Final Exam

I used my paper stacking project as the picture to warp. I chose this picture because it was the one project that resonated with me those most.  I wanted to keep the colors the same but turn it into a total different picture.  I used a kaleidoscope application, added patterns, and enhanced the colors. 

It's About Time

The work of Janine Antoni has a perfect balance to me.  I find equanimity and harmony in her work. She has the balance of light and dark, birth and death, happy and sad.  In her work Saddle there is a figure who seems to be crawling and is cloaked with some type of blanket masking her identity.  This figure seems to be trapped, they have a problem they are trying to escape but the problem is overwhelming and even when she thinks she is getting out the problem is still melting down her shoulders, spine, head, neck, legs.. The figure looks weak since it is crawling.  The problem she is facing has sucked away her strength and all she can do is now crawl away.  But here, in Janine Antoni's work, Saddle, I find balance.  Even though the problem she is facing has been eating her alive and has made her weak and frail she still has hope.  This figure is not giving up, even if it get's her down to her hands and knees. She will still crawl away. 

Another work of Janine Antoni's is Lick and Lather.  I think that the figures in Lick and Lather, although it is showing two heads, is the same person.  There is a dark sculpture which is very defined and detailed and a white sculpture that is vague, you can barely see the features on the face.  The dark one has more features because the dark is overpowering this figure's life.  It is not only showing great detail in the feature but you also see skin seeming to be peeling off of her revealing lighter spots.  I see this darkness and sadness trying to peel away from this sculpture to show the inner light.  The light that wants to come out but it is overpowered by the darkness. Happiness is there but it is masked by pain and sadness. The white sculpture is portraying happiness, positivity, and love.  It is there but has not surfaced. The features are vague on this sculpture and that is because the happiness has not surfaced yet. The dark sculpture is peeling because it is wanting to reveal the happiness.  

All in all Janine Antoni's work to me resonates with the word HOPE.

Turt One

Turt Two

This project was tedious but at the same time therapeutic.  I kept on making the same strokes but with time I saw progress.  It's About Time couldn't have a better title.  With time everything will be complete and whole but you can't rush it. 

Alterations to Mr. Funky Turtle

I got really real with this turtle.  We spent many hours and days together as a shaved him and unveiled his true beauty. As I got to know him he told me he was sad that he was so slow so I decided to cut his cute legs off and give him wings. I used paper clips for the wings, I just straightened them out and when I did it left a funky shape. Perfect for wings.

Diane Ackerman’s A Natural History of the Senses is as infectious as the scent of roses. Split into the five senses, to which is added a chapter on synesthesia, Ackerman – a poet – explores her material with a lyrical wonder that is infectious and great reading.  I think it was great how Ackerman used touch to show how it improves our health, she shows in her work that touch improves the health of premature babies. Premature babies that are massaged gain 50% more weight than babies who aren't.  She explains in depth how the human touch has an impact on not only our health, but our senses as well.

Paper Stacking

This is my paper stacking project.  We had to choose a vegetable and then we got to choose one of our own.  I decided to make something that I could use outside of my art class. I choose to make the Root Chakra symbol.  Chakra's are a Hindu Indian concept.  They are centers of spiritual power in the human body.  We have seven different chakra and each one resonates with a color and musical note.   I choose the root chakra because I like to remind myself to stay grounded and true to my roots. The four petal represent mind, intellect, consciousness, and ego.  The circle represents the spiritual realm because it is perpetual, never ending or changing, and the square represents the physical realm, also known as earth because it has four corners representing earth, wind, fire, and water. The triangle stands for consciousness rising to enlightenment from point to base; and energy being pulled from the heavens down, from base to point. The root chakra is at the tail base end of our spine and resonates with the color red.  This project is now being used as a healing tool for me.  When I feel insecure or anxious I like to put the sculpture in my hand and hold it and remember that I am rooted to the earth, I respect Mother Earth, and I am secure in my environment.

Gregor's Room

This project was the most difficult for me.  Since paper was the only medium that could be used I had to figure out a way to make the paper into a bed, bed frame, and a beetle, or Gregor.  I used water as adhesive to make the bed frame.  I rolled up the paper tightly and tied them together turning the paper into strings.  I used origami as my foundation of this project.  I wanted to portray the furniture in his room as dark, moldy, and depressing. 

Response To Kafka's Work

It was nice to read the work for the visual aspect. Throughout the story it had a dark erie feel.  Gregor has been walked on by his family his whole life and eventually led him turning into a bug.  I feel as if what happened to Gregor was his perspective of how his family had been treating him his whole life and it put him in a dark depressive state.  Whenever I pictured Gregor I would see him as a gross, large but at the same time small beetle.  I would see him as large because to him being turned into a bug was a ordeal.  It shocked him but at the same time I saw him as small and minuscule because his family had always overlooked him.  That is why when he turned into a bug his family didn't notice.  Making him feel smaller but at the same time large because he was surprised they didn't notice. 

The saddest part of the story is the end when Gregor's father pushed him into his room and slammed the door telling him he was done.  Gregor never asked to be turned into a bug.