Artsvis 54

At the beginning, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with the theme “Heaven and Hell,” but I knew I wanted to do something experimental in terms of medium. I wanted to do everything in Photoshop, so that my final product has a professional and polished finish. Since I’m really not an expert in PS, in order to achieve the polished final look, I decided to reduce all my images to grids and colors.

I guess because I’m an art history major, the first thing I thought about when I heard “Heaven and Hell” was Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel paintings, and I decided to take a literal approach to the theme by using the Old Masters’ paintings of the fall of mankind, but remix them with grids and colors. I wanted to dissect the paintings into little squares, and I hoped to move these grids and change colors in ways that complement the narrative.

Below is my storyboard, and as you can see, the narrative is pretty straight-forward. First, God created Adam and Eve, who were tempted by the serpent to eat the forbidden fruit and were expelled from Heaven, and The Last Judgment paintings followed. I superimposed colored grids onto some of the paintings to show how the paintings will change into the grids, but still it’s hard to tell from the stills, the video will give u much better ideas.

After I finished all the images in Photoshop (there were about 300 of them), I loaded them into iMovie and adjusted the duration of each to create my animation~ The song in my video is “The Burning (Desire)” by Raz Ohara and the Odd Orchestra. I remixed it in Audacity, so the rhythm goes better with the narrative.

Watch the video HERE: The Fall

I was doodling a Hello Kitty face and decided to add a mouth to my favorite kitty, and it all started from there . I thought about what would happen if Hello Kitty had a mouth (and teeth), she would eat up all the fish, of course! So I cut out many Hello Kitty faces using the silver side of the can, and then added crescent shape mouths to the faces. The mouths are from red Coke cans with white letters, representing blood and teeth (yes think Halloween). I also made three large fish with only their heads and bones remaining… I will hang these fish, and pin the kitty faces to the wall and spread them on the floor. It’s just something fun and playful, so enjoy~

MAYA:

I thought I was computer savvy until I used Maya… Many attempts at creating curvy, organic shapes failed miserably, so I decided to go with something more geometric. I was just stacking the cans in different ways, and came up with the idea of a slide next to a swimming pool. After I finished those, I thought it looked a bit too static, so I decided to add another can sliding down into the pool, and I used several cans to suggest motion and dynamics.

Statement:

“Some Like It Teethy”

Inspired by my own doodle of a Hello Kitty face, I imagined what would happen if Hello Kitty had a mouth and some teeth — the nightmare of fish. I used red and white Coke cans to create the mouths and stapled them onto silver kitty faces. I also made three large fish with only heads and bones remaining. The overall effect is something cute and playful.

Maya Project: “Sliding”

Experimenting with geometric shapes and motion, I created a can sliding down into a swimming pool.

Title: 20

Because of my unfamiliarity with the physical event of the fall of the Berlin Wall, I approached the subject focusing on its symbolism. The fall symbolizes freedom, happiness, unity, courage, and determination, and these are the values that most of us feel everyday and what I consider the true legacy of this seminal moment. My objective then is to create something that commemorates the fall in a popularized, even commercial, form. The Japanese woodcut prints, which were first introduced to the West as packaging papers, and all kinds of wallpapers inspired me. In my final design, there are five columns in the background with repetitive motifs, resembling wallpaper. These repeating images – smiley faces, bricks, the German flag, newspaper, and peace signs – are all generic and straightforward symbols associated with the celebration of the fall. On the other hand, the number “20” in bright white dominates the foreground, and little pieces of wrinkled paper were used to create heavy texture, which contrasts strongly with the smooth and relatively dark background. The overall visual effect is decorative and celebratory. I also wished to make the historical references subtle: it could be a poster for the 20th anniversary of the fall, a piece of wallpaper, or even a piece of wrapping paper for someone’s 20th birthday.

I approached this assignment, strangely, with my unfamiliarity in the subject. Of course I’ve heard of the fall of the Berlin Wall, but it happened around the time I was born and I personally don’t know anyone who has been involved in this seminal event. While feeling disconnected with the physical fall itself, I think the symbolism is great. The fall symbolizes freedom, happiness, unity, courage, and determination, and these are the values that most of us probably feel everyday, and what I consider the true legacy of the fall of the Berlin Wall. My objective for this project then is to create something that commemorates the fall of the wall in a popularized, even commercial, form; something that everyone can use for various kinds of occasions. Then I thought of the Japanese woodcut prints, which were first introduced to the West as packaging papers, and I decided to make my collage as a type of functional art just like those prints. In the sketch below, there are five columns that form the background of the composition.

