Though I already know what I'm gonna do, seeing as half of them are not feasible and the other half are not personal.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Big Idea... Ideas.
And there they go................
Though I already know what I'm gonna do, seeing as half of them are not feasible and the other half are not personal.
Though I already know what I'm gonna do, seeing as half of them are not feasible and the other half are not personal.
The Big Idea
I'm just going to post pictures of this. I already explained it in class and don't feel like writing up an explanation. I was pretty glad about the critique, though: everyone, instead of saying "oh well I liked it but I would have _______", just asked questions about the project itself, which I feel means it was a success.
Inflatotopia!
Very exciting stuff. Very enraging stuff. In general, I really, really, more than anything in the whole entire world hate working with plastic. I can cut the stuff how it needs to be cut, but as far as ironing plastic all I do is burn holes and ruin everything, so I was a complete liability for the whole duration of the project. I felt pretty worthless the whole time.
Here are some pictures of our final product!
It's a spaceship crashed into a pyramid. We got quite a few people to get into it, and at one point we had about 8 or 9 people crammed inside at the same time.
Here are some pictures of our final product!
It's a spaceship crashed into a pyramid. We got quite a few people to get into it, and at one point we had about 8 or 9 people crammed inside at the same time.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Survey
"What is your favorite color?"
Green.
"Do you tend to favor paintings with sharp angles or ones with soft curves?"
I don't think this, I know this. Group of people.
"What is your gender?"
I am male.
Green.
"How important is the appearance or design of the following products in your decision to purchase the product?"
New Car: Not very.
Underwear: Not at all.
TV Set: Not very.
Winter Coat: Somewhat.
"What is your 2nd favorite color?"
Blue.
"When you select pictures, photographs, or other pieces of art for your home, do you find you lean more toward modern or more toward traditional styles?"
Modern.
"If you had to choose from the following list, which type of art would you say you prefer?"
Asian.
"Which of the following statements applies to you more?"
"When choosing pictures, photographs, or other art for my home, I focus on whether or not I like the piece".
"Would you say you prefer older objects or newer objects to collect or decorate you home?"
Newer.
"Would you say that you prefer seeing paintings of wild animals, like lions, giraffes, or deer, or that you prefer seeing paintings of domestic animals, like dogs, cats or other pets?"
Ugh, neither but if I had to pick one, wild.
"In general, would you rather see paintings of outdoor scenes or would you rather see paintings of indoor scenes?"
Indoor scenes, because when I think outdoor, I think Thomas Kinkade cabins in Thomas Kinkade forests with Thomas Kinkade rivers.
Which of the following outdoor scenes appeals to you the most?
Paintings of: city
Which season would you most like to see depicted in a painting?: Winter
Which of the following types of indoor scenes appeals to you most?: people
"Do you tend to prefer paintings that are related to religion or those that are not related to religion?"
Not related.
"Which of the following statements is closest to your view?"
"Paintings don't necessarily have to teach us any lessons, but can just be something a person likes to look at".
"Which of the following statements is closest to your view?"
"I prefer paintings that are different-looking if they're very realistic, I might as well be looking at a photography".
"Do you prefer paintings that exaggerate the dimensions or reality of objects we already know, or ones that feature imaginary objects which have no connection to everyday life?"
They're both great! Though I prefer the ones with no connection to everyday life.
"Do you prefer seeing bold, stark designs or more playful, whimsical designs?"
Bold, stark designs.
"Do you tend to favor paintings with sharp angles or ones with soft curves?"
Sharp angles.
"Which patterns do you like better: geometric patterns or more random uneven patterns?"
Random uneven.
"Do you like to see expressive brush-strokes on the canvas, or do you prefer that the surface of the canvas be smooth, more like a photograph?"
Expressive.
"Do you like to see colors blend into each other or do you like it when different colors are kept apart?"
Blend!
"Every color has a wide range of shades. Take the color blue, for example. An artist can use a bright, vibrant shade of blue, like a royal blue, a pale, muted shade of blue, like light blue, or a darker tone of blue, like dark or midnight blue. In general, which would you say that you prefer? when the artist uses more vibrant shades, paler shades, or darker shades of color?"
Vibrant.
"In general, do you enjoy paintings that have a more serious or a more festive mood?"
Serious.
"And how about the painting itself - do you like it to be busy and contain lots of people or objects, or do you like it to be as simple as possible?"
Simple.
"How about the size of paintings: do you prefer larger paintings or smaller paintings?"
Larger. Full-size refrigerator.
"Some paintings are of famous historical figures and others are of more ordinary people. Do you generally prefer paintings of famous people, or ones of more ordinary paintings."
Ordinary.
"If you prefer famous people, do you prefer figures from a long time ago, like Lincoln or Jesus, or more recent figures, like John F. Kennedy or Elvis Presley?"
n/a. It's boring.
"Do you prefer paintings which are predominantly of children, of women, or of men, or doesn't it matter?"
Doesn't matter.
"Thinking back to the paintings of people that you have like in the past, for the most part were the figure working, at leisure, or were they posed portraits?"
Working.
"Which do you think you like better, a painting of one person or of a
group of people?"I don't think this, I know this. Group of people.
"And from what you've seen, would you say that you prefer paintings in which the person or people are nude, partially clothed or fully clothed?"
Fully clothed. It's more interesting.
"If you were given the choice of a gift - a sum of money or a piece of art that you genuinely like and which was of equal value to the money, which would you choose?"
Money. I'd use it to create my own art.
"Which one of the following would be most important to you in deciding how much money you would spend on a painting?"
The degree to which I like the painting. I'd never buy some ugly thing I didn't like to put up unless I was feeling particularly ironic.
