Studio Journal- Collage and Portraiture.

In trying to figure out where to take the idea of nontraditional portraiture I decided to try using collage.  I have always liked collage because of the way it brings together so many different elements.  A person's character and personality is likewise made up of so many different elements- so it seemed a perfect fit.  I began with myself and started shooting my environment, my belongings, patterns, and other things that I care about.  I digitally combined all of these photos together to create a collage of "Mary".  While I liked the collage on it's own I thought it might be worth while to pair it with a more traditional portrait, creating a diptych.  Once I completed my own portrait I decided to include others.  So I have been collecting images of family and friends in the same way and creating these collage portraits.  Once I have enough images, they will be bound into a book.  I really like that it gives two reads of a person- the view anyone could see just by looking at the person but also pairing it with tiny details you might not see but that really make the person who they are.  It is a bigger, more complete picture and expression of personality.

 (in progress)

Studio Journal - A New Cliche

In Design III we were assigned the task of creating and distributing a new cliche, I wasn't sure how to connect this to my thesis interest but I knew where I wanted to start: Bruce Mau's Incomplete Manifesto For Growth.  I knew when I read this that I wanted to do something visual with it and this was the perfect opportunity since the list consisted of so many design troupes, ideas that could easier enter the idea of cliche.
I decided that I would turn each on into a post card that could be mailed out.  To create the images I used quick associations from either the tag line or the explanation of each point on Mau's list. All the images were found using Google images as my tool. Each postcard is numbered so that the recipient would know that they are receiving a part of a whole.

While I really liked the visual impact and idea of the postcard set, I was still unsure how this idea could work into my thesis.  The biggest link was association.  Each card would get part of my personality, since I created them with my own associations.  Then I would be connecting with others by choosing who to send each one too and bringing their personality in to the mix.

Collecting Images: Further Stumbling

In trying to find the Ellie Brown project I mentioned previously, I found this guy on flickr: Jason Travis. I really loved all his portrait work.  The subjects seemed confident, comfortable, and therefor the portrayals seemed true to their own spirits.  Maybe that's the case, maybe its not.  But what i stumbled upon in relation to Ellie Brown's project and my own interest in beginning this search was a bag project of his own.  A series called Persona. Instead of trying to sum this up I give you a Bio of Persona straight from Flickr:


[Persona Bio]

When he began taking photographs in November 2007 for his Persona diptych series, Jason Travis set out to catch up with old friends, learn more about new friends, and, most significantly, to capture a portion of their lives in terms of what each individual considered essential enough to carry around with them everyday.

Viewers of the Persona diptychs take a voyeuristic delight in not only glimpsing the items usually tucked away in bags and pockets, but in identifying with strangers by relating to the tokens they carry with them. Alongside the meticulously arranged items that each person carries, Jason situates a portrait in which the subject always seems confident and at home, comfortable in their own skin. In these snapshots, each person appears as Jason sees them, which is always beautiful. Assembling the Persona diptychs has not only allowed Jason to combine his love of photography with his knowledge of the uniqueness and beauty in each of his subjects, but also has allowed him to share this knowledge with others.

-Sam NeSmith

Melissa. Persona Series - Jason Travis

David. Persona Series- Jason Travis

Colby. Persona Series- Jason Travis

Ben. Persona Series- Jason Travis

Amelia. Persona Series- Jason Travis

I love the system that Travis has set up.  There is such a consistency in his style, (The focus of the background, the centering of the portrait, the neatly laid out objects) that the true point of the images, the capturing of individuality and exploration of usually hidden details is able to truly shine through.  The focus on the background of the portrait images is something I especially love.  It adds to the personality of the subject, without distracting from the portion of the actual person that we can see. Each is so unique, and I could spend hours going through each of them.  There is always something new that you can notice in the sprawled out items. As the bio points out, the viewer has the chance to connect to the subject, to associate on some level even with just maybe one of the small details found in the contents of the bag.  Like Ellie Brown, Travis titles each image simply with the first name of the subject.  He includes even less detail than Brown , but with the same effect.  It puts a name to a face.  I think it's a nice touch.
 

You Are What You Keep

With and interest in the things people collect, hold on to, surround themselves with- the phrase "you are what you keep" kept coming to mind. So naturally, I googled it.  And I came across this:

http://www.newsweek.com/2008/06/22/you-are-what-you-keep.html

In this Newsweek article Jennie Yabroff discusses the work of psychologist Sam Gosling and his book: Snoop: What Your Stuff Says About You. 

