Allison N

Visual Research

2011-01-29T16:03:00.001-08:00

From this point on in my blog I will be posting about my own personal visual research as it pertains/influences/inspires my own painting practice.

The following will be considered:

Stay Tuned!

What is your medium?
Why do you work in that medium?
Do you have any special devices or tools that are unique to your creative process.
What is your art about?
What are your art historical references?
What contemporary artists are you looking at?
What else influences your work?
(i.e. philosophies, beliefs, music, ideas, stories, locations, maps, etc.)
Where do you look for artists and influences?
books, blogs, tumbler, internet, google, other, or all of the above that you are looking at.
Be specific Share with us the books, blogs, tumbler, internet, google, other, or all of the above that you are looking at.What are you proposing to do this semester?

Stuart Shills and my Proposals...

2011-01-29T16:00:00.000-08:00

Stuart Shills Rocks!
http://www.stuartshils.com/index2.html
Check out his gouaches

My main medium is oil paints however recently I have been playing around with Gouaches. I have been doing ink drawings also.

I like the gouache because is has a very silk feel to it. It is very seductive and the colors are really nice.

If you view Stuart Shills website (above) and click on his gouaches you will see how he is making monoprints using the gouache. I would love to try this out.

Today I went out in my car and did 2 paintings with gouache. These were my first paintings done from in the car. I'm not really sure what to think of them. I want the paintings I make to be interesting and different.

The question is, How does one paint the sky and snow banks in an interesting way?

I am proposing to do a series of sky and snowbank paintings using gouache and sometimes ink with gouache. I have been looking at snow banks for a while now and noticing the sky. Its just starting to stay lighter out later which is great.

I am also proposing to do more oil paintings of fish heads.

What does this all mean? I'm not really sure. I do know that it has something to do with being in the moment, out in the elements/on site, and having a go at it. What it is it is and no editing continues when i'm back in the studio. Constant looking is required along with the constant pressure of time running out as the light changes.

I am also thinking of doing mini 1.5x 1.5 figure paintings. We will see.

Local Boston Painters Represent!

2011-01-28T12:15:00.000-08:00

Ken Beck
http://www.gallerynaga.com/artists/beck/beck.html

Nancy Mccarthy
http://www.nancymccarthy.net

Catherine Kehoe
http://catherinekehoe.com

stevelocke
www.stevelocke.com

SARAH SON-THEROUX
She had a show at the Cape Cod Museum of Art In Dennis

"Famous" Artists Worth Looking At

2011-01-28T11:43:00.000-08:00

Milton Avery

Richard Diebenkorn, Girl with a plant

The one and only Lois Dodd

Neil Welliver

Searching For Painters On the Web

2011-01-28T11:34:00.000-08:00

I looked through 3 different artscope magazines and found some painters that I liked then looked them up on the web and found others. Below are Artists and images I came up with during my investigations.

Kim frohsin is awesome!

I love how she take the imagery and breaks it down to solid blocks of color. It is also very evident she is putting time and energy to get these fresh and alive colors!

Caleb Stone
http://calebstoneart.com

Anthony falcetta
http://www.anthonyfalcetta.com

This guy (a mass art alumni) even breaks it down further and i'm tempted to try so myself just once as homage to his style. He website tells more about him and its well worth having a look as he has some interesting things to say.

Don Dalton
dondaltonarts.com

Robert Gordon
This guy has a teaching studio on the kangamangus highway in Conway.

Generative Topic - art ed and online communities

2010-05-16T12:59:00.000-07:00

Technology is becoming more pervasive with time and if we incorporate new media learning tools to educate adolescence in an art ed context within an open network it will make for a dynamic learning environment.

