Olive Juice

Have you ever heard of people saying olive juice instead of I Love You.  If you watch someone say it, it actually looks like they are saying I Love You.  It's kind of one of our things from time to time, so when I had to design three posters for one of my classes, it came to mind.  The posters are movie posters advertising a fictitious autobiographical romantic comedy.  Want to see what I came up with?

The idea of them is to use a phoot of ourselves and use Photoshop to manipulate it.  The first poster has to make use of changing our photo.  The second has to change another aspect of the images and focus on color painting.  The third poster must use glyphs.  all three must have underlying similarities and be considered part of a series.  My favorite is the third poster because I taught myself this very cool comic book technique.  I only wish it had not taken so long to do.  Do to time constraints I did not have time to add Mr. Fantastic to this one.  Perhaps this will be a free time type of thing!
Loves!!!

Good Design vs. Great Design - A visual example

Hello everyone, and Happy Weekend!!  Hooray!  Sorry I have been so crazy busy.  I worked a lot of overtime this week and still had to do school and whatnot.  Speaking of school, I have a design to share with you.  I wanted to share an example of how I bring my designs from good to great.

 

 

 I completed some edits that really make it look a lot better.  I messed with the images to add some inner and outer glow as well as a drop shadow and bevel.  I think this makes them pop a little more while not looking like they are floating off the page.  I muted the background color to provide more contrast between it and the foreground.  I changed up the font color for the quote because I really wanted it to be navy blue and was told it looked black.  The contrast is a lot stronger now and makes for better readability.  I also messed with the inner shadow to make it a little more dynamic and match up with the images better.  As for the part, "act like an animal"  I changed the font as well as the font color.  I think this helps with the hierarchy and puts a better emphasis on the entire message I am portraying here.  I want people to act like the animals that do not lie!  Next, I changed to position of that phrase to make it more a part of what was being said.  I wanted to unify it with the quote and did so by placing it next to it.  The differences in color help to keep each part separate.  Lastly, I brought the text closer to the center to give the format a better top to bottom balance.  By doing this I also created negative shapes that echo each other - the negative "L" shape on top of the design flips over and repeats at the bottom of the design.

If anyone has any further suggestions, they would be greatly appreciated!!

Loves!!!

Critique Me: Shape and Space

This project turned out way better than I expected it to.  I spent a lot of time perfecting it.  The goal was to create a collage image that emphasized shape and space.  Below the image you can find explanations for what we should be thinking about while creating this.  Basically, the way that I understood it was that the placement of each element was supposed to represent it's distance from the viewer.  Things that I are smaller are further away.  Things that are behind other things are further away.  We also were to make sure that our positive shape and negative shapes were balanced at 50% each.  Come Wednesday, I will have to explain myself and critique my own work.  I'd love to hear some constructive criticism from my readers before I critique it myself!  Let me know what you think of this:

• Spatial Plane: The spatial plane is the area that your design will be composed within. It is made from the dimensions of height and width. In this case, your spatial plane is 8.5" x 11".
• Shape: Shape is the illusion of three-dimensional form, created with value, and without the benefit of line work.
• Positive and Negative Space:
  • Positive space is defined as the subject matter in your collage. This will be defined by the images that you choose. For each positive space element, find an image that you can cut along the edge, thus defining the shape of the image.
    
    Be sure that your images are of large enough scale that they will work well in your composition. Images that are too small will not work, as you will need too many of them to properly balance your composition.
    
    Use great caution when cutting your positive space images. Cut cleanly to the edge of the subject using your X-Acto knife. Be sure to use a cutting surface under your image to protect your working area.
  • Negative space is defined as the space that you will place your positive space images on, and relates to the mid-ground and background. Build your negative space as you would a background to lay your positive space images on, and build your composition from the bottom up. Your positive and negative space should be balanced at about 50% positive space over 50% negative space background.
• Composition: Composition refers to the visual balance within your collage. Will you use elements of symmetry, asymmetry, repetition, rhythm? How will you find visual balance within your composition using your cut shapes? Your composition should be visually balanced with a good ratio of 50% positive image and 50% negative space as a general rule of thumb.
• Compositional planning: Before you glue anything down, play with your shapes and backgrounds to find the very best visual balance.
• Scale: Scale relates to the size of the positive images within the composition. To create a well-balanced composition, have elements that are in the foreground, mid-ground, and background of the composition. Remember, things that are in the foreground are larger than in the mid-ground, and smaller in the background.
• Proximity: Proximity refers to the spatial relationship of one shape or object to another.
• Overlap: Images that overlap create the illusion of space. The shape or object in front that overlaps an image in the mid-ground or background creates the illusion of space because of this overlap.
• Image resources: Magazines, brochures, periodicals, junk mail. Find photographic images that are bold and large that you can incorporate into your collage. A minimum of three images and maximum of eight images (including one or two background images) will be sufficient. You may also use found materials, such as foil, string, and textural surfaces to incorporate into your collage.

