James

Digital Repeated Shape Collage: What did you learn while working on this project that you may be able to use for your concentration? How did this technique or tool affect this piece and add to a possible interpretation? Conveniently i used a picture relating to my concentration idea as the focus of my repeated shape collage. Through playing with photoshop i realized how versatile an object can really be with respect to shape, colour, opacity etc. When i originally came up with a concentration idea I already had something in mind, inspired by something I had already seen. Post photoshop-project my horizons have been broadened and my ideas have become fuller and more open to variation and experimentation. I usually dont experiment with abstraction-- in fact i dislike abstraction-- however i have come to realize that i can add a dimension to my art that i have never been able to incorporate nor would i ever have thought to do by using a plethora of tools in photoshop. Playing around with the 3D tools and different filters not only showed me techniques i could be incorporating into my own concentration on engine parts but also gave me some really cool ideas which related back to some inspiration that I could never quite use or place in my artwork. As far as this piece goes, i believe that i took my object and did something that I normally would never think to do when given creative licence-- i gave in to abstraction and played around with the tools at my disposal and i think that it turned out positively. Fortunately my object possessed some degree of variation in shape and allowed me to create interesting relationships between positive and negative space. This being said, im still on "abstraction training-wheels" at this point and look forward to being able to bringing some new insight into my concentration ideas.

How did your understanding of the concept of this piece change throughout the process of working on it? Did you find a way to reconcile the different elements? How can this piece carry a message? What does it allow for art to be? for life?

As I commenced this project i was literally drawing a tree on a towel. Granted, a towel was an interesting and uncharacteristic surface but I never really thought about the relationship between chaos and the piece until i was well into working. As with most things I do, thought and preparation were scarce in the first stages of the piece but as I experimented with the medium and its interaction with the surface i became much more comfortable with the idea of "embracing chaos". I started with just one true subject-- a tree from a previous sketch, but decided that my original sketch was not fitting for the composition. I stayed within the same genre i had picked before but decided to use a tank as my second object, thus allowing for interesting interactions between the two objects as well as metaphorical interpretations by an audience. Getting the two objects to flow well and work with the background was difficult until i decided to incorporate the background into the objects themselves by bleeding the red and white into the blue behind the tank. After much difficulty i believe that the different elements worked well together while creating a both an abstract and literal interpretation of chaos. As with all object relationships, one may draw a metaphor from somewhere or other-- a tank and a tree represent both life and the elements of destruction of life and chaos within the world, all upon the backdrop for liberty and the pursuit of happiness, the flag upon which americans build their utopia. It represents an apparent contradiction based upon the ideals upon which the United States were created and the ideals upon which its current leaders continue to abuse. I believe that this piece exemplifies the ability of art to speak a message to a crowd and mean something more than simple esthetics.



What was your favorite part of this project? What was your least favorite part? If this was a concentration, what part of the idea would you like to explore more? How would you do so? Write your response at the top of your page.

My favorite part of the project was definitely the medium. It seems that charcoal has become a thing of the past. For such a versatile medium it seems that i rarely get the opportunity to use it. Some of my most satisfying artwork has come from exploration with charcoal and so once again i have found that i enjoyed the medium. What i did not enjoy however was the subject matter. Not so much specifically the 'ridiculous objects' themselves but my choice of composition and choice of object. I found that i had little interest in the subject matter which directly and immediately impacted both my ability to focus on the piece and my drive to create a stellar composition. If I were to create a composition from this piece i would definitely explore light more. Light has always fascinated me, especially when given the opportunity to represent light using black, white and greys. I would set up a dramatic light situation like we did but focus much more on the interactions between light an a smaller or more dramatic section of the arrangement.

For this project I want you to think about what your piece could mean. If light was a metaphor, what would it symbolize in your image? How does your expression interact with this meaning? What could this say about you or an imaginary persona you are creating in this work? If this were the start of a body of work how would you proceed? What does it say about art and life? Write your response at the top of your page.

If light were a metaphor i believe that it would represent my apparent darker side which i know exists to some degree. My stoic expression definitely reflects this and i think that the darker shadows could show angrier, darker aspects of my life and personality as they streak across a seemingly light and revealed section of my face. I wouldnt even say that this is an "imaginary" persona at all, since it definitely can reflect on what i have struggled with in the past and will always deal with and attempt to suppress for years to come. As far as continuing this as a body of work i think that i would add color and contrast between more absurd unrealistic colors. In order to begin that i would definitely use photoshop in order to show the different ways that color could represent light and shadow as well as how many bright colors could interact well with the piece. As stated before this piece could represent the apparent dark sides and contrasts in personality that all people have. It provides a visual element that can depict where shadow rests over a person not only physically but also amongst their persona.

For Project 2 I want you to write a statment about your piece on your page. If this were the start of a concentration how would you continue it? Even though the project started with a small idea, or almost no idea at all, how has it evolved? Ideas in art are always connected to how it has been made. How did the media you chose and the way you worked contribute to the idea? How do formal concerns contribute to an idea? What could this piece say about what you think art is? about life?

If I were to continue this piece as a concentration I would repeat the message in more abstract, less obvious ways. I would want to portray my message of "smoking kills" in ways that don't necessarily involve writing or even cigarettes the themselves. For instance, showing the effects on a human both internally from a medical perspective and from a social point of view. I guess my project evolved into a statement that i never intended to make at first. In the end i feel that it was an important progression since it gave more meaning and more weight to the piece. I think charcoal was an excellent media because of how versatile it is; not only can one make bold lines but the values can be changed, you can smudge the charcoal and make imprints into it and it creates an interesting texture throughout the piece. I wanted to make some parts more noticeable and much bolder so i chose red and black marker both to represent severity and harshness as well as to make the message stand out more. I think that this piece shows that art can and does portray an important message not only to a concentrated demographic but to an entire community or population. Art can make people thing of things differently and hold much more significance to a person than raw facts or simply just words.