Art Education And Online Learning

2010-05-01T10:30:00.000-07:00

Presentation: Art Education and Online Communities

A valuable idea I posted from my ning site:
http://artedandonlinecommunities.ning.com/

1. Technology is so pervasive that it will become more of a teaching tool in the future. (2.5 yr old: http://artedandonlinecommunities.ning.com/video/25-yr-first-encounter-wipad)
2. What about the folk who are left out? Lucky on not?
a. Facebook facts (by Linda Scott) link here (blog post):
http://artedandonlinecommunities.ning.com/profiles/blogs/naea-link-facebook-facts?xg_source=activity
b. Ethical responsibility: Where do the classroom walls begin and end?
a. Parents, teachers, schools, and larger society all have responsibility in teaching kids basic safety skills
b. Parents spend more time thus have more influence on kids.
c. Art education fosters problem solving and critical thinking which fosters these safety skills.

An idea posted on my ning site from someone else:
3. History of education systems
a. In the Seth Godin Interview (http://jackiegerstein.wikispaces.com/User-Generated+Education) he states “public education was a conspiracy between government and corporations”. “Consumer culture did not exist for the typical person prior to 1900”. Public schools were built to “train compliant factory workers” and “to teach kids that the best way to fit in and feel good was to buy stuff”.
b. Replace or reform education system?

A valuable library source idea:
Unsettled post-revolutionaries in the online public sphere.(Lao People's Democratic Republic )(Report).
SOJOURN: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 24.1 (April 2009): p89(33). (11245 words) Warren Paul Mayes.

1. Online networks provide new communication spaces for those in exiled communities.
a. Huge potential for learning: Imagine students communicating in an online network with people who are in Hati or with those in direct contact with someone in Hati.
2. The ability to have such debates “is informed by an ethics of reconciliation and responsibility”

Art Education and Online Communities

2010-04-13T15:23:00.000-07:00

Social networks are becoming more and more mainstream with the advent of facebook, twitter, and second life. This social connectedness has many rich possibilities. For example, sometimes they banish loneliness and help foster new friendships. Personally it has been a great way for me to keep up with my sister in Florida who is expecting her first baby. I have gotten to see pictures of her ultra sounds and also pictures of her and her husband getting ready for the big day. These networks also leads us to a cognitive surplus of information that can be informative but sometimes a little overwhelming.

However, when one thinks about what happened in South Hadley in regards to bullying, we are reminded on the dark side of these networks (blog to come on this soon).

For the first time in history we have bits of information floating out on the web in these social networks. How they evolve will reflect a lot about us. Also how they evolve will change us. It is exiting to be a participant rather than observer in 21st century new media. As an art educator I would like to ponder how we can introduce our students to the creative explosions it can produce in our changing world.

Historically a “down town” was the place for distribution of information. Then came the industrial revolution and with it more urban areas. The advent of t.v. gave was to lots of passive sit-com watching during our free time. These social networks are great places to engage in active thinking within the communities.

2010-04-10T11:21:00.000-07:00

New Generative Topic

2010-04-10T09:17:00.000-07:00

After thinking about surveillance and privacy i have fine tuned my generative topic.

Now my topic is this:

How does new media technologies influence the psychology of self within a group dynamic? What is in our human nature that motivates us to put up status reports? Also what are some negative and positive effects can these sites have on adolescence that have not yet fully matured developmentally. How can self and groups be taken advantage of by government or consumer society? How can they use it to their advantage (promote self)?

Questions to Ponder about New Media and Privacy

2010-04-05T19:34:00.000-07:00

Social Networking is a great way to keep up with others. However it contributes to huge collections of personal info and images. Here are some questions to ponder.

Is this aggregation of personal information a bad thing, or a good thing?
Is it dangerous or freeing?
What responsibility do users of social networking sites have in posting about themselves and others?
What responsibility do social networking sites themselves have to make privacy controls easy to find and use?
Is society's notion of public and private changing as a result of social networking?