Let Me Explain

 

The very first thing that I did for this project was start researching quotes.  I chose the theme of design/art because I really wanted to emphasize the elements and principles of design and have a chance to practice them again in a very obvious way.  As I mentioned before, I believe that the most important element of design is line, so when I came across this quote that spoke of line, I knew that it would be perfect and offer a lot of options for a poster design. 
The first thing that I decided upon was a color scheme.  I chose to use a triadic color scheme to create a strong visual contrast. In a triadic color scheme, the colors create good contrast (I love contrast) but also remain harmonious and compliment each other.  Not one color calls for more attention than another.  Through experimenting, I discovered that it was best to choose one primary color in my palette and use less of the other two colors.  This helped keep the focus on the important part - the quote itself.  I also decided to add in a neutral color for more interest without being overpowering.
My original thoughts about ways to illustrate the quote involved a box, but it seemed too cliche.  I happened to look at some notes I had laying on the table and realized that I have a bad (or good?) habit of writing on lined paper but not writing in the lines of the paper.  This stood out to me as an excellent way to give more meaning to the quote.  I knew that I would have to incorporate this idea into the poster design.  I continued to brainstorm other ways that I could illustrate not staying within the lines.  I came back to the idea of the box and realized that the outside format of the poster could serve as a box and I could create an illusion that my design continues outside of the box.
This idea brought me to yet another idea of repetition.  I knew that my quote was not long enough or popular enough to only use one time if I wanted it to extend beyond the edges of the design.  I would need it to repeat several ties so that the audience would be able to read each word of the quote and piece it all together in the correct order to understand the concept.  I decided to write the quote repeatedly within a text-box larger than the format of my design so that each visible line of text would have a slightly different placement than the ones before it or after it, guaranteeing that each word of the quote would at some point be visible within the design format. 
In the end, I manipulated each line of text so that I could highlight a word on each line in a way that made the entire quote readable in one flowing line. The highlighted text runs from the top left corner and curves around the poster in a way that defys normal left-to-right reading habits but at the same time, it demands to be read in a proper sentence because of the emphasis that the bright pink places on the text. 
To imitate the curving pink text, I chose to curve each line of text as well.  This creates a peaceful rhythm that, starting from the top of the design, seems to ripple down the poster to the bottom, again bringing the eye from top to bottom and reenforcing the readability.  I chose a font that incorporates line in order to once again bring to surface this important element of design.  To show hierarchy within the text, I used a couple techniques: 1) I made some words a larger point size than others (You Don't Have To, and LINES).  I also made these words in all uppercase letters. And  2) I used color to color in the word lines to emphasis it.  Lastly, I chose to make that color go outside the lines of the word "LINES" to complete the emphasis on line and to prove the point of the quote.

No Matter What

Here is my latest project for school:

Have a lovely weekend!

Loves!!!

Design Principles

Hey all, did you all have a great week?  My week was super busy and out of the ordinary.  I worked a crazy shift that I am not used to.  The great thing about this week was that I was working for a different section of the company like I will be doing for a while more.  I learned so much this week about my job.  It was truly exciting and amazing.  I got to see so many things that I had never before seen.  I love this! 
This week was also my 4th week of classes.  It's hard to believe that we are already almost half-way through the term.  I thought I would share with you a really simple assignment that we had in my design fundamentals class.  Let me know what you think of it!

