My buddy

By the Light of Dancing Moon

Final Project proposal

I am really interesting in using materials in non-conventional ways.  In the last few years I have geared this towards fabric, a material normally thought to be used in clothes or stretched as a canvas.  I think I'm interested in continuing my experimentation with fabric for this project.  I could see my images developing onto fabric like a print (think a little girls flower dress, or geometric patterns of plaid).  Or I think I will push the images to become a part of sculpture through breaking up how I print them or using plastic on top of the fabric to create layers.  I have not come up with what sort of images I want to use, I'm stuck between using abstractions of objects that will make the sculptural abstraction the focus or a focused image of a scene that makes piecing the image together important.

Summary The Photograph as an Art Object

I found this article really interesting, in the way Cole discussed artists who are pushing the boundaries of what lies within the medium, 'photography'.  Most of the contemporary artist she discusses are either sculptors or work with the medium as sculpture.  I was really interested in artist Braine's recent work with colour film.  Taking film and physically abstracting it as well as developing it without exposing it, essentially using traditional materials of photography while eliminating the 'photo' element.  The other artists really grasp onto the idea of pushing what they can do with the image, pushing past the flatness of a photo.  Cockburn takes the image and manipulates it while developing, from drawing on it to using embroidery.  While Harvey-Regan uses photos of simple objects in new ways, like placing the photo on the floor and hanging the rock like a photo.

Project 5

 Loki's Achilles Heel

 Big Girl Britches

 I didn't know it would be this fun

Comfort Zone

Relatable Senior Problems

New Artists

Klaus Pichler
http://www.kpic.at/
A new photographer I just found... I really like his stuff so far, interesting and odd subject matter

Keith Carter
http://www.keithcarterphotographs.com/
A photographer I discovered last year and fell in love with.  I really like how he goes about his project ideas

Ponies and Storm Troopers

Quite a cheerful fellow

HDR in class 10/23

Sculpture on it's lonesome

She's growin up

What does the fox say?

I WILL kill you

I'm in a book!

Artist Presentation: Lalage Snow

 For my presentation I chose the photojournalist Lalage Snow.  Traveling the world Snow focuses a lot of her work in the Middle East looking at different human aspects of wars there.

Alexander, Janet. "Artist of the Week 2/13-2/19: Lalage Snow Gives a Voice to the Faces Behind the War." Global Art Laid Out. 15 Feb 2013: n. page. Print. <http://www.galomagazine.com/innerviews/artist-of-the-week-213-219-lalage-snow-gives-a-voice-to-the-faces-behind-the-war/2/>.

Rybus, Greta. "Powerful Portraits of British Soldiers Before, During and After Deployment to Afghanistan." Feature Shoot. 05 Nov 2012: n. page. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. <http://www.featureshoot.com/2012/11/powerful-portraits-of-british-soldiers-before-during-and-after-deployment-to-afghanistan/>.

Snow, Lalage. "Lalage Snow." n.pag. Web. 28 Oct 2013. <http://lalagesnow.com/>.

Ring around the Rosey

O'dark hundred

Recap

I try to keep up with posting daily images, and I'll admit I'm mostly unsuccessful.  Last week was especially hard for me mentally and emotionally, and I really didn't keep up with much of any of my work.  I did take photos, just didn't post them.  So here's last week...

 10-15 And then she died...

 10-16 Rock Lobster

 10-18 Playing DJ

 10-20 I got it stuck... again.

 10-21 My uncle is a nerd!

Remodel

Break what Break?

Leaving Home 10/7

Roll my Windows Down 10/8

Night on the Town? 10/9

A rare breed 10/10

Project 4 second proposal

I am still very interested in using the photos I took from the State theater back home.  However after spending time at home and taking many photos I am interested in using the theater photos in combination with others to tell a story.  It still is the story of old and new, but with more ambiguity.  Living in an old southern town not everything is high tech, most of the town is just 'upgraded'.  There are modern amenities however the population does not feel the need to be on the cutting edge to live happy.  I want to tell that story of 'upgrading' through different places/objects I have a connection to.  Using 3 diptychs I want to tell a combination story of 3 places, I still want to experiment with what photos I want to use and if I will cross the different locations between the diptychs.

Chapters 2 +3

I really enjoyed Cotton's chapter on storytelling, titled "Once Upon a Time".  She talks about the use of narrative in contemporary photography that makes references that society understands.  The first section of the chapter looks at how a single image can show a whole series of events without necessarily using multiple images.  Wall's 'Insomnia' was a great example because he used the placement of objects around the kitchen, in combination with the figure's disheveled look to explain the man's final placing curled up on the floor.  Cotton went on to talk about photographers who use certain 'set ups' to inspire "storytelling in the viewer's mind" (pg51).  I was drawn to Hunter's "The Way Home' which discusses the use of historical symbolism in modern art, and affirms that art is a place for fables and stories to chronicled.  Cotton closes the chapter looking at the use of architectural spaces as the story.  I was really interested in how these spaces disorient the viewer, especially when explained.  The Casebere piece really seemed to be a schoolhouse but with such a cutesy element that made it look like a dollhouse, reading that it was a model made of an boarding school added to the surrealism and total creepy sense the image gave.

