Identity Essentials

I chose to represent the body as a spirit. I interpreted spirit to mean the embodiment of an emotion or feeling.  I wanted to portray a forlorn or lonely spirit for this assignment.  I chose to feature the face (that's part of the body 8D ) , especially the eye has that is where the spirit is supposed to reside.

Exquisite Corpse

 City women wacks hairy walk hard.

 Dark Flower kicking a smokey black mom.

An eyelash expanding and leaping city on a cloud pathway -- old.

Dark Flower kicking a smoky black mom,

City women wacks hairy walk hard.

An eyelash expanding and leaping city on a cloud pathway -- old.

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Colors

I think these would be fun to redo in weird colors. But I'm not sure.

Photo Photo Photo

1. I took this photo of my younger sister during winter break. We were on an excursion to Galveston as a last hurrah before the spring semester started. I saw her standing tall, posing like some kind of hero, on top of this WW2 bunker while we were exploring. So I quickly snapped this shot. I keep it because it reminds me of the great time we all had. I also thought it was an interesting image. I like the texture created by the clouds and tree branches. The stark color contrast is also appealing to me. I chose it for this assignment because I liked her dramatic stance and the composition of the image.

The subject in this photo is  my little sister.  I’m not sure if that influenced how I took this picture. I saw her posing in a way I thought was humorous and took the photo.  I think I would have been amused and photographed any random person I saw posing like this. However, because it is my sister I will definitely remember it longer. It has more meaning for me. It reminds me how fun and dorky my little sister is. My sister was clearly trying to pose for a camera she knew we would bring out once we saw her.
This photo is intended to be viewed mainly by the other friends and family. It is something that would be shared during family gatherings for  a couple minutes or so. I believe I will remember this photo in ten years.  It’s a fun picture to look at and all.

2. This photograph was taken by my sister has a momento of a fabulous trip to the Houston Zoo. I keep it because of the personal memories it brings forth every time I see it. I chose it for this assignment because it was a picture I enjoyed that someone else took of me (…and a few other people). I liked the lines created in the image and the very bright lighting.

My older sister took this photo of me and my friends. I enjoy this photo because I feel it captured the bright and happy mood everyone was feeling. Everyone was smiling or making silly faces at the camera. It was a very jovial time.

This photo is meant to be viewed, again, by family and friends-- mainly, the friends who went to the zoo also. This photo is already a couple years old and I still enjoy looking at it. I surely will still have it and look at it often in ten years-- along with the other tons of pictures I or my family has taken. Who doesn’t like looking at photos of themselves?

3. I believe this photograph was actually taken for some sort of contest. I keep it on my computer because I enjoy the lovely texture created by the stones. The girl is mysterious, she looks forlorn has her clothes waft in the breeze. It just has a very intriguing atmosphere. I chose it for this assignment because it met the requirements, and I find the composition to be delightful and the subject poignant.

I feel that the photographer felt empathetic  towards the subject. It creates that forlorn and lonely atmosphere that I found so appealing. The subject looks lonely yet determined, while she avoids eye contact with the camera.

I believe this photo is meant to be viewed by a wide audience perhaps even at an art show. While I find this photograph to be beautiful, I am not likely to remember it in 10 years. I find that personal photographs have a longer lasting impression on myself.

 

Bio Map List 1

Here is the initial list for my bio map. I plan on making more lists later. 

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A. Path of location: Born in Humble, Texas. Lived in Porter, Texas (6yrs), NewCaney (2 months), Splendora (till present)

B. Relational path of those lived with for each location

1. The nature of the relationship: I have always lived with my family. Both parents and two sisters. We hare a close family bond.
1. Physical
2. Emotional
3. Spiritual
2. How those relationships changed from location to location and as you aged: These relationships have grown stronger and even if they have been strained at times too. Other than that, they haven't anger that much.
1. Significant things said to you that you can almost still hear in your head. Both p/n : I don't really remember any specifics at the moment. They have always been encouraging though.
1. Educational path--schools and for each list (be specific)
   considering early childhood, late, pre adolescence, adolescence, early adulthood – may project into future – adulthood, old, not dead yet, dead

After 3rd grade, I was homeschooled. This opened up various opportunities I otherwise would not have had. 