Upper Left – Rhythm/Movement

I’m interested in progressive rhythm. Starting at the top of the design and going toward the middle, soft background lines appear closer and closer until meeting and then begin pulling further apart again as the eye continues to the bottom of the design. This rhythm involves repletion of lines, however the lines ( or rectangular white negative space shapes) are changing in a regular manner that creates a progressive rhythm with a calming effect that is enhanced by the horizontal lines. Where the lines converge in the center, it creates a visual focal point enhanced by the addition of the darker jagged line that crosses through the design. While the horizontal lines create a peaceful effect, the jagged line creates a sense of motion. The line begins on the left and travels to the right. As it pulls our eye across the design, the line change abruptly at each point and begins traveling in a new direction. The diagonal slices suggest rushed and impulsive movement. The overall design is balanced in two ways. First, it is balanced between calming and jarring. Second, it is balanced by a dynamic combination of top to bottom symmetry in the background, and left to right asymmetry in the foreground.

Upper Right: Emphasis

In this design, the light value of the letter R is in complete contrast to the rest of the elements. It is centered in the design. Obviously, it is the focal point of the design. The use of a letter helps in creating this focal point. The subtle use of lines coming in from the edges of the design leads our eyes to the center as well. As one last use of emphasis, a bold dark shape that resembles a comic book style thought cloud or a star-like sparkle surrounds the letter R. The viewer’s eyes are first drawn to the center of the design, then they follow the directional points toward the edge of the design as they would follow an arrow , are finally brought back into the center through the subtle lines and once again focus on the emphasized focal point – the letter R.

Lower Left: Scale

To enunciate scale, this design uses both large scale and small scale to directly oppose each other. Initially the eye is drawn to the large white circles heavily contrasted by the black background. There is an obvious diagonal separation running from lower left to upper right where the black background gradually becomes a white background through the use of pointillism. This transition draws the eye upward to the smaller scale black dots that that gradually decrease in number the closer the eye comes to the top left corner of the design. Balance is obtained through the amount of texture and value on the opposing sides of the diagonal. The combination of asymmetry, pointillism, value transition, and repetition creates a unified design.

Lower Right: Proximity/Repetition

The proximity of the tightly grouped line combinations in the center of the design create the focal point or main component of the design. As the shapes ripple outward, they grow further apart and less defined. This creates less of a draw to the eye. Despite the change in shape as the eye moves outward, there is still a repetitive implication through the use of curves that imitate the initial shape running through the center of the design. Adding more visual interest, the soft stripes of the background repeat the vertical lines that format the edges of the design. This subtle mimicking of the formatted edges in close correlation to the calmness of a ripple, the repetitive elements of this design combine to create a soft design that also mimics a cloudlike shape of weightless dreamlike tranquility.

I'm super excited for this weekend.  Tomorrow night, my friend is coming over so that we can work on decorations for the party we are having on Saturday.  It is a gender reveal party for some friends who don't yet know the gender of the baby they are having.  My friend that is coming to help me decorate and I are the only ones that know!  Super exciting!
I hope your weekend is just as wonderful!
Loves!!!

Regarding Being a Designer

As designers we have an intended message.  Do we always get that message across?  No.  However, there are certain things we do that increase the likelihood of getting the intended message across.  The most important thing we can do is to know our audience.  Without knowing our audience, there is no way to understand our message in the same way that they will understand it.  Often times we don't necessarily have commonalities with the audience so research becomes an important part of the design process.  We must research not only our message, but our audience.  We must know their culture, what they find funny, what they find sad, what angers them, makes them smile, interests them, turns them away.  Each design project that we set out to complete must begin with visits to a library, surfing the internet, or immersing yourself within the audience.  Success as a designer depends upon this.
Unity is the most important of all the design principles.  Without unity, a piece feels lost and broken.  Each part of a work of art must have a purpose.  Each brush stroke, each line, each hue, each subject within the piece is there for a reason This purpose or reason is what causes unity within a piece.  Without purpose and reason, each element of the piece serves simply as an individual part rather than an entire whole.  My example of unity is the picture of all the hands interlocking.  Separately they are just hands, but together they are a web of support and unity.