Cotton's third chapter discusses the intricacies of deadpan photography.  In reading this chapter I was focused on the idea of emotional detachment that is present in these photos.  The discussion on Gursky was important in understanding how deadpan works, and I was interested in the idea that he places the viewers far enough from the subjects so one cannot become immersed but rather has to be a critic.  This idea really helped my understanding of the many artists who work with landscape, architecture, and interior deadpan photography.  Burtynsky's work on the oilfields seemed to break the emotional flatness by hitting viewers in the gut with 'fact-stating' photos that viewers may not want to believe.  The photographs seemed to put the viewer in two distinct positions, one as the critic, the other as a viewer who may have to give into realities they are not comfortable with.  Deadpan is almost a statement of fact, but behind it is a lot of intrigue.  Photographers use their colour range, subject matter and focused details to create discussions on meanings behind the flat image.  Ruff's portraiture really captures this; he voids the pictures of visual triggers only to trigger questions on his sitters character.

Old back space

Round Robin

Working out ideas for the next project... Turned into an interesting daily image

In Class 2

Project 4 Proposal

I like the idea of combining different views of locations, from old to new, different vantage points, and different spacial elements.  Using multiple images helps give places character and tell a story.  I want to do either a combination photo or diptych to tell a story about a theater in my home town.  It's called the State Theater and it was built back in the late 1930's, then restored in 2012.  I think it would be interesting to try and create a 360 degree view through combining images.  However I think I am going to use images of the marquee, the stage, and the seating from different vantage points to tell the theaters history.

Fall Flower

Making Superheroes

In class

Sum of the Weekend

 Saturday Night 9-28

Do we look smart? 9-29

Chapter 7 Cotton

 The title of the chapter "Revived and Remade" sums up the entire chapter well.  Cotton discusses photographers who use iconic symbols, characters, and techniques to transform contemporary art.  The first section is devoted to artists like Yasumasa Morimura who take on character persona's that are recognizable by society.  Morimura is easily recognizable as people like Van Gough, though a viewer would likely not recognize Morimura over Van Gough in the image.  Other artists recreate popular images in order to question choices made by the original artists.  Collier Schorr's work interested me in the way that the work was presented.  It showed the original 'iconic image' alongside Schorr's work bringing and outside viewer into the process of the other artist.  It openly questioned the intimate relationship Wyeth (the original artist) had with the models.  The rest of the chapter focused on technique revival and renewal, going back to the most basic technique, photogram.

Susan Sontag on Photography

Sontag's article "On Photography"  discusses how photography has changed over time.  She says that today photography is "the knowledge people have about the look of the past and the reach of the present".  I was really interested in her discussion on early photography as a surveillance tool that showed, during the early years of photography (1870's all the way into the 20th century), images were incontrovertible truth.  Where most art shows an interpretation of the truth, photography blurs the line between truth and art.  She separates photography from painting for its ability to capture such large scale as well as large numbers of people, however she does go on to explain the ways that photography has turned into an everyday hobby like other art forms.  Though she clearly states that photography is an easy way of expierencing, "A photograph is not just the result of an encounter between an event and a photographer" but an event itself.  I think that is one of the biggest developments in photography, the ability to accept photos as not just capturing a moment, but actually being the reason for the moment.  To me that seemed to read as one of the reasons photography is now taken as an art form.

Open Space

Color Ring Around

 

Option 2

One of the shots from my photo shoot with Thunderbolt and Rusto for the project.  I really liked how it turned out.

Inside Out

Weekend Upload

 9-21 Laid Back Kinda Night

9-22 Watch out They'll Getcha

View from the Box

Molding Agent

Portrait Proposal

It has taken a while for me to figure out what I want to do with this project.  I think it's really hard to choose what parts of yourself you want to depict; it's often much easier to portray another because you show what you see.  Obviously knowing myself so well I'm struggling most with filtering through ideas.  I think for the 'non self portrait' I want to work with images that involve a focal point that maybe isn't on screen.  I want to show levels and layers in the image that are ambiguous of the idea that maybe the surface isn't all there is to me.  One example is of an image I took recently of a horse I work with showing down his neck across his back but not including his face.  For the portrait image I want to look at my hands specifically.  Being an artist I obviously use my hands a lot between making work and writing.  I also believe fully in the idea that your hands can speak as much as your mouth or show as much emotion as your eyes.  When I work with horses my hands are a tool that speaks a language with them that maybe doesn't always make sense in words.  I can convey to a horse what my emotions and intent are without having to use my voice.  I think these ideas connect together through not necessarily showing my face but still discussing my voice.

Collection from the week of Friday the 13th

 Moving In 9-10  This is my studio for the year, lots of space!

 

Archery 101... Line your feet up like you are playing golf. 9- 13

 Believe.  I love seeing military support around the town on people's car.  Ironically this sticker is on a Jeep Patriot. 9-15