Thursday, December 9, 2010

Lectures

The two lectures that I was able to go while still attending a evening class was Margarita Higginbottom and David Clemons.

Margarita Higginbottom :


I went to this one because it was a requirement for my African American Art History course, but that didn't stop me from completely enjoying it. Higginbottom explored the female figure really well through the use of paintings done by an artist in the 1930s, and I especially loved how she related it to African-American history in dealing with their struggles while being a minority in the United States. I don't know how I officially feel about the artist per se that developed the pieces because of his technique of watching people on the street level to get the atmosphere he wanted. It seemed too creepish and cheap for someone to just walk around and capture people and then dub them in some philosophical essence. Other than that I thought that she was very well spoken and knew her subject matter well. I would love to take an art history course with her.

David Clemons :

Clemons by fair seemed like one of the most laid back metalsmiths besides Price that I have ever met. I really loved how he reached far past the whole barrier of being dubbed a black artist, and really talked to the audience about who he truly is. His work was very lovely in fact I remember it being on display at one time downstairs in front of the Sleaze. It is like a wonderful mix of medical research, steampunk, and a hint of minimalism. I think he may have been one of the only visiting artists that took everyone's breath away with how fast he went through his pieces and how he made everything seem like time went by fast. I wanted to know more about his journey as an artist especially his move from the west coast to the slow running side of the south because that transition has to on some level become a culture shock. I am still awaiting word back from him since I started exchanging some emails to pick his brain but other than that I hope they have more artists like him come visit MCA.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Rough Artist Statement

Title : Belly Of The Whale

Belly Of The Whale is a homage to a step in the Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell that I feel I can relate to. In this step the hero must confront him/herself on the conscious and unconscious level in order to break through an obstacle that is holding them back from further progression. For a long time like many individuals out there I have been suffering from a case of obsessive compulsive disorder. It is a very hard obstacle to completely break from because every decision I make I constantly second guess it. OCD completely shuts down my work ethic and pace whenever I try to finish a project, in a way it means I want to be a perfectionist. Belly Of The Whale chronicles my journey into understanding what brings about my OCD and allows viewers to look at what not only happens on the surface but also on the inside. The paper represents my conscious decisions and path with myself as it flows organically across the board supported by white tacks on areas of tension. The overlapping forms convey the backtracking of my decisions in an effort to keep them consistent, the projection of the represent my unconscious self and the decisions that I try to make to break from my conscious self. Sometimes you will have areas that completely work in unison with each other but majority of what is happening is constant conflict. 

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Shuttle Idea List

I really love the idea of manipulating the shuttle somehow to where people can't really get on or off the shuttle and we record it somehow. We would need to get together and see what is exactly safe or smart for doing an experiment like this on the shuttle. An example of this is seen on this :

http://vimeo.com/11126782

Another thought for the piece would be to have a performance of some kind that truly freaks out the visitors on the shuttle. There is some aspect of making the audience feel unnerving that really intrigues us. This could be done by sitting in the back of the bus with some dark clothing, with our heads down being silent and seeing how people initially react to it.

I also like the idea of trying to project something on the bus and using it as a projection screen of some kind but I wonder about protecting the equipment and really trying to outfit the shuttle to handle that type of work. I think something simple and clean would really work for that idea. An example included here of one that I like :

http://vimeo.com/11499315

I think a simple idea to get done on time and really fast would just to show our work on a dvd or create a nice demo reel that people respond to. This could even expand out to a piece that interacts with sound and play it and watch how people react to it. Maybe the audience reacts to brighter colors, different types of line work, whether or not it is pure particles or if it is something that is identifiable right off the bat. There are many options with this and it could even stretch into making it a large social event.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Board

So we measured it and figured out once again the metal board would be best for what we are doing, it allows for about 4ft worth of space for each of us to use and show off our work especially if we keep it economical. The layout would be as followed:

Name:

Major:

Pieces of Work:

Artist Spotlight Section:

Biography and Examples of work :

Url To The Artist's Site :

It won't cost a lot of money to get a couple sheets of stonehenge paper to print out the business cards/tabs for people to visit the site. I wonder if there is anymore incentive to get people to really visit the site and be interactive with what is there.

