3D Modular Process

Day one...I dunno

2D 16 + 10 Mark Making Sketches

I was in the zone all Sunday afternoon.  My husband kept asking me what I was banging on out there but he didn't get up from the football game to come see my efforts.  The more I worked the more ideas came to me.  Most did not work out but a few did.

I used a pencil eraser for these.  I really liked the mark they made and experimented with tape and suction cups.  The eraser did almost make holes in the paper.

These were made with this thing-a-ma-jig I found in my bathroom cabinet.  I don't remember what it is called.  I experimented with different ways to make marks with this one like striking, rolling, and continuous marks.

These are my least favorites.  I don't think this group is particularly strong.

I used a nail brush, folded paper, and different lengths of tape.

Loved this tool!  It is made with varying strands of paper clips and a pouncing motion.  At first I didn't like it at all, but after looking at it as I used other tools, I found I liked this one the best.

 

These are the 10 pencil sketches from class. 

These marks were made inside a roll of tape.  A very good exercise for those that have a hard time staying in a small space.  Thank you Kathy!

I made these with my pencil tray and pencils underneath the paper.

The same push/pull twirling technique with different music.  The first was the Japanese and the second was the Irish Jig.

Swirling circles with all the pencils and some folded paper.

I think the top one is a pencil twirl and the bottom is a two hand sketch.

2D Text As Texture and Critique

 

Critique by Tam W, Henry, Melissa W, Milah M, and Lauren M

My group didn't see much conflict, but I do in the outer paper rolls that are a different texture from the rest of the composition.   The frame of rolled paper adds focus to what is happening in the center.  The group also thought there was visual harmony and the principle of closure, which was reinforced by the frame and shadows cast on the wall.  In composition, there was a strong algorithmic influence and a perception of depth.  They saw a tunneling affect like a train tunnel or subway.  The elevation of the small square added more than leaving it flat.  The composition was better with the frame than without because it added more dimension to the piece.  As for the book, the craftsmanship was good and professional looking overall.  I had used a variety of textures and the texture I chose was the most effective for my composition. 



3D Videos: Monologue, Uncomfortable, and Live

A very sad story.....

This was my third attempt.  The first two were really bad.  It was hard for me to get used to being in front of the camera, so I decided to talk about something I felt strongly about.  My sad story of living in a home under construction was easy because all the props were already there.

Watching...watching...watching...

I thought about this one for days before I started filming.  I thought about the evil eye or someone just watching you, so I tried a close up shot with a wide open eye for more drama.  I liked the fact that it was out of focus.  I spent a lot of time trying to make this one better.  For some reason there was always some noise in the background that interrupted the silence and I could never hold my eye open this long again.  I thought the sound of the bird was a little eery, so if I had to go with a noise it was better than the ice maker.

Live performance...Nerf

For my live performance, I thought about doing some paper cutting but as I rehearsed, it was boring and I wasn't having fun.  I remembered taking my kids to see Shamu at Fiesta Texas and they threw water on the crowd in front.  This gave me the idea to engage the audience.  My first thought was to use a water cannon but couldn't find one and so I thought about using a nerf gun.  Everybody loves nerfs and so I rehearsed a skit that would incorporate playfully shooting the audience with nerf darts.  I thought this would be fun for everyone.

2D Playful/Periodic Critique

Critique by Lauren M, Ryan C, Josh B, Milah M, and Cara W

Playful and periodic were clearly represented, however, periodic had an element of playful also in the tiny offset square.  It would definitely read as clearly if the two were not next to each other.  They saw continuance and proximity in both.  In playful, continuance was seen in the eye being guided to the smaller squares and proximity by the tension that is created in the possible toppling of them.  In periodic, they saw continuance and proximity for the same reason.  Both were created because of the effect of movement inward to the center and the tension the that it caused.  The frame on both was a strength, but especially the periodic as it becomes part of the composition.  There was good use of positive and negative space to convey the message and both were asymmetrical.  However, I do see symmetry in the periodic because of repetition.  The craft had good clean edges and was consistent with Part 1.  The improvements they offered were to darken the shapes more.  The recommendations for the text/texture project were the question mark or the periodic squares.

