FINAL

In this piece i used both present day and childhood memories of myself to compile a demonstration of the changing of family bonds.  The first image with the bodies of my family in its youth is a compilation of photographs from my childhood showing the strong bonds of my family and more specifically my brothers and I.  I chose to turn our driveway into my father skiing down the Ohio River because it was such a huge part of my childhood.  Much of my childhood revolved around swimming and being in water With our whole family being together and happy.  The sunshine and water images also represent innocence and purity within our family.  I also used photo shop to place our present day faces onto the bodies of our youth, because at that point in life all we wanted to do is grow up.  In the other image I used photo shop to place our faces from our youth onto my present day body in different outfits.  This represents 2 things; the fact that my brothers have became a part of who I am  today, and the desire to return to our youth and live a carefree life.  I also added a thunderstorm into this image this storm has 2 symbolic meanings.  It shows that our family is no longer the typical American family and we have been through the hardship and it also reiterates the strong connection to water my family has from the first image.  The red paint bonding the family to the house shows that no matter how far apart we go, whether it be Franklin University, OSU, OU, or remain at home we will still share the memories and bond of our youth throughout life. 

Blog #5

1.) Creating a meaningful artwork is my biggest accomplishment within my Midterm diptych.  I feel as if the topic was one that had meaning within my life and the lives of many people throughout our country.  It's something that puts into an image a lot of emotions that are hard to express with words. 

2.) In Quiz 2 I was having a really hard time with the selection tools.  It had been taking me a really long time to accomplish very simple selections.  I didn't know about within the quick selection tool the subtraction selection and being able to change the hardness of the selection.  Now i have became very efficient in my selection tools. 

3.)  With quiz 2 there was really no meaning to the work at all.  I made an image with a hot air balloon, a dog on a raft, and Brutus jumping off a diving board into mirror lake.  The image was very far stretched and had no meaning, My midterm on the other hand was very symbolic.  The midterm doesn't seem to flow as well because it has a very symbolic meaning behind it.  Every part of the image has meaning behind it from the band being cut to the couple being turned upside down.

Blog #4

1.) My big idea is family.  The theme of my final is the changing bonds of families over time.  I used many different lighting schemes and masks to accomplish these changes.  I also employed symbols to give the image a stronger meaning.  I am going to use two images of my specific family in order to show this change in the family bond.  The first image is going to be an image which incorporates different happy family images from our families youth, but crop in our heads now onto these bodies.  My family has all went our separate ways and I'm going to represent these different directions by placing our family at a cross roads connected by a red string.  The street signs, pointing down the road named after the places where our lives have taken us.  Our bodies in this picture will be from what we look like now, but have the faces of our youth.  The different heads will symbolize that no matter where life takes us we will still be connected to one another through memories and this family bond.  The red string would symbolize this connection. This work could be used at college orientations to elude to the fact that these family bonds are going to change and its a common thing that every family experiences in one way or another.  It would encourage families to plan accordingly and have a heads up of this change so it didn't come as such a shock.  Specifically this work could be given as a seminar with these images as the picture on fliers and brochures.


2.) Artists that have influenced this work and the direction that it has been taken are Michelangelo di Bounarroti, Frida Kahlo and Toti Cerda paintings, movies such as Mrs. Doubtfire and Liar, Liar. Michalangelo often use people reaching out almost as to hold onto something that they want to keep holding onto.  I feel this is the feeling families often feel when they go their separate ways throughout their lives.  Toti Cerda uses a boy in an adults pants in her "forever young" display.  I feel this is often another feeling that families experience, they in reality are wearing their "big boy" pants, but still feel like a child.  Frida Kahlo uses the lining of intestines to show the connections between a family.  Mrs. Doubtfire and Liar, Liar show how much of an impact a family change can have on people whether it be a child or parent. 

3.)I plan on incorporating layer masks and a very tiny bit of animation.

