doodlings...

D2.7 - project update

Time Log 7

4 hours: research. I spent I lot of time this past week looking at pictures of women suffering from annorexia, and art about these women. I found a perfomance artist, Vanessa Beecrift who makes art about her bolemia addiction http://www.vanessabeecroft.com/ who does mostly performance art. In one of her pieces that I saw elsewhere, she paints white paint on her nudes, which I thought was interesting because it further pushes her concept and takes away the differentiation between women. Looking at everything from grade school to professional art on the subject has helped me come up with an idea for my next piece.

2 hours: conversation

I’ve had various conversations with students, friends, and a professor about my last project, and bounced some new ideas off of them for the next piece.

2 hours: construction

I’ve worked for a little while gathering images, and am starting to build a file to work from for my next piece. I actually have 2 in mind. In one, I’d like to take an article about annorexia and the culture’s effect on womens’ self image, and use the text to make the outline of an annorexic woman’s body. I hope to use a water color treatment similar to my last piece. The other piece I’m thinking about is making just the letters of some words that i’ve chosen - perhaps the same latin phrase as the first one - and have them covered in the moldy looking paint, instead of the background.

Total: 8 hrs.

Semester: 66.5 hours, 3.5 hrs. behind

semester total

total time to date = 58.5 hrs (behind 1.5 hrs)

D2.6 - project update

Timelog 6

Sorry this is a little late, my internet would not load for anything last night.

2 hours: Brainstorming

This consisted of talking to other people about my concepts and was influenced heavily by the research period.

2.5 hours: Research and staying up to date.

I continued to research information for my current drawing - about eating disorders and skewed self image - and also about my next ones - having to do with relationships. I came up with a new plan in a way. I was trying to think about how I could draw these negative images/paradoxes and still show something encouraging and positive. I think I’d like to make each piece a dyptic, with the first image as a reflection of our culture’s idea on the topic. The second image will be from a Christian standpoint, based on Scripture. I think that my next subject will be about loneliness.

7.5 hours: work

During this time I took photographs, edited, cropped, and printed images and text. I also projected bought supplies, then stretched my watercolor paper, projected and traced words onto it, and painted with watercolor. I am now at the point where I’m ready to draw my figure onto the format, but i’m not completely satisfied with my image choice yet.

total: 12 hours

hungry colors

Red: When a person sees red, the pituitary gland sends out signals that make the heart beat faster, the blood pressure increase and the muscles tense.

Yellow: Perceived as a happy color, yellow is processed rapidly by the brain and is an attention getter.

White and silver: These colors suggest reduced calories. A bottle of Diet Coke is mostly silver, while a bottle of regular Coke is predominantly red.

Orange: Perhaps because it isn’t considered a classy color, orange indicates affordability.

Brown: Often used as a background color for gravy and cake mixes, brown indicates roasted or baked. It also suggests rich flavor.

“People do not like blue foods,” Russell said. “Blue is a very unnatural color for food.”

people typically associate foods with certain colors and when the color doesn’t match our preconceived notions of how it should appear, the food doesn’t taste as good.

while blue dishes look good in the store, they can distort our taste perception of the food that is served on them. Food often tastes best when it is served on white plates because that is a color associated with cleanliness. Warm colors, such as red, orange and yellow, are described as food colors, and people are comfortable with those colors in the kitchen.

Blue, on the other hand, is associated with mold.

RED

Red is a warm color, exciting our perceptions and warming our desires. Red is often associated with hunger, anger, passion and vitality. This color is particularly well suited for environments that serve food, be it a restaurant, corporate dining facility or domestic dining room. Often red can invoke excitability so it is not typically well suited for medical or educational environments. Red is a bold, dominant color, overshadowing most other color tones by its intensity, therefore, when considering red as a part of your color palette, be creative. A room all painted in red can be dark and very atmospheric, even moody.