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Revised Projection System

I went around trying to find a really nice room that would work for my projection without having to really build anything or fix something up unless I had to and I think I found a room. The room that I wanted to play with my projection is Studio 3 formerly known as Financial Aid office. The room has a 4 ft x 8 ft board that I would be able to tack my pieces to that wall and it would take about 30 to 40 sheets of 11 x 17 to completely cover it. That amount is adding anything extra so that if there is any projector run off it will be caught by the projector. I also kind of measured up and figured out that to fit the board the projector would have to be 10 to 12 ft away from the board, I would need to test that today if it is possible. I have pictures of the space that I need to upload for viewing pleasure and I also need to find out the class schedule for it...so we won't go in there when there is a class.

Board Idea

So after talking to the group about what to do with the board we came up with the idea of dividing the board in half one side for showcasing some of our work and the other side to allow the school to contribute to an assignment. The assignment would be a small animation that would be compiled on a later date and possibly shown but each day we put a new frame for them to draw to and continue which would be underneath glass on the board. We were also thinking that maybe we attach the a camera somehow to photograph the board whenever someone goes up to draw on it, so that it could document everyone's contribution to the project. An alternate option to this setup, since the camera would eventually run out of memory it would make sense to hook it directly to a computer in the little studio that we have for experimental. We were also wondering whether or not we could get the board next to the studio or if Photography still completely owned it. Once we hit a number of progressive shots/frames we open up the studio to the school so they can see what we are doing to the piece and our own stop motion pieces....so everyone has an example of what we've created. We will also create our own flyers and way-finding to help students find the studio and understand what we are trying to do. School wide emails is also another consideration to this process but....we don't want to keep emailing everyone because that could become annoying.  This is where we are right now with completely planning it, as of right now I think the material list is a piece of glass to protect our pieces from being drawn on, a palette of paper pinned up for people to draw on, some markers that we can get for cheap for them to draw with, magnets to pin our pieces up, we will make the graphics for the board, and I think that is it for now.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

benchmark

My new benchmark for the animation project is doing another 250 to 500 frames playing with ballpoint pens. I WANT THAT SURPRISE!!!!!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

NEW GOALAGE!!!

my goal is to go back to the abstract sense of line....it worked ten times better than doing just literal and it got really expressive with what I called play and oneness. I think the idea of mucking around with different mediums is something to consider, maybe even going crazier with conte.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Stop Motion Calendar And Expectations

Sept. 28th Expectations :

For next tuesday there needs to be a complete animation with smoothed out transitions for each of the segments. I want it to be fully fleshed out as far as moving from thin pen drawings to the heavy ink which means in the middle both techniques have to merge together, maybe in the format of ink washes. This could eventually expand out into a bigger animation but for now I want it to express the life of line and how unpredictable it can be when using a medium that isn't forgiving. I will also map out some longer segments that I can even explore while using these style of animation....maybe make those segments more so episode style with a narrative.

1. Have the animation transitions smooth as they can get for the animation.
2. Map out whether or not there is potential for smaller, longer segments from this as a potential larger project.
3. Make sure there is a obvious transition from thin line work to the heavier ink drawings of the eyedropper.
4. ABSOLUTELY DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE UNTIL THE MAIN ANIMATION IS DONE AND THE KINKS ARE SUPER SMOOTHED OUT.
5. Do another brainstorming session with words to find out where the idea could go.

Monday, September 20, 2010

MOTION TEST

I like where this is going for my animation and I want to really push the ending result for it.....I have a lot more work to do for it and I am finding it is easier to actually stray away from the computer for a while and use a scanner. It actually picked up my lines a lot clearer. I also need to fix the frame rate on this because it is kind of choppy and slow. It shouldn't be but that should be an easy fix in a revision.

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Revision/Rules

I want to thank everyone for their critique of what I had to propose last class because it really helped with understanding where I can take this animation. As a revision for my proposed idea that animation won't have a narrative because the viewer will be able to form one from their own perspective on seeing what is going on. One thing I may change is seeing if it really makes sense to stick it all in a circle template because after a while that perimeter may be a big pain in my side, but that could also enhance it. I also absolutely love the fact that this could be a major endurance test because I haven't drawn this much since the last time I took a portraiture drawing class.

Rules For Me:

Don't get distracted by any mistakes done by the process because mistakes can be beautiful.

Don't use any paper that has a coarse texture to it because it won't take the ink well

Don't try to concern myself with absolutely making a recognizable image.

Start with ballpoint pens for a beautiful straight line and then move into brushes

Try to be sparing with colors/ink washes so that I don't lose a lot of time/detail.

Allow up to only 2 to 3 mins for each drawing

I can look at inspiration or a keyword for each image being created to keep the brain flowing

I can also whenever I get a piece done, jot down the word or image that came to mind while drawing it

Keep everything gestural

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE CLEAN!!!!!