"What is the most amount of money you would consider spending on a piece of art you really like?"
No idea, because I've never had the kind of cash that would allow me to even consider it.
"For each of the following names, indicate if your impressions of that artist's work are very favorable, favorable, or very unfavorable. Some of these artists are not very well known, so if you have never heard of someone, or don't know enough about their work to have an opinion, just say so."
Pablo Picasso: I really love his colorful pieces. Favorable.
Norman Rockwell: Don't know him.
Jackson Pollock: Don't know him.
Salvador Dali: His imagination is great. Favorable.
Leroy Neiman: Don't know him.
Claude Monet: Very beautiful work; favorable.
Rembrandt: I like it. Favorable.
Andy Warhol: It's alright. Not particularly interesting to me.
Georgia O'Keefe: "ooh look at me I paint vagina flowers it's symbolic and deep". I don't really care for her work. It's well-made and such but I just don't care.
"If you could pick one type of person you'd most enjoy having dinner with, would you choose an artist, a television or movie actor, an author, or a sports star?"
I eat alone.
"How often, on average, would you say that you go to art museums - more than two times a year, one or two times a year, less than once a year, or not at all?
Less than once a year.
"The following are some reasons people have given in the past as to why they do not go to art museums more often. For each reason, please tell whether it is a major reason why you do not go to musuems more often, a minor reason, or not a reason at all:"
1. there is not an art museum in my area: not a reason
2. I do not have enough spare time: not a reason
3. I don't feel comfortable in art museums because I don't know alot about art: not a reason
4. the cost of admission is too expensive: not a reason
5. I simply don't enjoy looking at art: not a reason
(Secret answer: I don't have a car!)
"Would you favor or oppose spending more money in federal taxes than we do on the arts?"
Favor.
"Some works of art are displayed in public places. Do you think that average citizens should or should not have a say in determining which works of art are appropriate to be displayed in public?"
That's unfair. They should.
"When it comes to most political issues, do you think of yourself as a liberal, a conservative, or a moderate? If moderate, do you think of yourself as being closer to being liberal or being conservative?"
I don't know anything about politics because I don't care about them because I can't have any effect on them so it doesn't matter to me. When politics come up, I avoid the subject and if it is pursued I just try to piss off whoever's ranting to me about them.
"Which of the following income categories includes your total family income in 1992 before taxes?"
Jesus Christ, I don't know. I don't know that for this year, either.
"What is your gender?"
I am male.
1. Do you think that your answers are similar or different from most Americans? In what ways are they similar, and different?
I think that my answers are different from most Americans, because most Americans are not weird anti-social shut-ins like me so I have an odd outlook on life.
2. Which questions do you think would be the most helpful if one was using market research to design new paintings for sale? What questions would you ask differently, or leave out entirely?
I think that the questions pertaining to the visual aspects of the paintings are the most helpful. Honestly, none of these questions seem like they would be necessary to leave out. They're all asking about key aspects of art that could be used to cobble together a piece of work that is marketable.
3. Would this work? Why or why not?
Kinkade already showed us that if you take a bunch of aspects that appeal to the average person and cobble them together in a soulless piece of garbage, people will devour it. You can try all you like to create a painting that has all of these specific properties that people like to it, but any artist will see right through your shitty fake painting and see that it's horribly bland.
Sunday, April 17, 2011
100 Things That Make Me Uncomfortable
Never did post this, here we go.
1. Talking in front of people.
2. Talking in front of a lot of people.
3. Talking in front of a lot of people that I've never met before or don't know well.
4. Trying to think of a performance piece that I can feel comfortable doing in front of a lot of people.
5. People pretending that they know what I am thinking. ("And Ryan's just like 'what happened?!'" for example, this pisses me off more than making me uncomfortable, though).
6. Talking to people I don't know at all.
7. Meeting a friend's significant other.
8. Meeting a friend's friend.
9. Being introduced to a friends friend, and then having said person say "okay, I met him, where's my five bucks".
10. The words "group project".
11. Walking 20 minutes to and from a 7 hour long studio class every Monday and Wednesday.
12. Not knowing where I'm going to be living next semester.
13. The fact that every time I talk to Sean about life, it gets depressing and fast.
14. The sound of markers being dragged across paper.
15. When Martin starts spinning his exacto knife around in his hand with the blade extended.
16. Telling someone "man, I'm so tired, I went to bed at like three" only to be told "I haven't slept in three days".
17. DOTS.
18. Talking to people about religion and having to dodge around everything I say so as not to offend them.
19. Really needing to tell someone something, but if I did, it'd ruin everything.
20. Loud and obnoxious people partying in my dorm's hallway at one in the morning (not that I'm trying to sleep at that time anyway, it's just that people who are so annoying exist).
21. There's actually this group of people that hangs out right outside of my door all of the time, yelling and hollering about whatever. Really annoying, why would they pick that spot.
22. Having painful things described to me ("Dude imagine if like you had a toothpick wedged under your big toenail and then you kicked a wall as hard as you could")
23. "Hey Ryan, what kind of music do you like? Lemme see your iPod! Oh, man, how can you listen to this? This sucks!"
24. Showing people my drawings.
25. Telling people about my ideas for comics.
26. Finally deciding to tell someone about my idea for a comic and then being met with total disinterest.
27. Hearing "okay class, split up into groups of two", and then seeing that the only two people I know in that class have already paired up.
28. People that feign being nice to get other people to do stuff for them.
29. People telling me they'll pray for me.
30. Being cheered on in a chant.
31. Feeling lame being unable to make conversation at all during long car rides with my oldest brother.
32. Suddenly remembering how weird my voice sounds and not wanting to talk any more.
33. Hearing a recording of my voice, for above reason.
34. Being singled out by a professor in the middle of a class, even if it's for something good.
35. Being complimented.
36. Waiting too long to shave to the point where my beard is too grown out to shave it off with my electric razor, so it just gets grown out until I look like a hobo.