Line is the most important design element.  It is the simplest form of design but without it, nothing else would exist.  Lines or the combination of multiple lines create shape, pattern, texture, space, motion, and value.  Now you don't need line to create color, but color is also just the cherry on top of the ice-cream sunday....it doesn't make or break the sunday, but it makes it just a little better.  In sticking with this analogy, line on the other hand is the ice cream.  You can't have a sunday without the ice-cream.  Without the ice cream, it's just toppings; it's just the extra stuff that makes the sunday a sunday instead of a basic bowl of ice cream.  The example image I chose for demonstrating this concept shows merely a bunch of lines.  However, each of the lines combines into a shape. The lines create a pattern and texture. The shapes create texture as well.  The positioning of the shapes creates motion and an illusion of space as the shapes move back and forth in front of you coming closer and then receding into the distance.  without the simple line, none of this would be possible.
Source
Well, I hope you have a wonderful start to your week.  Wish me luck in starting my new position tomorrow.  I'm a little nervous and have no real idea of what to expect.  Scary!!
Loves!!!

Regarding My Communication Style

I'm very fortunate that I work in a very informal environment most of the time.  My situation is also very unique.  Although I am no longer in the military, the majority of the people that I work with are prior military as well and we have all moved to the middle of nowhere for this job.  Although we have our immediate families such as spouses and children around us, we all serve as each others extended families and as friends.  All the friends that I have, I also work with.  My best friend is actually my boss' wife.  My boss is actually my fiance's best friend where we live.  So, the question of whether or not my communication style changes according to my setting doesn't apply as directly to me as it does to others.  I am around the same people in each environment and they all know me very well so it would strike them as quite strange if I acted differently in one place or the other.  I've been in this type of situation for many years now.  During my time in the service it was the same, and since I got out, I've worked in the same type of job, really the last time that I had a "normal" separation between work and home was high school ten years ago.  Back in high school I was a cheerleader, a member of the spirit club, the pep club, student council, debate, color-guard, dance, and drama.  I was very outgoing!  Although I can't remember all the details, I'm pretty sure that even then I was the same way.  I was just as enthusiastic at home as I was at school, as I was as a member of all those things, as I was at my part time job working in a restaurant.  My communication style really hasn't changed since then either.
How do you communicate?  Do you have a specific style that fits you best?  Do you communicate differently at work than you do at school or at home or in a social setting?
Loves!!!

Concerning Privacy and Reputation

A discussion topic in my Sociology class was in regards to the internet and social networking taking the place of communicating with loved ones.  The discussion was based on a study that shows a rapid decline over the last 20 years of people within the same household communicating about important topics.  My response was this:

If social scientists are reporting this to be true, I have no choice but to believe it.  I do however, feel that it is quite unfortunate and sad.  Communication used to be such a high valued skill as well as a favored pastime.  I think it is ironic that internet usage (especially with the invent of social networking) has been the link to lower levels of communication and social contact.  One huge point of the internet is quick and efficient communication, but apparently it is just making it easier for people to remove themselves from social contact because all the answers to their questions are at the tips of their fingers instead of ringing through their ears during a conversation. 
Although I am a huge fan of the internet and social networking of all sorts, I don't believe that these findings really apply to me.   I continue to make efforts to verbally communicate with friends and family.  Being that I live so far away from a lot of them, I use the telephone and snail mail as much as possible.  I have a blog that my family stays up to date with and we also talk about a lot of the stuff that I blog about in more detail on the phone.  Sites like facebook are tools for me to remember things more than they are for me to communicate. 
I think that these conclusions are just the opposite of inevitable.  I would have assumed that it would go the opposite way.  I would have thought that internet and other technologies would increase communications between friends ans family.  It obviously makes it easier to communicate and much faster, so where is the disconnect?  Perhaps it is in the fact that people can now communicate at any time in the blink of an eye and they are no longer communicating with the important people in their lives because they are stuck online communicating with strangers instead.

My professors then addressed me with her concerns:
"Renay, are you at all concerned about privacy issues in communicating with your family through blogs. Potential employers now routinely search for social network sites when they consider applicants, and I understand that through them, they are able to get a better sense of the person they are hiring (or decide not to)."