3D Final Cardboard Critique

Pine Cone  Mission Accomplished!

I will never look at a pine cone the same way again.  This was a very detailed project but I enjoyed the process.  The critique was buzzing with creative energy and I learned so much from seeing through everyone else's eyes.  My comfort zone has been in realism but I have been wanting to experiment with abstraction. 
 

Loved the scale!

Amber loves her fuzzy wuzzy

Critique by Lauren M, Ryan C., Josh B, Milah M, and Cara W.

Integration
The group said that the parts worked well together and that I had gotten the point across successfully.  I found that I lost the rhythm of the graduation of petal size at the end of the first third and then again toward the top.  I think I was working too closely and not taking time to stop and evaluate my next step.

Craft
It was decided that the texture was good and was crafted very close to the real object.  I noticed the more I handled the petals and abused them, the more realistic they looked.  In my own critique, I saw that I needed more petals at the center for fullness.

Abstraction
Not much abstraction here.



September 25, 2010 Lecture and Reading

the schisms of isms

It's photography's fault.  It changed art by opening up a world of new possibilities in compositional form for artists.  Since photography took over recording the past, artists had to create themselves anew if they wanted to eat.  This they did very successfully.  Artists moved away from idealism and the use of strict formalist elements toward realism and subject matter of everyday life.  Artists began painting not how objects look but how they feel.  This was a time of intense experimentation and excitement for artists.  Of course these movements are not actually so clearly divided, but here it is in a nutshell.

Impressionism:

• France in early 1860s
• Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Degas
• Rejected formalist rules of the past
• Captured a moment in time, like photography, but painting did what photography couldn't
• About color and light

Post-Impressionism:

• France 1880-1905
• Wanted art to be more substantial
• Two groups:  Neoclassical - formal and scientific design through planes of color.  Seurat and Cezanne

                                       Romantic - emotions and sensations through color and light. Gauguin, van Gogh, and
                                                 Lautrec

Modern art grew out of these movements.  The focus in twentieth century art was more on inner vision than on physical reality.  Artists had the freedom to express art through their own experiences and imagination.  This brought about the rejection of precisely representing nature and moving toward the emotion of pure abstraction.  The isms continue:

Fauvism:

• France - Short period but influential for future 1904-1908
• Matisse, Derain, Dufy, Vlaminck, Rouault, Braque
• Express emotions through COLOR that does not reflect nature, distorted forms, flat, linear pattern
• Influences were Post-Impressionist and African art

Cubism:

• Pure form 1908-1914
• Picasso, Braque, Gris, and Leger
• Two phases:  Analytic reduced objects to fragments and used subdued color for less distraction.  Synthetic employed the use of found objects, dismantling them, and reassembling into a new expression called collage.

Futurism:

• Italy 1909
• Boccioni, Balla, Carra, Russolo, and Severini
• Combined Fauvism's color and Cubist's planes to create the force, movement, and speed of the industrial age.
• Died with Boccioni, the most influential artist of this movement

Constructivism:

• Russia 1914
• Revolutionary art
• Construct art not create it
• Abstract and geometric to reflect modern age of technology

Precisionism:

• America 1920s
• Sheeler, Demuth, O'Keeffe
• Ashcan School changed from fantasy to real life subject matter.
• Others had a new ideas about form
• Range between representation to abstraction

 Expressionism:

• Germany 1905-1930
• Art about feeling
• Two groups:  Die Brucke means "bridge" as in to the future.  Distorted simple forms, clashing colors,   intense emotions, Kirchner and Nolde.  Der Blaue Reiter, the Blue Rider, pure abstraction, uses color to convey emotions, Kandinsky and Klee
• Kandinsky develops two types of paintings:  conscious compositions and intuitive improvisations
• Klee simple, ambiguous childlike forms, studied hieroglyphs and cave paintings

                              

Dutch expressionism:

• Mondrian 1917-1931
• Totally obliterated emotion and nature from art
• De Stijl "The Style"
• Neo-Plasticism - extreme geometry, precision, and mechanical order

To be continued...