"A psychology professor who spends his days poking around in other people's bedrooms, offices, and medicine cabinets, Gosling believes that our artifacts--our books, music, photos, posters, and, yes, even our bottle caps--serve as nonverbal cues to the rest of the world as to who we are and what we value."

I love the choice of the work "artifact" - it really captures my own interest in looking at people's belongings.  They tell a story of history as well as comprise a present personality. Gosling says his main interest is personality differences.  I think I'll have to check out Snoop for myself.

Collecting Images- The Bag Project

I have been working on a series for my photo class in which I am creating "personality portrait collages" with images of personal belongs or things that I associate with certain people.  Each collage is being paired with a more traditional portraits.  When I proposed this project, it was suggested that I look at Ellie Brown's "The Bag Project".  This project is a series of diptychs where the subjects are both photographed  on a neutral background and then their belongings are dumped out and photographed.  The recommendation was certainly very appropriate.  There were several things about the work that really stood out to me.  The first was the title of each piece.  It was simplistic and really just said everything about it.  Each set is titled with the subjects name, age, and occupation.  Using these as the only non-visual keys really adds to the way the diptychs work to convey personality of the subjects.  Another thing that stood out to me that I hadn't really considered was the fact that the portraits were consistent based upon background, but the subjects it seems were encouraged to pose as they wished adding another element of self - expression.  The subjects themselves are made up of such a variety of people. Here is a sampling of Ellie Brown's work from the project:

Sophie and Sammy, 5.5, Twins 2010

Chris, 23, Park District Arborist, 2010

Cedric, 22, US Census Employee 2010

Ginger, 33, Magazine Editor 2010

Kathi, 48, Retired 2010

Ellie describes the project as allowing "the viewer a glimpse into the private world of another individual, revealing aspects of this person’s organizational habits, vanities, occupations and preoccupations."  

She goes on to write "It is the tension between the person and what they are attached to that constitutes the main point of interest in BAG. What do people choose to hold onto? What are the materials they feel they need to carry around with them? What is the correlation between how the subjects choose to portray themselves in the world, and the story that is conveyed to us by their intimate objects? Furthermore, what is the story of the objects themselves? Some are sentimental, materially valuable, some are part of a current of shared objects that pass unwittingly from person to person--—pens, flyers, elastic bands. How many things are in our bag now that we are unaware of, that have been passed to us and that we will pass on, never cognizant of when they appeared and disappeared from our lives? What are the objects in people’s bags that they are sufficiently attached to in the present to physically carry with them, but will be lost or unaccounted for in a few months time?"

These questions that interest Ellie Brown are very similar to my own questions and fascinations particularly what do people hold onto and the story that is conveyed by their intimate objects. The phrase "you are what you keep" comes to mind.  I am interested in stuff that people collect, things that some wouldn't even borrow with. I am also interested in the bigger picture choices of how people project themselves into the world, their individual self expression, and I love the way Ellie Brown combines and addresses these aspects of personality and identity.

Thesis Focus Statement: trying to verbalize.

My thesis focus at this moment is on identity and personality through associations and individual choices concerning self-representation.

Studio Journal Entry

So while I perhaps have been a bit negligent with my blogging, I feel as though I have had a pretty good past couple of days studio wise.  In Design III I was feeling super stuck with the last two projects and really trying hard to break through and revise them to a place where I was happy with them and excited to show them/work on them in general. 

The first project was the 24 hours narrative in which we were assigned to create a visual representation of something we documented within a 24 hour period.  My project dealt with everything that was audible during 24 hours to me.  Things I heard on the bus, on the radio, in the gym, at a party. Anywhere and everywhere I went.  My end product was a grid of 8.5 x 11 inch sheets of paper with text phrases of select things I had heard.  The critique of this that I got was that the phrases didn't necessarily stand out the way I wanted as a result of the format and that there was too much color going on.  I was stuck on this for a really long time until finally I realized that it was the randomness of each individual phrase, fragmented as I had heard it, which was central to the project.  It was the oddity of each that stood out.  So just as I randomly came across each phrase with my ears, what better way to pass it along than for someone to come across it with their eyes.  So now I have 24 3.5x4" stickers to place around.  What I love about this is that because it lives out in the world instead of on a wall people can take it as they will.  Some won't even note it probably, but others will see them, read them, and perhaps make their own connections, because we all have associations of our own that are triggered from perhaps the most random collection of phrases.  

