Reflection

I'm proud to say that my series of work are finally finished.

It was hard to edit the photo's so that they all had the same contrast, sharpness and tone when put together in a series.

All up i think that my pieces clearly reflect my intended meaning, which is lucid dreaming and how one feels at piece when under the water. The feeling that one gets when they are at their one area of reality where nothing else matters. Some see this as the beach or when they are in bed. for me, it is under water where there is no gravity and no sound.

Formative Essay Blog.

http://sthessaypmaddenvisual.blogspot.com/

series 1

Series 2

Samantha Everton

Today i have been researching Samantha Everton. her Utopia collection one the 2010 Moran photographic prize.
This collection reflects very much how i would like to base my works. She has used the symbol of water to portray her meaning like i have.

Symbolism of water

"Water is life's mater and matrix, mother and medium.
There is no life without water." - Alber Szent-Qyorgyi

The symbolism of water has a universal under tone of  purity and fertility.

The theme of water in our dreams symbolises our emotional state. whether the water is clean, dirty, flowing of rushing can reflect the way we feel and is a way for our sub concious to tell us how we are feeling while we sleep.
The fact that water has this kind of symbol to people shows that the power of water has a major impact in the reflection of our emotions and the way we feel.

Progress

I am using the focus of Lucid dreaming as my focus.
Lucid dreaming to me is the unique place where one feels at peace and has no outside matter to interfere with one's thoughts and feelings. to me, being underwater is the only place where i feel at one with myself. floating in zerio gravity with no outside sound is where i feel at one with myself. This is what i am trying to convey in my series of work.

Here are some images that i am working on at the moment.

Cindy Shermann

"By turning the camera on herself, Cindy Sherman has built a name as one of the most respected photographers of the late twentieth century. Although, the majority of her photographs are pictures of her, however, these photographs are most definitely not self-portraits. Rather, Sherman uses herself as a vehicle for commentary on a variety of issues of the modern world: the role of the woman, the role of the artist and many more. It is through these ambiguous and eclectic photographs that Sherman has developed a distinct signature style. Through a number of different series of works, Sherman has raised challenging and important questions about the role and representation of women in society, the media and the nature of the creation of art."

Hybrids

Hybrids – the melded self; self and environment, self and technology.

"Hybrid art is a contemporary art movement in which artists work with frontier areas of science and emerging technologies."

Artists work with fields such as biology. physical science and artificial intelligence.

this work by naomi kremer shows a fantastic representation of 'Hybrid Art'

Her paintings are projected onto a canvas and move around to create a mesmeric and spellbinding experience.

Lucid Dreaming

What is lucid dreaming?
Lucid dreaming means dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming. It usually begins in the midst of a dream when the dreamer realizes that the experience is not occurring in physical reality, but is infact, in a dream.

there are different levels of lucid dreaming, while at a high level you are completely aware that you are in a dream and are able to alter your dream, but while you are at a low-level of lucid dreaming you can still be unaware that what you are experiencing is unreal and that you are in your bed or just asleep.

The best thing about lucid dreaming is being released into an unrealistic world where you are free. it is only you and it is your mind that has the ability to control what happens in your dream.

Sometimes, people dont understand exactly what there dreams 'mean'. this is because your sub-concious has controlled your dream and brung to the surface things that you concience has not aloud you to think about while you are awake. such as the pain something is bring you and the jealous you are feeling for someone or something, but have not conciously realised yet.

Questions on becoming

1. Four physical elements are AIR, WATER, FIRE & EARTH, they are often referred to in ancient texts as aspects of the personality, consider the qualities of each element. Write, draw, collage a visual response to each of the elements – think about colours, textures, shapes etc. Then relate them to your own personality. Which are you? Perhaps you demonstrate the qualities of different elements in different situations. This has nothing to do with astrology so don’t go to your astrological sign. Rather, list these in order of relevance to you. Then say why you ordered them as you did. Remember, nothing to do with astrology!




AIR


Air has the power to be soft and relaxing, or harsh, strong, loud and dangerous. This describes my personality exactly. I feel that when I am treated well and respected, i am ‘breezy’ and willing to calm those around me and help out. But if I am disrespected an looked down upon my personality can suddenly change and become fierce, strong and metaphorically ‘dangerous’.


Air is clear. Although, i see it as blue. Some may see it as white or even grey, but i think air is too powerful to eb thought of as a shade. In natural disasters all over the world it works in partner with water to create large storms and hurricanes.



WATER


I do also see water as blue, although this blue is a stronger, deeper and more mysterious blue. Like the blue that you see when you think of a deep, deep ocean in the Atlantic with raise of sunlight camly striking like thick pins through the water. Some may think of water as calming, I personally am scared of water. Water is clear but has the power to mask itself as a deep dark blue that holds home to many dangerous, large and vicious creatures.



