Artist Statement

Ways of Seeing ~Response

After reading the passage from Berger, I have come upon some interesting things. He discusses how a painting, or other work of art, changes in meaning or appearance over time. In the past, a painting of a group of people might have had a strong meaning. However, if a modern person looks at that same painting now, he or she is likely to just notice the work put into the piece, and not necessarily the symbolism. Many people admire greek sculpture for the detail and realism and wonder how they could look so perfect and effortless. Back in Ancient Greek times, artists and sculptors might have looked at the same work(s) and said or thought that it/they looked like garbage, with mistakes showing up everywhere. They saw things much differently than modern folks today. However, this may also be a matter of skill for seeing and being able to make art. Berger shows and talks about an image of a man with a weird expression on his face. One side is smiling a bit, while the other is relaxed and neutral. Today, people would think that this was to portray the person's personality in the painting. However, Berger says that the man's expression could be a result of facial paralysis, and the man is just posing with a neutral expression that is disfigured because of the paralysis. As time goes on people's ways of seeing a work of art change constantly. A person from the 1980's would most likely view a picture differently from someone living in 2011. The reason for this may be that more and more facts are discovered about the work or the artist between these time periods. Since "Ways of Seeing" was released, in 1970, our ways of viewing, pretty much everything, has changed drastically. We have much more knowledge about things like science and medicine and history than we did back then. The atmosphere between the 70's and now has changed from disco and psychedelic colors to metal music and cold metal appliances and technology. We don't see nearly as many afros in fashion as back then, and kids are much more independent than in the 70's. Now, culture (in America) is more liberal than it was back then. More things can be taken as art than as "porn" or "explicit." In the next ten years, our views of things will change even more.

Portrait Lines

Another Portrait. This is the line self portrait that I needed to turn in a while ago. Here it is.

Hands

This is my "Hand blind contour drawing" from long ago, near the beginning of the semester.

Autobio Comic Part 2

The Home Ec. teacher agreed to fix it for me. I was extremely grateful. She managed to stitch it up very quick, but I still got to the bus late. It was pretty insane for me to run in front of a moving bus. Shows how much I cared about school trips!

Autobio Comic Part 1

This is my Autobiographical comic about the time when I was in 8th grade. It was the last day of school and we were all going on a cruise in Chicago as a celebration of our graduation from Junior High. I picked a special dress to wear specially for that day. Unfortunately, at school that day, when I sat down at my desk, it ripped at the part where my bottom is. I was embarrassed and went to the Home Economics teacher to ask her to fix it.

Understanding Comics

After reading the first 3 chapters of "Understanding Comics," I have a much greater perception of the meaning of comics. I had always thought that they were just novels where every paragraph or section of words was represented by a picture. I never thought that there were types of transitions between panels, that the artist just played everything by ear. Of course, I knew that things like composition and panels were set up a certain way, as well as the shape of the panels and shading style, etc. However, after reading this, I am just amazed, and a little intimidated, I admit, of all the different types of transitions, the complex definition of comics just blew me away, and made me feel stupid in a way, or at least made me feel like I was living under a rock all this time. I still am having some problems comprehending everything in all 3 chapters, but I see this as a challenge and a learning experience. I'll most likely be incorporating much of what I have read into my own comics. At the moment, I am studying storyboarding and animation, and have learned so much in those classes already. All of these rules and styles and types of ways to go about doing things are making my head hurt, haha.

Round 3

Round 2

Round 1

Photoshop Tennis Round 1 picture

This is a high res. picture of a plant from my backyard, first up in photoshop tennis!

Train, Flutter, Sword

It's doomsday, 2012, and the Chuck Norris flutter rises to the occasion of taking over the world. It's pure hell and anyone caught up in it is doomed.

My 2 self portraits

The one on the right is my normal self portrait and the left is my 'inner self' portrait. I believe that it's my inner self because I have a lot of traits (good and bad) and this picture contains a lot of colors representing those traits.