Surveillance/privacy

2010-04-05T19:32:00.000-07:00

Surveillance/privacy

I talked to my group members about what generative topics we could choose. We all seemed to be most interested in privacy and or surveillance. So we did some research on artists who use these concepts. Once artist I came upon is Lee Walton. I spent a lot of time on his web site. He seems like a real lovable guy. His art is really funny. I regards to our topic he does art on facebook. Basically he takes his friends status reports and then films himself acting them out. He posts the films to vimeo and of course onto his facebook status page. This artwork can be viewed here: http://www.leewalton.com/projects/fbook/index.html

In regards to our generative topics we thought about reality t.v., cameras in public installed by the government, what it feels like to be filmed, filming people when they don’t know it, and how we all enjoy watching people on film react to particular situations (when they are unaware of being filmed). It would be fun to do social experiments in public to see how people act in certain situations. For example I know of a guy who secretly filmed himself screaming in downtown crossing and on the film no one came to his aid. People just walked past him.

Also I came across another artist that performed mini plays in front of surveillance cameras. This is very creative. This type of art shows that new media can create a venue for art to to seen that is out of the regular gallery space. Lee Walton’s art can be seen anywhere video is played. Or even anywhere folks can perform status reports themselves. Another artist named Kate pocrass had portable exhibition venues inside her hat and jacket.- contents of wallet She also has an art exhibition where you call a hotline and listen to her instructions on the message. She will often instruct those to go to a special shop, talk to the owner, or view something form a particular vantage point. Check it out here: http://www.mundanejourneys.com/

New Media and Interest Driven Learning

2010-04-05T19:31:00.000-07:00

New media in art education opens the venue for a creator rather than consumer model. For example can be seen here: http://chinatownbanquet.org/about.html The banquet project is a multimedia project to raise awareness of Chinatown culture and its history. This site is a great example in how the visual arts can create community development and education. This site was made by high school students that is a great example of interest driven learning.

In my opinion today’s new media can be a great tool to propel interest driven learning with youth. New media allows youth to choose what they are interested in and access it.

While doing some research I came across an article titled New Media and Its Superpowers: Learning, Post Pokemon (A talk for  The National Association of Independent Schools February 25, 2010), in the article the author said “We know that most learning and engagement happens outside of school. For decades, progressive education has worked to integrate the learning happening in schools with what kids find important and meaningful outside of schools.” New media is a great way to do what this author is talking about.
Imagine if we can sneak in learning onto kids online social activity. For example, I often check my facebook page. It is a great way to keep up with folks. I also play Farmville. I have a nice simple farm. In the game I must harvest my crops in time or they will die. This automatically gives me insight of the sense of urgency or timing it takes to be a farmer. Now they say on Farmville that co-ops will be coming soon. I’m looking forward to that. Visual media will keep my attention for hours on end if I am not careful.

I then went to this site: http://www.uic.edu/classes/ad/ad382/
which gave the following information about media education:
Studies show that media education is most effective when it includes:
both media analysis and production
teacher-created combinations of activities, rather than off-the-shelf curricula
coordinated efforts across all subject areas

This site was very interesting: http://www.uic.edu/classes/ad/ad382/ and had some curriculum which incorporates new media.

I also found an artist named Cao Fei who is featured in season 5 of art 21. In her art she creates a world in second life called RMB City. It can be seen here http://www.pbs.org/art21/index.html.

surveillance/privacy

2010-03-29T21:02:00.000-07:00

Surveillance/privacy

I talked to my group members about what generative topics we could choose. A generative topic is a topic that can be expanded upon in many areas. We all seemed to be most interested in privacy and or surveillance. So we did some research on artists who use these concepts. Once artist I came upon is Lee Walton. I spent a lot of time on his web site. He seems like a real lovable guy. His art is really funny. I regards to our topic he does art on facebook. Basically he takes his friends status reports and then films himself acting them out. He posts the films to vimeo and of course onto his facebook status page. This artwork can be viewed here: http://www.leewalton.com/projects/fbook/index.html

In regards to our generative topics we thought about reality t.v., cameras in public installed by the government, what it feels like to be filmed, filming people when they don’t know it, and how we all enjoy watching people on film react to particular situations (when they are unaware of being filmed). It would be fun to do social experiments in public to see how people act in certain situations. For example I know of a guy who secretly filmed himself screaming in downtown crossing and on the film no one came to his aid. People just walked past him.