FIRE


I am aware that fire comes in all different shades. Although when i think of this element i am filled with a solid tangent shade of red in the back of my head almost like a large block pushing inwards filling my whole head with the colour like blood. I can relate this element to my body in the way that fire spreads areas in hot flush’s at the speed of light, just like my personality, when in good shape, can vastly effect the people around me like a blazing inferno retracting heat to its surroundings.

I have trouble relating this element to my personality in anyway apart from that.



EARTH


I think of the earth as like a human. Billions of years ago the universe gave birth to it’s most fortunate child. It has grown, flourished, evolved and changed throughout the years just like a child learns and blooms. The people on this earth, just like a child’s surroundings, have impacted the life of the universe’s child and changed it in many ways, mostly for the worse. At the moment i see the world as a teenager, one around my age, with the choice of either going ‘off the tracks’ and becoming irreparable for the rest of eternity or changing its ways and start a new track of life, slowing working back to the life and the ‘personality’ it used to have.



2. Visit this site http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/JTypes2.asp and complete the questions. Then score the test at the bottom. Be sure to check and note your percentages.

Whatever your 4 letters are, do a search on the internet through GOOGLE and read up on the profile. Paste some of the results and profiles into your visual diary and comment on what aspects fit the way you see yourself and those that don’t.

ENTP

Extraverted Intuitive Thinking Perceiving

4. Find examples of advertisements that communicate feelings using

a. colour – monochromatic, analogous, contrasting
b. strong tonal contrast or lighting effects to exploit your emotional response for maximum impact
c. the DESIGN PRINCIPLE of contrasting scale or depth of field ( ie some things in and others out of focus within the frame)

This ad caught my eye immediately and is very easy to relate too. the contrast of the cockroaches on the baby's skin makes it obvious to the viewer that they do not belong together. the last thing somebody wants it to have your child exposed to dangerous germs. It is quite contreversial and jaw-dropping but at the same time it is easy to relate to and works. the focal point of this image are the cockroaches so that your eyes immediately olook at them and 'gross you out'. then a split second later your eyes are drawn to the baby that is being exposed to the cockroaches, making you feel ill and sorry for the baby. these too contrasts are what make the advertisement work.
 
 
5. What is your favourite colour? – why? Make up a name for it. eg my favorite colour is red but not just any red my favourite is deep, rich, blood red. Find an example of your favorite colour from a magazine and try to mix it.
 
My favourite colour is white. but not just any white. the kind of white that you find on angel wings and and dover feathers. the kind of white that makes you feel calm and delicate in your surroundings. a clean, innocent wide like a bridal gown made out of pure, white organza and silk.
 
 
6. Write out your favourite song lyrics. Why are these your favourite? Hone the lyrics to the crucial words (ie 10 or so) in the text and arrange them to make a new poem that maintains the gist of the original but is more abstract.
 

"Love
It’s the air in your mother’s lungs
When her fathers tore her fences down
Plastic bags and the panadol was out

Love
Was a sold Gibson 335

and your father dream died that night, Just to keep that electricity on
And it’s the darkest side of my heart that dies when you come to me
And it’s the golden ticket I win when you kill my enemies
I hear the farthest cry and the softest sigh when I’m empty

But if you leave me I’ll hide in a game like SimCity"

These lyrics represent the pan that a family goes through and the pain a boy feels seeing his parents go through so much pain to bring jus thte necessities to the table. The Middle East talk about the way a girl and the way love can rescue someone from these emotions and how someone can become so dependant on ones loves to make them feel stable and secure in there breaking environment.


 Explaining what you understand to be meant by the term POPULAR CULTURE. List those things that you loive most and the things that annoy you most about popular culture. Find some examples, in images, and paste them in.

What i love about pop culture is the that there are some real, down to earht artists that sing about real issues and respect the feelings of everyone. and have become famous purely for the talent and love of singing. they are not objectified like many singers in the pop culture industry liek lady gaga and chris brown. chris brown is a godo example actually. the amount og female attention he was given was ridiculous, teenage girls as young as 13 would fall in 'love' with this 'person' knowing nothing about him. it was only when he was put in jail for abusing a woman that people realised, "maybe he isn't a good guy after all." True is, he was never a 'good' guy, he was a 'famous' guy, with a good record deal and great publicists.

People like angus and julia stone for example are pure and passionate for there work. they are famous for there love of music and there lyrics are more then a love song, they speak about real issues and remind me exactly why i listen to music, because i can relate to it, and it gives me comfort knowing tha tthey're are other people that feel what i am feeling in my life.


