Ideas for the First Project

During the process of pulling myself out of a rather nasty cold, I have been trying to pull myself out of what I can only describe as an apparently unproductive period for my imagination and creativity.  I thought about our project, and my ideas for the themes above.  As my previous post suggests, I kept returning to the idea of humanity's impact on the environment.  I suppose the image of a smokestack tree, which I began making in class, has really grown on me.  With that in mind, I created the (very) rough sketch that appears below.

First of all, I'd like to point out that this in part came out of my very tired and cold-ridden mind, and that I actually can draw when the mood strikes me.  Also, theoretically, clicking on the image should enlarge it (because the one I uploaded is far larger than the one being displayed on the blog).  Now, to the fun part - explaining such a rough sketch.  My idea for this composition is to present a nightmarish landscape in shades of grey, black, oranges and yellows.  The backdrop for the scene is a line of factories billowing smoke into the atmosphere.  A person (probably me, since I have access to a series of photos of myself in that pose on a swing) will sit in a swing, which hangs on a branch of the smokestack tree.  This tree is on an island in the middle of a dark lake, though not dark enough that you cannot see reflections.  I mention reflections because I want the nightmare landscape to be mirrored by an ideal one in the lake.  Mountains rather than factories and plants, a beautiful tree rather than an industrial, fiery monstrosity.  This should ideally draw attention to the ways in which the environment is being hurt by mindless consumption.  And so, with my ideas outlined, sketched, and blogged, I bid the internet a fond farewell for the evening.

-Kelly F.

Beauty with Backlash - Environmental Appropriation Art

While studying appropriation art in class, we looked at the brilliant and intricate works of the artist Chris Jordan.  His re-creations of such familiar and beloved works as Botticelli's Birth of Venus and Seurat's Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte with pieces of collected trash strive to point out the waste and consumption inherent in modern society.  In the assignment that has me blogging today, we were asked to find a work of appropriation art on the same theme which we are using to create our own first work in the class.  Given that my theme is humanity's impact on the environment, I naturally gravitated back toward the work of Chris Jordan.

Above is Chris Jordan's Denali Denial (2006), a piece constructed with 24,000 logos from the GMC Yukon Denali.  Jordan's website states that the number of logos in the painting was equal to the numbers of said SUVs sold every six weeks in the year 2004.  However, rather than showing a landscape negatively impacted by gas-guzzling vehicles, Jordan chose to imitate a photograph of a beautiful mountain lake. 

This is a strategy Jordan used in many of the works in his two Running the Numbers series.  The function this technique serves above is to make one keenly aware of what is at stake in our consumer-driven culture.  What would happen if everyone started driving all over the scene above in their SUVs?  And what about the oil needed to make the gasoline for those vehicles?  What impact has and will the oil industry have on the beautiful landscape above?  I want my piece to have a similar message.  Comparing a beautiful lake landscape of today with a semi-nightmarish landscape choked by smokestacks and dark, looming factories will allow me to point out something important: what we have lost, and what we still stand to lose if society as a whole does not pay more attention to the environment.

-Kelly F.

And So It Begins - Meditations on the First Project

In this assignment we have been asked to work through some ideas about our first project in the Digital Imaging class.  Continuing in the theme of the posts above, this artwork will be one of appropriation.  We were asked to use the internet to find images that could be compiled into a work on a theme of our choice.  At this rather early stage in the game, we have been asked to brainstorm just what our themes might be and what images we might pair with them.

These themes are meant to be weighty, conscious - relevant to the issues of our times.  With this prompt in mind, I have come up with the following ideas:

- Industrialization vs. Nature
- the Search for Peace / the Meaning of Peace
- the Passage of Time

I have considered other themes, and still might come up with a few more.  However, for the time being, I worry about what will happen if I try to make my mind go in too many directions.  Sometimes chaotic spirals of creative thought are good, and can yield surprising results.  On the other hand, I often find my imagination going nowhere if I try to send it in too many directions.  So, if it becomes necessary, I will discuss more themes later.  For now, I will focus on the types of images I might use with the themes above.

Our first assignment is to find one images that could be repeated, used over and over until it forms an image of something else entirely.  An image I could see myself using in such a way for Industrialization vs. Nature would be the image of a billowing smokestack.

This is an image taken from what I can tell by Steve Cole, of the Getty Factory smokestacks.  I think this image could be admirably adapted into the branches and leaf clusters of a tree, by isolating the smokestacks and the smoke and articulating them into a tree-like form.  This would speak to the interplay between industrial processes and nature - it's an idea that's very much about environmental awareness.

The next idea I want to discuss is the idea of the Passage of Time.  Yes, I know I'm not necessarily addressing the ideas in the order of my list above, but as I will discuss below I'm saving the middle idea for a good reason.  When I think of the passage of time, I think of the whir of gears and the slip of sand through an hourglass.  I'll admit a bit of dissatisfaction with my concept for this one, because I doubt that it will sound very original.  Anyway, I think I would enjoy using gears as my repeating image for this theme.

I'm not sure whether this technically fits the parameters of the assignment or not, but I was thinking that I could isolate the gears in this photograph and use them to re-create something like sand flowing through an hourglass.  The result would be something that had a really neat machine-like feel to it.  Of course, I could also use them to make a model of the globe or solar system.  That might also be interesting.  However, this is not the idea that I favor.

The theme I find most intriguing or creatively stimulating is the Search for Peace / the Meaning or Nature of Peace.  However, I'm having a difficult time figuring out one repeatable image for this theme.  It conjures thoughts of stillness, and of quite. 

This is a jade bi, a disc dating back to the earliest civilizations in China.  It is associated with heaven, while a solid disc counterpart is associated with earth.  I love this image, but as of yet I'm not entirely sure what I would want to construct with it.  I thought of using the disc to construct the Chinese character for peace, or perhaps the Chinese character for the sound Om... I am honestly not sure I should do that, even if I wanted to (and I'm not sure I would want that either).  Sadly, not every idea develops when you need it to.  I will continue thinking about this idea, and trying to come up with more images for it.  Once I figure something out, I will write another post on it.  Until then, I think it's time to let my ideas work themselves out in my imagination.

- Kelly F.