Quiz 4

I chose to compare and contrast the movie poster's of Relentless  and Monster Inc.  Monster's Inc. is a child's movie that uses bright color schemes and happy characters to attract a family atmosphere.   They chose to use white as the main background image, this gives the viewer an idea of purity since, white is often perceived by people as pure.  The green guy "Mike" is giving an inviting thumbs up almost to say to children this is a good safe movie.  The blue guy "Sully" is leaning on him like they are friends and even though they are monster's you can instantly tell they are "good" and friendly monsters.  Relentless calls out to a more mature audience.  It accomplishes this through the image on the cover of three teenagers who seem to be distraught over something going on around them.  The dark color scheme are perceived as being an unpleasant or uncomfortable atmosphere.  The red writing  has a strong connotation with blood.

Midterm

The lightning bolts are the breaks in hearts, but for some reason the hearts aren't showing up on the blog.

The big idea for my project is family, i feel as if family is the most important thing in a persons life.  The theme I chose for this specific work is divorce, and the loneliness and feeling of your world being turned upside down.  I came to this theme because I grew up with a loving family and thought it would always remain that way.  My freshmen year my parents filed for divorce and I feel the emotional state change brought on by this set of events is something I have always been interested in expressing.  The two images show the same couple in the first image the couple is in focus and surrounded by bright light, wedding vowels, a heart, and a wedding ring.  This represents a couple  being engulfed by a marriage and the happiness associated with it.  The second image is of polar opposite the couple is out of focus and upside down, it is hard to tell what the people within this image even look like.  Them being upside down represents their worlds being turned upside down by the sudden break in the relationship, and the image being without color represents the feelings of depression often associated with divorce.  The lightning bolts within the hearts represent their relationship being struck down, while the scissors cutting the ring represent this sudden break.

Artist Statement

The big idea for my project is family, i feel as if family is the most important thing in a persons life.  The theme I chose for this specific work is divorce, and the loneliness and feeling of your world being turned upside down.  I came to this theme because I grew up with a loving family and thought it would always remain that way.  My freshmen year my parents filed for divorce and I feel the emotional state change brought on by this set of events is something I have always been interested in expressing.  The two images show the same couple in the first image the couple is in focus and surrounded by bright light, wedding vowels, a heart, and a wedding ring.  This represents a couple  being engulfed by a marriage and the happiness associated with it.  The second image is of polar opposite the couple is out of focus and upside down, it is hard to tell what the people within this image even look like.  Them being upside down represents their worlds being turned upside down by the sudden break in the relationship, and the image being without color represents the feelings of depression often associated with divorce.  The lightning bolts within the hearts represent their relationship being struck down, while the scissors cutting the ring represent this sudden break.

blog 3

 The artists photoshop techniques are amazing and her images are so fluent that you can't tell what has been included and what was in the original image.  The big idea seems to be natural landscape and this could be a stretch but finding an escape.

The way the artist makes things that are so far fetched seem normal is inspiring to me.  I am curious as to why the artist uses these ladders in to get to somewhere else in the image.

The artists work just shows me how fluid photoshop images can be made with different tools.  Specifically the lighting of the images flow very well.


 Link to Jeannette Woitzik

The artists work has a lot to do with my actual big idea.  And it appeals to me because the rain has a very mystical appeal. 

I find it inspiring that this artist shows the innocence of children through rain.  The children dancing around in it take rain which usually equates with gloominess and depression and turns it into almost a relieveing experience. 

Toti Cerda Link

The artist's work really appeals to me in a mystic way.  Zhang's work all deals with family and turning photography into paintings with their own spin on the photo.

I find it inspiring of how this artist paints a photograph and removes all emotion from the subjects, yet still draws so much curiosity to the image, through simple manipulations.  The emotionless subjects make me wonder why they are blankly staring and gives them almost a ghost like vibe.

The uses of imperfections to draw attention is used heavily by this artist with the use of the, birthmarks on the faces of the subjects.  Also the use of color changes to draw a focal points where they are necessary is used wonderfully. 

Link to Zhang Xiaogang