The second project was my data set poster.  My content for the poster (autobiographical in nature) was all of the broadway shows I have seen in the past five years.  I wanted to document the tradition, the routine, the memory of each show.  Since the poster was so large, I struggled a lot with scale, wanting to draw attention to the playbills, it took me awhile to figure out how to incorporate all of the components into one unified "data set".  The breakthrough here came with repetition of iconography.  Through repetition I was able to display the key players (the people who I see shows with regularly), the favorite restaurants we visit over and over again, and the other things that over time have accumulated into such different memories, despite a pattern that is so habitual.  Really separating the information into two parts I was able to write a little bit about each show and the things that were memorable about it.  The poster really became about the people I was with and the things that happened around this routine.  In the case of both projects I am happy with the end product now that I have revisited each, but still feel a little bit of a struggle to involve my thesis interests.  Each does deal with memory and associations, and I guess on some level personality (type can have personality too!)  it is just perhaps a rather loose connection.   

The next challenge is a new cliche. I will have to update on that one later... 

Design III Reading Set 3

I'll be honest- I had some trouble getting through this reading set, the material was not jumping out at me as it had in the previous reading sets.  I had a hard time looking at and focusing on the graphically excellent examples, which perhaps is why I am struggling with my own data set. What I did come away from it with however was what I read at the very end. The Principles of Graphical Excellence, a checklist of sorts to reference while working.  Key lines to me were first and the last. "Graphical Excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data- a matter of substance, of statistics, and of design." and "graphical excellence requires telling the truth about the data." I imagine I'll be checking this list again before my poster is complete.

The second reading - Brief Notes on the Art and Manor of Arranging One's Books- was more interesting to me in concept than in actuality, maybe that's simply because I could not to relate to the scale of book organization that the author was referencing.  That said, perhaps the idea went over my head, but what it did make me think about was the impulse to organize any type of collection, not merely books.  How do you display something you hold dear, want people to see, have a lot of?  There are so many options and I think the point the author kept returning to was that it isn't the final organization that is important or what really matters to us, it is the process and what we find along the way.  We appreciate our own collections by looking at them, and we do this while we organize and interact with them on a much greater level than if they were just thrown haphazardly about.

Design III - Reading Set 2

I really loved the majority of the second reading set, mostly for their encouraging spirit - starting with Stepfan Sagmeister's Is it Possible to Touch Somebody's Heart with Design.  


"If I have nothing to say, the best design won't help me"
How relevant that statement feels. That is what we are all aiming to do with thesis, figure out what we are trying to say, something that I am certainly struggling with.  What is it that I want to put into my work? This line really stuck with me and I suspect through out the rest of my design process I will continually come back to it, making sure that my work is content rich and not just surface design.

Reading through his list of what design needs to touch someone's heart a few more things stuck out for me.

1. They have the ability to make me see things in a new way
- I love when something is ambiguous or you are not quite sure what it is and then you can come to realize that it is in fact a very familiar subject.  That is when something is zoomed in really close to highlight detail.  The big picture might be lost at first but the longer you look at it the more it can be placed and perhaps even further appreciated.  Not sure if that is where Sagmeister was going with his example, but it is where my mind went.

2. Somehow they remind me of an experience, maybe of my childhood
- Again, reading just this statement before Sagmeister's example, I began to think of my own interest with memory and how attached we can become to places, the emotions that such memories can trigger, and the experiences that stay with us far beyond their occurrence.  It is these memories and the desire to evoke a nostalgia that I have been leaning towards in my work.

The rest of the list had some more valid associations but it was after the list under "How to touch somebody's heart" that I found another noteworthy line: "If I want to touch somebody's heart with a piece of design it has to come from my heart, it has to be true and sincere."  This resonated.  I need to push to put everything out on paper, to personalize, to find my process, my voice, in order to create works that not only am I passionate about, but that I can make others passionate about. After all, I too really just want to make art that matters, that means something to someone, that connects.

There were a few lines that I picked up out of Michael Rock's Fuck Content.  In particular "The difference between designers is revealed in the unique way each individual approaches content, not the content they generate" and then a quote he borrowed from Roger Ebert, "A movie is not what it is about, it's how it is about it."  I really liked these two ideas, encouraging that the best design can make any content look good, but then I thought back to what I really loved about Sagmeister's writing and his statement that "If i have nothing to say, the best design won't help me." I think I'd fall more in line with Sagmeister on this one.

