Society-
http://www.timesunion.com/living/article/Parents-wire-kids-to-prove- teachers-verbal-abuse-3509966.php
Upon reading this I was quite appalled at the situation that sparked the article's content. To see that a child could be called such terrible things by a teacher that they should be able to trust was more than disheartening. However I found the following debate about whether or not recording teachers should be allowable or not really threw me for a loop. While I understand why the national association of special education teachers would be concerned with patents altering recordings to falsely incriminate people, it is difficult to say if there is any other way to monitor something like that. If a person came in to check the situation then the teachers doing the abusing would act differently in order to avoid consequences. It is a fine line between breaching teachers rights and protecting children, however I think the idea of video monitoring is a sound solution. However, if that recording didn't have audio recording then it could be manipulated to avoid verbal abuse. I just hate that this has even become an issue, and I sincere hope that no parents abuse the ability to record teachers in the legal states to abuse the system for gains that are not warranted.
Art-
http://www.artnews.com/2012/04/19/use-your-illusion/
I was immediately intrigued by this article because I very much like trompe l’oeil art. The realism of these works are breathtaking, and the artists attempts are admirable to me. While that is all my aesthetic opinion, the new sculptors playing with perception and super-realism have interesting works. The painstaking remaking of reality in materials that contradict the purpose or general nature of the objects being recreated takes a lot of time, observation, and consideration. While objects that completely mimic reality seem to be an easy approach to making art, I find that to be an idea that undercuts the efforts and ideas of the artists creating these works.
I really like the quote from Elizabeth Armstrong, curator of contemporary art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, “It’s taking Duchamp and standing him on his head—this notion of returning to what art used to be, beautifully crafted handmade objects, but in fact they look like throwaways.” I feel it really helps to construct the understanding of realistic sculpture's intentions.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Final Project- Little Red Riding House
Final Product:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJ63idCb88&context=C4c4d875ADvjVQa1PpcFO9VU_JvpmCyCnLEFiUJBjIdHP-Vmxb83I=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRJ63idCb88&context=C4c4d875ADvjVQa1PpcFO9VU_JvpmCyCnLEFiUJBjIdHP-Vmxb83I=
This project is an animation created based on the idea of time-stop collage animation. I hand drew images, uploaded them into the computer and collaged them digitally.
Project Description:
The project is entitled "little red riding house" and combines the ideas of escapism and feminism to create a cyclical animation. I heavily researched escapism through media (specifically film and television) in our society since spring break and wanted to center my project around that idea at the onset. Escapism is arguably an experience that can be associated with all art, which is partially why I found it fitting to explore. However, I wanted to move outside of the traditional art world and into that of mass media, which is more telling about our society. At the present I feel that fairy tales is one of the most prominent genres being explored in American film and television. With this idea in mind I knew I wanted to create something involving film using the idea of escapism. As I continued to develop my project I decided to embrace and negate escapist tendencies simultaneously. To do this I wanted to create a situation in which viewers normally find themselves falling in to (such as a familiar story like little red riding hood) while subtly undermining it through images that don't match the story as the viewer knows it. In considering this I decided to pick another theme to use in my project. I decided to use feminist ideas after the lecture we had towards the end of the semester. Little red riding house represents women (through the symbolism of the house) when she picks the flower it is representative of the reclaiming of her femininity. The wolf in a business suit is the male dominant political debates over women's rights and their destruction of a woman's familiar choices. However when the house is destroyed it still creates a flower thus showing that femininity and the choices of women will survive even if torn down time and again by political turmoil. I put a lot of time and thought into this project and I am pleased with the results as well as the reaction of my classmates in class.