37. Not being able to talk to people about my ideas for comics, so I still have no idea if they're interesting or not.
38. Realizing that there is no plan B, it's plan A or bust.
39. Realizing that I don't spend any free time drawing when that is what I should spend the majority of it doing.
40. Realizing that I've been at this for an hour and I'm still not even halfway done.
41. The very thought of having to repeat WASH terrifies me to my very core and I don't think I'm strong enough to do it in the event that I would have to.
42. When it's 3 a.m. and it feels that every single time I press a key on my keyboard it sounds like an explosion.
43. Having trust issues.
44. Realizing something is wrong and not doing anything about it out of sheer laziness.
45. Spending 40 hours on something and then getting a C.
46. In contrast to the above, spending 10 minutes on something and getting an A.
47. Showing somebody my portfolio and them saying that their favorite part is the crappy little page of doodles I didn't put any work into.
48. When it's time for me to critique someone's drawing, and I can't tell them anything constructive because I don't feel like I'm good enough to be able to tell people what they did wrong.
49. Having a crappy day, but not wanting to have to talk about it, so when I'm asked how my day was, I just force a smile and say "fine!".
50. Not wanting to talk to the person that is trying desperately to start a conversation with me.
51. Having to put up with your best friend's asshole friends that are horribly rude for no reason.
52. When you think somebody is going up for a high five, so you high five them, not even realizing that they were just waving.
53. Thinking somebody is waving at me, so I wave back, not knowing that they were actually waving at someone behind me.
54. When a random person on the street asks me how it's going.
55. Being addressed as "buddy". It just irks me. Not sure why.
56. A certain adviser who seemed almost as if he was trying to scare me out of taking art classes.
57. The occasional moment of weakness when I ask myself if making comics is really my dream, or if it's the dream someone else forced on me.
58. The moment of fear that comes right after the aforementioned moment when I wonder what I could possibly do if not art.
59. Realizing I'm pouring my guts out to a list of 100 things that make me uncomfortable for no good reason.
60. Being forced to realize how naive I am.
61. Knowing a little bit too much about bugs, parasites, etc. to the point where I get a little paranoid about certain things.
62. Finding out someone's been talking shit behind my back, but they still act friendly around me.
63. Receiving things I don't particularly want from a friend, and then them expecting me to pay them back for the stuff I didn't want in the first place.
64. When I take a seat in a nearly empty theater, and even though there are hundreds of other seats free, for one reason or another a complete stranger decides to sit right next to me.
65. Being late to a class and having to walk past all of the staring eyes as the professor suddenly cuts off what he was saying so that everybody can watch me walk to my seat.
66. The unfortunate fact that I will, some day, have to take math classes, and there is no way in hell that I can pull that off.
67. The fact that something as terrible as botflies can exist. If you don't know what they are, don't look them up, it's for your own sanity, I swear.
68. Expressing an unpopular opinion.
69. When people try to talk to me about politics, and try to start a fight even though I don't care about politics and don't side with either side because I don't know anything about either of them.
70. There is a bevy of incredibly beautiful horror comics from Japan that have not been translated, and they will never be translated because people would rather translate schoolgirls doing cute things.
71. Staying up too late to the point where I start hearing things.
72. Combining sauces, like putting mustard on a meatball sandwich.
73. Sauces on things that don't match, like jelly on a hot dog.
74. Peanut butter on meat.
75. Small, cramped spaces.
76. Having to restrain the way I'd usually act because if I even so much as speak it becomes a huge deal where everybody reacts to what I just said or did for fifteen minutes because they don't see me as acting out or talking in any way at all whatsoever.
77. There are certain people I'd like to forget and remembering them makes me uncomfortable and a little angry.
78. The sneaking suspicion that my suitemates occasionally use my towel.
79. Hearing horrible vomiting noises coming from the bathroom I share with said suitemates.
80. Walking back from the WASH building at 3 AM after working on a project for hours.
81. Having somebody suddenly pour out all of their drug-related memories to me.
82. People that ask me where they can "score some grass".
83. Having to walk everywhere to get all kinds of weird stuff for WASH and then ending up not even using 90% of it.
84. Walking around in drawing class and seeing how much better everyone else is doing than me.
85. Talking to my friend on skype and seeing how much better he is doing than me.
86. Spending hours on a character design only to have it not turn out very well.
87. Realizing that all of the characters I've ever designed doesn't come close to the number of characters my best friend has designed for a single one of his comics.
88. Realizing that half of this list has been me complaining about my inferiority complex.
89. Knowing that I should be more social, and wishing I was more social, but still refusing to be social at all.
90. omitted
91. Surviving the entirety of last semester thinking that I'd do much better in this one, only to have the complete opposite happen.
92. Geology. Everything about it. Straight up.
93. That time when my old history teacher took the claw off of his missing arm and held it up uncomfortably close to me.
94. Thinking wayyyy back to the first grade, and how all I can remember about it is two girls fighting over which of them was going to marry me (I didn't like either of them at all).
95. Watching the butterfly effect and not being able to sleep because I am too busy wondering how everything would've turned out if I could go back and change one tiny thing about my life.
96. Staying up until 1:30 writing this up.
97. omitted
98. Being cornered by someone and forced to talk about something I don't want to.
99. Being asked to control something that I have no control over whatsoever.
100. Finding an extremely talented artist on the internet that wastes all of their incredible technical ability on drawing smut that people commission them to draw.