SOMETIMES SIMPLE IS NOT THE KEY FOR THIS!!!!!!

DON'T THINK TOO MUCH ON ONE IDEA, DRAW WHAT NATURALLY COMES TO YOU!!!!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Experimental Pitch

A.

Theme - What is the purpose of Play? Why do we need it and what activates it?

Genre - A genre for this animation would be comedy/family/adventure with the manifestations that come from the evolving aspects of play.

Story - The story for this animation starts as a mark on a piece of paper that evolves into abstract shapes that embody play. The more play that the piece embodies the bigger/colorful it gets with each passing frame. So the story is that of our own evolving definitions of play as we mature and the essential pieces of play that we hang on to in order to advance that definition.

B.

I don’t necessarily know if my animation could completely follow a three act structure since I really want to be experimental with my process and leave a lot of it up to fate. It will start off completely with a line drawn in ink which can’t be erased or taken back completely….whatever mark is made influences the next frame of the piece. I have to keep building upon the idea and morph it into something that seems like it could have been snatched out of the air. I want the goal of this animation to show the ever changing/evolving process of play and how it shifts its physical meaning while maintaining the inner emotion that it started out with. This is a very light hearted animation that deals with comedy/family fun with a hint of spontaneous craziness.


C.


D.

For my animation I want to use paper and different techniques for inking like starting off with a ballpoint pen for the initial line and then proceeding on to quill and black india ink. As it goes on I will start to go into ink washing the drawings to add more depth to it as it pops off the page. So the primary supplies for this animation would be the use of a scanner or camera to capture me using different types of instruments that deal with its primary source of media being ink.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

An idea of play.

A jumping off idea of the combination of the self for my initial animation for this class would still be centered under the broad topic of imagination and how we utilize it as individuals to enhance our lives to some degree. This is usually called daydreaming to make it more specific and in essence from research daydreaming is the extension of ourselves and our deep inner emotions of our subconscious. It would be an all access look into a private world where we are striving so hard to push past the barrier of the dream state and reality. The work will stem from an understanding that a lot of people naturally just get burnt out with our daily lives because we give and give and give and contribute to a part that is stuck in a systematic loop. We really want to challenge ourselves and grasp the animal side which would be the daydream/subconscious and live within it. This piece isn't just about me or explaining some heart felt blah blah through a narrative it something above and below the surface that we all connect with. We fight with ideas that come from our inner being everyday and we fight to let them be heard so we make great big scenes and scores that live within our mind that are screaming outward to be released. This is what the piece will entail...a look into expressing the play that we want each and everyday and in the end being completely satisfy with knowing that we accomplished that. I can see this being done in a linear fashion morphing into a mere complex system that compliments the action before in each sequence. A really loving and gestural line that morphs into complex shapes of conveyed play. Doesn't matter what the medium as long as it has that essence of it could be done by anyone at any varying skill level.

Artists that I draw inspiration from for this idea:

6. Edward Kwong - http://blog.edkwong.com/
11. Raquel Aparicio - http://www.raquelissima.com/
12. Jared Stumpenhorst - http://stumpyhorse.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Three Ideas For Animation



1. Illustrating the evolution of my personal zodiac signs in a fun and crazy style utilizing the eye dropper from my ink bottle as my medium.


2. Having some of my sketches come to life off the page with a background being the desk that I draw or a hand drawn background on the paper itself. The main focus on this would be a word that really stands out to me in my own vocabulary bank and the picture conveys it.



3. My third idea thus far on this would do a self portrait and have it built from different drawing techniques that I've learned over the years. I want to use a bunch of media like collaging, charcoal, paint, whiteout, and etc....




Self-Crit!!!!!!

Title : The Confusion

When I started doing this project I wanted to really sit back and map out everything that inspires me through my Internet searches and the memories that came forth from the times that I did them. From the work in progress critique it came to my attention thanks to all my peers and teacher that may be I was thinking too broad of an idea. I wanted to convey to the audience what emotion I was feeling through the searches and the content I gathered without really having to pull together a complete narrative. How would they get this feeling if I didn't guide it, well I was hoping that they would pull whatever popped out to them the most, but that could hinder the piece more so than enhancing it. The evolution of my project to the text piece and the alternate one came from looking back on old conversations I've had since 2004 relating to relationships, school, work, life away from home, and living on my own after leaving home at 16. I gathered up all my thoughts and to this day I am still utterly confused about a lot of events that happened but they are slowly unjumbling. For people close to me that has known my history one of the statements really rings true to them. The statement that I am talking about is "That Fucking Bitch" there is a lot loaded into that statement but it most definitely symbolizes a major turning point within myself.