Additional Images/Information
 |
| This is an example of a scanned image that is used in the walk cycle. The image on the right was "cut out" using the magnetic lasso tool in photoshop and then re-sized and placed in the appropriate spot on the background to create a segment of the walking cycle. |
 |
| This is an example of what one panel of the animation looks like. There are 4 separately drawn images (flower, girl, wolf, grass) collaged on a photoshopped background. There are approximately 75 different panels in the 40 second clip. I hand drew approximately 25 images to create the collages. |
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Week 13 Art- Final Progression V
This is the up-to-date version of my final. It is about half way through the animation sequence at this point...I look forward to getting feedback on this animation...
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Week 12 Art- Final Progression IV- Opening Sequence Loop
While this is really short, it is a loop of the 3 second opening to my final project "Little Red Riding House"
I've scrapped the cell phone opening and have exchanged it for the ability for my video to seamlessly loop.
I've scrapped the cell phone opening and have exchanged it for the ability for my video to seamlessly loop.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Week 11 Art- Final Progression III
Little Red Riding House Plot and Story Board
Okay, so this is the newest story board idea I have. I am actually fairly happy with this one, but I would love to know what other students think before I start the long process of animating it. So the basic idea is that we see a patch of wild flowers, followed by a figure that seems to be little red riding hood with a house for a head picking those flowers, she skips along holding the flowers before the big bad wolf character (dressed in a suit) pops up and attacks her, she falls and the wolf takes of his mask revealing the thinker statue (tentative to change, not sure if I like it completely) he then leaves the house-headed maiden on the ground, and we watch her decay until the same flowers re-emerge and the video starts over (it will be looped.) If anyone has any suggestions or ideas I am open for feedback at this point. I am currently working on drafting Little Red Riding House figures as well as the swanky big bad wolf....
Week 9 Art- Final Progression I
In progress Warning Label for animation...
Week 11- Responses
Society-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/explosion-in-student-loan-debt-reaching-crisis-proportions-but-largely-flying-under-radar/2012/04/03/gIQADFFQsS_story_1.html
Due to the fact that this pertains to all of us, I thought I would write about it this week. I don't know about the rest of you, but I personally take out student loans to get through school, and this article describing the issues around federal student loans really hit home. Evidently the government is concerned that the student loan section of their industry will turn into the housing market, in that it won't hold up in the next few years, due to students' inabilities to get jobs after college and pay their loans off. While this is obviously a very real concern for those watching the economy to have, students as well as future students are getting sent so many mixed messages about colleges because of this student loan debate. We are told, from a very early age, that we must go to college in order to make a living. It would seem in the growing technology age this is growing more and more evident. (Not that my choice in majors is facilitating this idea that I'll go into a technological field, but the great number of students in Speed school does attest to this job driven mentality.) However, with the tuition of institutions rising it is becoming more and more expensive to get that diploma, making it harder to pay of the loans. Another problem that these articles generally neglect (this one included) is the decline of scholarships now that the economy is heading south. I promise you any student with a decent GPA would be going for free money over federal money any day if that were as much of an option anymore. Obviously it doesn't help that we are in a recession where there are less jobs. This has all been an obvious recap, but with higher tuition and more students with less jobs and greater student loans, it is obvious that there is trouble on the horizon. While certain conservative candidates are attempting to appeal to a 'blue collar' audience, the argument that going through a higher education makes a person liberal and threatening to those hard American workers (which couldn't be further from the truth, just taking the hard laborers at UPS who are primarily students into account counters this on our campus,) is so wrong it is almost frustrating to hear it repeated over and over again. The worst of these arguments, however, is that there are just as many, if not more, jobs waiting for the averagely-educated (those with high school diplomas only) as the higher-institution-educated is obviously false. If that were the case then not nearly as many people would be bothering with college. Some people arguing about student loans make it sound as if we like to just grab all the student loans we can and deal with it later, but any art student will tell you money really matters, and for the most part we are very conscious of how we as students utilize it.
While we hear we have picked a bad time to be artists, it would seem we have picked an even worse time to be art students.