I think it is an idea that requires some thought.  Way too many people share entirely too much on the internet simply because they can.  However, I don't feel that I need to be concerned and this is why:

When I started blogging I laid some ground rules for myself.  Each time that I create a new post, I ask myself questions about it to make sure that it abides by my ground rules.  Here are a few questions I ask:
1-Does this post promote a positive image of myself, my friends, my family, and others around me?
2-Does this post in some way show my talents, skills, positive character attributes, good values and morals?
3- Does this post share too much with the world that might be construed as too much information or unnecessary?
4- If necessary, does this post give credit to others who have inspired me, to people I have quoted, or to artists that I have shared?
5- I'm I proud to display my name next to this post?
My family is a very conservative Christian/Catholic family whom I have a great deal of respect for.  They know that I drink alcohol on occasion, smoke cigarettes, live with my boyfriend, and even curse (a horrible habit I picked up in the military), but I don't blog about these things out of respect for them.  I instead blog about art I have created, books that I have read, goals that I have, decorating our new house that we bought, things that inspire me, photo-shoots I have had, and things of that sort.  If I do share about a party I've hosted or a crazy adventure I have had, I make sure that all photos are tasteful, the language is appropriate for my grandmother to read, and again that it meets my ground rules. 
I work in a very small and specific field where most of the people that do the same thing throughout the country, wither know each other, work with someone that knows someone else, or have heard of someone.  In addition to that I hold a secret government issued civilian security clearance, so I know that my reputation is on the line perhaps more than most people.  However, I refuse to let that hinder my creative goals and aspirations as a creative mind in the blogging and social networking world.  I simply take it into consideration each time I get online.
What are your thoughts on this topic?  How do you feel about sharing things on your blog?  do you have any ground rules that you have when blogging?  I'd love to hear from you.
Have a great weekend!!
Loves!!!

Ciao! Italian Postcard

Pay it Forward!!! GIVEAWAY info and what's going on around here!

Hey all!  I just wanted to remind you of my Pay it Forward post I did a while ago.  If you are interested in this, let me know!  I want to make something special this you just for you.  If you would love some happy mail, comment on this post and then do the same thing for your followers!  I will then make something special and handmade just for you and send it to you before the year is up!  How wonderful does this sound?
I also want to let you know that in just a couple more posts, I will be doing a very special #200 post!  I have something great planned for this, and just a heads-up, there will be a really awesome GIVEAWAY during that post as well!  This will be just one of a few different Giveaways that I will be doing in the next few weeks so make sure to keep checking back.  You won't want to miss these ones! 
Today was my official last day of school for the semester!  Can I get a "hooray!!!!"  I was so happy to be done with this crazy semester.  It wasn't horribly hard, but I had to take a few classes I had no real interest in, so it was just a pain in the butt.  I've got a couple weeks off now before Summer classes start.  After my last final today, I went to sell my books back.  I turned in all of my textbooks and two of Mr. Fantastic's and all I got was $87!  Can you believe that?!?!  That was enough to pay for HALF of my Italian book for my first summer class that starts in June. 
This week is going to be slightly crazy.  I meant for it to be a calm week in which I got some rest and hung out at home doing nothing.  Well, that doesn't look like it is going to happen!  I was asked to come into work tonight for 5 hours and ended up working over 6.  Tomorrow our friend is coming by so we can go watch Thor.  I am also going to be doing some cleaning up around our really messy house.  It has gotten out of control the last few weeks because we have been so busy.  Wednesday I have to work again!  Thursday and Friday will be dedicated to some more cleaning up and some really long-awaited crafty projects.  I have to work Friday as well as all weekend.  Then it will be time to pack up and head to Michigan for a week!  I'm so excited to see my family.  I really miss them. 
Well, I hope that you all have a wonderful week.  Don't forget to let me know if you want to be a recipient of Pay it Forward, and please keep checking in throughout the next few weeks, as I will have some special posts and several updates, plus giveaways!!!!

Loves!!!

[Working On] Sunday: My Final Process Book

Hooray!  The semester is almost complete!  I only have one more final exam tomorrow.  As you well know, I have been working my butt off on my Process Book for my design class.  I worked tirelessly on it for weeks - wait, MONTHS!  Despite how much work I put into it, I still spent hours upon hours working on it this past week.  I worked on it all day on Thursday, did not go to bed, continued working on it all night, and then finally finished it on Friday just before noon!  I don't know, maybe I put too much work into it!  I feel like a lot of people were shocked when I told them how much time I spent on mine.  They acted like I spent way more time than them, and yet theirs turned out great!  Frustrating!  Oh well, I am super excited to finally share my final project with you.  I won't show all of the pages, but I will put up quite a few of them.  Feel free to leave me some constructive criticism.  I can't become a better designer if I don't know what I need to work on!  Thanks so much.