1. Talking in front of people.
2. Talking in front of a lot of people.
3. Talking in front of a lot of people that I've never met before or don't know well.
4. Trying to think of a performance piece that I can feel comfortable doing in front of a lot of people.
5. People pretending that they know what I am thinking. ("And Ryan's just like 'what happened?!'" for example, this pisses me off more than making me uncomfortable, though).
6. Talking to people I don't know at all.
7. Meeting a friend's significant other.
8. Meeting a friend's friend.
9. Being introduced to a friends friend, and then having said person say "okay, I met him, where's my five bucks".
10. The words "group project".
11. Walking 20 minutes to and from a 7 hour long studio class every Monday and Wednesday.
12. Not knowing where I'm going to be living next semester.
13. The fact that every time I talk to Sean about life, it gets depressing and fast.
14. The sound of markers being dragged across paper.
15. When Martin starts spinning his exacto knife around in his hand with the blade extended.
16. Telling someone "man, I'm so tired, I went to bed at like three" only to be told "I haven't slept in three days".
17. DOTS.
18. Talking to people about religion and having to dodge around everything I say so as not to offend them.
19. Really needing to tell someone something, but if I did, it'd ruin everything.
20. Loud and obnoxious people partying in my dorm's hallway at one in the morning (not that I'm trying to sleep at that time anyway, it's just that people who are so annoying exist).
21. There's actually this group of people that hangs out right outside of my door all of the time, yelling and hollering about whatever. Really annoying, why would they pick that spot.
22. Having painful things described to me ("Dude imagine if like you had a toothpick wedged under your big toenail and then you kicked a wall as hard as you could")
23. "Hey Ryan, what kind of music do you like? Lemme see your iPod! Oh, man, how can you listen to this? This sucks!"
24. Showing people my drawings.
25. Telling people about my ideas for comics.
26. Finally deciding to tell someone about my idea for a comic and then being met with total disinterest.
27. Hearing "okay class, split up into groups of two", and then seeing that the only two people I know in that class have already paired up.
28. People that feign being nice to get other people to do stuff for them.
29. People telling me they'll pray for me.
30. Being cheered on in a chant.
31. Feeling lame being unable to make conversation at all during long car rides with my oldest brother.
32. Suddenly remembering how weird my voice sounds and not wanting to talk any more.
33. Hearing a recording of my voice, for above reason.
34. Being singled out by a professor in the middle of a class, even if it's for something good.
35. Being complimented.
36. Waiting too long to shave to the point where my beard is too grown out to shave it off with my electric razor, so it just gets grown out until I look like a hobo.
37. Not being able to talk to people about my ideas for comics, so I still have no idea if they're interesting or not.
38. Realizing that there is no plan B, it's plan A or bust.
39. Realizing that I don't spend any free time drawing when that is what I should spend the majority of it doing.
40. Realizing that I've been at this for an hour and I'm still not even halfway done.
41. The very thought of having to repeat WASH terrifies me to my very core and I don't think I'm strong enough to do it in the event that I would have to.
42. When it's 3 a.m. and it feels that every single time I press a key on my keyboard it sounds like an explosion.
43. Having trust issues.
44. Realizing something is wrong and not doing anything about it out of sheer laziness.
45. Spending 40 hours on something and then getting a C.
46. In contrast to the above, spending 10 minutes on something and getting an A.
47. Showing somebody my portfolio and them saying that their favorite part is the crappy little page of doodles I didn't put any work into.
48. When it's time for me to critique someone's drawing, and I can't tell them anything constructive because I don't feel like I'm good enough to be able to tell people what they did wrong.
49. Having a crappy day, but not wanting to have to talk about it, so when I'm asked how my day was, I just force a smile and say "fine!".
50. Not wanting to talk to the person that is trying desperately to start a conversation with me.
51. Having to put up with your best friend's asshole friends that are horribly rude for no reason.
52. When you think somebody is going up for a high five, so you high five them, not even realizing that they were just waving.
53. Thinking somebody is waving at me, so I wave back, not knowing that they were actually waving at someone behind me.
54. When a random person on the street asks me how it's going.
55. Being addressed as "buddy". It just irks me. Not sure why.
56. A certain adviser who seemed almost as if he was trying to scare me out of taking art classes.
57. The occasional moment of weakness when I ask myself if making comics is really my dream, or if it's the dream someone else forced on me.
58. The moment of fear that comes right after the aforementioned moment when I wonder what I could possibly do if not art.
59. Realizing I'm pouring my guts out to a list of 100 things that make me uncomfortable for no good reason.
60. Being forced to realize how naive I am.
61. Knowing a little bit too much about bugs, parasites, etc. to the point where I get a little paranoid about certain things.
62. Finding out someone's been talking shit behind my back, but they still act friendly around me.
63. Receiving things I don't particularly want from a friend, and then them expecting me to pay them back for the stuff I didn't want in the first place.
64. When I take a seat in a nearly empty theater, and even though there are hundreds of other seats free, for one reason or another a complete stranger decides to sit right next to me.
65. Being late to a class and having to walk past all of the staring eyes as the professor suddenly cuts off what he was saying so that everybody can watch me walk to my seat.
66. The unfortunate fact that I will, some day, have to take math classes, and there is no way in hell that I can pull that off.
67. The fact that something as terrible as botflies can exist. If you don't know what they are, don't look them up, it's for your own sanity, I swear.
68. Expressing an unpopular opinion.
69. When people try to talk to me about politics, and try to start a fight even though I don't care about politics and don't side with either side because I don't know anything about either of them.
70. There is a bevy of incredibly beautiful horror comics from Japan that have not been translated, and they will never be translated because people would rather translate schoolgirls doing cute things.