Art-
http://buttnekkiddoodles.com/
Don Colley is an artist I have looked at a few times before, but I find myself constantly coming back to his work. He lives and works in Chicago, and while he does to time intensive works of art, the primary work that catches my attention is the ink drawings he does straight from life all over the city of Chicago. From watching a documentary on him previously, he prefers to draw in old accountants books, giving certain drawings a deeper dynamic. His versatility as well as quick study skills are very impressive, as well as beautiful to look upon. While he does has a sense of humor that lends itself to entertaining work (just look at the name of his website) his delicate attention to features of those he observes, and his delicate use of ink tones really takes my breath away. Don Colley is a dimensional, entertaining artist, who I love to be inspired by when I need a reminder that drawing quick life studies out in the open can lead to greater work.
Due to the fact that this pertains to all of us, I thought I would write about it this week. I don't know about the rest of you, but I personally take out student loans to get through school, and this article describing the issues around federal student loans really hit home. Evidently the government is concerned that the student loan section of their industry will turn into the housing market, in that it won't hold up in the next few years, due to students' inabilities to get jobs after college and pay their loans off. While this is obviously a very real concern for those watching the economy to have, students as well as future students are getting sent so many mixed messages about colleges because of this student loan debate. We are told, from a very early age, that we must go to college in order to make a living. It would seem in the growing technology age this is growing more and more evident. (Not that my choice in majors is facilitating this idea that I'll go into a technological field, but the great number of students in Speed school does attest to this job driven mentality.) However, with the tuition of institutions rising it is becoming more and more expensive to get that diploma, making it harder to pay of the loans. Another problem that these articles generally neglect (this one included) is the decline of scholarships now that the economy is heading south. I promise you any student with a decent GPA would be going for free money over federal money any day if that were as much of an option anymore. Obviously it doesn't help that we are in a recession where there are less jobs. This has all been an obvious recap, but with higher tuition and more students with less jobs and greater student loans, it is obvious that there is trouble on the horizon. While certain conservative candidates are attempting to appeal to a 'blue collar' audience, the argument that going through a higher education makes a person liberal and threatening to those hard American workers (which couldn't be further from the truth, just taking the hard laborers at UPS who are primarily students into account counters this on our campus,) is so wrong it is almost frustrating to hear it repeated over and over again. The worst of these arguments, however, is that there are just as many, if not more, jobs waiting for the averagely-educated (those with high school diplomas only) as the higher-institution-educated is obviously false. If that were the case then not nearly as many people would be bothering with college. Some people arguing about student loans make it sound as if we like to just grab all the student loans we can and deal with it later, but any art student will tell you money really matters, and for the most part we are very conscious of how we as students utilize it.
While we hear we have picked a bad time to be artists, it would seem we have picked an even worse time to be art students.
Art-
http://buttnekkiddoodles.com/
Don Colley is an artist I have looked at a few times before, but I find myself constantly coming back to his work. He lives and works in Chicago, and while he does to time intensive works of art, the primary work that catches my attention is the ink drawings he does straight from life all over the city of Chicago. From watching a documentary on him previously, he prefers to draw in old accountants books, giving certain drawings a deeper dynamic. His versatility as well as quick study skills are very impressive, as well as beautiful to look upon. While he does has a sense of humor that lends itself to entertaining work (just look at the name of his website) his delicate attention to features of those he observes, and his delicate use of ink tones really takes my breath away. Don Colley is a dimensional, entertaining artist, who I love to be inspired by when I need a reminder that drawing quick life studies out in the open can lead to greater work.
Week 10- Responses
Society-
http://www.suntimes.com/news/nation/11682964-418/supreme-court-strip-searches-ok.html
The article above explains that the Supreme Court ruled that jails can do invasive strip searches (including cavity searches) of people brought in for minor crimes. In the past this ability has been debated, considering minor crimes can including arrest for unpaid fines. The man who has fought to bring this hearing to the Supreme Court's attention, Albert Florence, was strip searched for being arrested for unpaid fines (which had been paid) in two different jailing institutions while waiting for the problem to be straightened out.