And then I came to An Incomplete Manifesto for Growth by Bruce Mau Design. THIS I LOVED.
I will just pick out some of my favorites, but I truly enjoyed them all and feel genuinely encouraged by them.  I want to cut them out and hang them around my room, paste them in my sketchbook, use them as a pick me up every now and again.

1. Allow events to change you. 
2. Forget about good.
4. Love your experiments (as you would an ugly child)
5. Go deep. The deeper you go the more likely you will discover something of value (push yourself!!)
8. Drift
9. Begin Anywhere
14. Don't be cool. 
18. Stay up late.  Strange things happen when you've gone too far, been up too long, worked too hard, and you're separated from the rest of the world. -- this one I have experienced and it sure is rewarding.
21. Repeat yourself. -- this one I liked even more in its explanation: If you like it, do it again. If you don't like it, do it again.
32. Listen carefully-- By listening to the details and subtlety of their needs, desires, or ambitions, we fold their world into our own.  Neither party will ever be the same. -- I love that sentiment.
37. Break it, stretch it, bend it, crush it, crack it, fold it. 
39.  Coffee breaks, cab rides, green rooms. -- the waiting place.
41. Laugh
42. Remember

I have not included these in their entirety with every explanation but I didn't feel they were always necessary.

Following in the spirit of lists being really exciting and encouraging, I really also enjoyed Milton Glaser's Ten Things I Have learned.  I'm going to post a few of my favorite lines.

"Some people are toxic. Avoid them. Professionalism as a lifetime aspiration is a limited goal. Just enough is more. I am a great advocate of drawing, not in order to become an illustrator, but because I believe drawing changes the brain in the same way as the search to create the right note changes the brain of a violinist. Drawing also makes you attentive. One of the signs of a damages ego is absolute certainty. Rule number one is that 'it doesn't matter.' Wisdom at last. Tell the truth."

These are certainly taken out of context here, but I kind of like the compiling of them.  I liked Glaser's language and his matter of factness as well as his commenting on not only design as practice but on like in general.  He was very relatable.

Design III Reading Sets (1 and 2)

Admittedly when we were given the readings sets for Design III, I felt overwhelmed by them.  But perhaps that is something to be embraced.  I mean I would a thousand times over choose to be overwhelmed by design then by say algebra or scientific writing.  In each packet there were readings that really stuck with me whether in theme, as a whole, or in some cases even just a phrase or two.

Set 1: Thesis Writing

Danielle Aubert's Track Record stood out to me in theme.  She discusses her interest in a person's traces that are not necessarily seen or even conscious.  The line that most stood out to me came towards the end of her explanation when she writes: "When a person's traces are read as signs they can generate a fragmented portrait that is perhaps more telling then the color of their eyes or their skin, or the way they part their hair. The tracks a person leaves behind might reveal that the sole of their left shoe is held together by duct tape, or that they tend to be late with credit card payments, or that they favor a particular cereal."  This is what interests me, although perhaps not in the same way.  I am interested in the choices that people make and in that way how they design themselves.  The overlap in Aubert's work, for me, is that sometimes the choices people make don't even seem like choices to them.  They might not realize that they collect a certain item or how much a single element comes to define them to others.  She goes on to dicuss process and carrying out her system to its logical end.  This is less important to me at the moment, but maybe that is just because I don't have a system yet.

Seeing the Unseen followed Track Record nicely in my mind. Another project exploring things often not seen normally.  Huy Vu discusses her thesis statement and interest in focusing on things at the periphery, the objects in our surroundings that tend to serve merely as background.  As artists and designers I think alot of us share an impulse to focus on detail that many would overlook and I think Huy Vu very eloquently describes this desire to highlight the ordinarily overlooked.  She has divided her focus into three strategies.  They are all interesting, but the first two especially stayed with me. Discussing her joy in coming across a forgotten child support paper in a book Vu writes "we are left to imagine who they belong to [the scraps] and why they were left behind. We, as viewers, want to complete this incomplete story." Now perhaps the interest here for me was out of context, but in my work photographing interior spaces my goal is to create the same interest for viewers, for them to want to know something about the people that occupy the space they are looking at.  Vu calls it "reducing our field of vision" and that is an apt description of why I crop alot of the time.  I zero in on a particular detail and blow it up.  In the second category Vu mentions the work of Uta Barth and her series Grounds "exploring the margins of interior spaces." I looked up the series and found some really compelling images.