Also I came across another artist that performed mini plays in front of surveillance cameras. This is very creative. This type of art shows that new media can create a venue for art to to seen that is out of the regular gallery space. Lee Walton’s art can be seen anywhere video is played. Or even anywhere folks can perform status reports themselves. Another artist named Kate pocrass had portable exhibition venues inside her hat and jacket.- contents of wallet She also has an art exhibition where you call a hotline and listen to her instructions on the message. She will often instruct those to go to a special shop, talk to the owner, or view something form a particular vantage point. Check it out here: http://www.mundanejourneys.com/

New Media in Art Education

2010-03-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

A Bicycle Built for two

2010-03-29T18:16:00.000-07:00

The song “A Bicycle Built for Two” has progressed through time historically with technology.

I went to the u-tube link here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwMltbsIsqo&feature=player_embedded# and listened to the piano play a 1920’s version of a bicycle built for two. This was played automatically on the piano on what is called a piano roll piano player. Here technology moves away from the body and lets the purely technical mechanical piano roll do the music making.

Then I went to this site http://www.vortex.com/av#DAISY and listened to the first text to speech song on a computer. This was done on an IBM computer in 1961 at Bells Labs. A popular movie, “2001 A Space Odyssey” had a scene in it where a computer dies while singing a bike build for two. Here human speech is recorded and then used by the computer to form speech.

Next I went to this link http://www.vortex.com/av#DAISY and watched Clara Rockmore play the theremin. I think the theremin is neat but I don’t really like it with classical music. The theremin was the first electrical instrument ever invented. When you play the theremin it usually has two sensors you control with your hands. One is for volume and the other frequency. The theremin was the beginning of technology going back to using the body.

The theremin is some place in-between digital and analog. It uses radio waves. The digitizer replaced it. With digital we all went away from the body. Instead of playing instruments we made them play with our computers.

Now we have contemporary artists like Scott Snibbe who is back towards the body. Where he gets people interacting with his art. His computers record their shadows and play them back. This shows us that new media art today is about humanity. The new media today is participatorier. It is not just there to be viewed but they’re to be interacted with.

Today certain technology can take a music sample and rework it into something else. This makes me think about popular hip-hop artists that do covers of older artists. This brings us ethical copywriting issues. Would those artists want the hip-hop artists to be doing covers and drastically changing their music? My opinion is go for it hip hop artists! Take whatever you want. As long as you’re creating something new it’s cool.

The Mirror

2010-02-15T18:33:00.002-08:00

The Mirror is an interactive sculptural piece done by Scott Snibbe in 2001. In the center of the fan is a microphone like object that records the amount of breath blown into it. The data is then transported to the fan and the same about of wind blows back at you. This piece is interesting as it makes you think about possession, realness, and our interdependence with the environment.

Possession is a common thing for many of us here in the states. We all want to photograph places we have been, to collect works of art, and to buy special name brand items. We collect and feel good because they are “ours”. However are they really ours? What becomes of them when we die? Some would say our own breath is ours. This also brings up constructs we develop in our mind around language. Oxygen comes from trees. Breath is really oxygen that is not to be owned by anyone right? Unless you’re in an oxygen bar.

Most of Scott Snibbe’s works have a common loop to them. For example in the Mirror breath is recorded and then blown back. This loop is interesting as it is seen in nature, mathematics, and literature. Is it not true that we all end up circling the same route again and again weather it is in regards to our own art making or even our basic life cycle. Another example of the loop can be seen when your walking in the woods. It is said if you are lost in the woods you will end up walking in a full circle. It’s just what happens so do bring your map/compass if your not up for a loop. Interesting how these loops work!

A quicktime video of a work similar to the mirror can be seen here: http://www.snibbe.com/scott/breath/blowup/video.html

Works Cited

2010-02-15T18:33:00.001-08:00

Works Cited

Newspaper
Martin, Christa. "ArtExperience: York School alumnus Scott Snibbe makes you part of his creation." The Herald [Monterey County] 20 Apr. 1009, sec. Arts: 3. Print.

