Portfolio Progress 3.25.11

I don't feel as though the focus of my concentration is quite clear yet. The concept between the pieces is the same, but the media used in what I have so far doesn't seem quite cohesive. I want the final group to have some kind of unity to it, so I need to keep things like color in mind for the rest of my pieces.
Some of the elements and principles I've used through my concentration so far are texture, balance, shape, rhythm and unity.
The compositions of the pieces have completed are generally based around the shapes in them, and fairly successful. Craftsmanship for the three pieces is relatively successful for the amount of time we've had to finish them in, and shows a wide range of media being used. The concepts of all the pieces are pretty clear at least to some extent, in my opinion because of the symbolic representations in each piece.

2/7

I've never been too big of a football fan, so I wasn't ecstatic when I heard the Packers were going to the Super Bowl and my inspiration level for this project wasn't too high. But I do like Aaron Rodgers, so I decided to run with that. For the Packer Fever project, I collaged cut out squares from magazines to make a paper version of him. I tried to create a background that somewhat resembled a spotlight, too, to make the focus on him. I placed the person in the center, but because of his body position, the viewers' eye is directed across the page. I feel this turned out okay for my lack of inspiration, but I still need to add the forearm and hand of the front arm, so that he is no longer an amputee (like Ishmael).

Exhibit

When setting up an exhibit it was somewhat hard to decide which area to use, because one of my pieces was kind of weird to display. I decided on a corner area, which would have been okay, except i felt obligated to fill the extra board space last minute. That was a poor choice, but i had already hammered a hole through my chicken drawing, so it seemed like a shame to back out.

Home

"Home is birthplace ratified by memory."
In this project, i took a personal approach to the definition of home. For me, home is a combination of both memories and current comforts, whether its a place or state of mind.
In the backgroud of this, I collaged photos from my first house during my youngest years and tissue paper, and slightly dyed it with coffee. I then cut holes in the cardboard for the jars, and put in the glass jars full of lights, coffeegrounds, paper, book pages and eraser shavings. All these somewhat emulate past memories, and also represent things that bring me a homey calm now.

1/7

The egg industry is an abusive one for the hens and chicks that have to suffer through life within it. I chose to expose the terrible conditions that the chickens must live through in this piece, both through the finer print on the poster and situations graphically depicted through cartoons. I wanted to create a sense of unity through the three panels, so I used unified colors and drawing styles throughout, and used the emphasis of red and orange throughout the three panels to create a movement of the eye throughout it.

11/25

I chose to highlight the elements of line and shadow used in this photo by making it black and white. Also, I have no portfolio ready black and white photos, so It can widen my breadth section a bit. I like the idea of making it into a cyanotype, so I may try that.

11/4

I used a variety of media including acrylics, pastel, pen, tissue paper and photography to complete this piece. I began by painting a piece of paper to convey my current mindset rather than doing some sort of mind dump of adjectives, as words aren't my favorites. With this, I realized that my pursuit of escapism would be a good trait to portray. Through built up repetitions of the words 'float away' written on tissue paper, I collaged cloudlike building forms at the base of the piece to create weight there. Then I incorporated the self portrait element of the piece with a cut out photgraph I took of myself. I attempted to incorporate emphasis, rhythm and a bit of movement to draw the eye up and away to some extent.