Statement of Intent for Final Project: Axiom

We are faced with decisions that affect our lives each day that could determine who we are and the disposition of ourselves. We are evil, we are spiritual, we are apathetic, we are conceded, and we are good. I want to convey this within a color photograph that I will take within the next couple of days. I do not know how I will go about this or care to know, but this will be a serendipitous event in which I will use to portray this idea of humanity at its basis. The above image is an example that I have taken earlier this semester.

My process in which I will execute this project will be in printing and painting. I will use a gradient mask on the photo in which it will fade away into a white background. Then I will print this photo out onto a canvas paper that I can paint on, and then I will manually paint the rest of the photograph in with acrylics. The half that I will paint will be the axiom of humanity.

Nov. 7 2008 Homework: Revised Photoshop Painting

I used one of my Photoshop paintings from last week. The B&W painting is of a sailboat in a bizarre seascape with a lightning tornado. I added layers with textures, such as metals. I overlaid them and used a circular gradient mask to drown out the detail in the middle. I left the metal layer in color, because it is cool.

Idea for Final Project

I want to use a photograph that I have taken over this last year that's evocative to change, and use a mask gradient to make it fade out. I will paint in the area that has faded away with a manual medium, such as acrylics or watercolors. The photograph will most likely be on canvas, so it will be easily be painted.

October 31, 2008 Homework: Photoshop Paintings

The five images or paintings I'm going to create are based off Chip Forelli's nightmare of black and white landscapes. I will create these dreamlike landscapes that don't make much sense, but done in the same beautiful fashion as Forelli. The first four will include seascapes with bizarre trees and water. They will be consistent in size and format. Then the last painting will be a surreal abstract with a human fetus in it.

October 31, 2008 Homework: Book Cut Out Revised Idea

My revised version of the cut out book, is going to be the same idea, but going further into the depths of the past and the present. I've chosen seven of my previous images to use and base my new versions off of. My new images will be of the present that relate to each of the images previously, such as the photo of the bottles I will take a photo with a bar in the background. Instead of using me as a prop for the present, I will use a different person, but I do not know who it will be yet. These photos will be done in the same manner as being ultra wide angles, and have a lot of activity. There will five to seven images. The images above are the seven I will use.

October 24, 2008 Homework: Book Cut Out

Into the Looking Glass

When looking for a magnifying glass at an antique store I came upon some old brass binoculars and I thought it would be great to convey a story through looking through them within a space. My idea was to do a self portrait with me looking through these binoculars in a basement full of antique contraptions and things under Beale Street. I wanted to portray the vision of seeing the past through a moment in time, which is me. The fidgety look of me is an effect that I could not help because of my process in which I performed with the help of Khalifa, but in a way it is sequential to the idea of a moment in time. I represent an infinitesimal thread in the fabric of time, and the background represents the past, the forgotten, and the abandoned; it also is the antithesis to the wild life that perpetually plays above. The masks cut outs will be in the binoculars.

October 17, 2008 Homework: Masking Images

I haven't really come up with a sound or coherent idea but more of a simplistic way of looking at things in a unique way. I used several different pictures that relate by bricks and stones. I will have a rectangular mask of each image in an area where the viewer's eye is brought to, such as the focal point. Sadly, this not the main theme I wanted to do, because I haven't had the time or people; I really wanted to use a friend as part of a still life and have in their hands a magnifying glass holding up to their side, which would be masked out revealing a hint of the next image. But I couldn't find the right kind of magnifying glass to do this project, so I had to resort to this, which isn't bad for a rough draft.