January 28th- Class Commentary

Having had a chance to view most everyone's Invention experiments I can give some insight and interpretation that I saw and found. I thought the was this amazing contrast between each of the projects and how each student chose to present and what their intentions were. I know that Rachel has a love for photography. It showed in her compositions. Especially with respect to light being received in the pieces. That's exactly what was happening. The elements of her project were receiving this light as this quasi saving grace attraction. Or atleast that's how it felt to me. Goodness was shining through not only to attract your eye your but also to bring certain elements to life. There was one photo that I completely loved. Light is pouring through in a line aboe the banister and there is a shadow of the labels on the wall. You don't see the actual labels, so it makes me wonder what other world has she created? What exists off the plane?
I think Drake's piece stood out to me the most though. I found alot of his compostitional elements creating this excellent forshadowing event. I saw it as a map with a fork in the road. Starting with the green apple turning black. Symbolic of the end of a life. A fork in the road. Move on to the egg and the piece of raw chicken. Which came first? The chicken or the egg? It is also forshadowing death and transformation. The chicken used to be an egg. Technically they are one in the same. Or you can the other path from the fork in the road which literally leads you to a fork wrapped up laying on top of a photo of George Bush. I take this lierally as Bush's time being wrapped up. Stick a fork in him he's done. And then the path extends beyond the table with the papertowels. Its leading away from the struggles that exist on the table, but to what? The path just suddenly stops.

Material Invention Experiment

Media: Film, Sony Vegas Pro: Film Editor
Duration: 1m:07s
Size: 720p x 420p

I found the idea of transforming space a complex topic. Something that is left completely open to interpretation. I created a short film representing this idea of transforming space and transforming things into other things. How can the same person be in two places at one time? How can two things be different yet the same? According to existential beliefs, everything is the same even though its different. These are issues that my film addresses. Before you read on. Watch the film and then compare your interpretation to mine.

Mine:

The mugger and person being mugged are the same person. How is this possible? Does this person have a twin? What does that say for their bond or respect for each other? Is this a dream? What does the person think of themselves? In this film I represented a number of found objects. Here are a few of them. One must smell; a dog. No one said that the object had to have a stench, it just stated that "one must smell". A dog produces smells things with its nose. One must be astonishing; phone call from God. If you were dying, does God figuratively call you to come home? One must be scattered; houses. Even though they are lined up in row, urban environmentalists would suggest that they are scattered across the american landscape like cookies on a baking pan. One must be soft; box of Kleenex tissues. This object promotes softness, and foreshadows wiping away tears for something that happens later. One must be transformed by the wind; the leaf. An object going from static to kinetic is a tremendous change in physical property.

Accumulation Project:Me vs. Myself

Just like a snowflake, I am unique. There will never be anyone else in this truly just like me. I embrace that thought. It allows me to take chances with confidence in mind.

I see myself embodying some of the same intellectual characteristics of a Renaissance Man. I don't want to be great at any one thing. I want to be good at everything. I just have this unquenchable thirst for knowledge that can never be satisfied. I want to know about everything...I would be a hit at Dinner Partys. Ha!

I am and will forever be an outdoorsman. My dad used to take me camping when I was younger. Those are my fondest memories of growing up. I love being outside. It is my favorite way to relax. I have realized that when I have reached my limits as Superman, I can always retreat to the mountains, beach, or country, take one step out of my car, inhale that first deep breath of clean untainted air and be completely relaxed instantaniously. I completely let go of everything that I have been holding on to in my mind, and my heart, and in that time...I don't think. Nor do I want or need to. Infact, I can't think. I just...do.

January 23rd- Class Commentary

THERE WAS ONE THING that Mary said that really bothered me. She made a comment about the tumble weeds after they "died". As tormented and crazy as I thought she was from the first impression, I never once figured that she would just agree scientifically that these weeds died. For someone that seems like she has trouble letting go of her persona, her past, her struggles....someone who believes that she has been tomented by ghosts... someone who apparently believes in the afterlife, whether it is real or just an expression of existential realism, refering to the tumbling weeds as "dead' bothered me.

Who says the tumble weeds are dead? I feel like the act of them breaking off and becoming kinetic sounds like they are just starting their secondary life. A life that is meant to be used to travel the winds and traverse the terrain. A "life" that is still vibrant and full of purpose and promise.

I don't know if anyone else noticed...but in all of her pieces that involved human form...there were sewing pins stuck through the heads or neck. Is there a reason for this? Is she trying to kill or cut off the life line? Are these representations of pieces of her life that she wants to forget or disown?