Think about your favourite things, eg music / group, foods, books, tv programmes, clothing styles, etc and make a table that gives information about the cultures from which they originate etc . Which country, if any, dominates? Does this surprise you?

My favourite things are natural, beautiful things. i eat organic foods, that are from my surroundings. i do love clothes, and these are made in china, which is not surprising seeing as they are well known for this.
I do love to travel but purely for the fact that i love being surrounded by things that are so different yet so natural to there climate. It's like a dream.
When it comes to movies, i seem to grow fond of movies that i can picture myself in, like 'love and other disasters', this was a low budget movie with brittany murphy but it was realistic and i related to it. i also love factory girl, because it shows what the media does to people and how people are affected by the social scene. it does nout surprise e that both these movies are made in america seeing as america is well-known for these things.

Think of one word that might hint at the deepest part of you. Now turn to the Thesaurus and find as many words as you can that hold a similar meaning, then one that is opposite. You can use this information as a starting point for an artwork. Using Photoshop and the LAYERS facility, over lay the words on one of your images. Use the Adjust Colour Balance tool and Adjust Brightness and Contrast tools under IMAGE to change the visual language so that the image communicates the concept you are dealing with.

Word: Honestly

Synonyms:  truthful, candid, above-board, authentic,  conscientious, decent, direct, equitable, ethical, fair, fair and square, forthright, frank, genuine, high-minded, honorable, impartial, ingenuous, just, law-abiding, lay it on the line, like it is, no lie, on the level, on the up and up, open, outright, plain, proper, real, reliable, reputable, scrupulous, sincere, straight, straightforward, true, true blue, trustworthy, trusty, undisguised, unfeigned, upfront, upright, veracious, virtuous, what you see is what you get

Antonyms: deceptive, devious, dishonest, false, fraudulent, lying, misleading, treacherous, untrustworthy, untruthful

Pillow Personalities

Mood: Fresh

The mood of this image is fresh. The pillowcase reflects this by the clean lines and folds in the pillow and the shadows created by natural sunlight. The camera angle also plays a major part of creating the mood. for this image it has been take from above yet on a slight angle to give a clean/clear view of the object yet still give the image more 'personality'.



Mood: Dull

The angles of the camera are similiar to those used in the 'fresh' mood. although this time the colours have changed. there are more darker shadows and brown shades. this shows morning sunlight yet with a 'sad' twist.


Mood: Sleepy

This image is supposed to reflect the one feels in the morning. as tyou can see there is an arm rested against the pillow to create the thought that one may be sleeping with there pillow. it has a diffused glow look too it and light shadows to create a musky, unclear look, to relfect the way one might feel in the morning.

APT 6 - Activity 2 - Reuben Paterson

Reuben Paterson | Whakapapa: get down upon your knees | 2009

Reuben paterson's artworks are heavily influenced by his Mauri and pacific islander background. He uses vintage mauri fabrics from the 1950's and 1960's in his works to relfect the culture of his background.

In his art 'Whakapapa' (shown above) Paterson has created an extremely large canvas (15m x 15m) made up of a collection of materials that mean something to the artist. the torqoise, lavender and white floral print is a pattern from his Mauri grandmothers favourite dress, the blue, black and white pattern on the corners is a pattern from his fathers favourite tye, and the others are a mixture of patterns based on traditional mauri art and patterns.

This artwork sympolises his fascination in his culture and the traditional artwork that he has grown up with. every pattern he has used has deep meaning to Paterson and this artwork reflects that.

Note: Activity three found in art diary.

APT6 - Activity two 'Yoshitomo Nara'

Yoshitomo nara is one of japan's most well known contemporary artist's.He is known to team up with famous architecturists to create playful envrionments that reflect his fascination with childhood and growing up.

At the APT6 exhibition I found one of Nara's pieces immediately. Having researched him before i entered the APT6 it was easy to pick out his artworks from the rest.
This artpiece was a hand constructed room made out of wood and the inside was decorated as if it were a children's playroom. Inside their was japanese music playing, toys, drawings and drawings books with coloured pencils so that anybody who entered the room was welcome to leave a drawing for everybody to see. the lighting was a soft, light cream colour that felt like natural sunlight and their were many windows to let natural sunlight it.

This room was almost like a getaway, i felt calm in their and happy. Everybody inside enojoyed the atmosphere it created and appreciated everybodies present.

When i sat down at one of the small, children chairs i felt like i was a kid again, playing in my own playroom. I think this is what Nara was trying to create. He was trying to replicate the feel that every small child has when they are playing alone in their playroom. I felt like i was a small child in their, and as soon as i left the room i was back to 'normal' again. It made me miss the small things that made me, me when i was a kid.