Journal
Simanowski, Roberto. "Scott Snibbe's Deep Walls A Close Reading ." Dichtung Digital 1 (2006): 1. Print.
Snibbe, Scott. Visceral Cinema: Chien. 1st ed. Peru, IL: Telic, 2005. Print.

Book
Snibbe, Scott. Visceral Cinema: Chien. 1st ed. Peru, IL: Telic, 2005. Print.

Websites

http://snibbe.com

http://find.galegroup.com

http://www.snibbeinteractive.com/platforms/socialtable/products/healthchoic

wikpedia.org

The Historical Background of Interactive Art

2010-02-15T18:28:00.000-08:00

Some of the earliest forms of interactive art began in the 1920’s (Wikipedia) and can be seen in some of Marcel Duchamp’s work of that time. In the 1960’s interactive art began to flourish as artists of that time wanted to give the viewers the ability to engage in the creativity making. By the 1990’s computer based artworks took up much of the interactive art pieces. Also at this time museums began using the interactive tools to educate museum attendees.

What does this say about us as 21st century folks? Does this mean that we now have such a low attention span that all art must be interactive for us to understand or care enough for us to attend to it? I do not believe so. I think what interactive art such as Snibbes says about us in the 21st century is that we are more inclusive and that art is no longer about the artist but rather about the artist and the viewer. This is great as it makes for more dynamic pieces. It also brings up how technology has become a big part of our lives. Many of us can agree that technology can give us much pleasure however it also can produce certain anxieties. Maybe other interactive art pieces in the future will attend to this theme.

Will this type of art lead to a reduction of more traditional, non-interactive art? My opinion to this is no. I think that it will inform non-interactive art in ways we cannot yet imagine. For instance some thought photography would make painting obsolete when in fact it freed up painting to break away from documenting how things looked to more loose interpretations.

Deep Walls

2010-02-15T09:21:00.000-08:00

Scott Snibbe transforms reality through his interactive art. In a piece called Deep walls viewer’s shadows are recorded and then played back onto a screen. When first recorded the shadow is very large however after a small time the image joins 16 other small shadow recordings on the screen. It looks as if it is a cupboard of images. These images are played back over and over. Eventually when a new recording is made the oldest recording gets bumped out. Snibbe’s website states that “By collecting the viewers’ own shadows, the piece reveals how individual objects gain in symbolic meaning, while losing literal meaning, through organization, repetition and display.”

Deep walls relies on viewer’s participation to be successful. Once viewers become aware that they are being recorded they often will think of creative ways to record themselves. This piece is interesting as the creative ideas they get are also often built from ideas generated by viewing the prior recordings. So in a way it builds upon itself. This creativity on the viewer’s part could possibly also be fueled by the element of surprise that they are being recorded and the excitement that comes from it.

Snibbe State’s “One of the most fundamental Buddhist ideas is that everything is interdependent. In reality, everything that we have and are, physically and materially, comes from someone else… That’s why I went into interactivity to begin with. To make something interactive, you emphasize the artwork or the experience. You can’t experience (my artwork) without the viewer. The viewer is as much a piece of the art as the program and the graphics. It makes it really clear that every single perceptual experience is a transaction between the perceiver and the object, and that different people see things in a different way.” (The Herald, Monterey County, C. Martin)

Snibbe’s website states that the pieces title is in reference to “architect Christopher Alexander’s “Pattern Language”. His admonition to architects is to build the walls of homes thick, so that cabinets, drawers and windows can perforate the interior space, providing areas to store, display, slice through and ultimately provide more meaning within the home.” (Snibbe.com)

The walls of this piece certainly have been carved in a way to allow others to occupy it and thus make it more meaningful.

The piece can be viewed here:
http://snibbe.com/scott/mosaics/deep%20walls/video.html

Outline

2010-02-15T08:08:00.000-08:00

1. About Scott Snibbe (Bio)

a. Influences – films of surrealist Jam Svankmajer, and James Turrell. The deep walls piece creates “a projected cabinet of cinematic memories” not on the aesthetic level but on the level of interaction.