71. Staying up too late to the point where I start hearing things.
72. Combining sauces, like putting mustard on a meatball sandwich.
73. Sauces on things that don't match, like jelly on a hot dog.
74. Peanut butter on meat.
75. Small, cramped spaces.
76. Having to restrain the way I'd usually act because if I even so much as speak it becomes a huge deal where everybody reacts to what I just said or did for fifteen minutes because they don't see me as acting out or talking in any way at all whatsoever.
77. There are certain people I'd like to forget and remembering them makes me uncomfortable and a little angry.
78. The sneaking suspicion that my suitemates occasionally use my towel.
79. Hearing horrible vomiting noises coming from the bathroom I share with said suitemates.
80. Walking back from the WASH building at 3 AM after working on a project for hours.
81. Having somebody suddenly pour out all of their drug-related memories to me.
82. People that ask me where they can "score some grass".
83. Having to walk everywhere to get all kinds of weird stuff for WASH and then ending up not even using 90% of it.
84. Walking around in drawing class and seeing how much better everyone else is doing than me.
85. Talking to my friend on skype and seeing how much better he is doing than me.
86. Spending hours on a character design only to have it not turn out very well.
87. Realizing that all of the characters I've ever designed doesn't come close to the number of characters my best friend has designed for a single one of his comics.
88. Realizing that half of this list has been me complaining about my inferiority complex.
89. Knowing that I should be more social, and wishing I was more social, but still refusing to be social at all.
90. omitted
91. Surviving the entirety of last semester thinking that I'd do much better in this one, only to have the complete opposite happen.
92. Geology. Everything about it. Straight up.
93. That time when my old history teacher took the claw off of his missing arm and held it up uncomfortably close to me.
94. Thinking wayyyy back to the first grade, and how all I can remember about it is two girls fighting over which of them was going to marry me (I didn't like either of them at all).
95. Watching the butterfly effect and not being able to sleep because I am too busy wondering how everything would've turned out if I could go back and change one tiny thing about my life.
96. Staying up until 1:30 writing this up.
97. omitted
98. Being cornered by someone and forced to talk about something I don't want to.
99. Being asked to control something that I have no control over whatsoever.
100. Finding an extremely talented artist on the internet that wastes all of their incredible technical ability on drawing smut that people commission them to draw.
Friday, April 15, 2011
Performance Piece Summary and Crit
As per the norm, I'll start with the parameters of the project. We first generated a list of 50 words, then 10 words that could be associated with those words, and then using all of those associated words, come up with 5 performance pieces. Each performance piece idea can make use of 1 prop and can have up to 1 word (so not using a word is fine, too).
So my performance piece. Not much to say; I picked the word "faceplant". My prop was a simple folding chair. I confidently walked out into the midst of about 40 people, set the chair down in the middle of everyone, and walked around it a few times inspecting it, and then kind of checking to see how tall it was, and giving a couple little practice hops without trying to clear it. After a bit of this, I took a running start and leaped over it a couple times. Afterward, I started to walk off and promptly did a faceplant (intentionally). Then I yelled "DAMMIT" as I lay on the ground.
I don't really know what I was doing. I mean I guess maybe it was kind of entertaining? I got a decent grade on it. In the critique people were just saying that it was funny, and that it was ironic. Not much else to say about it.
Oh, also I was a helper in Janna's, which involved her slapping me in the face. When we were practicing, I really egged her on to hit me as hard as she could so it would look real. It felt pretty real, too! Everyone was really concerned about me, which I thought was hilarious seeing as how she was complaining about her hand hurting after she slapped me whereas I was completely fine. Ooh, the looks on everyone's faces as I went down.
So my performance piece. Not much to say; I picked the word "faceplant". My prop was a simple folding chair. I confidently walked out into the midst of about 40 people, set the chair down in the middle of everyone, and walked around it a few times inspecting it, and then kind of checking to see how tall it was, and giving a couple little practice hops without trying to clear it. After a bit of this, I took a running start and leaped over it a couple times. Afterward, I started to walk off and promptly did a faceplant (intentionally). Then I yelled "DAMMIT" as I lay on the ground.
I don't really know what I was doing. I mean I guess maybe it was kind of entertaining? I got a decent grade on it. In the critique people were just saying that it was funny, and that it was ironic. Not much else to say about it.
Oh, also I was a helper in Janna's, which involved her slapping me in the face. When we were practicing, I really egged her on to hit me as hard as she could so it would look real. It felt pretty real, too! Everyone was really concerned about me, which I thought was hilarious seeing as how she was complaining about her hand hurting after she slapped me whereas I was completely fine. Ooh, the looks on everyone's faces as I went down.
Color Project Final Images/Critique Writeup
Okay well, I ended up going with the octopus. I also ended up regretting going with the octopus; in retrospect I think it would've been much better to have gone with the yellow dart picture, but whatever. On to the final pieces.
Piece One: Dots.
So this is a 6x6 piece on a masonite board, with a wooden frame that I kinda made (thanks to Nic for cutting the pieces up for me!). We took a bunch of paint swatches and hole punched the crap out of them, and then took those hole punch remnants and used them to make a monochrome collage.
Then there was the second piece: torn bristol paper.
This one is a lot more simple looking. It's on a 12x12 piece on masonite board, again with a handmade frame (and with props to Nic again). The method for making it was mixing paint on wax paper, and then transferring the different colors of paint I created to bristol paper. Finally, I took that bristol paper and just ripped it up, using the torn pieces to make a collage. This one's simpler, but I still think it looks nice.
Finally, there was transparent paper.