YNG | Yoshitomo Nara | Guitar girl/Cheer up! YOSHINO! | 2009

Kyungah Ham

Yoshitomo Nara

Nara first came to the fore of the art world during Japan’s Pop art movement in the 1990s. The subject matter of his sculptures and paintings is deceptively simple: most works depict one seemingly innocuous subject (often pastel-hued children and animals drawn with confident, cartoonish lines) with little or no background. But these children, who appear at first to be cute and even vulnerable, sometimes brandish weapons like knives and saws. Their wide eyes often hold accusatory looks that could be sleepy-eyed irritation at being awoken from a nap—or that could be undiluted expressions of hate.

Nara, however, does not see his weapon-wielding subjects as aggressors. "Look at them, they [the weapons] are so small, like toys. Do you think they could fight with those?" he says. "I don’t think so. Rather, I kind of see the children among other, bigger, bad people all around them, who are holding bigger knives…"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoshitomo_Nara

Kohei Nawa

                                                                                     "Elk"

Minam Apang

"The Chase"

Born in 1980, in Naharlagun, Arunachal Pradesh, Minam Apang spent her early years in Itanagar, and has schooled in Mussourie, Chicago, and Leeds. After spending a year doing odd jobs in New York City she came to Bombay to study at the J. J. school of Arts and has been living and working here since. Growing up away from home, for the most part, “in third cultures, removed from family, oscillating between multiples worlds,” gave her the early experience of being slightly removed from the contexts she occupied. The inevitable feelings of rootlessness and vulnerability, born of this feeling of chronic alienation, fostered an acute sensitivity towards her environment and led her to be introverted and introspective. To understand her relation to painting is to understand the affirmative human desire to express oneself, making the process of painting an existential endeavour…

http://the-artists.org/artist/apang-minam

The labyrinth

1. 1. An intricate structure of interconnecting passages through which it is difficult to find one's way; a maze.
   2. Labyrinth Greek Mythology. The maze in which the Minotaur was confined.
2. Something highly intricate or convoluted in character, composition, or construction: a labyrinth of rules and regulations.
3. Anatomy.
   1. A group of complex interconnecting anatomical cavities.
   (http://www.answers.com/topic/labyrinth [11/02/10] )
   
   "At first sight, a labyrinth is a relatively decorative assembly of lines, a relatively symmetrical and complex geometric design. But the essence of the labyrinth is in its path, not in its design. A labyrinth is made to be traveled." (http://www.labyreims.com/e-intromed.html [11/02/10] )
   
   
   The cretan labyrinth is the oldest known design of the labyrinth
   
   
     
   The Roman labyrinth is in four quadrants corresponding to four identical labyrinths visited in sequence.
   
    
   
   
   The Medieval design of the labyrinth was mainly used as a manuscript illustration.
     
   Around the year 1200, in France , there were a few large labyrinths incorporated in the floors of cathedrals. Until then, for several centuries, the labyrinths had been drawn on the parchment of the manuscripts: they measured about 6 inches (15 cm). It seems that those large floor labyrinths measured between 33 and 43 feet (10-13 m), depending on the width of the nave. No contemporary document is of any help as to the reason of that transfer from the manuscript to the floor.  
   
   
   The chartres Labyrinth is one of the most popular designs of labyrinths
   
   
   The design of the Reims labyrinth seems to have existed during the medieval times, only on the floor of the Reims cathedral. The floor labyrinth was destroyed in 1778. The Reims path pattern has been found nowhere else, except in a French manuscript of the beginning of the 15th century, where it also has the octagonal form with bastions; that drawing may of course have been copied from the floor labyrinth at the Reims cathedral.
   
   
   

Jeffrey Campbell

I found this brand new designer on and indy online shop in the U.S.

I like the way they bring a new sense to 'different' fashion!

you can buy online at SHOPNASTYGAL.COM or download the lookbook at JEFFREYCAMPBELL.COM.

This is the digital lookbook from my favourite online shop. They really know good style when they see it

Masquerade

The Dream

Portia's Dream
Portia Madden



In this painting I have tried to make the viewer as I felt whilst I was having this dream. The black all around around shows the darkness and fear I was feeling, and the eagle was much out proportion to the picture. I did this on purpose, to show that I felt as if something did not feel right, and I felt as if somebody/something was watching over me.

Andy Warhols "Beethoven"

BEETHOVEN

Andy Warhol

Beethoven was a quite, very simple man. In this painting Andy Warhol has shown a whole different personality to beethoven. In this piece of artwork the personality andy warhol portrays is a mysterious, but intelligent personality, he has done this by using warm colours (eg. The warm blue skin-tone, Warm red scarf). This Version of one of Beethovens portraits shows him in a late 20th century.