Some of the strengths that I see in my piece is organization and the appeal to really make it clean and designed, but I think a lot is lost in showing how my process is precise and how it contributes to my OCD. A lot of people don't see what happens behind the scenes with the crap that I go through to just put something down on paper. It isn't the fact that it is extremely hard to come up with ideas but it is hard to let go of horrible ones and the constant rush of new ones that flood in. It is like a faucet that I can't turn off for even one second because I feel like if I do that then my whole world around me shatters into a million pieces. I love my disorganization and clutter at home because I can thrive in that world but on the outside amongst people I have a hard time containing everything. Structure most definitely in the form of linear narrative and storytelling can be a major area to focus on in improving, but I also feel like I am kind of burnt in that department due to strict rules being forced on me by the design department. I have so much pent up from that time that it is finally overflowing outward in multiple directions. I learned a lot about myself and some new techniques through doing this project and how to push forward. I am totally ready to take on new projects and techniques for this class. Bring it on!

Sunday, September 5, 2010

The Web Is Dead. Long Live the Internet Review




URL :
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2010/08/ff_webrip/

I thought this article was absolutely amazing. It made me sit back and rethink a lot of my process from day to day. It is correct that we stride away from the Web altogether and don't really focus on the Internet itself. Like the article stated that a lot of people move away from actually using their PCs to access the web and utilize them through apps. Most of my time when I go about my life through my day I can't get away from an app of some kind and the idea of how easy it is to gain some level of monetary gain from this industry is enormous. I've even tried doing a little bit of programming myself for the multiple formats out there. You can't survive today without trying to test your hands in the market that exists thanks to the evolution of the Internet over the last ten years. Before you could simply make a living just being a designer and a programmer.....now you have to become everything in terms of what it means to successfully run a business. In terms to the article we read last class.....I don't know if it is exactly making us stupid. It is most definitely streamlining all of our processes so that we can focus on this new lifestyle that has been made for us thanks to the media. In some fashion it has made us extremely reluctant to go out and do what we used to like writing a paper by hand, reading a book that is printed, actually looking outside to see what the weather is like, and etc... That is the extreme to this generation, we find ourselves completely dumbfounded by the rich because they made everything too easy for us in terms of finding information and persons. We now put these people on a pedestal so high that we forget that we can absolutely do the same thing.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Work In Progress.....Frustration

So I am having a little trouble getting some major progress on my project because of the whole not keyframing anything. It isn't hard but it makes you think of how to approach the same effects from a whole different level. Since I want to focus on nostalgia and memories as a key to emphasizing emotional content to the viewer, I need to totally allow the viewer to come within my brain and dissect it. It finally took talking to a few people tonight for it to fully click together and for me to actually try and storyboard this out so I don't end up killing myself over the weekend. I also need to create some scripts to help batch up the files and stack them on top of each other, but so far I figured out my best bet is to pull all of this together within After Effects. For some reason it makes things easier to organize in my mind. Photoshop CS5 just eats up too much resources even with crazy amounts of RAM and a powerful graphics card. I will post the storyboards on to this post along with my experiment once I find a scanner to use. For now I want to find some videos to use as inspiration to see how I can convey my information using the images....in terms of techniques not concept. The concept of the piece will be conveyed through the user watching me open up google and begin my search while organizing my madness of images into folders, as each year passes by and the segment of hurt increases for me the google page gets brighter and brighter until I reach the end where I just stop searching and I am completely happy. For this I will be digging up my old history text files and figure out what I did to search my content. Mucho thanks to Katy, Carter, and the class for helping me figure this out. This should be fun.

Is Google Making Us Stupid? Review

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/6868/

I find the article really really interesting in how I can totally agree with what he is talking about especially on the topic of concentration on materials. I can see how it could contribute to a major downfall in print magazines, newspapers, and etc.... because now we have an "unlimited" source of information streaming from the Internet. Personally I don't like to get my news or anything from the television or Internet so I don't push for it. If I really want to know what is going on in the world I have to pick up something physical. I feel quite the opposite of so many out there that have this conditioning thanks to Google and related search engines. I lost track of myself and concentration when I try to do something solely based off the Internet but if I have a book in my hand I am totally game on reading it cover to cover. I love books and I grew up doing everything based on books in contrast to my own personal experiences. I hope for the sake of many generations after this that they will continue to have books because I would hate what we have today to truly become some ancient form of knowledge.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Mind Mapping With Images