The last reading in the packet that I felt strongly about was Mary Banas thesis essay I Read My Mind Through You.  First and foremost she explains her reasoning for her title writing "because I comprehend my own inner working by understanding others." I really enjoyed this explanation and even more so this calling out to the fact that she only knew herself through other people and connections and interactions with those people.  As social beings it is something that is important and relevant to all of us.  Even the most independent people have interactions that shape them whether they are acknowledged or not.  I also particularly liked the way that she spoke about communication through technology and its ability to "mystify our self awareness." Banas goes on to discuss her work and desire to explore what she "percieves as a gap in our understanding of our own psyches, a lack of self-awareness resulting from the passive consciousness of others."  In thinking about thesis and in my other work, my interest has continually been other people.  Recently I have tried to put more of myself into the work and I think that it is a longing to create a better sense of myself- so reading this was quite relate-able for me.  Banas says she wants her work to make people feel comfortable and I think with a few specific projects that is an aim of mine as well although now I would like to accomplish this and at the same time push myself out of my own comfort zone. 

WLCMBKCB Review

To kick off the new school year Mason Gross faculty, staff, and second year MFA students all submitted works to be exhibited in the first group show of the year: WLCMBKCB (Welcome Back).  The show was  curated by the second year students and run along with a tribute room to Lyda Craig, a Mason Gross graduate who passed away, as well as another room with an installation by Jim Toia entitled Dissolving Gardens.

The call for work was general with the guidelines being that the work be a small or medium piece.  A guideline which, as Caetlynn pointed out, can be interpreted differently by each artist depending on the scale at which they work.   There was no intended theme, but with works ranging from sculpture, painting, print making, photography, video and installation, there was a lot to see and the space was full and in fact welcoming.  Even without a unifying theme the collaborative curation allows for attention to individual works and displays each piece in such a way as to highlight formal elements of each.

1.  Eileen Behnke, ... On the Grass

... On the Grass draws the viewer's eye in with it's bright warm colors.  Situated as the largest painting on one of the main gallery walls I found it to be the piece that brought me over to that wall.  The brushstrokes, the lines,  and the perspective of the painting keep your eyes constantly moving both throughout the painting as well as into the surrounding works. Each figure gazes in a different direction, with only one looking out at the viewer.  Those looking off take us out of the painting, while the woman in the red shirt draws us back in.  Looking at the piece from across the room, even the colors from the sculpture at the center of the gallery help to create a steady flow into Eileen's painting or perhaps out of it depending on which way you read it. The lines and brush stokes are very organic which provides a nice stark contrast to the surrounding works.  

(Alternate gallery view of ... On the Grass)

2. Traci Molloy, Prototype: Killer/Killed

The faces in this piece intrigued me from a distance.  I wasn't sure what to make of it but the haunting title gave me a much clearer picture in my head than the slightly blurred faces in front of me.  The detail in this piece, which was small in comparison to the works it hung with, really says alot.  Printing ever so faintly over the images of the boys are names.  While I don't know anything definitive about the piece, the names are presumably victims names as well as perhaps even the murders names.  The side by side comparison calls out many questions.  Which one is the killer? Which one was killed? Did one boy kill the other? The names over each face are repeated adding even more to be worked out.  The work is very provocative which is fitting when looking at the other work it hangs with, most especially the politically charged work of Ortiz. 

3. Anna Bushman, Untitled (Moire)
This is a work you could wind up spending a lot of time in front of.  It deals with perception.  At first glance I saw a radiator cover, somewhat of a vintage item.  Depending on your distance to it, there was much more to see.  With a mirror placed behind the screen the viewer is thrown off a good deal by what it is that is in front of them.  If you are close enough you may be unsure and even start to get cross-eyed trying to figure it out.  As you move back, it begins to be a little clearer although straight on it is never 100% certain.  The lights cast shadows, other viewers move about, and each of these movements changes what you are seeing.  With that in mind I really appreciate the juxtaposition of this work next to Annie Hogan's Double Vision #2 which deals equally with perception and a layering of images.  