1. Significant peers [why?] both positive/negative: So many friends, acquaintances, and….frenemies were made throughout these school days (college included). There are a few that stand out more than others: Ashlee, Adrienne, Helen, Destiny, Kalo,Ryan, Chris, Lacy,  Shayna, Deidra, Brent, Nathan. Some of these had both positive and negative effects on my life. 
2. Significant adults [why?] both p/n: Of course my parents played an even larger role in my life once we began homeschooling. Mr. Reninger, a wonderful teacher and artist. Grandparents, librarians (sometimes negative and sometimes positive)
3. Significant things said to you that you can almost still hear in your head. Both p/n "You are a big fish in a small pond" ~ Prof. Julian Pinkston; " She's so inspirational" ~ Lacy
4. Significant objects [why?]: nerd paraphernalia? hats. I collect them. I almost wear them all the time. 
5. Significant cause [why?] I'm not sure what this even means. 
6. Experiences of loss or absence: Death of Grandparent, great grandparent, loss of friends, general depression caused by the unknown.
7. Experiences of joy or belonging: so many enjoyable times with family and friends. vacations, drawing, conventions.
1. Career path--- I'm still ON my career path. But I do have a job in the meantime. Actually I have two jobs. (Movie theatre and grocery store) Coworkers….they've been really, really, annoying at times. But others have made working an enjoyable experience.
• Mr. Dunn (boss at movies), Mr. Chris and Michelle (owners of grocery store) Earlene, Wesley. These guys are always looking out for me at work. They encourage me in my quest for an art degree.
• I don't remember any specific things said. But these guys are always encouraging me in my artistic endeavors.
2. Spiritual path: My spiritual path has gotten stronger overtime, as my beliefs became my own and not just what my parents.
3. Sexuality or gender evolution/path or relationship to the body

lol. I've always been comfortable in my own skin. I don't have anything else to say on this subject.

1. Pathway of achievements- academic achievements: won several awards for presentation and speech. Awards for my college gpa./ Horsemanship awards. /Art contest award./ Personal achievements: growth as an artist, personal battles won, princesses saved, ect.

1. Pathways of pain or crisis or loss- Coming out of a crisis makes one stronger. So it goes for me. 
2. Pathway of dreams or desires-  Art. Most of the educational decisions I have made revolve around my desire to create art. Most of my personal decisions revolve around this also. Continuously creating my own personal worlds is my continuous dream.

1. Other threads to possibly follow
1. Character- studious, weirdo, irresponsibly responsible.
2. Limitations- what are my limitations? money has a lot to do with them. 
3. Passion- I'm passionate about art and nerdy things.
4. Strengths- I can draw. |D Write. work hard.
5. Abilities and competencies-- same as above. I can climb trees.
6. Fears- I'm not an open person about these things. 
7. Hopes- Artist~
8. Calling- Artist
9. Understanding of people- they are so weird. People are ever changing. 
10. Understand of culture- it's such an interesting thing to study. i don't always understand it. But I like to observe it.
11. Understanding of heritage- I'm germanirishindianjewishwelshamerican. There's so much there. Thats too much work to look into. Sure, it's interesting. But I'm not overly passionate about understanding all of it.
12. Materialism- Clothes. Shoes. Love it. 

1. Goals~ I want to be able to create exactly what I see in my head. That has always been my goal. I want to  finish what I start, personal art wise, I want to be a prince.
2. Why do you want to be an artist, animator, designer (when did that desire begin; what fanned the flame and kept it going)-- This is more along the lines of what I want to my whole map to be about. What first fed the flames of passion was the stories my sisters and I created throughout the years. Because of these stories, I wanted to recreate them in a manner that others (my sisters mainly) could see my vision of these worlds. I became more interested in art because of this.

1. Within those three fields what specific things are you interested in? (when did the desire or compulsion begin; what fanned the flame and kept it going) I want to be a graphic designer and illustrator. These are two aspects of art that I have been interested in for along time. I love them both.

1. Are these changing? How so? Yes, the more experiences I have in the artsy world, the more I see and understand. Thus, my understanding changes. My feelings change.

1. Personal narrative, quotes, journal entries, poetry, song lyrics, etc: My idea is one using personal art and journal entries from various times in my life based off of stories created by my sisters and myself.

1. Show for relationships and connections; cause and effect: I could show the evolution and destruction of various friendships in my life. 

1. Consider chronological, geographical vs topical or some hybrid: Considered. I have considered combining a chronological map with my imaginative map.

"Work and Pray, Live on Hay"

 The final product ended up rather large. I wanted to create an interactive piece, so I designed a sort of tunnel that one could crawl through. I was pleased with how it turned out. While it was easy enough to put together, moving it was a strenuous ordeal. I would like to thank all of the students who kindly helped me cart it around.