While I think searching people before placing them into a jail is important (not knowing what they are carrying) invasive strip searches seem extreme (for minor offenses that is.) While I partially understand the reasoning behind it (guards can never be sure what an incoming inmate has hidden on them,) it seems strange that they would search them without some sort of probable cause. While it could be argued that the 'probable cause' is that they are in prison at all, it seems unfair for minor crimes like an unpaid fine to be searched in the same way a drug dealer or robber would be searched. Even writing this response I find this to be a hard topic to respond to. It would seem the Supreme Court had an equally hard time deciding the ruling, as it was only declared by one vote that these searches would be considered legal across the board. I think that what happened to Albert Florence was unjust and unfair, but who is to say that the next unpaid fine isn't trying to purposefully smuggle something into a prison? There is no way to know and that is why the institutions better safe than sorry attitude has won out, however it would be nice if there was some sort of opportunity for an alternative solution within the system. While some may not agree, I do not find all 'criminals' to be equal in their transgressions, which is why this notion of minor crimes prompting strip searches seems odd to me.
Art-
The article above explains that the Supreme Court ruled that jails can do invasive strip searches (including cavity searches) of people brought in for minor crimes. In the past this ability has been debated, considering minor crimes can including arrest for unpaid fines. The man who has fought to bring this hearing to the Supreme Court's attention, Albert Florence, was strip searched for being arrested for unpaid fines (which had been paid) in two different jailing institutions while waiting for the problem to be straightened out.
While I think searching people before placing them into a jail is important (not knowing what they are carrying) invasive strip searches seem extreme (for minor offenses that is.) While I partially understand the reasoning behind it (guards can never be sure what an incoming inmate has hidden on them,) it seems strange that they would search them without some sort of probable cause. While it could be argued that the 'probable cause' is that they are in prison at all, it seems unfair for minor crimes like an unpaid fine to be searched in the same way a drug dealer or robber would be searched. Even writing this response I find this to be a hard topic to respond to. It would seem the Supreme Court had an equally hard time deciding the ruling, as it was only declared by one vote that these searches would be considered legal across the board. I think that what happened to Albert Florence was unjust and unfair, but who is to say that the next unpaid fine isn't trying to purposefully smuggle something into a prison? There is no way to know and that is why the institutions better safe than sorry attitude has won out, however it would be nice if there was some sort of opportunity for an alternative solution within the system. While some may not agree, I do not find all 'criminals' to be equal in their transgressions, which is why this notion of minor crimes prompting strip searches seems odd to me.
Art-
Dirk Dzimirsky's drawings blew me away. I personally prefer drawing an graphite, and these pieces are technically wonderful. The detail and realism he gets at such a large scale is breathtaking, and I was so happy I stumbled across his work. Every piece of his does a great job of capturing unique human qualities (such as the crinkling of the eyes and the beard hairs in the drawing above.) While he seems to focus on primarily figurative work, I couldn't find out much more about his art, seeing as a lot of the writing on his page was in German. However, I think that work can bridge language gaps, and in this case my lack of translation abilities is fine, because this work speaks for itself. I have a hard time not being overly complimentary, because I am biased in how much I appreciate hyperrealist drawings such as his. I think his drawings are phenomenal and without getting too repetitive I don't have anything else to say besides fantastic drawings from Dirk Dzimirsky. I plan to use him as a source of inspiration in the future.
Week 10 Art- Final Progression II
Tentative Story Board Ideas
Obviously this isn't the easiest thing to read, so I put a larger file up this time. This is the tentative story boards for the animation I am planning to create. As soon as I finished sketching them out I found them to be to blatant as well as too comical for the point I am trying to make. I don't plan to pursue these any further, but you never know what may grow back into my final project. Again, some more proof that I am thinking about the final, as well as actively working to develop the idea. Hopefully the newer ideas I have will be more beneficial than I found these to be....
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