"Battle Hardened"
In Battle Hardened i used speech in a repetitive manner to stress the point I was trying to make, making use of punctuation as a key element in the context of the piece. I really wished for the viewer to have this saying engrained in their head by the end of the piece. As if the artist was screaming at you. The subtle hints of color are to show the powers of the sun and relate the text with the image. The figure is intentionally submerged within the text to emphasize the importance of this statement as if he is immersed in the context of this statement, fully composing a narrative that I wished to project.
"Life's a Water Slide"
In this piece I used subtle elements of speech, but I wanted the speech to be key driving point of the piece. The speech directs the artworks meaning. I included a lot of symbolism in this piece, the stoplight in the forehead, meaning stop to think about it. The jumble of heads representing mixed up anxious headspace, and the pencil drawing of the waterside to give the downhill metaphor of life. I incorporated mixed media to work with the narrative of the piece. The graphite writing under the ink writing is supposed to represent a less severe outlook, that is simply not the fine print. The graphite states "The bold print may be true, but hey life is fun".
"I" (In process photo)
In "I" I was working in regards to speech and selfishness how we use a lot of I statements in our day to day speech and I wanted to create a contrast using homonyms with the incorporation of an eye. This piece at first was not very successful and needed much more input and direction.
"I"
In my finished version of "I" I decided to mask or cover the entire piece in an effort to convey a message of suppression of speech because speech is often a powerful tool and humans are sometimes distracted by their own views and interpretations. We don't always listen to what others have to say and in this piece I wished to bring about self awareness to our own habits of speech. Creating a visual allegory of self consciousness through the use of speech.
STACI'S WORKSHOP
I gained a deeper understanding of the uses of speech and how important they are in our day to day communications with each other. Through our readings and excersises involving speech. Being Staci's partner gave me a deeper appreciation of this practice of work she is engaging in. As she opened up and allowed to open up I learned the powers of speech and communication and the importance of listening.