This... Is a lot simpler than the previous two. Same size as phase two, but this time, I painted tracing paper and layered it for its transparent quality. ... Well, that was the idea anyway, it didn't turn out to be particularly transparent, though. I still kind of like it, though. I like the vibrant warm colors.
As for my crit, I picked the dot piece as my strongest, just because it's so much more detailed, and I think it would stand on its own the best. Conversely, I picked the third phase as my weakest, because I don't think it can stand very well on its own. Well, that was my opinion anyway, but the group seemed to like it more than the others. It was described as being "primitive", which was then defined as "done in a way that is intentionally childlike and does that successfully". Which I guess I can agree with. I told everyone that I'd give myself either a C+ or a B-, and I dunno if the atmosphere was just oppressive or what, but nobody really wanted to talk much. I feel like they were leaning toward the C (well, Nic said so, anyway). I was saying that I liked the way that they were displayed kind of showed them in a process of being simplified, but they didn't really seem to buy that or agree with it. Generally, everyone liked the third piece the most, I think. They had a bit of fun getting different interpretations from it.
Here's a picture of how I had them displayed.
Piece One: Dots.
So this is a 6x6 piece on a masonite board, with a wooden frame that I kinda made (thanks to Nic for cutting the pieces up for me!). We took a bunch of paint swatches and hole punched the crap out of them, and then took those hole punch remnants and used them to make a monochrome collage.
Then there was the second piece: torn bristol paper.
This one is a lot more simple looking. It's on a 12x12 piece on masonite board, again with a handmade frame (and with props to Nic again). The method for making it was mixing paint on wax paper, and then transferring the different colors of paint I created to bristol paper. Finally, I took that bristol paper and just ripped it up, using the torn pieces to make a collage. This one's simpler, but I still think it looks nice.
Finally, there was transparent paper.
This... Is a lot simpler than the previous two. Same size as phase two, but this time, I painted tracing paper and layered it for its transparent quality. ... Well, that was the idea anyway, it didn't turn out to be particularly transparent, though. I still kind of like it, though. I like the vibrant warm colors.
As for my crit, I picked the dot piece as my strongest, just because it's so much more detailed, and I think it would stand on its own the best. Conversely, I picked the third phase as my weakest, because I don't think it can stand very well on its own. Well, that was my opinion anyway, but the group seemed to like it more than the others. It was described as being "primitive", which was then defined as "done in a way that is intentionally childlike and does that successfully". Which I guess I can agree with. I told everyone that I'd give myself either a C+ or a B-, and I dunno if the atmosphere was just oppressive or what, but nobody really wanted to talk much. I feel like they were leaning toward the C (well, Nic said so, anyway). I was saying that I liked the way that they were displayed kind of showed them in a process of being simplified, but they didn't really seem to buy that or agree with it. Generally, everyone liked the third piece the most, I think. They had a bit of fun getting different interpretations from it.
Here's a picture of how I had them displayed.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Museum of Fine Arts Houston Trip!
Oh my GOD this was a refreshing experience. We (the entire WASH group of Monday/Wednesday students), along with Kathy, traveled into the depths of Houston to experience the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It was gigantic! It was enormous! It was so cool, oh man. They had exhibits from all over the world, it was great! This is the second time in my adult life that I've been to an actual art museum. I'm not a snotty little kid anymore, so I felt like I could really enjoy myself there. Anyway I had to sketch some pieces of art while I was there.
Well, a few of these wouldn't unflip no matter what I did, so sorry about that.
Well, a few of these wouldn't unflip no matter what I did, so sorry about that.
Markmaking Crit
Well, the piece wasn't as well-received as I'd hoped it'd be. I really feel lame about it now.
- "I wish there was a light inside of it or in front of it so you could maybe get some shadows or at least see the cuts better". I don't really agree with this, because it didn't make any shadows when I tried it, and you can see the cuts just fine.
And then I told them about my story's contents, and that completely changed their perception of the thing as a whole. Entirely because my story involved a roach (which was eaten alive from the inside by wasp larvae, which was the focus, not the roach itself, thankyouverymuch), I got
"I think you should've used a little plastic roach to create a sort of skittering roach track instead of cuts".
... Uh... I really don't get this one at all, I think it's a little silly to say that. Instead of communicating the mood of the story, which was painful, you would rather me communicate... The fact that there was a bug involved? In a non-representational piece. About emotions. Not directly about the story, but the emotion that the story conveyed. I honestly feel a little upset at even writing this down and reading it again. I just can't wrap my head around it and that upsets me. I don't even remember anything else that was said. Oh, there was "you should've used a nicer box", which I guess I can agree with. There was also "you should've painted the cabinet knobs", which I mentioned in the previous post, but it's still a valid criticism.
- "I wish there was a light inside of it or in front of it so you could maybe get some shadows or at least see the cuts better". I don't really agree with this, because it didn't make any shadows when I tried it, and you can see the cuts just fine.
And then I told them about my story's contents, and that completely changed their perception of the thing as a whole. Entirely because my story involved a roach (which was eaten alive from the inside by wasp larvae, which was the focus, not the roach itself, thankyouverymuch), I got
"I think you should've used a little plastic roach to create a sort of skittering roach track instead of cuts".
... Uh... I really don't get this one at all, I think it's a little silly to say that. Instead of communicating the mood of the story, which was painful, you would rather me communicate... The fact that there was a bug involved? In a non-representational piece. About emotions. Not directly about the story, but the emotion that the story conveyed. I honestly feel a little upset at even writing this down and reading it again. I just can't wrap my head around it and that upsets me. I don't even remember anything else that was said. Oh, there was "you should've used a nicer box", which I guess I can agree with. There was also "you should've painted the cabinet knobs", which I mentioned in the previous post, but it's still a valid criticism.
