EPIC FAIL

“All Art is Quite Useless”

Feeling as though I wanted to make a series of images, and also being envious of/inspired by art created using the program Illustrator (and wanting to use it somehow) I decided to search for another similar idea for a second image. Looking through more Oscar Wilde quotes I came across “all art is quite useless”. Deciding that this was perfect for the style of art that I was appropriating into my own images, I began to devote my brain power to finding a way to incorporate the quote right into my image (like I did in the first one) while keeping with the same Pop art theme. I then thought of Roy Lichtenstein’s work. My idea was to incorporate a Pop art icon like Marilyn Monroe and make the work reminiscent of Lichtenstein, a perfect marriage of Pop art styles. “All art is quite useless” is ironic in the sense that it is written on a piece of artwork, by an artist. However I wanted more to embody the philosophies of Pop art: the cult of the celebrity, the f*@#k you to all ‘high art’, and the joining of art with mass culture. This is the type of art, bordering on propaganda/advertising that interests me the most.

(Also, I have created more than one version of this image using different colour fills and filters)

EPIC FAIL

“Anything Popular is wrong”

These two images share a common thread, in the message they emit and the source that my inspirations were derived from. However, before my ideas were in place I knew that I wanted to use illustrator, and I also knew that I wanted to use Photoshop. I hadn’t touched these programs before this class because I hadn’t needed to but I’ve always felt the need to have some sort of grasp on these programs, especially Photoshop. So, I was forced to spend hours on Youtube listening to tutorial after crappy tutorial, and this is where the thought of my first image (the typographic portrait of Marilyn) came from. A tutorial about how to work, and warp text in Photoshop into a portrait gave me a base idea. Once I had this vague notion of what my first image would be I needed a quote. I searched databases for quotes and the first quote that grabbed my attention was an Oscar Wilde quote, “Anything Popular is wrong”. This was the first quote, short and sweet, that gave me the fully formed idea. Satirical and outrageous, a flamboyant public figure with a huge ego; Oscar Wilde was definitely the archaic Andy Warhol. This made me think of Pop art, its irony and satire, and it also made me think of Marilyn Monroe whose face is as famous as it is because of art. I decided then and there that I wanted to use her face and recreate it using Oscar Wilde’s quote, A perfect ironic combination of word and image.

EPIC FAIL

I still have zero ideas as to what I'm going to do for this final project. I need to find a pun-tum, something that really inspires me, almost makes me jealous of its creator. I want to cronstruct something using technology I havent before, like photoshop, or adobe illustrator. Otherwise, I have yet to come up with an idea or concept for the last one...

GROUP VIDEO

The difficulty for this assignment was A) getting the group together and talking B) coming up with a feasible idea that we could accomplish in two hours. We agreed to focus on a character and somehow highlight the most painful part of her life, in this case being schizophrenic. We wanted no dialogue, the focus was on the main character of the girl and her bouts of insanity in a normal, everyday setting. We managed to make it accessible to a wide audience and I'm happy with the end result. My favourite of the other groups was The Sounds of Boredom, as i found this concept or idea extremely creative and interesting.  

STOP MOTION

Searching through youtube at different stop motion videos, and trying to tack down an idea was extremely difficult. There is a wide range of things you can accomplish through stop motion and I realized this as I looked through all the different videos that exist online. I was especially intrigued by the post it note stop motion, and illustrated stop motion and wanted to somehow do both. Not realizing that I had chosen the most difficult ways to create a stop motion video I went ahead and came up with this wonderfully complicated and loosely autobiographical story that I would bring to life. Starting off, I realized how difficult it would be to do my original story, it would have taken me too long to finish, and had to cut it in half. The new ending was not as fitting as the old ending but there was no way that i could accomplish what I wanted to without taking forever to do it. All in all, I could have done a much better job. I think that at times the drawing and illustration was not on par with my normal abilities and I regret using post-it notes as paper....not ideal. I was thoroughly impressed by the other stop motion videos and the effort that people put into them. This inspired me to want to make another stop motion, using a medium other than post-it notes and pencil.

PETCHA KUTCHA

I was taken aback by the openness of this first project, being used to very specific guidelines, especially for a presentation. My initial reaction to Elaine Sharpe's daring of the class to "shock her" was to identify what kind of art shocked me and then share it with the class. Being already fascinated by performance art, i had no trouble finding shocking examples, and it was the art of the French artist Orlan who truly floored me. Her commitment to her practice, how she actually LIVED the art that she wanted to create is completely amazing to me. I went on to find other artwork that disturbed and shocked me and created twenty slides of this. The only regret i had from the presentation was how I misjudged the length of twenty seconds. I feel that I could have gotten my ideas across in a more coherent and clear manner if I had accounted for the time limit. I also would have liked to make it more personal, seeing other people's presentations and how they opened up more about their lives. Inspiration is intrinsic and so I see the importance of understanding yourself and integrating who you are into your art.