Class Head Shot

So this assignment- to morph the class photos into one face. I had a hard time matching up the different facial structures to match- I didn't end up using everyone's face- but I used about 10- Also I could have blended the faces and shoulders better together- but I like the different colors the shirts with the different layers make. I wouldn't mind re doing this assignment as I get better at photoshop- in the future.

Social Narrative

This assignment was extremely difficult for me. First off- I had a hard time determining what the assignment meant to me. I at three scenes overall: A baptism-church, a bar, and a graveyard. I ended up going with the graveyard for my final project. I wanted to portray life through what other leave behind. And in a graveyard- this is the final resting place- and the final words the individual leaves to the world. I decided to shoot in the old part of this particular cemetery. The first image- of some stones portrays what most see when they look at a graveyard. The second- a stone with one name only- "Sarah." This stone was one of many that struck me- no dates, no last name, and no epithet. Maybe Sarah was young, maybe her family didn't have the extra money to have it engraved further, or maybe no one knew her last name and birth date. The third was a statue on top of a family plot- it almost looks as though she is looking down upon the fourth image- the broken tomb stone- maybe out of sadness because someone's monument was destroyed. And the fifth image maybe just an engravement on a stone- but the words "hope" means to me- that maybe there is hope even in an environment that usually houses death.

notes: Though in class this critique held a lot of criticism- I thought this assignment helped me grow- it challenged me- and I portrayed an environment that once scared me- and made it seem beautiful- the skies in the first and last photo were stunning- and even though it was dusk- it did not hold the feelings of fear or darkness to me. I really struggled with the idea of a social narrative but I am very happy with the result.

Creating a Shadow

Today we had to use photoshop to create a shadow. I thought this exercise was very interesting and I learned a lot. I used different layers, the transform tool, and different blurring tools to help blend the "shadow." After learning this- I really think I will implement this in the future.

Janice Nowinski Artist Lecture

Still Life with Card (1999)
oil on canvas 26 x 28 inches

Janice Nowinski

Let me start off saying, I know very little about painting and still life paintings. I went into this lecture not knowing what to expect. Though I could not relate to the painting aspect of her lecture I began to relate to other parts of her life that helped contribute to her painting career. Someone in the audience asked her if she grew up wanting to be an artist and she promptly said, "No!!" When she was about to graduate high school she didn't know exactly what she wanted to do- but she knew she didn't want to go to college. And I can relate to that right now- I am finishing up the first semester for my senior year and I have no idea what I want to do- I thought I wanted to go to grad school but that has recently changed- at this point I know I don't know what I want to do- other than not go to grad school. She explained how her path eventually lead her to more schooling and how she received her MFA from Yale University.

I was blown away on how long it took to complete her paintings. She showed one slide of a still life that she considered her "first mature still life after grad school" and how it took 3 years! I had no idea how much work and time went into that piece- but it made me appreciate her work a lot more!

Another tactic she mentioned in her creative process was- she starts with any idea and as she continues with the project she gets another idea and starts painting that- it was a tactic Picasso was known for. I can really relate because when I start a photo project I might have a direction but as I start- that idea an direction often changes- so it is nice to know even great artists like Picasso didn't always know exactly where they were going with their work.