Art 2500

This video is a visual manifestation of OCD behaviors, feelings and thinking patterns. The gif is a perfect way to explain OCD. Gifs are repetitive and begin to suck you in much like the repetitive behaviors of ocd. The choice to exaggerate and emphasize the "noise" in each gif was also a very deliberate decision. I find a connection between the "noise" in the video and the fear of contamination of myself by publicly used objects and spaces. The bright colors and high contrast add to the feeling of discomfort, are meant to express the different moods and anxieties caused by, or alleviated by, each different behavior. This video is meant to be played as a continuous loop, which is another important part of the concept, but unfortunately that is not possible on vimeo. so it is just a few minutes long.

This may very well be my favorite ceramics artist.  She takes typical, everyday ceramics and turns it into something completely unexpected and beautiful.  The ordinary floral patterns are pretty on their own, as are the cups, tea pots and other vessels but they become breathtaking with the addition of the "melted" clay.  They have a very surreal feel to them.  The melting, of course, creates that quality but that fact that the pattern is still there adds to it even more.  I came across her work while doing research for my final ceramics project.  I had a similar concept in mind but this take it above and beyond what I could accomplish.

I love this woman.  Her artwork, is clever, original and funny.  She seems to work with any materials she has around her.  In the first image she took red thread and mended torn spider webs.  Some of them are really simple too.  The second image is titles Artificial Insemination and she just placed an egg and tadpoles in a bowl an photographed it.  She also did a series of arranged books.  She just searches for books and arranges them is a certain way so that the titles themselves tell a story.  She also did a series of photographs that she took in airplane bathroom during different flights.  She dressed herself up to make 16th century dutch portraits using nothing but a scarf and toilet seat covers.  Not all of here works are this simple though. The last image is of a popcorn machine that she engineered to turn the "pops" into Morse code.  It prints out words and combinations of letters that the popcorn spells out.  She also bronzed and framed the first pieces of popcorn and the first word it ever spelled.  The word was "we".

project 3

I am becoming increasingly interested in ceramics artists.  I recently discovered a new found love for working with this medium and it has caused me to look at other at other artists work a little more as well.  All of Nagle's works are small in size but very exciting.  The are all done in bold colors and most of them have a combination of different textures.  I think the combination of rough and smooth textures really sets his works apart from a lot of ceramics artists.  They are all made of abstract forms attached to some kind of a base.  They look a like 3D representations of abstract paintings.  I think the simplicity and boldness of the forms is what really draws me in.

                This is a tricky subject and one that I’m not sure I fully understand or have taken a firm position on.  I’m sure there are people that would have the complete opposite opinion on each of these issues.  I think that’s the problem here.  The laws are not concrete enough.  There are massive grey areas and very large loopholes.  People will continue being sued and others will continue getting away with using others work.

As far as Photoshop goes,I think that I've come a long way since the last project.  I used shadows, adjustment layers, transform tools which I didn't do at all in my last project.  I also built the entire 3-dimensional space myself.  It's a simple composition but I think it says what I wanted it too.  I tried adding other figures and more flowers and I felt like adding objects took something away from the overall effect.  I also would have liked to have done more images like this but it took me so long to get used to the new tools and techniques that I ran out of time.  Maybe that can be a future project.

I have been interested in tattoos for a long time and this is the first time in awhile that I have found a new artist that I was really impressed with.  All of the tattoos are absolutely gorgeous and really original.  Kenji also does the same type of work digitally although I wasn't able to find a website that would allow me to copy the images and repost them.  I don't think I've seen a tattoo artist use such large amounts of stippling.  It must take an extremely long time to do a tattoo but the results are well worth the time.  They have depth and give the shading an interesting look.  Although his designs are original, they do seem to draw from tribal tattoos, Indian henna tattoos and vector art.  Even though a lot of his designs contain mainly geometric shapes, the tattoos don't look rigid but organic and soft.

My collages are kind of sad looking but I suppose that is to be expected.  I have never used Photoshop until now so this assignment was a real challenge for me.  I think by the last one I had things pretty well figured out and that ended up being my favorite of the three.  I think I will end up enjoying Photoshop once I catch on a little more.