The first is image of a brick wall, which represents the physical wall itself. Similarly, the smiley faces, peace signs, and hearts are generic symbols for happiness and peace. The stripes in the middle column will be colored black, red, and yellow, which are the colors of the German flag. In the foreground, there is the number “20,” which will be large enough to dominate the composition. The idea here is to make the references subtle; it could be a poster for the 20th anniversary of the fall, a wallpaper, or even a piece of wrapping paper for someone’s 20th birthday.

09/15/09

I did numerous mockups in Photoshop. I really had a hard time picking out the font for the number “20,” but finally decided upon Helvetica, because it is arguably the most famous modern typeface. It was designed as a neutral font that has great clarity and little intrinsic meaning, which is perfect for my intention in creating something useful yet “generic.” I also played with the position of the number. At first, I put it in the middle of the composition but thought it was too stuffy. Then I put the number in the center right, so that the “0″ looks cut off. I feel that the composition is much more lively now, and it’s almost as if someone just bought a scroll of this paper and cut it off for some functional use, which is what I intended. I also ran into an interesting discovery while designing in Photoshop. When I highlighted the number, the original white color got inverted, and there was a highlight box around the number, within which the image is blurred. I thought this contrast and inversion looked very intriguing, but I haven’t decided which one to use for the final design. Raquel’s comment also inspired me to use more textures in the collage, and I am thinking of creating some torn edges in the final work.

Left is the original design, right is the highlighted one.

09/22/09

I decided to go with the original design, because I really wanted to experiment with textures, so I wanted to keep the colors simple. I also decided to incorporate torn edges into the background, and really add some heavy texture to the number “20″ so that it stands out. I tried different techniques and materials, but eventually chose regular white paper, and torn them into little pieces, wrinkled them up, and then glued them together tightly to create the number. They took forever~! But I’m very happy with the results I already trimmed the edges, so all I have left to do now is mounting .

I am now working on the 2 pages to be printed in “54.” I’m thinking of a cropped photo of my collage, and another page… still thinking ….

I first came across Hannah Hoch’s works when I was taking the modern art class in my sophomore year. The one collage we spent a lot of time on was “Cut with a Kitchen Knife,” where machinery and human figures were juxtaposed together to create an expansive composition. What caught my eyes, however, was not the political message or the spontaneous Dada spirit, but the deep fear and despair that ran through her works. Compared to her politically inclined works, I prefer the portrait ones, which demonstrate more clearly the grotesque desperation embedded in her art. The one below, for example, have two cut out heads perched upon two innocent girls’ legs. The woman’s face has quite exaggerated eye and red, luscious lips, while the man’s head is bald, winkled, and with two staring, bulging eyes. These visually heavy objects press upon the girls’ thin legs, making the viewers hold their breath with a suffocating feeling. The colors are also overly saturated, almost a metaphor for the jaded youth. The very fleshy body parts contrast greatly with the cold stonework backdrop; the viewers have to switch their eyes between these two opposites and constantly trying to adjust to this jarring sensation.

Even in her more optimistic pieces, the sense of discomfort runs deeply. The collage titled “Made for a Party” has an athletic young woman’s body with an enlarged face cut under the eyes and some very fake blond curls. An equally large eye is placed to cover the woman’s right foot. Even though the face is smiling, its disproportional size, artificial curls, and solid tonal background again generate a disquieting atmosphere.

The following artworks really stood out to me because of their contrasting colors. In the first picture, the artist used different kinds of media to blur and blend colors together. The deer in the middle, for example, has grayish white legs and back, but red for all the other body parts. The final result is something very dreamy; the strayed animals roam around in a dark forest with bright and primitive-looking trees. The seemingly childish cutout shapes also enhance this otherworldly quality. I also love how the artist gave the trees a wrinkled texture. This three-dimensionality makes the otherwise flat composition very lively and believable.

On the other hand, the striped bench is very modern. The straight lines/blocks complement the rigid, clear-cut steel structure to give a cohesive form. The secondary color stripes look especially impressive against the bench’s black legs and the white wall in the back. It reminds me of a candy bar for some reasons .