BLUE

Blue is generally a calming color. Though an intense, rich cobalt blue may be stimulating and vibrant, the energy created is still one of calm, happiness and comfort. Pale blues remind us of the ocean and sky, expansive colors and relaxing. When you think of your beach holiday, umbrella drinks aside, blue sky, warm sun and clear waters often jump to mind. The image alone is calming. Blue is also a fresh, crisp color and is considered a ‘cool’ tone (just as red is a ‘warm’ tone). Variations of blue values work well in institutions like educational and medical environments, as well as corporate spaces.

YELLOW

Yellow is a warm, vibrant and clear color. In its pure form it is intense, hot and generally unpractical in use as an interior color tone. Though this is not always the case, as can be seen in many interior environments from Mexico to Provence to Africa.

GREEN

Green, a combination of blue and yellow in its purest form, offers many characteristics of both blue and yellow. Green can be vibrant, crisp and lively as well as muted, soft and calming.

D2.5 - project update

We’re working now! I spent a lot of time since last class further thinking through steriotypes, misconceptions, and relational differences. I decided to focus on our country’s obsession with thin women, and how this relates to so many young women’s distorted perception of their own bodies. Also, this concept has a personal meaning, as both my sister and I have struggled with touches of anorexia.

The Idea that you’re too fat can come from many sources, or one primary one. From an early age, my sister and I felt pressure from my mom to eat healthy and maintain a thin figure. My sister in particular felt this pressure as she has a more muscular build, which earned her snide remarks from time to time. My own misperception came from more varied sources. Sure there was some pressure from home that thinness ment attractiveness, but there was also a push not to focus too much on my looks.

I was in desperate pursuit to find someone to love me for who I was, and by looking to magazines, media, and friends, I began to see that I needed to be skinnier in order to get a boyfriend and be considered attractive. I was a pretty healthy eater in high school because of my participation in sports, but my senior year I began to really change my eating habits. After my boyfriend of 3 years dumped me for a different girl, I thought I wasn’t good enough, that there was something wrong with me. So I started eating less and less. By the time our prom rolled around I had successfully brought myself close to 105 pounds. Although I talked to a friend about my struggle, it was still an issue throughout the summer and into my first 2 years of college.

Limited hours in the cafeteria made it all too easy for me to skip meals. I was determined to not gain the freshman 15, and in fact to reverse the steriotype. Art was a great distraction because could get so focused on the project I was working on that I wouldn’t even notice that I was hungry. When I didn’t have time to exercise because of my business, I would just skip another meal - if I didn’t eat, I didn’t have calories to burn. I didn’t have a scale at school, so everytime I went home, I’d carefully check to see if I had made any victories in my fat battle since the last time I was there.

This misconception was a real problem for me until one day towards the later part of my sphomore year, I told my boyfriend about it. He lovingly explained to me how beautiful I look, and how much my self-perception was skewed by my unrealistic expectations of myself. Through talking to him, close friends, and my sister, I have been able to make a more positive self-image. I still have to make a conscious effort not to resort back to my “if you don’t exercise, don’t eat” mentality, and I think a healthy mindset about my nutritional needs is something that I will battle for years to come.

Time LOG 5:

6 hours:

Talking, researching, and reading about eating disorders. I’ve been fascinated for a while with a growing trend for high fashion agencies putting a ban on how skinny models can be. Due to at least 3 supermodels dying of anorexia nervosa related problems, several countries have begun to charter these stipulations. Spain, France, Australia, and I think the US at least have begun a BMI requirement of 18 for supermodels to walk the runways.

4 hours:

Photography. I spent a little over an hour working by myself to try to create an image to sketch from. I soon realized that it would be more productive to just get someone to help me so I could use the projector. Savannah and I spent about an hour and 1/2 taking pictures with “too FAT” projected on my stomach. After experimenting with different poses, I headed back to the house to weed through the pictures and do some editing.

2.5 hours:

Sketching. Since collecting images, I worked on cropping them different ways and doing sketches to give me an idea of the format for the final piece. I’m also experimenting with colors, and trying to decide what to put on the background of the piece.