4. Betsy Vanlangen Paige

Walking into the second room in the gallery, Betsy's photographs are not the first thing you see, but turn around and you are unable to look away from the intense gaze that meets your eye.  The eyes are so vivid, a bright color popping immediately.  Add in the vibrant green/yellow makeup and the combination is quite striking.  The fact that the work is really a pair of images lines up quite nicely with the other works in the space, especially the 4 images to the left and the grid of paintings across from it. The intensity makes me want to know more about Paige.  The lighting, the makeup, and the mood, all suggest that she has a lot to say.

An attempt to stay focused.

I am never quite sure how to phrase my "statement".  I get caught up in the formality and can't ever figure out the best and simplest words to sum up my interest.  But then i have to remind myself that none of this is binding or contractual. So here goes nothing.

My focus is on personality and identity.

Not so hard. Now to expand slightly.  (baby steps)

I am interested in what makes a person who they are, myself included.  I am interested in the visual ways in which these things are and can be communicated.  I generally have been looking to their stuff, the things that they choose to keep, the things that they choose to include in their environment.  I think the key word continues to be choice and that is why looking at collections and belongings is so interesting. 

Meeting Tiffany

One of the things that I would have to say I am most excited about in Thesis is the fact that after four years we are coming together in larger group with all disciplines working together. (ok so freshman year we were mixed in foundations classes- but now we are back together).  It is great to be meeting new classmates and reconnecting with others.  I drew Tiffany Dodson for my interviewee whom I had never met.  Friendly and enthusiastic, she was a great person to work with.

 

MS: So Tiffany, you are a video major right?

TD: Yes

MS: And before you came to mason gross were you set on video first or did you fall into it once you got here?

 

TD: I was actually looking for film and I was sorta fooled, kind of like everyone else in the video department, that we have a film program. But we don’t, so then it just ended up being video. Technically its video art it’s not really film or narrative or things like that.

 

MS: So what is it about film that you were looking for?

TD: I wanted to be taught I guess how to edit. Editing programs and how to put together a story kind of. And I have been taught editing and stuff so I am glad about that at least. 

MS: Were you interesting in film in high school? Did you have any sort of TV program?

TD: I actually was interested in film critiquing in high school, I still kind of am, but uh didn’t really have - we had tv stuff but not really.  We had one film and literature course which I took.

MS: So was there a particular teacher or person who influenced your decision to come here?

TD: No. 

 

MS: How have you felt about the other fundamental courses?

TD: At mason gross?

MS: Yea. Did you enjoy taking classes like drawing- cause you had to take that right?

TD: Yea. I’m not really a drawing person but it was ok. It depended on my teacher really.  My sophomore teacher for drawing was really good and I learned a lot from her.

MS: What kinds of themes are you interested in- doesn’t have to be specific to thesis, but in your video work what do you find yourself focusing on?

TD: Race and gender mostly

MS: And has that been consistent since you started here?

TD: Not really.  Well somewhat, yea.  I kind of fluctuated between body image and sexuality- not like gay or straight but more like - I did a video piece freshman year about these prostitutes and they were picking up a guy or whatever, and we followed this one and she went to this guy’s hotel room and started doing stuff but then he kind of abused her and she stole his money and she kind of became more spiritual and stuff like that. So it’s kind of I don’t know.  I kinda play with lots of themes.  But I like to think of myself more– I would say a minimalist but I don’t like to use a lot of after effects, like you know - a lot of different effects and stuff in my videos, I’m more like a straight on person.

MS: Shoot it and use it kind of?

TD: Yea

MS: That’s cool. So do you think you will continue along those lines with your theme for thesis? 

TD: Well last year I kind of played with stop motion a little bit.  It was kind of random- I was just like “oh let me try this” and I started to like it. So I might do a stop motion video for thesis. 

MS: Can you kind of explain stop motion- I have an idea of what it is, but just to clarify.

TD: Stop motion is basically a series of photographs used to make a motion.  Essentially that is what video is or film.  Millions of different photographs or frames to make that.  Let’s say you wanted to move your hand it’d be like a lot of different small pictures.

 MS: So kind of choppy?

TD: Well it kinda depends on how many picutures you take.  If you take 100 it will be pretty smooth and fluid.  It you take 50 it will be you know kind of choppy.

MS:Which do you prefer?

TD: More smooth but it takes a long time. So it depends on how I feel.

MS: Fair enough- that could get really lengthy.

