Line Artist Statment
I decided to make my project around something that has particularly been affecting my life and daily schedule. Since mid March, as soon as the pandemic had began, I started to walk my neighbors dog everyday twice a day. My neighbor Art, and his golden retriever Buddy, have lived in the building for many years. Art is in his late seventies and has undergone many surgeries. These surgeries sometimes leave him with difficulties walking. Since Buddy is so food motivated he can pull you at any moment with tremendous force. Every morning and evening I walked Buddy up until mid July when I began only walking him once a day and in the mornings. I try to walk Buddy for around 30 minutes or at least until he uses the bathroom a few times. Walking Buddy in the morning has forced me to wake up every day at 9:14 and be out the door by 9:30. By making these line drawings concerning my walks with Buddy, I was able to visually how good or bad any one walk may have been. I was also able to gage how long a walk was based purely on how many times he used the bathroom. If the line drawing was heavily decorated this meant we went on a longer walk. If it consisted of a few lines however, this meant a shorter one. I began to see patterns in our walks and noticed things such as food, and how often it was a problem because of him lunging after it. I found it stressful at some points trying to keep track of our walks because I didn’t enjoy constantly being on my phone. Keeping track of Buddy’s bathroom activities in particular helped me be more conscientious of how often he pees on an average walk. As a result this was helpful in future walks if it seemed we were walking home prematurely before he peed enough..
Newspaper Artist Statment
When I first began thinking about the newspapers, I took a long look at the front cover. What was the basis of the newspaper, what did it emphasize? What was being said and what wasn’t? What could be made fun of and what should be highlighted more? On my first newspaper I experimented with a little comedy and was just familiarizing myself with the process. In my second newspaper I notice a heavy emphasis on Trump. Wherever I could find Trump in the newspaper I cut him out. I also found many people who were either in the same picture as Trump and or not, wearing masks to cut out and place next to him. This I found would make a commentary on his lack of responsibility and being a poor role model for the country. It was also the first newspaper that I experimented with text on the page. I wrote little speech bubbles to help create a narrative.
In my third newspaper I noticed two things. The far right, gun loving protesters and what has been circulating the media, the Travis Scott Burger. I cut out a powerful image of thirteen armed civilians holding the line behind a barricade as well as a couple images of Travis advertising Mcdonalds. While putting them both on the front page but Travis Scott on top, I wanted to put emphasis on how we often focus on the miscellaneous and insignificant when there are greater problems that concern us. I again experimented with speech bubbles to try and create a clear narrative.For my fourth and fifth newspaper, I found what seemed like the main theme of the issue and concentrated on bringing that forward. In my fourth newspaper, Breanna Taylor and the protests that ensued had been a major theme and prominent issue that wanted to make sure was the sole focus. For my fifth newspaper, climate change and the destruction of wildfires had been ravaging America. Instead of trying to solve everything at once, I think we benefit as humans to focus on completing and fulling involving ourselves in one issue. These newspapers did just that.
Medina Response
I really enjoyed Medina’s art. I felt as though I couldn’t quite connect the same way however, with her vocal pieces. I found her approach to her art work and the way she finds her inspiration very interesting. “devote yourself to the earth”, she says. She asks us to create a new self and imagine where that place might exist in the world. What is still there, what has been discarded? It is a scary thought to change yourself as she says, but when we stay comfortable we never develop and progress as humans. The best art, the best ideas and inspirations come from growth and when we begin to change ourselves for the better. Only then does something become real out of fantasy, only then do we turn our imagination into manifestations. I think it’s important to note that she said she can feel vulnerable and not be weak. Often when people begin to change or express themselves, they put themselves in vulnerable positions, but this vulnerableness is the uncomfortableness needed for any type of growth.
For my shapes project I continued with the theme of Buddy, the golden retriever I have been walking for the past seven months. Him and I took pictures from a reflection I saw on a building. I decided that including both of us was too much for a pattern. I cut out only his ahead which was yawning at the moment the image was captured, then repeated it over multiple times.For my other shape, I used my wallet. I’ve always had an interesting relationship with wallets and have had only three in the past fourteen years. I thought I could first make an unusual shape, like a Leviathans from Avenger. I then repeated this pattern, turned it on its side and created an X. If you zoom into my wallet shape you can see very minuit details of smaller wallets.
For my last shape I used a zippo lighter I had acquired in my time in Italy. I have both a zippo and abstract lighter collection. Not too many people know this about me and I felt it was both personal and interesting of an item considering its meaning. I tried formulating the pattern of the lighter in the Fibonacci Sequence.Color Artist Statement
I tend to use more muted and monotone colors. I feel the tone feels more nostalgic this way but never blue enough to come off as cold. I enjoy having this middle ground between being pensive and non-aggressive but still very non-verbally evocative. When I set out to shoot these two images, I wanted the audience to feel that these individuals were in a calm, comforting environment. One that allowed them to be lost in an uninterrupted thought. I believe this can be achieved because of the lack of flashy or distracting colors that don’t correspond with the rest of the image. I also color grade my photos with the same or similar presets which allows to maintain a consistency throughout my work.
3D Banana Artist Statement
I choose a banana for my 3D project. From trial and error I realized I needed to have a non-distracting background. I took printing paper and tapped them all together so that it covered my entire table. I used blue masking tape to visibly connect the paper together so that when I imported them to Metashape, the program would have points to use for tracking. After developing the image I got something that resemble very well the images of the banana. I felt that banana’s have had a very dubious history of being symbolized sexually. This can be attributed to it’s phallic qualities.
zine statement
I choose toxic masculinity for my zine theme because I felt it was a topic that was personal to myself and a relevant topic I wanted to bring forward. There are many different ways and examples of toxic masculinity and so I tried to think of different images that would represent it. Such examples as locker room talk, boys playing dress up, having color norms for different genders and the tough/strong expectation held for men.