Total time: 12.5 hours

D2.4 - project update

I regrettably have not been able to work as much on the project as I intended, due to the death of my fiance’s grandmother last Thursday. Upon reflecting the events of this weekend, her struggle through the last month, and the short time I had the privledge of knowing her; however, I have gained much inspiration. This was the woman I had come to love dearly, as though she was my own grandmother. I enjoyed the fact that she lived in my home town, because I finally got a taste of what it’s like to grow up near a grandparent. My Grandparents live 12, and 10 hours away in Pennsylvania, and so I’ve only gotten to see them a few times a year at the most.

Trey’s grandmother was a tiny, fragile woman, full of engergy, life, and the spunkiness of a gentile southern woman. Although she came from a meager background - growing up on a farm during the depression in North Carolina - she always maintained a touch of class. Every day I saw her, including the days on the Outer Banks beaches, she was fully decked out, head to toe. Every hair was groomed, her makeup flawless, and her accessories perfectly coordinated with her carefully chosen outfits, complete with matching shoes. No, she was not the grandma that opts for some overly priced, hideously ugly “old person shoe”. Even an afternoon by the neighborhood, or out tending to her garden required pearls, and coordinated shoes.

From the moment I met her, Sarah Charlton welcomed me as her own granddaughter. She always commented on how pretty I looked that day - even with windblown salty hair, fresh-faced from the beach. Although she suffered from Alzheimer’s Disease, she was early enough along that she still remembered who I was, whenever we came to visit. One of my most treasured memories of her was when Trey and I came to her room in the assisted living apartment to tell her about our engagement. Although she was a bit confused at first, she soon became wrapped up in the story and clamored to hear every detail. Tears filled her eyes as she watched the video our friends captured of Trey proposing to me, and laughter filled the room as she exclaimed that my diamond was bigger than hers. We were all so excited for the day when she could see me officially part of the Charlton family.

So many other thoughts, stories, and memories fill up my mind and flood my eyes as I realized tonight what an inspiration she was to me. With emotions being such an important aspect of my work for the semester, I hope to include some images of Trey’s Grandmother into my work.

It’s hard to claim that experience this weekend as time for this class, but I’ll list below what I have had time to do.

4 hrs: brainstorming about relationships, stereotypes, and looking for a direction for my first piece. I skimmed through an old diary to try to find some emotionally charged times in my life that could inspire. I also talked to Trey on the phone about things that have caused problems in our relationship, especially focusing on those things that are cause by our differences as a man and a woman. I did a bit of research on some psycology websites, looking for insight and inspiration, and mostly came up dry. Trey and I also are planning to start taking some photos later this week, or this weekend. Along with photographing, I plan to do some experimentation with watercolors.

D2.3 - Untraditional Media, Time log 3

2 hrs - prep. work:

Mostly brainstorming about what kinds of mediums are traditional, and which are not. Does it include the format that the art is made on? How can I do something unexpected? Also looking at images done with non-traditional mediums, such as shadows, food, etc. I also discussed the idea with friends, both art majors and non- majors.

5 hrs - execution:

Attempting to create interesting images using food, clothes, office supplies, nails, and quite a few other materials. I enjoyed trying to be unique and creative, both with the materials and the compositions. I really liked working with the spices and shaving cream because they smelled really good. The paperclips were really fun because of the composition, and I enjoyed just dumping the nails on the floor and going from what they resembled as they fell into a pile.

3 hrs - research/inspiration:

I try to spend at least 5 minutes per day looking at contemporary and non-contemporary art. Artbistro.com is a resource that I use daily, and I’ve posted several pieces from that site. I also spent time talking to friends about my recent work, what I enjoy, and what I would like to do now/in the future. Talking things through is a big part of my process because it helps me to get my thoughts in order and discover things about myself. I also showed Mr. K my final drawings from last semester and discussed how I am evolving as an artist, and how those pieces will influence my painting in the future.

Painter of the day: Megan Olson

I found this artist while perusing art bistro. I think she does beautiful work.

Check her out: http://www.meganolson.com

Sam Weber illustration

I look at artbistro.com for inspiration, and I recently found this illustraton, Sam Weber. His work is emotional, intricate, romantic, and bizarre. Here’s a sample to whet your appetite, click on the link to further peruse his portfolio. 

http://www.sampaints.com/portfolio.html