 

my cover (forgive me for the watermarks)

If I had designed my cover during the 80's

If I had designed my cover in the 70's

If I had designed my cover in the 60's

If I had designed my cover in the 50's

If I had designed my cover in the 40's

[Working On] Tuesday: Website Design

At the very beginning of the semester we were given a semester-long project of creating a website.  Now, I could have taken the easy route and used the school computers that have iWeb, but I hate being at the school outside of class time.  I would much rather be home with the Pugly puppy and Mr. Fantastic.  Instead I decided that I would use Dreamweaver.  Mind you, I had never used Dreamweaver before and I pretty much had to teach myself with a little help from YouTube!  Let me warn you that this is not a recommended way to learn this complicated software program.  A lot of blood, sweat, and tears went into my stupid website!  In the end though, I am fairly pleased with the outcome!  I would really love for some of you awesome designers to check it out.  Tell me what you think.  Give me some feedback- constructive criticism is very welcomed.  Did I do anything wrong or what would you have done differently?
The guidelines for the website were:
1)  Had to be about web-art more than about information
2)  At least 20 pages
3)  Incorporate some way of documenting something personal and interesting in our lives
4)  and I know there were more, but they were so insignificant that they were easy to follow and don't even require a bullet point!
I decided to do my website on color.  Color is so important in my life and I couldn't imagine how sad I would be if I ever became color-blind.  I am greatful everyday that I have the ability to see in color.  This website explores the various things in my life that are important to me of each of the main colors.  I also included the scientific information that makes each color what it is.  There is also music too!  All of the music is royalty-free and each color comes from a different genre of music.  The music reflects how each color makes me feel!  So, here you go, the link:
Colors!!

Have a lovely week!  I'll be very busy studying as it is finals week, but the good news is that I have plenty of creative stuff to do as part of final projects.  I'll be passing along my final process book for you all to see toward the end of the week.  Look for it Friday, although it might take me the weekend to have it posted.
Loves!!!

Jackson Pollock Review

I never really considered Jackson Pollock to be an artist.  I always found his work to be as the early critiques called it:  a mop of tangled hair.  Perhaps that was merely because I only looked at is as critiques had looked at it.  After watching Pollock (2006) I think I can finally see it for what it is.  Jackson Pollock’s work was actually brilliant.

            The film began when Pollock was still a starving artist simply trying to get by in New York while painting with the inspiration of cubists and surrealists.  At that point, Pollock was still using large brushes in their conventional way, and at times, even the paint tube as his means of applying paint to the canvas.  The audience is taken through several periods of Pollock’s life.  Throughout all of it, Pollock suffers from alcoholism, which later becomes his demise.   The plot of the film is centered around his struggle to develop a unique style of his own that will be seen as worthwhile by critiques.  His wife, Lee, is constantly encouraging him while his friend and art critique, Clement, seems to constantly provide constructive criticism that pushes Pollock forward and urges him to come up with something better all the time.

            In the film, Pollock is characterized as a reclusive, drunk painter with a mighty temper.  He seems to despise Picasso as he struggles to be a cubist himself.  His world begins to fall apart around him as he carries on with binge drinking and excessive partying.  Each time he hits bottom, he finally wakes up from his drunken stupors, and realizes what is important to him [his wife and his painting].  Each time he begins painting again with a new-found inspiration, passion, and sometimes even a new technique.  This cycle is repeated four or five times throughout the film until he has no hope left, stops painting all together, and in the end, he becomes so broken down by the alcohol and so depressed by his actions that he “accidentally” crashes his car while drunk, killing himself and his mistress’ friend. 

            Pollock falls into the compartmentalized art movement of abstract expressionism.  However, he seems to have a style all his own.  Although his work appears to literally be paint thrown carelessly on a canvas, it goes deeper than that.  All of his works are carefully rendered.  Each drip or splat of paint was thought about and placed with a controlled gesture.  This is possibly why his artwork has been called action painting or gesture painting.  He used his entire body to approach his canvases from all sides as they sprawled out on the floor for him to walk around, through, and over in such a way that he could actually be part of the paintings themselves.  In this way, he was able to express everything that he felt and went through in his short life. 

