Human Compositions

The Exquisite Corpse Two

"The sexy you swam many bird."

Some of the aspects that helped me produce this photo was how the environment was reacting. These morning glories didn't exist so beautifully within the next few minutes, so I was there at the right time. Plus knowing that this bee was plunging into the flower, it seemed to work nicely in place of swimming.

Eight Textures

They feel even better!

Lecture and Reading Summation 9/17/10

Post Modernism (1979)  
Pluralism of viewpoints
There was a shift from a dialog taking place in person (in NY or Paris) to mediated dialog through art fairs, the media, etc.

Modernism
Shock of the new rapid progression of styles
Transgressive - opposition to mainstream society (avant-garde)
Rejection of the past
Colonial view of non-European cultures

• Impressionism (Monet)
• Post Impressionism
• Fauves
• Cubism
• Futurism (Italy)
• Constructionism (Russia)
• Expressionism (Germany)
• De Stijl (Holland)

Cardboard Critique

The finished product!

During our critique, the group saw this as the pinecone it was modeled off of. Stumpy, chunky and, spiney and full, this project was right on target. The only thing that was odd about it, was the spikes facing vertically instead of horizontally, but that is what helped give it the fullness, so it was fine.

Overall, this turned out marvelous!

Final Two Periodic and Playful Overview

To the left we have the periodic finalist and to the right, the playful.

As we commented and critiqued everybodies works, the feedback for these two was very positive. I incoorporated good closure in my periodic, and great continuance in my playful. As a group, nothing was strikingly out of place or would make anyone think one was another. The only adjustment that was suggested was to move the biggest block on the playful to where it would be coming more out of the frame, since everything is too neatly inside the frames. Anyways, my playful makes an excellent salt shaker and will also be the one I will play into the third part of the dot project.

Lecture and Reading Summation 9/10/10

What does a person do when being creative that keeps them from being mediocre?
A person is...

• flexible
• organized
• can analyze
• fluent
• observes
• playful
• sensitive
• productivity
• original
• curious
• adaptable
• processes

Blocks that affect us...

• physical safety
• intellect
• emotions
• environment
• expressive
• cultural taboos
• fear

First we must understand a problem to solve it. We devise a plan to suit our needs and get us to our goals. Maybe if we modify it, magnify it, minimize it, substitute it, rearrange it, reverse it, or perhaps combine it, we might get what we want.

Lecture and Reading Summation 9/03/10

What is art? As a class we have came up with,

• a person who thought of it
• image of a person
• like the way it looks
• inspires thought and emotion
• effortfilled
• useful
• sometimes it's not art but it's nature
• an artifact
• someone made it
• not instictual
• conscious decisions

To present, or re-present?
      Representation- one hing stands in for another.

Styles of Representation-

• Naturalistic- as in nature
• Realistic- as in real life
• Stylized- simplified to emphasize important details
• Abstract- highly stylized (may be beyond recognition)

Non-Representational

The Exquisite Corpse

"The sexy you swam many bird."

I've replaced doing a photo with a digital mixed media piece.

Finalists for Periodic and Playful

As the second part of our 2D project, we were supposed to represent the two feelings periodic and playful. Here are my photos of my process leading up to the final two.

Here we have a bunch of thumbnails.

Final four playful on left, final four periodic on right.

Narrowed down to the final two.

Progress Report: First Week of Cardboard

     As far as my cardboard pinecone is going, I'm very excited I have a very sturdy base and stalk to build off of. From using the leaf-like cardboard cut outs to create the layered appearance of the bottom of a pinecone, it looks accurate and makes for a very weighted base.

     I know exactly what I'm going to do next with it now, and that is to attach each of the pointed pieces next. I'm going to do this by using the same idea I used to attach the stalk of the pinecone, by cutting an insert into each piece so I can just shove the two pieces together and they wont shift around. They will be placed onto rounded layers that'll look like shelves with their own support system.

Here is what I have, and my ideas that I will implement for next week.

Natural Form Studies

Ta da!

Critique and Final Four

So as far as this critique goes I'm doing the entire thing on my own without any input from anybody else due to how late I came in to class. Just as a side note, if anybody wants to add anything on to what I've got, I'd be very appreciative to get some extra viewpoints!

Out of the four categories, I had alot of ease with closure as well as continuance. I feel like I didn't experience any issues with these two so I feel like my compositions that were chosen reflected the desired theme without a lot of guessing. I made a few that were slightly more obscure to figure out that I felt were nicer compositions, but I didn't include them in the winners pile only because it means nothing if I'm the only one in the room that gets it. I attempted to be more straightforward with this project.

As for proximity and similarity, as I was going along with it I felt I was using the same ideas over and over just in different angles. So I wasn't too pleased with that, also proximity I had a habit of taking a monstrously large dot and trying to balance it off with very small dots. These didn't work out so well especially when I couldn't find a hole punch big enough! So it threw off the mechanics of them even more when I tried improvising. Aside from this technical difficulty that was the only issue I found with this project.

Personally, I think most of the compositions had a good ratio of positive and negative space, and the ones that didn't were just left out of my final 16! Here is the image of my final four, I'll let you guys decide if they work.

Ignore my blue toes. :]

Final 16 Dot Compositions

Top Row: Similarity

Second Row: Closure

Third Row: Continuance

Bottom Row: Proximity

Process Pictures of Current Projects

Forty Thumbnails

16 Sketch Versions

Stalk of the Pinecone

Base of Cardboard Pinecone

Lecture and Reading Summation 8/27/10

Composition is defined by how we perceive any given item. When we break it down, composition can be found within a written work, music, nature, theatre, dance, and of course the visual arts. As we delve deeper into this concept, composition can be broken even further into seven components. This list includes,

• point
• line
• shape
• color
• texture
• space
• value

Through these elements there is rhythm and harmony in a piece of work that keeps any viewer/listener involved. Some of them would be discord, disonence, contrast, variational distort, clashing, suspence, curiosity, tension and lastly anticipation. Without these emotions and feelings in a piece, it is hardly a piece of art at all.

Gestalt's Theory states, "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts."

Proximity is the relationship between two entities. Similarity is how alike any two parts are when compared with one another. Continuance is how something lasts in sequence. Closure is the whole that completes the idea.

The last information that was discussed was about form. This is the sum total of the objects physical characteristics. When the meaning and content is what we know about the given form. Such as color or that something is shiny. With our exercise to examine our natural object and the strip of cardboard we will go into much greater detail about what form and meaning is all about.