Accumulation Project:Me vs. Myself

One word, contemplative. That's what I view this experiment as. I call it an experiment because that's exactly what it is. Yes it's a project. Yes it's an assignment. But is that where I want the thought or emotion invested to stop? No. Like I stated in my blog entry, I like to expand upon my emotions. I need that stimulation and excitement of thinking and contemplating. I live life to understand it. Well thats exactly what I aim to discover with this experiment, a piece of the bigger puzzle I call my life. Over the past 2 years I have been very interested in self discovery. Basically a personal quest to find my identity not only as a person, but also as a designer. I've come to realize that there are two sides to me. A ying and yang of sorts. Everyone is somebody to someone else. I want to uncover the truth about how I'm perceived by people compared to how I believe I am presenting myself. Over the next couple of weeks I will be collecting 100 items that I believe represent me, my personality, beliefs, morals, etc. I'm also asking a collection of 10 very close friends, family members, and not so close acquaintences to collect 10 things each that they think represent me, my personality, beliefs, morals, etc. Brutal honesty is the key to the success of this experiment. I have an opportunity to really find out if I am who I say I am.

What I have established so far...I am my father. Through and through. I am embody so much of him in everything I do, and even though he doesn't have a creative bone in his body we are one in the same.

I am bullheaded. A trait that my father passed on to me. Or it could be because I'm a Taurean. It takes a lot for me to lose my temper, but when I do the horns come out.

I believe that life is one gigantic puzzle. But life doesn't exists on paper, it's not two dimensional. It's something physical, something that has substance. Something you can touch or be touched by. That's why I chose these 3D puzzle pieces.

I took this photo of a styrofoam cup I saw while on a walk. It was alone, dirty, scuffed around the edges, and just thrown out the window as trash. But even through all of that, it's brightness still shines through. I feel like this about mine and my mothers relationship. When she divorced my father and moved away, she did the same thing to me as someone did to this cup. But after all was and is still said and done, I'm still shining, alone, a bit dirty and scuffed around the edges.

I try to be Superman to everyone and everything. I take on way too much. Try to please everyone at the same time. I feel like the weight of the world is always on my shoulders, always in my hands. Even though I can handle most anything in this world, even Superman has his Kryptonite. Mine is my heart.

January 16th-Class Commentary

Today we visited the McColl Center for Visual Arts. I have driven past the place 1,000 times and have never gone inside. I remember when it was just the old church with no roof. I remember the construction process, or rather the re-construction process. They have done a wonderful job at preserving the nostalgia of that location. The soot on the original walls. The crumbling decaying brick stratigically missing and creating neccessary voids.
The artist studios were interesting. Each had its own ambiance. Its own lifeline. Its own blood. It was hard gaining insight into the process work of the wood potter. I saw the finished pieces but no process work. A couple of sketches were scattered around. Does he have process work? Or does he just make it up as he goes along letting the medium determine what his next move will be? He had newspaper articles about himself out...why? Was he reflecting on his accomplishements or was he feeding his own ego...?
On the contrary, Anderson's study was great. Lively. Filled with energy and emotion. Almost as if you could jump up and pluck his passion for his work right out of the air. I love his work. It has this great mechanized animalistic quality about it with very expressive emotional qualities that seem almost anthropomorphic. Colors jump out and slap you in the face like a chill on a windy winter day.
I felt like the 5,000 labels idea could have been taken a whole lot further. I understand that they exist on pedestals. But what if some were on the floor and some were on the pedestal? Did someone get mad and knock it over out of rage and frustration? Wht if the audience was engaged more? What if they themselves could peel back or off the labels? What if there was nothing underneath? Just a framework for human development. Or if the labels and the dishes were both hanging from the ceiling? Are those labels so attached and fixed that not even turning quote un quote "your world upside down" changes anything? What if you walked into a room and 1,000,000 labels fell from the ceiling like rain coming down on a bad day? Is that ominous cloud that looms over you real or a metaphor at that point? What if that cloud followed you around the room?
When discussing the embroidered linen I made a comment that maybe the artist needed her ideas to be grounded. This could be true. Maybe it was her way of putting a stop to the discussion in order to move on to the next piece. There are an infinite amount of possibilities one can determine about the reasoning behind an art piece. There are always a million what ifs. Some clearly relevant others just plausible. But nothing is ever wrong. No idea is bad. So without knowing what the artist's reasons were, maybe this was her subtle way of saying, "Wow!, Stop thinking....you have analyzed my work enough, I'm grounding not only my concept but your ideas about my work before you forget that you had to use the bathroom before you stopped to stare at my work."

