Layering

For my layering project my first idea was inspired by Mary Poppins by putting the sidewalk on a canvas and adding chalk on top to replicate the part in the movie when they jumped into the sidewalk before it washed away in the rain. I had been wanting to use photo transfer for one of my projects and I liked how the image can look aged when the paper tears. After awhile I wasn't as interested in the Mary Poppins idea and thought the symmetrical lines of the sidewalk needed to be broken up with contrast and movement. The consecutive squares of the sidewalk reminded me of old movie reel where you could see each image of each frame. At the beginning of this idea I couldn't find any movie reels so I used VCR tape. It worked out because the VCR tape is more flexible than the movie tape. I began weaving and layering the tape in and around each other as some places were taped down and others were lifted. I thought I was done when I added all of the tape but I got advice that the piece still needed more. I broke up the tape by adding perpendicular lines onto the VCR tape to make it seem similar to movie reel. Then I painted different tints and shades of grey circles on the canvas, sidewalk and tape to incorporate and bring the background and the layers of tape together.

I represented layering by putting the photo transfer on top of the canvas and letting the canvas show through the transfer.

Then I added the tape by layering it over and underneath each other.

 

After the tape was added I painted on the VCR tape and on the canvas to add extra detail and to incorporate the background and the 3-D foreground together so it wasn't so broken up and separate.

 

Redo Project

For my redo project I redid my landscape project from art one. At the beginning of my painting I didn't want to go with the life-like colors. I wanted to challenge myself and see how well I could convey the landscape just using blue, black, and white. I used blue, black, and white acrylic paint for my base layer.

 

Once I finished with the blue, black and white landscape I wanted to add more. I first thought of drawing over it with cartoonish figures so it had a realistic look and then also a fairy tale look but I wanted to use black marker; although, there would be too much dark in the work so I then thought of opposites. I thought of recreating the exact same thing I just did but instead use its complementary color, orange. I flipped the painting around and used watercolor and paint thinner so it was transparent and could see the original painting underneath.

 

 

At the beginning of the orange stage I liked the first two clouds I did but then I wasn't as pleased with the execution of the last two and the reflection of the water and trees. Although, I am glad I took the risk of adding the orange because I didn't want my redo project to be just another landscape. I wanted it to have a unique quality to it and to show the expansion of my creativity and risk taking compaired to my work in Art 1. 

Time as an Element

With "time" being the element in our next project. Being a literal thinker I could only think as far as the literal meaning of the word time. I thought of different kinds of clocks and sundials and even father time. I kept thinking about the word "time" and then I thought of thyme the herb, same name when it is said but completely different. I mean the element is still "time" right... or thyme?

I decided I would take different forms of thyme; fresh leaves, dried leaves, stems, ground thyme and incorporate them into the piece to show the variety of textures and colors. I didn't want the figure I was going to make on the paper to be an actual object because I didn't want people to look at what the object was; instead, I wanted it to be noticed and valued for the medium that was used.

To apply the thyme I mixed liquid Elmers Glue with a little bit of water to get a loser consistency so it would become easier to paint onto the paper in the guidlines I had already made with pencil. After painting on the sections of glue I would sprinkle the variety for that respected area over the glue. The stems and individual leaves had to be put on separately one by one using tweezers which tested my patience and attention span. 

 

Overall I think the piece turned out neat. I had a hard time deciding on when to stop adding more and embelishing because there really wasnt a limit. Even looking at it now I want to add more but in my efforts to get my vision across I think I accomplished my goal which helped me put the thyme down.

 

 

Intertextuality

My intertextuality covered a variety of different mediums, mostly completing the piece with stencil and spraypaint. Since I used stencil in my piece I kept the buildings and the shape of the bean very geometric but I also wanted to add a little more organic element for the bean being a plant but also keeping in mind that its a sleek, simple, sculpture. I ran into issues when I put the letters down one day then the next sprayed over them then let it dry again because it made the letters stick to the paint and as i peeled up the letters it took up the paint and paper underneath. I was disappointed at first but then I thought it gave the piece more visual interest because it added texture in an unsuspected way.

I used intertextuality by taking the Chicago Cloud Gate and turning it into a bean. The bean is to visually represent how the monument/ attraction/ sculputre looks like a bean but also to represent growth. Like many attractions in a city it is a breeding ground for people to visit and explore. The growth of the bean can take multiple meanings such as a growing city, the growing and expanding of the mind into a persons own interpretation of what the sculpture looks like, as well as the community growing as a whole when they interact each day, each hour, by the sculpture. The interpretation of "growth" is up to the observer but it is best to keep an open mind and look at all of the possibilities.

Text as an Element

I created my project on three rectangular pieces of plexiglass by writing three different stages of transportation on their respected piece with marker. Doing the three different layers created depth and represented the underground, land and sky levels transportation can be found at. After putting the marker on the frontI felt like the text needed more to it so I took paint pens and added white highlights to certain words to create more visual interest. When using plexiglass I was skeptical of the success of the project. I did not have much set expectations for how the piece was going to go so since I had never used it before I wasn't sure how accepting the two would be with eachother and if they would compliment eachother nicely.