Uncomfortable Video Crit Writeup
Well, I didn't get much for this, except for exactly what I wanted! When we set up my video on the projector, with the sound turned way high up, and I started pounding my fistful of thumbtacks into the desk with my "blood" flying everywhere, there were a few gasps, a good amount of "OOH!"s, and one really satisfying yelp. I was so excited by the audience reaction that I was too pleased with myself to mind the errors that were pointed out in my video.
- First of all, it was REALLY obvious when I was turning the camera off and on again.
- It was also recommended to me that I should get some fake blood capsules. In my defense, they were at none of the stores I checked, which I found really shocking. I guess that's more of a Halloween thing, though.
- Additionally, it was said that the background (my wooden bookshelf) was distracting, and that a plain white background would've been superior. While I don't find the bookshelf to detract too much from the video as a whole, I guess I can agree that a plain white background would've been nicer.
- The most important crit I received that really stuck with me was that it was really obvious that I was turning the camera off and on to get rid of the thumbtacks before punching the table. The suggestion that was given to me was to find an alternative solution to the sleight of hand idea, or get a bunch of people to assist me with it, one with the tacks, one with the ketchup packets, one holding the camera down, etc.
However, I'm still overall very pleased with how my video was received. As a matter of fact, I got my first and probably only "People's Choice Award" for it, in the category of "EEEEK!!!!", which excited me so much, you don't even know. I mean seriously I act all reserved and stuff in class but I was really excited on the inside, I promise! Really!
- First of all, it was REALLY obvious when I was turning the camera off and on again.
- It was also recommended to me that I should get some fake blood capsules. In my defense, they were at none of the stores I checked, which I found really shocking. I guess that's more of a Halloween thing, though.
- Additionally, it was said that the background (my wooden bookshelf) was distracting, and that a plain white background would've been superior. While I don't find the bookshelf to detract too much from the video as a whole, I guess I can agree that a plain white background would've been nicer.
- The most important crit I received that really stuck with me was that it was really obvious that I was turning the camera off and on to get rid of the thumbtacks before punching the table. The suggestion that was given to me was to find an alternative solution to the sleight of hand idea, or get a bunch of people to assist me with it, one with the tacks, one with the ketchup packets, one holding the camera down, etc.
However, I'm still overall very pleased with how my video was received. As a matter of fact, I got my first and probably only "People's Choice Award" for it, in the category of "EEEEK!!!!", which excited me so much, you don't even know. I mean seriously I act all reserved and stuff in class but I was really excited on the inside, I promise! Really!
Markmaking Final Piece
Okay, I don't think I've made even one post about my markmaking piece yet, so let's fix that!
So I'll start with the project's parameters: We are to create a non-representational markmaking piece based on the "Story Line" piece that we wrote. We're to create our piece in such a way that it extends at least 2 or so inches off of the wall upon which it hangs. Additionally, the piece must be in black and white, and the marks shouldn't be done with a pencil or other such traditional drawing tool.
So I had a cardboard box laying around from the old Larger Than Life cardboard project, and so I decided that I'd use that, because hey, why not?
So immediately I started to paint the outside white to try and get it looking nice and pristine, kind of exactly like this:
I thought that turned out okay. And then, I painted the inside completely black. Both of these processes took a fair amount of time, and like an idiot I used up multiple tubes of acrylic paint without watering them down or anything. DURR!
I also attached cabinet knobs to it. Immediately after I displayed it, I wished I had painted them black. But I didn't, so oh well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So on the inside. My initial idea was to take my xacto knife, dip it in white paint, and slice it up, making a bunch of cuts. However, when I made the cuts inside of the box, there wasn't enough paint on the knife, which was too thin and sharp, so I ended up with cuts that didn't have any paint in them and so you couldn't even tell that they were there.
The solution? MAKE BIGGER CUTS! Specifically, I switched my tool to a screwdriver. This way, not only were the cuts much bigger and deeper, but they were more brutal and looked a lot more painful, too. In fact, I even cut some of them so deep that you could see them poking out on the otherwise smooth exterior of the outside of the box.
So that's how that ended up looking. Now I'm going to talk about the concept of the piece.
The story I wrote was about being destroyed and eaten up from the inside, so that's how my piece works. The way the lines are not just made on the piece, but actually cut deep into it illustrates that idea fairly well, I'd like to think. On a closer inspection of the surface of the box, you can just barely tell that there's evidence of cuts being on the inside, due to some of the cuts on the inside being so deep that they manifested on the surface. However, even if you don't look at the surface for long, finding the cuts is easy enough: there are convenient handles that you can grab onto and open it up to see inside, there won't be any resistance. I honestly feel, however, like this piece would've worked a little better as being for a different project. Like maybe a piece about myself! However, I also like it for this one.
So I'll start with the project's parameters: We are to create a non-representational markmaking piece based on the "Story Line" piece that we wrote. We're to create our piece in such a way that it extends at least 2 or so inches off of the wall upon which it hangs. Additionally, the piece must be in black and white, and the marks shouldn't be done with a pencil or other such traditional drawing tool.
So I had a cardboard box laying around from the old Larger Than Life cardboard project, and so I decided that I'd use that, because hey, why not?
So immediately I started to paint the outside white to try and get it looking nice and pristine, kind of exactly like this:
I thought that turned out okay. And then, I painted the inside completely black. Both of these processes took a fair amount of time, and like an idiot I used up multiple tubes of acrylic paint without watering them down or anything. DURR!
