Community of Practice

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"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.

Serial Working

The artist I chose for serial working is Raymond Pettibon. Mr. Pettibon works primarily in ink and his art is considered "punky" it has an alternative feel to it. His work is often anti authoritarian and often has a nostalgic feel to it. The main thing that drew me into Pettibon's work was his use of text with his often times provocative imagery. He states in an interview that he initially added the text so people would look at the work longer. His text is often thought provoking, it aims to make you feel something, it often adds interesting narratives to his work.


In my series of drawings I wished to achieve this same sense of compelling narrative. I sought to establish a series that explores making mistakes or mishaps that occur in our lives and to give a sense of hope after these mistakes. A calm sense of alrightness and stability was constantly on my mind when creating these works, as all of them explore fairly chaotic type scenes.

On Paper

"Glory Days"

Caligraphy Ink, Sumi ink 

       "Death Picks no Favorites"

Sumi Ink, Caligraphy Ink, Transparent colored inks

"Punch"

Sumi and Caligraphy inks 

Off Paper 

For our series of videos representing movement I chose a human element of movement. The acts of blinking and chewing. I wanted to develop a series that showed how these movements can be affected by simple different circumstances going on in the participants life. First my buddy is seen casually blinking placing emphasis on the action and movement of the blink itself. Then a bright flashlight is put into his eyes to show how the movement of his blink has changed to adapt to this action occurring. In a way I wanted to express that our basic human movements take on different forms of movement when we need them too without us ever really realizing fully that they occur. The other two clips place emphasis on the mouth, how the mouth chews when we need to crunch our food, and how the mouth drinks when we need to drink something. Two completely different movements that occur among all of us on a daily basis for survival.

Seeing Through Line

Lines that Create Time 

I utilized five shadows of a classmates hand changing shape over about a two minute period. 

I initially made one piece and then moved the piece around to find different meaning and context creating four different titles for the same piece. Essentially making four pieces from one. 

"Sunset"

"Release"

"Defeat"

"Withdraw"

Contour Without Line

In this piece I utilized collage to make my lines. I chose to do a portrait of a girl I know out of pictures she had recently taken for her photography class. This piece pushed and challenged me to develop my lines and slowly think about my line placement as compared to traditional methods of drawing.

In Class Yarn

I tried to emphasize basic bathroom utility functions with the yarn in our in our yarn/line studies. Reminding users to use the functions the bathroom provides such as flushing the toilet and washing your hands. The pink vibrant line places emphasis on the object and the line direction in a way instructs you how to use the utilities. 

In the in class yarn/line drawing I wanted to make emphasis on a pathway we might not normally notice. A pathway not intended to be a pathway but paved out by human interaction with the building. A pathway people might use but never actually realize they are using it. I was inspired by something I read about Frank Lloyd Wright the architect. After completing his buildings he would never create walkways but see what paths humans involving the building would create and then develop his pathways.

Walking the Line

In my off paper video I wished to draw a line in nature, thinking of tracks and how as humans we recognize and make tracks and how we interpret these tracks. Before I walked these two lines on an island in Crescent Beach there were no previous markings or tracks. I thought about my mark on this island and this line I created and how long it would last. I step on different textures and each texture makes a different mark. The mud might fill in when the tide fills in but the grasses with their beautiful reds and greens might stay beat up and torn down for a month. I thought the creation of the line and its natural withering process was interesting. Also I was interested in the sound that each line makes walking on the different textures. Sound can be read as line and it is represented in this piece. There are two different sets of each walk the first one the line is created lightly documenting the sound and the mark and the second walk I step harder to see the difference of the mark and sound. I slowed the video down to make emphasis on the line created.

Making Marks

Off paper

One Mark Against Many

"Loyalty"

The acting mark in this video is the good energy a friend of mine brought into my house a few nights ago. The mark is an emotion that spreads throughout the house causing others and the dog in the video to develop more marks of good energy and good times. 

A Million Marks

"Barnacles"

The barnacles and oysters being scraped off the seawalls and pilings by the shovel act as the mark in this video. The mark is caused by deduction. When these barnacles are released in the water thousands of pieces are dropped in the water. The mark in return chums the fish and brings them in the area.