"Understanding Media": My interpretation

After reading the article, "Understanding Media," my scope of knowledge wasn't revolutionized or anything, but it did allow me to see things in a different way. For one, when someone creates a mode of transportation or a medium, the achievement isn't the immediate result. For example, after a bridge is built, the immediate result is that places are connected and cars can pass by. However, that is not the real success.  The real prize is the relationships being created by people and by the cities. The medium of the bridge opened many horizons that would not have been created any other way (as far as we know). The successes seem to be independent from the real purposes of technology being created, like airplanes, which were made for flying and connecting people from all around the world easily and quickly. However, what they brought about was far more than that. Knowledge of cultures and nature and new ways of creating technology were spread and continue to spread to this day. Also, the plane creates a much larger scale point than does a train, as it can travel overseas. This article explains also how people must look and examine all parts of a situation before analyzing the entire thing. They must consider all possibilities for a cause of, say, cancer. Perhaps this is why scientists still have not found a cure. They most likely are missing or overlooking something, or many things. However, society cannot blame them, for there can be an unlimited number of factors. There is also the matter of theory. A theory is different from a fact in that it can still change. A fact is timeless, but some theories or instructions constantly need to be checked and retested many times for accuracy. For example, the theory that the sun, and every other planet, revolves around the earth, was created. It was taken as a fact, as people live on earth and from our point of view, the sun seems to be rising and setting, moving around. However, after a while, this was proven wrong. The earth revolves around the sun. How do we know this? From scientific testing and new technology. The telescope, satellite dishes, and other things, allowed us to arrive at the fact that we are in a heliocentric galaxy. This has not only changed our science textbooks, but also our hunger for more knowledge, and more theories created from this fact. The more facts we discover, the more theories, the more technology that is created, the more likely theories will turn into facts or be utterly proven wrong. By looking at all angles and considering all factors, many things can be accomplished and give us all a different and more efficient level of knowledge about many things.

Self Portrait #2

This is me colored with mostly orange and blue. I love complementary colors and orange and blue are my favorite pair. I thought it would be interesting depicting myself using these colors and others as well. I just love color! I can't really say this is the ultimate "inner me" but every person is different, just like there are different colors. Some people comprise of more than one, or many, like myself!

Abstract Drawing, experimenting with brushes

Used a lot of different brushes on this one. It reminds me of candy, hence the file title, "Taste the Rainbow".

Self Portrait 1-Normal

This is my first self portrait, using a mirror to capture an accurate image of myself.

Still Life #2

This drawing took about 2 hours to complete. I used the 2B pencil brush to complete this. The color is brown, but the majority looks to be golden yellow because I changed the opacity to various %'s. The less the opacity, the more yellow the color looked. I liked the color and used it for the background while I sketched out the drawing in a stronger opacity.

Computer Art First Still Life

My Interpretation of Plato's Allegory

After reading the allegory of the cave, and observing the claymation numerous times, I have noticed some interesting things. The claymation shows a sequence of images and scenes as if the writing was interpreted literally. There is a cave, with prisoners chained to the walls, with a fire and a raised wall, just like the allegory. However, I didn't see it this way. The human beings held prisoner I believe, represent regular actions and ways of thinking. People are cooped up in their homes or rooms all day and are scared to explore the world. They stay in their own little 'bubble' and though this is all they have known, they believe this is all they should know. They believe that the "upper world" is too dangerous and too much of a risk to explore. However, there are those that realize that living in an enclosed space is not really "living" at all. They don't want to spend the rest of their lives wondering what could have been. They want to see for themselves. I know many people that travel the world, live with different people, and return with a new view of life. They share this new knowledge with me. I find most of it to be strange or bizarre and I must admit that I would be a little scared or nervous to do what they did. I would certainly have an unfair judgment of other countries and have an ethnocentric view. It is until I go out and see more parts of the world that I will understand how my traveling friend now feels. Another interpretation that came to my mind was that of religion. People are born into families that are either religious or nonreligious. They usually take on their parents' mindsets without actually thinking for themselves and doing some research. I have friends who believe that the bible is the perfect book and has no flaws whatsoever. However, I have read the bible during my years as a Christian and that is why I am an Atheist today. I am not saying they must come to the same conclusion, but they must consider that they are wrong about somethings and it would do them a lot of good to figure things out for themselves. They would be more credible and have a broader view of life and people. They would be less likely to judge others as well.