ESP

Two weeks ago I went to the Eastern State Penitentiary with my English class. It was sort of an overcast and cloudy day, which only lended to the omninous structure of the penitentiary. It was really eerie, but to an extent beautiful in it's decay. I forget the term that was used, but basically they aren't encouraging it's decline, but they aren't maintaining the upkeep either. So the interior was really rusty and eroding, and it just gave the whole place an even creepier feel. I had to write a short paper on it, so I won't geek out on all the facts, but the whole concept behind the penitentiary is really bizarre. The Quaker's wanted to create a system for more humane imprisonment, in contrast to the flogging, branding, and stock system currently in place at that time. The penitentiary was designed so that the inmates would be in total solitary confinement, 24/7. The only human interaction they received was from the jailer. This was supposed to give them plently of time to reflect and become "penitent" about their criminal acts. Personally, I think it's just as inhumane as the old system, because seeing the place for yourself it's not hard to imagine the insanity that solitary confinement must have induced. Personally, I definitely would not have been able to handle it.

Al Capone's Cell!

Sharon Louden

Last Tuesday Sharon Louden provided our lecture. I thought her work was really intriguing, I especially loved the installation she did in a dining room. These pieces of glass hung from the ceiling above a dining room table, which would kind of freak me out when I'm eating, but it looked so beautiful. I also really liked the concept for a commissioned painting that is now hanging directly above a bed. What made it so awesome was that it was painted in glow in the dark paint, but in fifteen minutes the paint would gradually fade and become dark again, kind of like a gradual night light. I had never really seen paintings done on mylar before, so that was really interesting too. I'm currently using mylar in my 2D class for a printing project, and I had never thought of it being used as a surface to paint on. I really liked also how her formal training informed her more abstract work. The "squiggles" she worked so much with were really interesting, and I think they sort of had a figural attitude. I also thought it was neat that she worked with Golden paint company to produce a new color of glow in the dark paint. The neon green is so generic and over-used, so it added a whole new dimension to her work because she was able to work with the company to create that blue glow-in-the-dark paint.

Tyler Installations

Sadly, the kinetic sculptures by Brad Litwin are gone. I kind of miss their bizarre whirring noises. I really liked the graphic design projects that were hanging up on the wall that followed, some of them were really witty. But I am totally in love with the marching, gum-ball carrying, polar bears! I think they are so adorable, and every few days they're in a new space. I really wish they were real, they'd make such an awesome pet.

Free Topic!

So two weeks ago our lecture was just an advising session, so nothing really to blog about there.

But in my 3D class we finally finished our plaster-mold project! That was quite the project and super time consuming, but I'm really really happy with my final results so I think it was worth it. I've been taking pictures of the steps in the process and I want to put a little slideshow together once I have some pictures of the final project.

The Process: First we chose an object to create a mold of, and I chose a back massager. We made plaster molds of our objects, which involved a nine hour day down in the plaster pit, which was brutal. Then we slip casted for a good two weeks straight, and I felt like I was taking care of a small child. I think I mentioned before that I named my mold Russel. I mean, why not? I was spending so much time with it. :) Then we altered all of our casts; I ended up just creating holes at the end of each of the little massagers, since it was already such a cool shape. Some people had to do a lot of modifying to get their objects to work out. Next we created modules out of ours modified casts. These modules had to be able to be laid out horizontally to create a repeat pattern, and also stacked vertically to create a tower. I just connected the massagers back to back. They look really neat and organic! I think they are really interesting, and the tower it makes when stacked is so awesome. I'm really proud of it!

Image Pairs

These are some of the images from the "Walk, Bike, Ride" Adventure. The first pair I chose to put together because of the strong diagonal angles found in each. They go in opposite directions and look nice contrasted together.

The second images I chose to pair together because the energy found in the sculpture reminded me of the homeless guy who wanted to pose for a picture.

And the third I paired together because I liked how the shapes somewhat resembled the couple.

I also love the picture of the couple, it's so cute! I just wish the lady was fatter, then she would resemble the sphere a little bit more.

Where the Wild Things Are

This was a project we did awhile back. We had to manipulate text to create an image, while still maintaining the integrity of the letters themselves. This particular phrase uses the letters from the phrase "Where the Wild Things Are". I made the little monsters out of the letters "i,e,r" "e,i,l,d,s" and "h,g,r,a". I tried not to manipulate them too much so you can still make out the letter forms.

Coincidentally, I just saw the movie this weekend. It was amazing! I highly recommend it!

Pig nose!

This is what I would look like if I died and then fell on top of a piece of glass! For this project we scanned our faces and then recreated the images in Illustrator. To accomplish this we found shapes in our squashy faces and built them up to create our final image. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, but it totally lowered my self-esteem by looking at the picture. It was so gross!

Lecture

Brad Litwin talked to us on Tuesday about how technology has evolved over his lifetime, and how it has affected his work. He is also the creator of the kinetic sculptures in the lobby at Tyler right now, and they are all so interesting and fun! I didn't see much artistic relevance to his lecture, but the transformation of his work due to the changing technology was really interesting. I loved the short little films he showed us, they were so quirky and entertaining. His collapsible was really clever. He seemed like quite an eccentric guy!

Warning Label

For this project we had to create a warning label for ourselves. One of my biggest pet peeves are people's voices. Some people just have the most aggravating voices, and I can't handle it. I tried to capture this by using irritating colors in the sound wave, as well as the mouth. Personally, I think it looks pretty annoying.

Conservation Lecture

I actually loved this lecture. Kate Cuffari, a conservationist at the PMA, came to talk to us. I loved all the practical examples she gave where technology aids her work. They can use technology in non-intrusive ways so that the artwork remains unharmed. She gave tons of examples, from Joseph Beuys to Rothko. She even gave a historical example; the Parthenon used to be brightly painted but today it is just white. Even in today's technology, she stressed the importance of investing in materials that will last longer for digital media. For example, get archival DVD's instead of standard one's to back up your digital media. Definitely the best lecture yet.