            The film, Pollock, was very well produced and directed.  The actors portrayed their characters in such a believable fashion that I could finally understand the passion that went into Pollock’s work.  Before watching it, I had no idea what Pollock was attempting to paint, but the film got all of this across.  It seemed very believable and I found myself relating to him as an artist.  The time-period was depicted in a very real sense.  Each detail from the clothing to the way the grocery store looked portrayed a very real American dream of the 1940’s and early 50’s.  The focus was obviously placed on the artist’s biography because it had such a huge impact on his paintings.  I can now see the anger, the confusion, the attempts to be something great, and the passion that he held in his works.  

            In Pollock’s time, it seems as though there was almost a race going on; there was a race to be original and come up with something new that was not done before.  Emphasis was no longer on classical training such as perspective and realistic approaches.  In his time, it was all about feelings, emotions, and expressing the soul through paint.  This was very apparent when he was asked, “How do you know when you are finished with a painting?” and he answered, “How do you know when you are finished making love?”  Painting was his life and all the other bits and pieces fell into place around his painting.  Even his wife took a backseat to his painting at times.  When Pollock received negative criticism, he got angry and that fueled his need to paint even more feverishly to produce even better works as if to prove himself as not only a worthwhile artist, but as a worthwhile person too. 

            By the end of the film I felt as though I knew Pollock.  I was excited for him when things went well, and I felt bad for him when they did not.  I began to actually consider him an artist.  When he got to the point at the end of the film, where he was so drunk and broken that he drove his car recklessly off the road and was killed, I had tears in my eyes.  I wanted to yell at the screen that he had so much more within himself to give the world.  I’d say that makes a good film.  Within the two hours of watching the film, I went from not considering him an artist, to being upset that his life was cut short because I wanted to see what more could come from such an amazing and dedicated artist. 

[Working On] Thursday: Updated Cover

So right after I posted up pictures of my process book cover, I looked at it again and realized how unfinished it looked.  I decided to mess around with it some more and experiment a little bit with some other options.  Here it is now:

One thing that we are supposed to include are layouts inspired by the different decades in design.  This was really hard for me to wrap my mind around as I already had a really great layout developed.  All of my pages are laid out in the same way and are very organized.  I found it difficult to change that up too much, so I instead decided to include a section in the book called "What If..."  What if is a question that we have been encouraged to ask continuously.  What if I do this instead of that?  What if I use another color here?  What if I put everything on one page?  The list of what if's goes on and on.  In recognition that design should never stop at just one outcome, I think this section is really important to my book of process.  The section will include other solutions to the projects we were given and a special focus will be given to the decades of design inspiration through asking, "What if I designed the cover in a different decade?  Then what would it look like?
So far I have an 80's take on my cover:

 

Alright, now I absolutely must begin a movie review paper that is due tomorrow.  I will share that later when it is complete, but as a little tease I will say that the movie is called Pollock and is about the amazing artist Jackson Pollock.  The movie was pretty great!  I have a new appreciation for him, that's for sure.  Have a lovely night!!

Loves!!!

[Working On] Wednesday: Process Book Cover

It's been a couple weeks since I have done a Working On post.  Truth is that I haven't had a whole lot of anything interesting that I am working on.  However, I have been polishing my process book.  I took a lot of inspiration from this adorable spread:

Isn't the color choice so pretty?  I love the playfulness of it all.  The type is to die for and the colors are so edible!  this is what I have come up with so far:

I'm really trying to implement the idea of hierarchy.  Do you think this is a good representation of hierarchy?  If you can't tell, I want Process to be the most important thing you see on my cover, followed by my name, and finally a little blip about why process is so important in design.  Does this make sense?  I hope so.  I'm trying to decide if I want to change it up even more though....

this is really beautiful!  I absolutely love this.  I have to ask myself how much is too much though.  Although this gives off a hand-drawn feel and relates to the rough drafts throughout the process of design, I'm not sure it gives the finish, polished effect that I want for the cover of my book.  Make sense?  It sure is beautiful though.  Maybe I can find a way to incorporate it in another way.  Maybe, maybe not!