2. Deep Walls (about)

a. What comes to mind when we think about the title “Deep Walls”
b. A bulletin board (craigslist),
c. The saying “if these walls could talk”

D. A work of time: How remembering turns into forgetting (each new silhouette makes old one die). Out of sight out of mind. This can be compared to societies that elect corrupt politicians because the citizens "forget" about the corruption and give into propaganda.

E. His work has a common theme of beginnings and endings. This is similar to the loop, or life cycle. This brings up the universal theme of Permanence Vs. impermanence.

In “Deep Walls” when the individual decides to participate his shadow is huge. So right away they experience proximity, however moments later that participants shadow becomes small and blends in with the other shadows. This reminds us of ancestors, American idle participants, and reality t.v. (small moments of fame).

F. Interaction: Theme of dependence and interdependence we are inspired by other shadow recordings we see and make new ones based on what we have been exposed to.

This gives all who view it a choice. They can get involved or stay behind. This can be paralleled to people in society today who don’t get involved in politics or even the bystander effect when others need help. theme of Close proximity and Distance (decay over time) joining & isolation.

James Turrel

2010-02-15T07:52:00.000-08:00

"James Turrell was born in Los Angeles in 1943. Turrell’s work involves explorations in light and space that speak to viewers without words, impacting the eye, body, and mind with the force of a spiritual awakening. “I want to create an atmosphere that can be consciously plumbed with seeing,” says the artist, “like the wordless thought that comes from looking in a fire.” Informed by his studies in perceptual psychology and optical illusions, Turrell’s work allows us to see ourselves “seeing.” Whether harnessing the light at sunset or transforming the glow of a television set into a fluctuating portal, Turrell’s art places viewers in a realm of pure experience. Turrell lives in Arizona."

The above was taken from the Art 21 website

Scott Snibbe

2010-02-15T07:47:00.000-08:00

Snibbe was born in 1969 in New York City. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science and Fine Art, and a Master’s in Computer Science from Brown University. Snibbe studied experimental animation at the Rhode Island School of Design and his films have been widely shown internationally

Touching, breathing, and moving, are all actions that participants in Scott Snibbe’s artworks will most likely get to do. Scott Snibbe’s medium of computer made images is very much an interactive one that is dependent on viewers participation. Because of this I would characterize his medium as multimedia art.

His work also engages us to think about our bodies and social relationships. In his artists statement he says that the “viewers are essential to the existence of art. Engaging in art can be great as it makes other’s of less advantaged places able to experience something.” Overall it is good for the community.

What drew me into Scotts work is that he incorporates technology with real graspable human interactions. I also like the minimalist images he projects. People are striped down to shadow like figures. Parts of the shadows are because he himself is a minimalist. Another reason has to do with state laws that don’t allow the reproduction of a child’s image without consent.

His computer images skip from frame to frame in a very particular way so the feeling or experience is portrayed accurately. He is a computer genius when it comes to writing codes for special computer programs. He also has his own business where he sells interactive learning tools to museums.

Snibbe was influenced by filmmaker Len Lye, a surrealist filmmaker, who often would scratch into or paint onto his film. He was also influenced by Robert Irwin and James Turrell, both artists who explore how subtle changes in an environment, can make deep impressions on the viewer.

2010-01-26T16:35:00.001-08:00

test

DJ Spooky Lecture

2009-05-13T12:46:00.000-07:00

I was impressed by the DJ Spooky Lecture. He was not spooky at all. He seemed fun and down to earth and I could picture myself hanging out with him and talking philosophy. I listened to him talk a little about history, the developments of media, the traffic light, the antarctic melting, his schooling, his philosophy knowledge, His film rebirth of America, and his latest film called the Terra Nova Project.

At the end of the lecture he passed out Cd's. He instructed everyone to take one. Each CD was different and choose the one with Muslim writing on it (really good tunes by the way!). He then encouraged us to trade Cd's with our friends. He called it a "something economy" basically it was about who has the writes to what. things these days are created by bits and pieces of other creations. D.J Spooky has not been sued yet. But he has made lots of music using other peoples beats and songs which he twists to create his own. I thing this is o.k.