January 15th Text Commentary

The readings were interesting. In the Scoping an Audience section, I had never really thought of art as being consumed by anything. I always new that viewers could learn from it, relate to it, reject, criticize it, and condemn, it. But in essence they are consuming it, and their response/reflection is the digestion state.
Being inspired is a feeling that I welcome with open arms. It is exactly what Ovid describes it as, "the diety within us who breathes that divine fire by which we are animated." I have found myself in many of the situation discussed in this chapter. Such as the inspiration not being sustained during the process of creation, inspiration is diverted to another work of art before the other one is completed, or that simultaniously I have inspiration for more than one project at the same time. I agree that every artist has his or her own way of finding inspiration, be it a certain visual that strikes up a memory, a song, discomfort...somethingthat awakens them and jumpstarts their creative engine. I find mine through passion. A passion for all things ugly and beautiful. Passion for things I'm dealing with internally and things affecting my outside environment. That passion is delivered in the form of a tiny spark that illuminates me from the inside out.
Crafting an Artisitic "self" was a very interesting read. It addressed alot of the questions that I have been struggling with over the last few years. Who am I as a person and who am I as a designer? Do I portray myself as one person to everyone or do I have multiple shades of grey? I want viewers of my art to be able to relate and understand the person making it as much as the piece itself. So far it has been a fantastic journey of self discovery. I can only help that the statement "self knowledge is sometimes discovered through the process of creating art" holds true.
My attitude is simple. It is an extension of my personality. It is not based on arrogance. It is confidence in myself and my abilities. People say that I have a aura about me when I walk into a room. That my presence is strong and people notice that I am confident and sure.

January 14th-Class Commentary

Today in class Jason came in to discuss with us how to set up our blogs. It was a tremendous help. I've done blogs in Myspace and Facebook, etc. But building one from scratch is a little different. Malena also discussed with us how we should establish an identity as artists. What are my goals an artist? What do I want to do? My goals are such. I have an ever present thirst for knowledge. I sometimes think I am the reincarnation of a Renaissance Man. HA! I want to design and make a difference. I want to make an impact on peoples lives. I would eventually like to end up in advertising. I think the idea of being able to influencing people through design is powerful. Good and Bad. But I would rather concentrate on the good. I want to be that guy, the art director that everyone comes to. The one that people look to.

There was one thing that Malena said that stuck with me, "Nothing is ever a failure, it is unfinished and ready for the next step, but never a failure." Those were very powerful words. I need to remember that because I am very critical of myself and my work. It is refreshing to hear those words, because others in the past have refered to a select couple of my designs as a failures. They were not proper educators. The only good thing to arise out of those situations was that it helped me deal with constructive criticism better. Not every critic is the same nor do they express their opinions in the same manner.

January 9th-Class Commentary

Concept studio started today. The first thing that I noticed is that Malena brings alot of energy to the classroom. I think a lot of times, or in my past experiences, artists or professors try and overtalk. Meaning they purposefully talk up or use unecessarily large words that you basically never hear in every day conversation for the sake of sounding intelligent. I don't think anyone needs to do this. Half of the time people aren't going to understand what you are speaking of anyway. So talking becomes irrelevant. Malena doesn't do this. I like and respect that. She speaks to you as an educator should. I can tell that she attempts to get down to the students level to see eye to eye with them. She doesn't boast about her intellegence. An admirable quality in any professor.

I find it very interesting that our class is being held in the Storrs building. I have history with this place that exists in every hall, every square inch of thhis building. I studied Architecture here for a couple of years. It brought back some old memories, good and bad. When Malena told us to go see what some of the architecture students were doing, I smiled on the inside. I had been there. I been one of them. Each learning process is different, but in art and design, fundamentals and simple principles apply the same across the board. My mind quickly jumped back to some of the early projects I had worked on while studying at Storrs. Hopefully I can carry over some of those ideas and principles to this class and program.

I am very interested in our projects as described by Malena. Especially the Accumulation project. The gears in my head started turning, and ideas began to form about what I would collect. Over the past 2 years I have been very interested in self discovery. Basically a personal quest to find my identity not only as a person, but also as a designer. I've come to realize that there are two sides to me. A ying and yang of sorts. Everyone is somebody to someone else. So how do I portray myself? Do I portray myself as "me"? Or rather what I have defined as "me"? Do I portray myself as someone or soemthing else? I think with my accumlation project I am leaning towards this idea of self and secondary discovery. I want to collect 100 things that I think embody or represent me, my beliefs, my personality, morals, etc. And then I want 10 family members and friends to collect 10 things each that they think represent me, my beliefs, my personality, morals, etc. I want to compare and contrast the two at the end of this journey.

Testing 1One

Good morning world.