 Texture was important. The inside of the tunnel had a shaven look and was sharp to the touch. The outside of the tunnel was softer and fluffier. I filled the tunnel floor withy loose hay; I wanted anyone who dared crawl through it to be fully surrounded by the materials.

Utter Madness

Hay. For my modular creation I chose to use hay. I created a large list of possible objects, and was attracted to two automatically. One was eggs, the other was chicken wire. Neither of those ideas played out well. However, I had made several sketches of other options:  hay, cloth, cans, and rocks. Hay bales won out in the end. I was attracted to their size, texture, and smell. I wanted to see what kind of structure I could make out of this familair material.

 I made several designs out of the bales in my backyard. I ended up creating a slightly different structure in the class room.

The Pinecone Complete

The Pinecone has been completed. It evolved from a simple sketch to cardboard reality. I am pleased with how it turned out. However, it still has more I can do to make it better. I am going through the process of refining it further. I plan on creating a new look for where the stem meets the petals and reworking several of the petals.

Peacefully Chaotic and Deathly

 For my 'harmonious' image, I wanted to illustrate how death interrupts one's life. I had created an all over pattern originally. Then, I cut across it horizontally with a river of text. More text pours out of this river at a different angle drawing one's eye downward. Unfortunatley I cannot position this they way it is meant to be seen. Once I gain access to photo editing software, I will adjust this blog.

For my 'contrasting' image, I chose to create 'chaos' out of 'peace'. I wanted to inject a little madness into a composition based on peaceful words and thoughts. Cutting and mashing different prints of the original image produced a hectic composition that I found favourable.


Cutting the mat board proved to be problematic. I had to cut several pieces in order to get a clean edge. I have discovered that I cannot cut straight...even with a ruler. This is an area I hope to improve upon.

A Picture is worth a thousand Words

I spent along time searching for different and interesting fonts and words for my images.Who knows how many obituaries fell prey to my 'harmonius' project. I made several variants for each piece. Each time I would find at least one aspect of the image that I found favourable. I would then copy it and tweak or rework the rest of it.

Photo Safari

Pattern; Translation;Progressive
Splendora, Backyard; 2:30pm, Wednesday

Pattern; Informal
SHSU campus; 2010

Rhythm; Translation; Progressive
Splendora, Backyard; 2:15pm, Wednesday

Rhythm, Translation; Informal
Galveston; Tuesday

Texture; Translation, Rotation, Reflection; Informal
Splendora, Backyard; 2:35pm, Wednesday

Texture; Translation; Formal
Splendora, Backyard; 2:38pm, Wednesday

Pattern; Translation; Progressive
Galveston; Tuesday

Texture; Translation, Rotation;Formal
Splendora, Front yard; 2:40pm, Wednesday

The Mighty Pinecone Comes to Life

For my grande cardboard creation, I chose to recreate nature's lovely little pinecone.
Before I got to the cardboard, I made a few sketches of the object itself. Then I sketched out a few ideas on how each segment of the pinecone might constructed out of my material.

After the initial planning, I created a stem out of long sheet of cardboard. After wetting the material, it easily rolled into an effective pinecone stem. The next step involved cutting petals shapes of  other pieces of cardboard. This was the most time consuming part of the project so far. I tested several different ways of layering the petals before starting to glue them into place.

So far the pinecone is coming along nicely. I am now concentrating on adjusting the undersides of the glued on petals and attaching the remaining ones to the stem.

Human Dots

I attempted to make my photograph compositions line up with my dot compositions. When examined together, one can see that this was accomplished. However, when viewed by themselves they are not much to look at. 

Transforming human beings into dot compositions sounded easy at first, but I had a lot of difficulty with this project.  Turns out, it wasn't as simple as I originally thought. I would like to do another shoot to see if I could come up with more successful results. 

Newspaper Power Tower

My main focus when building my paper and glue monstrosity was stability. It didn't matter if the thing was super tall if it would just topple over.

 I first tried to envision how the block would need to rest on the tower. First, I tried just folding the paper longways and then doubling it over. This made it strong, but did not give it much height. I next tried to crumple paper into balls for the tower's base. However, the balls kept falling out of place. I then discovered that bundling the balls together into another sheet of paper kept them well contained. I tried various ways of rolling, wrapping, or folding the newspaper to try and make it strong enough to support the block.

The end result was not very pretty, but it was very stable.