When you think about this one can ponder "what really is original" and why look down on someone if they are creating. Shepard Fairy certainly doesn't do original things. However we like what he does and it is his work. Andre the giant may not be his drawing but the way he fits him into the composition with the OBEY text his his work. I say everything is up for grabs.. take what you like and create what you want. Who am I to judge. The great thing about art is that is opens up dialogs like this. It is important to know that the dialog is part of the process.

D.J. spooky told us about a African American man who invented the traffic light. It was nice to hear about something a black man invented as all my schooling had only been about white men. I do think D.J. spooky could enlighten us all in the future with something A WOMAN has invented. Anyhow the traffic light is like the city rhythm's of stopping and going and similar to turn table music and the loop which began in the late 80's with chuck d and others.

D.J. Spooking ended his lecture with a trailer for his film the TERRA NOVA project. He the music put against the shots of the antarctic was just sublime. I hope we can stop it from melting. He told us ice is in between a solid and a liquid. And he also gave us insight about how the black man was referred to as cool or ice. and the white man that is cool was vanilla ice. and other ice people like ice tee. It was great to hear his perspective and knowledge. He had a fun upbeat attitude and I will be following what he is up too in the future. As a student currently studying how to teach kids I am sure d.j. spooky will have to come into my lesson plan at one point or another.

Terranova

2009-05-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

I enjoyed filming my portrait of my good friend Terranova. The film was mainly about her artwork as a photographer and her social anxiety. In the film we did some social anxiety experiements where i filmed her interacting with various strangers she took photos of. It was lots of fun and I am thinking of doing another terranova portrait in a month of two. This way it will b a sequence that follows terra through time. Maybe in a month or two she will have different thougts, look different, have more photos to share with me. It is exciting to think of what the future may bring.

Below are a few photos taken by the one and only terranova callymine:

What inspires you to create?

2009-05-01T20:14:00.000-07:00

idenfity your "source". Is there a piece of writing, music, a person, an artist, a time in history, a current event. What inspires you to create?

My source comes from the unseeable energy in nature. You could say I have a source that is part native american and part buddist. I believe in the "turn it around" philosophy. I meditate when I wake up in the morning and try to focus my energy in a good way. I also feel that while I am making art I am also doing a form of meditation. I love when i am painting and i have many different people and voices in my head. after an hour painting half the people are in my head. Later its just me. Much later than that if I am still painting I leave too. That moment is great. However when you realize it happend it then usually stops happening. Another part of my source is being of service. Whenever I can, I take opportunity to help others, think of others, do anything which helps them.

sound in terra nova's portrait

2009-04-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

So far i have not added any outside sound. However I have leaned to take out sound I don't like by lowering the decibles in final cut express with the pen tool. When you lower this sound it leaves what I can only describe as a "void sound" which is very evident when watching the film. So what i did was take extra sound I had (sound with no one talking but just the waterfall and birds and other sounds) and put it in place of the "sound void" . if listened to closely you can here something like a churning or pumping. All in all is was improved greatly.

Now I have lots of film of terra talking about her experience and I am thinking what sound would go well with it? Maybe i can ask her about music she has been listening to latley?

RUN LOLA RUN!

2009-04-22T12:55:00.000-07:00

This is a great movie which tells of a bank robbery gone wrong. It is also a love story and unfolds in a non-linear way. From watching it what immediately struck me was the sound track. Of course Lola is running to get to her destination in time and so the repetitive and steady techno music fits perfect. I like how they keep the techno sound track going over the characters while they speak their lines and then at other times stop the techno so we focus just on the characters lines. At times they vary the music to be low in volume with small techno booms and as the story unfolds and plot increases the volume rises with the booms. At one point in the film they have possession of the money and begin running with it. The sound changes to a slow jazz song with a woman's voice. The characters are seen running in slow motion. The parrellels of the various music in the film creates a wonderful mood. And boy can that Lola run!