On paper

Movement as Mark

"Highfive"

Oil Charcoal and Coffee on paper

A Million Marks 

"Untitled"

Chalk and charcoal on paper

I achieved 30,000 marks in this piece with charcoal and chalk.

Reflections

The body is the primary mode of perceiving scale.

In ancient times the foot was the primary unit for measure. To determine the length of something you measured it in feet. A king declared that his foot would be the primary unit of measurement and that stuck. As an artist, when you are learning to figure draw you use different body parts as units of measure. In examining a face you may say "the head is 5 noses long and 3 noses wide". We see our bodies everyday and have a general idea of how big or small everything on our body is. 

The capacity of objects to serve as traces of authentic experiences 

This is a piece of the Berlin Wall. 

If I didn't explain what this piece of rock was, it would have no intrinsic value. Once we know that this was a piece of arguably the most famous wall in history then it gains much value. We know this piece of colored rock has been through conflict and turmoil and is a piece of great history. Separating it from any other piece of rock. 

The souvenir reduces the public, the monumental and the three dimensional into the miniature that which can be enveloped by the body.

A shell to me is a great example of a souvenir, a shell can represent a trip to the beach or someone's ties with the ocean. It is a naturally occurring specimen found in the ocean. It is a great souvenir due to the fact that it can represent the ocean as a whole, it has beauty, and is small enough to be enveloped by the body. 

Nostalgia cannot be sustained without loss.

These pictures represent nostalgia to me. All of these good times have been lost they came and went and were only recorded once due to the polaroid film and will never be repeated. Moments lost in time forever but I have the recorded memory of each individual photograph, reminding me of the times and memories that each individual picture carries with it.  

To have a souvenir of the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy.

This is a picture of a gallery displaying Mark Rothko's paintings. These paintings go for millions of dollars due to their fame. These paintings can be considered a specimen due to their uniqueness and one of a kindness that will never be reproduced due to the artist no longer being with us. Owning one of these paintings acts as a trophy due to their fame and value. Having one of these paintings could reflect one's wealth to require one of these paintings or to display one's artistic taste. 

Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono's presentation involves her sitting on stage while people are invited up to cut off segments of her clothing. She is utilized within the artwork, and the artwork would not be possible without her. The meaning of this piece of performance artwork could be to directly represent how a women's body is viewed in society. The people that cut off her clothing in the beginning chose to cut off small simple strips steering away from her breasts or hips. But as the performance goes on one man boldly cuts a large strip exposing her chest, as Yoko stays calm. The performer seems unfazed by his actions. This action could possibly represent the mistreatment of women or could be viewed as a statement expressing how women's bodies shouldn't have to be censored to the world. 

Touch

Tattoos 

"beauty created through brutal means"
 This quote from the article reflects in me. The passage also states that the word tattoo comes from a Tahitan word Tatua meaning strike. Which I can relate too due to my one tattoo on my ankle which is a stick n poke tattoo. In other words a needle is placed in ink and then pushed into your skin to form lines. I have a stick n poke tattoo of an eyeball. This hurt greatly but to me is a form of self expression and artwork. It is a memento to me a reminder that will always be on me.

This is the stick n poke tattoo I did to myself. 

Subliminal Touch

I found this section of the writings interesting. "contact warms us even without our knowing it" This quote explains the important of touch and how it reminds us of our core animalistic roots. Touch makes us feel good and loved. The passage says "touching someone gently is like saying their first name". subliminal touch is a form of body language that repersents humanity in its purest form. 

I created a drawing of my grandfather that passed, and a poor self portrait of myself. The hand on his head reminds me of his "subliminal touch" that will always be over me. The subliminal touch repersenting the love and good feelings this man showed me. 

Masking Tape Shoes

I had never embarked on a project like this ever before and was quite fearful to be honest. In going about this project I didn't view the shoe in separate parts but as one individual shoe and tried to build it as i saw it. After building the sole, I made large squares of tape and cut out portions looking at my reference shoe. Slowly but surely developing a pair of retro vans high tops.