Well, I sure hope your Easter celebrations were fun and springy.  Have a fantastic week!
Loves!!!

Digital Analysis Essay: What is Web-Art?

     The idea of web art strikes me as quite interesting.  As an artist that is currently studying art history, web art seems very radical.  The fact that I can be sitting in my own home and experience art via the internet in such a way that I can be moved just as much as if I was in an art gallery seems strange.  And yet, it is possible because of technology and because of the human imagination.  In today’s world, if an artist can imagine something, they can make it happen.  Our imaginations have grown so much with the advent of technologies like the internet and digital mediums that we are no longer bound by conventional ideas of what art is.

            With internet art, the audience is no longer expected to be stagnant when taking in the creative aesthetics of art.  Where the audience was once a group of wealthy, well educated, and artistically trained scholars walking quietly through an exhibit, and either nodding politely or turning up their noses in disbelief and protest, the audience now consists of everyone with any access to a computer, from any walk of life, with any amount of education or artistic experience or inexperience.  Art and the idea of art takes on a completely different meaning, and the question of what art is, no longer has one determined answer.  The once stagnant audience is now encouraged to interact with art, and to become a part of the process in making it.  The art is no longer finished by the artist, but by the audience that interacts with the artistic presentation.  The audience then becomes the artist.

            In my studio art courses, the process of making art is stressed.  We have looked deeply into the ways in which we go about making art and why we make certain choices along the way toward a final product.  When it comes to any type of media art, and especially web art, the process must be above all else, the most important part of the piece of work.  With web-art, the challenge is to not only see the outcome through your eyes as the artist, but to see it through the eyes of your audience. 

            Gallery 9 at the Walker Art Museum is an interesting site that includes web-based art.  The site incorporates the viewer extensively.  The collection of works can be seen in any order and allows the audience to make several choices.  Some of the art is simply a picture or presentation while other pieces allow the audience to delve further.  This gives the audience a sense of responsibility or importance.  Society leads us to believe that we can do whatever we want to do.  A sense of individualism is very strong.  Because of this way of life, most audiences want to make their own decisions, and this site lets the audience do just that.  The audience chooses what they want to look at and for how long they want to look at it.  The audience is very much in control throughout their experience and interaction on this site. 

            Michael Ray-Von has another interesting site, although, his site is not as wonderful as Gallery 9.  I appreciate the site as a whole because it incorporates a few different mediums, but it does not seem very expressive when considering the ideas behind web-art.  The site is interactive in that you decide which piece to look at, but most of the links are to stagnant art that does not have any specific meaning when placed within the site.  It seems more like a simple portfolio of some of the artist’s pieces instead of one piece of artwork that is interactive and ready for an audience to view as a whole.  Each piece is of its own standard and own message.  For the most part, I was slightly disappointed.

            My most favorite site for a good demonstration of what web-art is, was Oliver Laric’s site.  Although each link takes you to a specific project (similar to a portfolio), once you arrive at the project, you get to see all of the different ideas the artist tried.  You are immersed into the artist’s process. This to me is an important aspect of art in general and especially web-art because it is what makes the experience personal.  The audience does not just look at one piece of art and walk away, they instead can begin to understand what the artist is thinking when he creates his artwork.  The audience gets a sense of participating in the process and can use their imagination to decipher the meaning and messages that the artist feels are important.

            By looking through these three sites, we can better understand web-art.  They are each very different in their approach to artistic ways of communicating, in their approach to involving the audience, and in their approach to voicing their processes.  Each site is unique in that they each go about answering the question of what art is in a different fashion.  However, each site represents the new era of artistic approach very well.  After all, the new era of using art and time to communicate a message, is based around the audience participation.  This era of art is far different from the audience taking a back seat in their stiff-collard dress clothes; it brings the audience into the driver’s seat with a relaxed style, and forces them to pay attention to everything around them when viewing the works.  No longer does art only incorporate the visual senses, but in now incorporates the auditable and the physical senses as well.  Web-art gives art as a whole, an entirely new meaning, a new definition, and a new basis for formulating thought.  Web-art is proof that the imagination is an artist’s only limiter.