Portrait of a person

2009-04-15T11:18:00.000-07:00

The story I am trying to tell is about a woman who uses photagraphy to desensitize her social anxiety. My subject will be asked to speak about whatever she feel and will eventually get prompted with questions for more detail. The final result of this film is unknown as I am letting it unfold in a more organic process.

During the editing the greatest challange is using final cut express. It is very hard to remember all the steps and features. If I didn't have a job I would spend more time practicing it however I do have to feed myself. I wish the software was more intuitive. However I am happy to be learning it as it is a real professional tool and a good skill to have.

A technical question is: Why can't the text show up over my film?

communicating the passage of time

2009-02-18T16:45:00.000-08:00

In this project I will take photo's that communicate the passage of time. I may do one series about my early morning meditation practice. Also I may follow a person around. I would like to incorporate it into a book. A great web site I saw showed a picture of a fan moving in a book as you quickly flipped the pages. Suddenly the hair of the woman flipping the pages began to blow. It was cool!

childhood memory

2009-02-11T16:12:00.000-08:00

I am going to take 20 - 25 images that relates or serves as a visual time capsle. This will be to try to convey the essence of that memory. I am not sure what memory I will do. I am thinking of doing these possible memories: uncle bo bo's camp, getting lost the night of the 4th of july celebration with my mom and gram.

Light Study: A few notes

2009-02-11T16:00:00.000-08:00

When doing these drawings I did my best to draw the light. I did 3 views out of 3 different windows from my apartment for a total of 9 views. One window shows a vie of a big white house across the street. It has a large yard and just beyond it are some condominiums. It was interesting drawing the light on this house at 8 a.m. in the morning. I was alert and refreshed from a nice sleep. The light in my opinion was most bright at this time. All the house and snow in the yard blended together. I enjoyed drawing the light at this time the most.

The nighttime drawings were the most difficult as I began to have to draw the outside and the inside at the same time. The reason for this has to do with the reflection from the artificial light from inside my apartment.

Literally the light was hitting the snow and the light made the place look fun and woodsy. The trees had nice shadows casting down in the snow.

The midday drawing at 4:00 made me become more aware of the shadows. The shadows at this point were very dark.

frame, Vantage Point, and Perspective

2009-02-10T19:26:00.001-08:00

The book I choose is called Cross-town. It has photos of photographer Helen Levitt. The photo I am going to write about can be viewed below. In this photo one can see an older woman standing by a taxi. The frame is a single static image. The frame in this photo is medium in size and is perfect as it gives us information and leaves out other information to create mystery and intrigue. Through the frame it shows a fleeting moment in time. Levitt had to take this photo and had little time to think about it. I think this goes to show that sometimes art is done best when you don't think about what your doing.

The woman is wearing a checkered suit that matches the taxi's strip of checks. This frame tells me how much the taxi cost. The image was taken from a behind perspective and goes well this way as the woman is about to leave us in the taxi. The window half rolled down as the woman leans in to speak to someone we can't see. This type of perspective allows us to be more in the experience of the woman. She may be asking him if he can drive her the the lower east side? The box is shown clearly and you can even feel how the twine wraps around and holds the box. The frame communicates action and movement, as it is a fleeting moment in time.

What Is The Light Doing?

2009-01-21T14:27:00.000-08:00

Jason Teraoka did a painting of a woman's portrait with a fly on her face called Venus (2008). This was done in oil paints and was 8x13. The first thing that caught my interest was the glitter embedded into the varnish. It was silver glitter and it contrased well with the yellow gold color he had for a background. The portrait depicted a woman with lots of make up on and also make me think she may have just come from a festive event. When I walked past the painting I could see the glitter sparkle as the LIGHT hit it. Below is a painting by him but not the one I saw. However this painting is similar in the way he rendered the skin. Jason pays close attention to how the light changes the color of the skin. He does this in a simple way by placing blocks of color together. The painting Venus evoked a troubled mood. A mood of something not being right. Also in this painting the woman has a fly on her face. This aspect reminded me of humanity.

James Turell is another artist who pays close attention to what the light is doing. An image of one of his works can be seen in the pink light above.