TD: Yea. Last year my stop motion project took about I dk, a week and a half and it was only 3 minutes long.

MS: Wow.

TD: Yeaa and I took over 500 pictures. It was ridiculous.

MS: Sounds it.  I’m kinda stealing a question you posed to me- but do you have a theme in mind that you would like to see for the group thesis show as a whole?

TD: Maybe something that shows that we’re all different but all similar at the same time.  Something that. I don’t know shows that we’re all connected but then we’re all diverse you know? I don’t really know what exactly but something along those lines?

MS: Sounds fitting.  What are you most excited about for thesis?

TD: I guess showing my work really. It should be cool.

MS: So you mentioned you are doing an internship? Where is it?

TD: At WBGO FM 88.3

MS: And what are you doing these?

TD: I am working with the news department, So I’m basically helping to cover stories. I am learning Pro Tools which is the music-  A lot of music recording artists use it for that, but also its used to radio- obviously- so it’s basically to edit voice. So I’m learning that. And eventually I have to have my own feature which is a news story I am interested in personally, it could be anything.  It’s 7-10 minutes long and I have to interview people. 

MS: That’s exciting. Do you have any thoughts on what you wanna do yet? Or still too far off?

TD: Not really. My supervisor keeps telling me “oh you have to start thinking about it cause it’s going to come up really fast” but I really have no idea. 

MS: Ok well there is no way to ask this really since you already told me, but so readers know- you’re a double major?

TD: Yes.

MS: And your other major is?

TD: Journalism and Media Studies

MS: So do you have any thoughts or plans to combine your two majors after you graduate and what do you think you want to do?

TD: I don’t know. I’ve thought about a few different avenues.  One was art director- that could be for a film company or for a magazine or I could do work for production like CNN or something like that.  You know video and journalism.  Or I could even do radio if I wanted.  I mean that’s audio so it still has to do with video, but I dk if I wanna do that. 

MS: Lots of options

TD: Yea.

MS: What has been your best experience at mason gross, or well Rutgers in general? First academically.

TD: I’ve had some interesting professors that some of them made me want to learn more, encouraged me to learn more.  And sparked interest in my two majors.  I’ve had at least on in both majors so that’s a really positive thing.

MS: That’s great.  You can answer it non- academically as well if you want.

TD: I guess meeting new people, new friends, stuff like that.  And growing as a person from being away from home and having different experiences.

MS: Do you want to tell me a little bit about the videos you are going to have me watch?

TD: There are only two videos on youtube right now.  The first one is called Hiku and that’s one I did junior year.  It’s off of a poem I wrote and it has to do with race relations kind of between blacks and whites. Sort of.  It does but it’s not wordly, it’s sort of about my experiences.  It’s a poem, so you see a lot of the text, the actual poem.  And you see images that are shown in stop motion.  In the background the audio is sort of an upbeat- children- you hear children’s voices.  So it’s sort of a strange parallel between what i’m talking about and what you are hearing.  And I did that intentionally.  People are always like “oh why does it sound like that” No. it’s supposed to be like that. That’s basically what that one is.

The other one, Cameo, is very very short. That’s why it’s called cameo.  And it deals with stereotypes that are prevalent in the black community like being over weight, or fried chicken and kool-aid- stuff like that.  It’s stop motion again but it’s more just photographs. Like there’s little pieces where its actually stop motion – you see me eating the paper kind of. And that’s what that one is.

MS: You said the first video is a poem that you wrote- do you do a lot of writing?

TD: Yea, especially with my other major being journalism.  I like to write.

MS: Would you say it’s about equally creative writing vs. news pieces?  Do you have a preference?

TD: Yea, I do have a preference, I’m more into the creative artistic writings.  I told you before about the film critiquing- I’d rather do a creative opinion pieces vs. a news story.  But I’m kind of getting used the news stories now, I don’t really mind them as much as I did.

MS: But your interest started and lies in the creative side?

TD: Definitely.

 

Due to technical difficulties, I watched Tiffany's videos after the interview. I was glad to watch them after having all of background information on the style that she likes and the types of themes she tries to portray. All of the elements fit well together and I could see her vision as she described it.  I especially enjoyed watching Haiku and being able to see all of the parts Tiffany worked on, especially a sampling of her creative writing.  She has alot to bring to thesis, and I am excited to see more of her work as she continues this year. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzjmam4YwKs&feature=related 

 Haiku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLEOi1mHU_g&feature=related 

 Cameo

 

capturing personality.

