Line Artist Statement
In Michel de Certeau’s “The Practice of Everyday Life: Walking in the City,” he says, “Stories about places are makeshift things. They are composed with the world’s debris” (107). This sentence among others sparked my thought process for this assignment as I knew I wanted to incorporate adventures and my emotions throughout all five works for this project. I constructed my final idea for this project after collecting and taking note of certain moments or sentences that I thoroughly enjoyed from Certeau’s writing. Each of the pieces of 4x6 bristol board paper represents a single day’s journey with points and colors identifying each location. I also wanted to demonstrate my emotions from that day, which I included through horizontal lines with various colors representing each emotion. This representation of my day through the points of travel and the order of my locations create a visual journal of my routine that day. Another artist that inspired my process for this assignment is Sol LeWitt’s work titled: “Wall Drawing 51.” I thoroughly enjoyed LeWitt’s use of straight lines and points where these lines meet.
Two interesting words that Certeau incorporated when describing some experiences and thoughts when walking through the city are synecdoche and asyndeton. Synecdoche, in Certeau’s opinion, means the use of a word, which is part of another word with generally the same meaning. Certeau means by this a word that is part of something rather than its entirety. Asyndeton describes the, “suppression of linking words such as conjunctions and adverbs” (101). Synecdoche makes the words or phrase more dense by “ampli[fying] the detail[s]” while asyndeton cuts out or removes the continuity of a thought. As the writer continues to explain the meaning of asyndeton, Certeau says, “every walk constantly leaps, or skips like a child, hopping on one foot” (101). This description of asyndeton began my thought process with the initial idea to focus on my movement in this world and the places that I visit the most. With this thought looming in my mind, I read Certau’s words that “modern art” is from “everyday expressions” (101). I decided that I wanted to incorporate my daily movements through my most traveled places as the places I spend a lot of time at and enjoy reveal a great deal of that day’s personal, “expressions.” Reading this detailed writing from Certeau helped me organize my thoughts and ideas with the use of my personal experiences through line and places that I enjoy spending my time.
Borges vs. Berners-Lee Writing
Borges and Berners-Lee discuss the basic connections between varying languages in any form including books and the World Wide Web. Although they examine this discussion from quite different angles, their overarching conclusions are strikingly similar. Borge explains that while many people for thousands of years believe that there are infinite languages and that each language, word, and letter do not all correspond, he believes that all the books and languages come down to general symbols. He explains this with numerous examples, one of which relates to thousands of books in a library which are written in different languages. He explains that while he understands that there are numerous dialects and languages, he truly believes that the hundreds of thousands of letters, “cannot correspond to any language, no matter how dialectal or rudimentary it may be” (53). Borges is explaining that although to us the letters and words are placed under languages, at their core they are all symbols, which connect and relate. Berners-Lee supports this belief, but with the World Wide Web. Berners-Lee explains that W3 “needed a common basic language for interchange for hypertext” (795). He describes that in order for anyone and everyone to have the ability to use W3, a universal language was absolutely necessary. Berners-Lee explains that, “whatever type of server, the user interface is the same, so users do not need to understand the differences between the many protocols in common use” (792). Although Berners-Lee’s explanation and understanding of the basis of every server using the same language was much clearer and obvious to any reader and/or coder than Borges’ analogy, their argument that the basis for communication (whether it be with text or online) is universally the same.
Newspaper Podcast Writing
Throughout this podcast, three artists describe their connection to and use of newspapers in their art and its impact in their lives. At the very beginning of the podcast, the first speaker, Sarah Charlesworth, describes one of her earlier series and how her relationship with the daily newspaper influenced this work. Charlesworth focused on a newspaper’s photography and it’s effect on its viewers. Similar to Charlesworth, as a child, my first points of interest with the daily newspaper were the pictures. I did not read the titles or read the articles and then glance at the pictures, I first and foremost stared at the images placed on the front page. I have always been a visually orientated person, which probably began with my glances at the paper as a child. Later on in the podcast, Aleksandra Mir discusses her transition from an artist to an editor and she describes that, “the artistic process is all about being the editor…I am not a painter, but … the process is the same and it’s always subjective.” Her description on any art or editorial work being subjective really connected with my thoughts and plans for the newspaper project. For this project, I am going to select five pages of the New York Times and cover all the text with designs and scribbles in pastel. The reason I am drawing fun, informal marks covering the text instead of straight lines is to connect to my childhood through my focus on the images with youthful, childish drawings. These artists’ use of newspapers and its influence in their lives largely influenced my idea for this project and my interest in connecting my five works to my childhood.
Pattern Project Writing
I produced these patterns with objects from my daily life: keys, comb, and earrings. I altered the number of each object per pattern, the width between these objects to create a visually pleasing pattern, and I used varying colors that I felt fit best with each design. Some of these patterns clearly show what object is being used, but patterns like my green keys is harder to understand without seeing the individual object first. The process of how I made these patterns was relatively simple. I photograpehd the object, traced the object in Illustrator, made an interesting shape with one or more of the tracings of the object, filled the shape with a color, then used the pattern tool on Illustrator to adjust the repetition style and width of these shapes. I thoroughly enjoyed this project as I have never made a pattern before. I can definitely see myself making more patterns in the future!
Color Response
After reading some of Cabinet’s color descriptions, I came across a description of the color aquamarine. This writing about aquamarine immediately compared the color to glaciers and the sea. As the editors describe aquamarine and its relation to glaciers, I am reminded of an image of mine, which is filled with varieties of blues and teals as the entire image is of, well, part of a glacier. The editors describe aquamarine as, “the color of clean.” My image relates exactly to this phrase as it is a crisp, clean image of the edge of a glacier. One can see where the light hits the ice and carries throughout. The light creates an image of a glacier that does not consist of one singular shade of blue or teal, but a variety. Nearly every description of aquamarine, within this article, is related to water, movement, and the sea. These beautiful, simple, and clear descriptions of this color all reminded me of this one image in particular. Through the external complexity and abstract depiction lies a simple, peaceful, and clear photograph of a glacier on a clear, sunny day.
Glacier, 2018