I also attached cabinet knobs to it. Immediately after I displayed it, I wished I had painted them black. But I didn't, so oh well. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
So on the inside. My initial idea was to take my xacto knife, dip it in white paint, and slice it up, making a bunch of cuts. However, when I made the cuts inside of the box, there wasn't enough paint on the knife, which was too thin and sharp, so I ended up with cuts that didn't have any paint in them and so you couldn't even tell that they were there.
The solution? MAKE BIGGER CUTS! Specifically, I switched my tool to a screwdriver. This way, not only were the cuts much bigger and deeper, but they were more brutal and looked a lot more painful, too. In fact, I even cut some of them so deep that you could see them poking out on the otherwise smooth exterior of the outside of the box.
So that's how that ended up looking. Now I'm going to talk about the concept of the piece.
The story I wrote was about being destroyed and eaten up from the inside, so that's how my piece works. The way the lines are not just made on the piece, but actually cut deep into it illustrates that idea fairly well, I'd like to think. On a closer inspection of the surface of the box, you can just barely tell that there's evidence of cuts being on the inside, due to some of the cuts on the inside being so deep that they manifested on the surface. However, even if you don't look at the surface for long, finding the cuts is easy enough: there are convenient handles that you can grab onto and open it up to see inside, there won't be any resistance. I honestly feel, however, like this piece would've worked a little better as being for a different project. Like maybe a piece about myself! However, I also like it for this one.
Inflatotopia
Well this is the exact thing that is the bane of my existence. Like I hate everything about this project idea. I DO NOT LIKE IT! It upsets me a little. The premise is "using what you've learned by making a plastic stuffed animal, create a GIANT INFLATABLE THAT CAN FIT 4 PEOPLE INSIDE OF IT! I'm assigning groups of 4 or 5, work together to create this". My thought process upon hearing this was "WHAT NO I'M AWFUL WITH PLASTIC DID YOU SEE MY PLASTIC ANIMAL AND NOW YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE ME DRAG DOWN 4 OTHER PEOPLE WHAT ARE YOU DOING WHY NO". I mean sure it is an interesting project and I'd probably be a lot more excited about it if it were not for the fact that I was really bad at making something small out of plastic, so why should I be able to make something huge out of plastic?!
So anyway as I tore my hair out in frustration, Kathy went on to tell us to come up with an idea and make a proposal board and a model. I made my model out of garbage bags, note that the material responds to the product.
^
I really love that angle of it.
My camera loves flipping stuff sideways so I've decided that you, too, can learn the enjoyment of flipping your head turnways to look at this stuff. I'm in the mood to flip out, but not like this!
Anyway, my piece is called "Bug MOM". It's called that because it looks kinda buglike, and the way I drew it on the proposal board makes it look like it says "MOM" in the front view. I kinda like the idea, but the problem is that it would take quite a few fans putting out quite a lot of air to keep that many legs inflated in addition to keeping both parts of the main body inflated. Our area is shady, and grassy, and cool, and has trees, though, so I figured that putting something that looks like a lifeform in it is the natural thing to do. Our group's gonna vote on this stuff, so whatever.
So anyway as I tore my hair out in frustration, Kathy went on to tell us to come up with an idea and make a proposal board and a model. I made my model out of garbage bags, note that the material responds to the product.
I really love that angle of it.
My camera loves flipping stuff sideways so I've decided that you, too, can learn the enjoyment of flipping your head turnways to look at this stuff. I'm in the mood to flip out, but not like this!
Anyway, my piece is called "Bug MOM". It's called that because it looks kinda buglike, and the way I drew it on the proposal board makes it look like it says "MOM" in the front view. I kinda like the idea, but the problem is that it would take quite a few fans putting out quite a lot of air to keep that many legs inflated in addition to keeping both parts of the main body inflated. Our area is shady, and grassy, and cool, and has trees, though, so I figured that putting something that looks like a lifeform in it is the natural thing to do. Our group's gonna vote on this stuff, so whatever.
Three possible images for the color project
Well, for our next project, we're doing a bunch of color pieces. We're using three different techniques using various colorful materials and we're applying them to boards of masonite (one is 6x6, the other two are 12x12). We're also making our own frames for them.
Here are the three images I'm considering.
The first one is one of my very favorite scenes from one of my favorite comics ever. The leftmost panel, in particular, is the one that I'd plan on doing. However, I don't think I'm going to end up using it, simply because it's such a detailed image, and it would be very difficult to recreate using the materials we're planning on using.
The second one is a joke I made for a friend, who's writing a comic called "The Yellow Dart", which also features a character named Hoodimin. The "Avatar: The Last Airbender" movie had just come out, and he was raging about how it's nothing like the source material, so I thought I'd do a fake poster type thing for a terrible movie version of his comic.
If I was to pick this image, I'd not add the text.
The third image is a less interesting image featuring... an octopus. Well, it might be less interesting for some, but I really like it a lot, because I like octopi, and I'm probably gonna go with this.
We'll see how this turns out.
Here are the three images I'm considering.
The first one is one of my very favorite scenes from one of my favorite comics ever. The leftmost panel, in particular, is the one that I'd plan on doing. However, I don't think I'm going to end up using it, simply because it's such a detailed image, and it would be very difficult to recreate using the materials we're planning on using.
The second one is a joke I made for a friend, who's writing a comic called "The Yellow Dart", which also features a character named Hoodimin. The "Avatar: The Last Airbender" movie had just come out, and he was raging about how it's nothing like the source material, so I thought I'd do a fake poster type thing for a terrible movie version of his comic.
If I was to pick this image, I'd not add the text.
The third image is a less interesting image featuring... an octopus. Well, it might be less interesting for some, but I really like it a lot, because I like octopi, and I'm probably gonna go with this.
We'll see how this turns out.
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