Drawing inspiration from people and trying to figure out their personalities, the things about them that make up their identity, I came across a photographer named George Lange.  I was struck by all of his images but I was truly inspired when I read his biography and the way he described what it is to be a portraitist.  He writes, "my job is to photograph how you tick, how you breathe. My job is to take pictures of what everyone knows but never sees. My job is to connect the dots.... my job is to take pictures that trigger a connection and then disappear.  No one carries pictures around for very long. They carry connections around forever... Each day I have the privilege of telling stories of people..." What he so eloquently writes about is exactly what interests me, and his effort is clear in his work as well as the enjoyment he gets from his job.  These are three of my favorites, especially because they are not so traditional and do not even include the subjects face, yet still say so much about them.  I am constantly fascinated by how much can be said about a person with just the tiniest of details. 

photo credit: George Lange Photography

George Lange Photography

George Lange Photography

Water II - My collection

There were several works which I found myself drawn to each time I walked through the water exhibit.  After photographing them I tried to look at them and find connections and themes which had drawn me in in order to narrow it down to my final 4.  These are the images that I would hang:

I started with the black and white image of the ship- it was one that I was drawn to aesthetically. The ship appears majestic, and the image as a whole seems to celebrate the sea and the ability to travel the ocean. Everything about it is bold.

Gilbert COMBAZ A La Toison d'Or (The Golden Fleece, Argo)

When looking at the other images I had collected, I decided to string them together with feelings towards the sea, wonder, awe, and danger, as well as the mystery that is presented. The storm image depicts large ships as the first image does, but more so portrays the struggle with the sea.

Bror Julius Olsson NORDFELDT Northsea Fisherman (The Storm)

The Wave imposes the profile of a woman over the giant, perhaps stormy wave. She gazes out on the scene with an expression that suggests not only wonder but also perhaps concern, hesitation.

Henri PRIVAT-LIVEMONT The Wave

Arion and the Dolphins shows curiosity both on the part of the swimming boy (or perhaps he has fallen out of the boat) as well as the creatures of the sea.  This final image fits well with the rest because it takes the viewer UNDER the water that has been the source of mystery in all of the previous images. 

Adrienne ADAMS Arion and the Dolphins

Water

"Water is essential to life on earth. It is at the core of human civilization".  These words begin to introduce the current exhibit at the Zimmerli Art Museum.  Going into the exhibit I was unsure what to expect. I just had water in my mind as this word for a basic element and was only thinking in the simplest terms. Walking through I quickly realized just how much deeper the theme ran.  One thing that stood out to me in listening to Donna Gustafson talk about her curatorial process and in reading the various statements, was how water could "cross boundaries" how it in fact was the bridge between two places, and could bridge between past and present as well. It could have such a far greater reach than is perhaps considered on a daily basis. 

The theme immediately hits the viewer as they come down the staircase.  The walls of the gallery are painted in cool shades of blue and the installation by Ross Cisneros entitled Ice and Ark, brings water into the gallery literally with plastic bottles of water suspended in a fishing net from the ceiling, commenting on ownership of water and the use of such a natural resource in today’s society.  Beyond this installation each room took the theme a little bit further.  Literal representations of rain, of rivers, of clouds, of H20 in all its forms lead you through the first room and each room there after takes another twist. 

For me the room entitled “Women in Waves, Men in Boats” had pairings that were very successful and intriguing.  There was a very interesting interpretation of the theme much beyond the literal.  I felt that the images placed on opposing walls of the different encounters with water between the sexes were very interesting.  It was in this room where the question of artist’s intent versus curators imposed vision came up.  How would the artist feel about the examination of gender roles and water in their images? How far does it reach past the original intent?  While there may be some discrepancy between the two, I think that it is important when addressing the theme of a show to bring in works through a different lens.  The entire show rests on pairings of images and requires that the curator juxtapose them in such a way that maybe allows the viewer to see more than they would have if the image had been on its own.  I think this only enhances the work being that the viewer often brings a work to completion.  It is an area that the artist essentially can’t control. 

(some of the images from "Women in Waves, Men in Boats"- I really feel that they do well to represent the variety of types of works found in this room and the exhibit as a whole.  time and time again and in various medias the theme of water and gender has cropped up)