issue.  We cannot be afraid to confront this issue of identity, for  “committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A man finds his identity by identifying.” (anonymous)

Hannah Hoch

Collages

Barbara Kruger

Technique I would like to employ: torn edges on photographs/collages

http://robcubbon.com/how-to-create-paper-receipts-or-newspaper-with-torn-edges

Quiz 4 Blog

Often times, simply changing a color scheme or image orientation/size can speak volumes to an audience.  In my photograph, I took the innocent movie of Charlie St. Cloud and used the color scheme and design from the Chicago movie poster.  This works to convey a completely different meaning.  The red coloring is seen as somewhat of a devilish, horror movie…making it seem as though Charlie St. Cloud is the antagonist, when in reality he is the protagonist.  The target audience also changes from teenagers to young adults watching a horror, scary movie that could possibly have an R-rating as Chicago does (as opposed to the PG-13 rating of the original movie).  The images I chose also have to deal with conveying a different meaning.  I chose Charlie and his girl to be depicted with a white shadow to look innocent and almost angelic, while I depicted Sam in red to match the devilish appearance of the background image.  This creates a contrast between heaven and hell.  This ties in with the musical movie, Chicago, as it depicts women as being murderers and crude people, just as those one might see in hell.

Finished Artist Statement

Identity.  What does it mean?  Who defines one’s identity?  I feel that this is an idea many of us struggle with on a day to day basis.  Our daily lives are very much consumed by this issue.   Personally, I have always been trying to figure out just exactly who I am.  What does my future look like?  What career will I have when I graduate from college?  Where will I end up through the course of my life?  All of these questions connect to my big idea of identity.  Who and what defines one's identity if any. Many different things in one’s life unite together to form identity.  They define the person that we see ourselves as and how we appear to others.   Identity is a pressing issue in today’s society and I think it is important to shed light on it.  We cannot be afraid to confront this issue of identity, for “committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A man finds his identity by identifying.” (anonymous)  In my midterm diptych project, I used art to convey my meaning behind identity.  The research behind this project dealt with digging deep within myself and pulling out an issue that I think I often struggle with.  Also, after talking with my cohort group, I realized that they also struggle with identifying with who they are.  Therefore, I decided a good piece of art would consist of a pressing issue that affects many of those around us, including myself.  My first piece of art deals with how one views themselves.  It is an individual’s eye looking out upon him/herself.  I created it to look somewhat like an x-ray as that is how we see the insides of things.  As the person looks within themselves they see how they feel they portray themselves.  The other artwork is of a reflecting pool to show how we reflect ourselves to other people.  The images in the water display how we appear to those around us, how they identify with us.  I thought these two images would work well together as they work to unite both how we view our identity and how others see us as individuals with an identity.  I think that these song lyrics fit very well with the issue of identity that we all struggle with in our daily lives. 

I wish you'd see it on my face

But I'm caught up in those long lost days

And how can I then make you see

When I don't even know me

Following my footsteps home

This time I'm walking alone

Trying hard to be someone

I don't even know.

Shadow (by Maria Mena)

Melissa Rondinelli 

Blog Post #3

Luke Chueh
http://www.lukechueh.com/bio.html

Chueh uses bright colors, alongside black and white imagery to portray his subjects.  He uses characters in his paintings, almost cartoonlike, to convey his messages.  His use of color within a black and white painting allow focus to be brought into one aspect of the art.  It allows for the eye of the audience to focus on the one thing being brought out in the picture, the one thing that the artist is trying to convey meaning about.  I also used a similar technique in my last blog and in my modulating meaning.  I used mainly black and white images then brought some color in to place an emphasis on certain aspects of my work.  This, to me, allows for the audience to focus on just one thing.  I also used the black and white to show a sort of x-ray type image as i was focusing on looking from the inside out to find one's identity.

Blog Post #3

Kim Noble
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/gallery/2008/sep/11/mentalhealth.art?piIcture=337451128#/?picture=337451152&index=8

This particular artist really stood out to me as she portrays all her  artwork from the view of a child.  Instead of taking an adult perspective, she realizes that children often see images and events in a different light and therefore she decides to represent their view in all of her artwork.  Noble has associative identity disorder, and therefore her work and personality coincide with my big idea of identity.  Throughout my life I have struggled with the idea of identity.  Which group do you identify with at school, what friends do you make, how do others in your community see you, do you identify with your certain culture even though it is frowned upon by many.  This issue, however, is not only faced by myself, but also by many children, teenagers, and adults all across the world.  We all struggle with issues of self-expression, working to identify just exactly who we are throughout our lives.  If we ever want to know more about who we are, to learn more about our identity, we need to look through other people's eyes, to step into their shoes and see what the world looks like from their perspective.  Kim Noble does this as she portrays the view of a child, naive without expectations about how the world should be.  Personally, I feel this is the best view to go from as children do not know about the evils of the world and therefore do not have a skewed perspective like adults have.