bleghhck.

frankly, I'm tired.

I'm ready for summer vacation.

I just want to sit in my hammock and read my book until Friday - no class.

That would be the life, eh? breeze coming through the open window, no worries... just the text passing before your eyes, leaving you hanging onto every word awaiting the next... Maybe eating a bon bon or two, oh wait... that's where it gets to be too much. But realistically I need to get off of my bed, get dressed, go run errands and make it to the painting lab before lunch, eat, go BACK to painting, go to my next class, leave there, find time to meet with people for my hall event, have a staff meeting, finish my #%(& drawing and typography homework and then MAYBE consider going to sleep... yeah. tired.

Now that I've complained and probably made you never want to read my blog again ("oh my god, she's so whiney"), let me clarify:

I am merely stressed, and working to overcome my bitterness, so please excuse my current foul mood.

Positivity is something I have always been great at without much effort, and I'm slowly losing sight of that, so I'm diligently working to shake whatever funk I've fallen into that has since sucked it out of me. SO, basically this post has no real meaning... just a rant and confession. thanks.

Caryn

The Best of Two Years Past...

As I gather up my strongest pieces from my last two years of art classes here at AU for my sophomore portfolio, I thought it would be really special to post those for you, my very valuable reader, to see. So, here is what I've been doing for the past two years in my art world:

Art 105 (Foundations) - Fall '08

Contour Project: assigned a still life to draw using contours (no shading!)




The Abstract Sculpture: This project required us to develop a sculpture from mostly foam board that would convey a social issue or issue that is relevant to many people. I chose to capture the continuing genocide in Africa due to the AIDS epidemic.

Art 106 (Foundations 2) - Spring '09

Pointillism Project: We were to create an conceptual composition using several images and render them using only dots of cyan, magenta, yellow and black. This is called "Meaning the Escape"

The Non-objective Project: For this project I chose one non-objective painting and had to interpret it and create a three dimensional sculpture to represent it. It was quite fun to do - note that this sculpture is completely free standing.

Painting I - Fall '09

Photorealism Project: For this project we were to make our painting as closely identical to our chosen image as possible. I did a posterized self-portrait with a palette knife and was quite surprised how well it turned out. This is 30x36"

Graphic Design I - Fall '09

A type self portrait. This is made completely of song lyrics and is sized at about 11x17".

Well, that's not the entire portfolio, but it's the best of it and the pieces I'm most proud of. Hope you enjoy

Caryn

Untainted.

This would be the new CD you just purchased. It's a new album by Uceroz (a new music brand by Ivan Palacký), it's a musician playing an amplified knitting machine called Dopleta 160 (180). "The title “Uceroz” is an abbreviation created from two Czech words : „učesán a rozcuchán“. It consists of two editions, where „učesán“ represents a smoother kind of musical expressiveness however „rozcuchán“ tends to be more experimental."
Basically what you have here is a very new and unheard of sample of music... You reach to open the pure white package, and this is what occurs.

PAPPELTALKS from vizage on Vimeo.

Now, not only is the cover "tainted" by this ink forever, but that music can never again be unheard by your ears. These designers are SO brilliant, and this is such an amazing approach to not only music, but to art and design as well. bravo.

To read more, check out: http://lovelypackage.com/pappeltalks/#more-10820

thanks.

Drop: Literally Cliche

This is the word that I was assigned to convey for my first typography project. My mind immediately flew to all the phrases and sayings that 'drop' is involved with...
drop of a hat
drop dead
drop it like its hot
drop like flies
drop a record
drop a dime
drop a deuce
drop in a bucket
etc..

As my mind filtered through all of these, I was most attracted to 'drop like flies', 'drop in a bucket' and 'drop of a hat'

Eventually I was struggling for time and the ability to focus on one idea and one image. Most of my ideas were far too complex and I needed to settle it down. Therefore I tried to break it down to something simple that the viewer could understand that still be something that 'drop' makes me think of. Well, 'shop 'till you drop' came to mind and I went with that.

My concept summary:
The word 'drop' is associated with many cliche phrases, one of the most recognizable being "shop until you drop."

As far as my typeface choices go, I chose a serif because it mirrors the typefaces seen on a majority of the shopping bags I had to look at as well as the fact that it is highly legible and often seen in stores. Furthermore, it works well in large sizes and remains clean and legible - even when printed in all majiscules as to better suggest store signs and attention-grabbing sale signs. Even my stroke-weights are somewhat heavy, like the bags shoppers carry around.


For my finished piece, I chose to use a shot that did not use my model's face because it quickly became a focal point in most other compositions. Also, I found that the contrast between the stationary model and the movement of the actual shoppers to be very visually interesting as well as important to my concept of literally dropping. The shopping bags, while clearly not having been dropped, are lined up at the very front of the shot so that they are the obvious focal point of the image.

Overall, I am satisfied with how the shot turned out, but I realize that my concept isn't as strong as it could be. However, every interpretation I had of this word involved a cliche phrase, so I feel as though my interpretation of the word 'drop' was that its overuse leaves it only to be subject to a life of cliche existence.