final

There were some weeks where what I made didn't feel as meaningful as others. I had fun with everything I was writing about and sharing with the class though. I mostly expressed things about me, my interests, current mental health or personal problems. It was weird? I'm used to sharing my art online because my Instagram is specifically meant for my art and I got into sharing it a year or two ago. The last time I had to share art in a classroom setting was about 5 years ago? I really procrastinated on my getting art requirement out of the way here in university. 

Being in this course reminded me of the significance many different themes and mediums have for specific people. I think we all have things that we overlook when considering what we view as art. There is great beauty in things that we do not find beautiful but others do. I think that might have been my favorite part of this course. I felt like everyone whose posts I got to read had very unique ways of expressing themselves. Everyone was able to shed light on something artistic that I would not have personally thought of.

Interestingly, I consider myself heavily influenced by art and other sources. I think trying to come up with pieces that fit the topic of the week was the hardest part? I feel like I overthought some pieces and wanted to do intricate things that I did not create in the best way. For example, my least favorite week was the one on balance. I found no connection with the piece at all and wasn't the biggest fan of it personally. 

To end this blog post, I want to share a final piece of art. I can't really say what it's reflective of. It's mostly what I tend to share on my Instagram - portraits. I guess it's what I'm good at.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CIAIxtvnb8K/

smoking bad

I decided to drop a super short animation that I made for fun a little bit ago. You can see from the gif that the person is closing their eyes as the smoke travels up from the cigarette. As stated, "In addition, the motion designer thinks about how all these components will change and interact with each other over time" (233). I've found many people mention that smoking has helped relieve stress, even though sometimes it feels like they're stressed over not being able to smoke.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bw_eIwnA2eE/

I wanted to portray the peace some people feel when smoking. I've considered picking up smoking but, luckily, I haven't. Another aspect of this gif is the storyboard aesthetic being used. It gives the animation a desolate feeling, the way I'd assume smoking would leave someone. The motion of the smoke leaves the main figure, leaving them alone as it dwindles. Over time the cigarette will turn into ash leaving the person reaching for more or feeling empty. 

Disclaimer: If you smoke, I love you. Smoking is bad for me personally, doesn't mean I respect anyone any less for doing it!

all about me?

For diagram week, I decided to make a simple network that connects from me to many of my interests! I read this, "There are various ways to connect the nodes in a network" (216) and lots of the graphs in the book made me think this made sense to make.  

https://www.instagram.com/p/CH1qVFNH1ZP/

This entire thing is really just a diagram of things I love. Lots of the things that are helping me stay sane while we all work towards handling the awfulness that has been the year 2020. If I can be real, I feel like this year has literally not stayed positive at all? Like good things happen but then bad things happen right after. It can't stay positive for an extended period of time. As I was creating this diagram, I kept reminding myself of all the things I love that make me happy. In the lower right, I have the word Pixel with an arrow towards cats and cats with an arrow towards Pixel; she's my black cat! 

I'm really into music and art so each has its own subcategory! Food does as well as I love doing all types of things. Honestly, anything that allows me to express myself in some creative way - I really love!

EDEN symbol

you can find these logos here

After reading about symbols, I knew I was going to focus my piece around the EDEN logo. As written by Lupton, "A symbol stands for or represents objects, functions, and processes" (182). To me, and many others, this simple symbol means so much. There are endless amounts of beautifully worded lyrics that have helped many through hard times. Of course, I’m included in that group. The format for this piece comes from this quote: "one block of body copy is surrounded by margins that function as a simple frame for the content" (196). This may not be the best way to go about formatting this piece but it’s too late now. I liked the idea of making this like a magazine page. Just not as high quality. What you’re seeing are images I took at an EDEN concert. I either removed the logo from the image or put the image into the logo. I applied a texture pattern for the one in red, "Dots, stripes and grids provide the architecture behind an infinite range of designs" (201). EDEN means a lot and this little symbol is one I’m planning to get tatted.

sorry mom, love you!

I am no stranger to layers and lowering their opacity. Almost all of the digital art I've made includes a ton of layers that people don't see in the final piece. For my piece this week, I decided to make a collage of multiple images. I layered a bunch of baby pictures of me over a youthful image of my mom.  I lowered the opacity of all them to around 50 to mimic what is written about by Lupton, "To make any image transparent involves compromising its intensity, lowering its overall contrast" (162). 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CG_wdNVndQy/

I can't really tell you what this image means. If I can get a little transparent on my blog, my mom has been on my mind recently since we had an argument. We're in the middle of resolving it because I know I just cannot hold a grudge against my mom at all. She has an explosive personality that you would not pick up from the initial image or the images overlayed on this one. I love sharing this image around of my mom because I think she looks adorable. It's one of the only ones we have from her youth in Mexico. Funnily enough, although she doesn't like me sharing this single image, she loves sharing all the baby pictures she has of me. My relationship with my mom has recently become strained due to the simple fact that I'm not the little girl in the pictures anymore. She doesn't do my hair or dress me because I have a different way of wanting to express myself now. It hurts her a little bit that I'm growing I think. At least she has the photos to always look back on and reminisce!

i don't know how to frame

"The philosopher Jacques Derrida defined framing as a structure that is both present and absent" (117). I tried doing this in by using the fog around the boy as a sort of frame. It's kind of a subtle frame. It's not in your face like the thick outer edge border ones. I decided to use watercolor since I feel watercolor really isn't a medium that allows itself to be easily framed?

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGtkn_WHgHf/

I definitely think this quote: "Written language becomes a frame for the image" (121) would have been useful if I had added any words to this image! For example, if it said pandemic on the mask then it'd be very specific to our current world. Or the word "tired" could definitely be an expression of just how the person is currently feeling. I'm hoping the juxtaposition between dark and muted colors versus the bright yellow helps frame what people get out of this piece. This pandemic sucks; I think we can all agree on that. The person's mask is yellow, a brighter color, so maybe when someone else sees them on the street they go "oh hey! my favorite color, nice!" Even if the world sucks, there is still positivity in the little things and during this time I think we have to try harder to focus on the small things.

eyes eyes and more eyes

 Lupton comments twice on eyes when talking about the way our features exemplify properties such as symmetry. He makes these two comments: "Blocking the eyes can create emotional tension" (100) and "The blocked eyes produce a sense of psychological erasure" (101). In the two pieces I share, I didn't block either of the eyes. What I did want to come across is the property of symmetry and the second one with the upside down eyes is just for fun? 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGbMlSZHlzU/

The eyes themselves in the first image aren't close enough to be actual eyes on someone's face. Not that they need to be to show off symmetry. I'd say the last pair of eyes probably closely reflects what mine look like currently. Tired. What kinds of eyes do you have? 

As we near the middle of the term, I hope everyone takes care of themselves. It's easy to exhaust ourselves remotely - be at campus or not.