In this post I am going to try and explain how I acquired most of my images for the assignment. First off I would like to talk about how the assignment completely blew my mind up then took me to some familiar places. I can honestly start off by saying that my brain doesn't function normally like most out there, I completely love my clutter because I know where everything is. My way of organizing files and history is to make something completely off the wall that would allow me to remember where I placed it. I found a lot of great content on the Internet but most of my content came from old backups of my files since I started high school way back in the early 2000s. This allowed me to completely trek out of my usual aimless clicking and sliding of content and pushed me into the direction of nostalgia. I found a lot of content that I haven't seen in years and that absolutely made me happy because of the rush of information that flooded back into my mind of those memories. In essence I could then put the files back in their original folders and organize them within acts in a progressive manner to show how I evolved over time. This way when I begin a new era in my digital life I have something I can look back on to bring back the memories that I am creating at this moment.

Folder Listings Under Each Act :

Act 1 : Architecture
Heritage
Process

Act 2 : Random Crazy
Unexplained
Zoo Animals

Act 3 : Comics
FFFFound

Act 4 : Nostalgia
Tumblr

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Word List - Things That Stood Out

These are some words and thoughts that stood out to me during free writing and such :

1. Qi Gong

2. Spirituality

3. Process

4. Processing

5. Pop Surrealism

6. Shamanism

7. Lotus

8. Buddha

9. Natural

10. The Self

11. The Mind

12. Mudra

13. Holistic

14. Charley Harper

15. Alphonse Mucha

16. Phoenix

17. Shapeshifting

18. Simple

19. Minimal

20. Energy

21. Empowered

22. Empathy

23. Typography

24. Ritual

25. Tattoo

26. Theory

27. "The Belly Of The Whale"

28. "The Road of Trials"

29. "The Crossing Of The Return Threshold"

30. Max Bill

31. Donald Judd

32. Hidden Truth

33. Spirit Animals

34. Craig Thompson

35. Objects of Desire

36. Essentially Odd

Self-Reflection

My previous post is just a snippet from the free writing that I wanted to share on the blog. I look back on it and I enjoy what I am going through to help come to a definite end but I don't list all of the little things that go on in between the process of just writing it. No one sees the cat that I am looking over with my roommates Katy and Carter, that is ironically dubbed Hitler but is actually a sweet once you get past the biting. Also no one can hear the music that I listen to while I work which ranges from classical to indie music or the books that I read or the workout that I do which consists of Reiki/Yoga/Qi Gong. In essence all of it will add up to a complete understanding of what I will be doing this semester and how I will be gathering ideas for future projects. I am quite excited to be in this class and I am more than ready to work.....now to only get my laptop working completely. Below is a list of things that I listen to and do for those that want to understand what I am talking about.










THE BIGGEST SUM

Included in this post are some of my collected thoughts and ideas for the free writing assignment given to us in class. I've been working on things like this for a while but it mostly kicked into high gear during the summer. I usually start off by grabbing my iPod and putting on my playlist of Yo-Yo Ma to get the brain juices flowing. When I am writing especially in this manner I don't necessarily write in any fashion, I kind of explain my process just like I am doing now because it helps to come back to see my mannerisms/style at previous dates. In a way you could call my process a critique of the self. I spend most of my days trapped inside my own head trying to figure out where I am in my life spiritually/mentally. I am surrounded by loads and loads of books that I sit and go through cover to cover every few weeks just searching for an answer, mapping out my brain mentally like it is a hard drive inside of a really old computer.

What stands out the most to me is my constant search for the ultimate question and answer to be brought to me from the great beyond of the universe. I see that everything around me as a purpose and a method to what is being achieved but I feel like I am barely scratching the surface of what can be done. There is just the magnificent battle between researching and actual production that has been my struggle for years on end. I have a brilliant conceptual mind but I can't utilize it because of my overworking of what the process could be thanks to researching. I like how I told myself I have brilliant conceptual mind....all about the affirmations. This is what I have been thinking about off and on, off and on, off and on....etc. This in a way will prepare me for my current life path of going on after art school to medical school to study how to be a holistic doctor.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

IDEAS!!!! EXPECTATIONS!!!!

I think this class will really be badass in helping expand my horizons on a different subjects I could get into. I can see maybe using some coding languages like OpenFrameWorks and Processing to develop a lot of pieces, also major major major influences with texture. If I have time I would love to throw some emphasis on Cinema4D this semester. Down below are some things that I think we could do in class :