image essay#6

I attended Daniel Graham's lecture last evening, and to my surprise I was left more inspired than I could have imagined. Daniel Graham's lecture was quit fascinating to me. I believe that first of it was his character that captivated my attention. He presented himself as a very genuine man. He did not fear being humorous, and that was a quality I much admired. His reflection on his work, however, is what most enthralled me. When he spoke of his art pieces they were not this simple concept behind the work, but these elaborate metaphors on life that pertained to every single material he used within a piece. There was a tremendous dialogue I saw between him and his art; this poetic chemistry. Everything had detail and was thought out. The greatest attribute to his work was that he intertwined his memories (whether embellished or not).I related to Daniel in this sense because I articulate reason for every inclusion of material; I really appreciated his thought process.
The workshop this morning was very interesting. We began with an exercise as difficult as re-writing a fairy tale. It was trying to come up with a reclaimed story in a matter of minutes, yet the practice was worthwhile. After that portion we went on to make a list of phrases that would illustrate our feelings or memories towards a color. At the end of this we used one line from the fairy-tale retelling as well as a line from the color depictions, making a brand new unlikely sentence. Mine was: "She could see the future, dull, verging on passion." Then in groups of eight we took each of our sentences to form a story. Daniel's purpose behind all of this was to show us, how at first our ideas lack what it takes to make pieces of art; and that through examination and combination we can create a more profound work that relates a larger variety of feelings and emotions.
From our group’s stories, we created characters that pertained to our own sentences. We were instructed not to merely illustrate our sentence, but rather create a character or picture that contributed to the purpose of our sentence. I chose to draw binoculars that were a way I imagined my character could "see the future." Than we collaborated to create a scene in which all of our characters interacted.
I enjoyed this workshop very much, and that it was a great way in which we could tangibly explore our imagination and further our own understanding of our ideas.

image essay#5

My hope is that what I am taking so much time to do with this project, taking risk and making this piece a true example of my concept, is evident now even in the beginning stages. I am quit aware that I have so much work ahead of me, but I am not fearful or discouraged but mainly exited and dedicated to the execution of the piece. Instead of 11x17 paper I am using a 17x24 piece of ply wood that I painted white. The image is drawn on symmetrically, and where the "halo" is around the figure-I've painted it gold, with yellow beam lines. I incorporated color into the piece because I think it makes the concept and the symbolism three-dimensional. For me the color yellow is representational of God, light, warmth, and love. It is also the color that is typically used as the color of halos in paintings. So my using it draws the viewer to the irony of this glowing religious and violent figure.
I also chose the wooden board because I plan on attaching my textures not by gluing them to the surface, but rather nailing then to the board. I thought of using nails because there is a sense of drama with them and the literal "hammering in" of ideas. I believe in the finished piece you will be able to see the image, but also there will be these nails that extend forward; and from the side angle of the piece you'll be able to see the amount. Also I am using mostly, if not all, transparency papers for the texture, rather then normal paper. I feel that by using transparency I will have this great effect of overlap; and conceptually I am using transparency paper because the terms in which I am voicing 'wrath' are not transparent--they are complicated and under communicated, so once again I'm playing with irony.
I am sorry that I can not physically show you gestalt principles in the piece do to lack of texture at this time; however I can assure that those principles will be applied with the utmost concern.