Introduction to Digital Art and Design – Art 1531

Instructor:  Jennifer Ghormley    ghormley@mscd.edu   

Extra Credit

October 29, 2009                                “Systems”

What is their art about? Julie Mehretu’s work includes a self reflection of trying to understand her and her work comes with understanding “systems.”

Does this artist inspire you? This artist does inspire me. She is an Ethiopian-American who moved to the state of Michigan at age six where she later moved to New York. She now resides in Berlin working on a series of paintings that will be shown in the Guggenheim. That right there in itself is much of an inspiration and I feel that I can relate to her. I am not from Denver (who is, really?). I was born and raised in Louisiana, a place far different than Colorado. I could almost consider the states polar opposites in every aspect yet the two that come to mind are weather and culture. I moved here to give myself a chance in the art world, and feel that I have done myself a justice by doing so. I see opportunities all around that would not be available to me in my hometown. Now the only thing I have to do is put myself out there and take those chances, or really just start climbing that ladder. I wouldn’t mind starting from the bottom…at all. I see the assistants of Julie Mehretu and they are just as much a part of the end of the work as she is, if not more. The busy work is just as important as the ultimate concept.

Is it interesting? Why or why not? Her work is interesting. She tries to design a stage of systems or map of the development of the city of Manhattan, a place that I am very interested in, and a place that I recently saw for the first time this summer. I enjoy the large scale that her works are made on. What I find very interesting and very much inspiring is how her and her partner work together and feed the process of art making and inspiration in such an “organic” way. I would one day like to have someone that understands my work, promotes the growth of my work, and feeds my intuitive nature to create more work.

“Art making is about making a choice.”-John Baldessari (same episode different artist)

What are your opinions about their artwork?  I don’t necessarily have an opinion on whether her work is good or bad. I think that is not my decision to be made. I do find the size of her work interesting. The grandiose scale of things intrigues me. I also enjoy the fact that she was commissioned to do work in Berlin. That is very interesting. I could get used to doing that one day…

Introduction to Digital Art and Design – Art 1531

Instructor:  Jennifer Ghormley    ghormley@mscd.edu   

Extra Credit

October 29, 2009

What is their art about?

The artist I decided to write about was Cindy Sherman: photographer, model, director, and actress. I chose her because she has the coolest job and she doesn’t even know it. She creates several different characters with the use of makeup, wigs, and added nose/face pieces etc. She is the ultimate independent artist. She is her own model (maybe it’s just me, but I’ve always wanted to be the subject of an image.) and her own photographer as well as director.  I will insert a couple of images of her acting out different characters here, so you can see what I am talking about.

As a side note, Cindy didn’t title her work because she didn’t want people to have a preconceived notion about her characters. Some of her artwork or characters were criticized yet she was not making fun of these people, just reinacting their character. Through a number of different series of works, Cindy 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.

Cindy stated in the episode thought she couldn’t do that job for the rest of her life. I could see myself running out of ideas, but I definitely couldn’t see myself not doing a job like this for the rest of my life.

Does this artist inspire you? Each one of these artists from the “transformation” episode inspires me. It is not their work that is an inspiration but it is the reason behind the work. I know that this same theme has been cultivated in each one of my extra point papers and every time I watch another video, the idea sticks and evolves and makes me more jealous of these artists because I am not doing what they could be easily doing. I feel like I am stuck in a creative rut. I have not created work for myself in about 5 years. That is a long time to hold that feeling in…whatever feeling it is that you release when you create a work of art, some may call it a relief. I know it is a relief to me. And like I said, five years without that can make “an artist” go crazy. I need that release. I am inspired by these artists because they create art out of nowhere. They get paid out of nowhere for this random art that inspires them to live… art that they can call their own…art that is a creation of themselves.

I used to think that artists were the ultimate narcissists, but they aren’t. They are quite the opposite ((which is what I used to consider my self (a narcissist)…but I am very much an introvert like I feel most artists are)). Artists create work with their inspiration backed by their soul. I find this the ultimate forgiving of oneself to whoever is interested in seeing the inside of that person (through their work). You can take the deepest darkest of secrets and create a meaningful piece of work, or you could do the opposite. What I am trying to say here, and convince myself to believe, is that it is okay to make art work. It frees your soul. It creates and promotes personal growth. Kind of like the phrase of Nike, I feel like I need to “just do it.” I always try to find a huge meaning behind a potential artwork when the meaning is right there in front of me. I feel that all you have to do is create and the meaning, the vision, and the release will all follow naturally like it should.

Is it interesting? Why or why not? Yes, this artwork is interesting. I think it would be interesting to perform on a daily basis, but I do not feel as though I would be captivated or see a true meaning behind her work if I were to see it in a gallery. I could be wrong though…

What are your opinions about their artwork? Like I stated above, I think the action and subconscious intention (release and developing of oneself) behind her work is great, and every artist for that matter, regardless of the actual work itself. 

Introduction to Digital Art and Design – Art 1531

Instructor:  Jennifer Ghormley            ghormley@mscd.edu

Extra Credit 2

What is their art about?

Cao Fei’s artwork is themed around hip hop music and the creation of an alternate life on the internet. On Art 21, they video hip hop in relation to culture and the mixing of cultures. Her love for music evolved into her love for dance. After she did her first hip hip project, she started working with Cas Players which deals with the cartoon world. Some people live out their cartoon characters 24 hours a day, which I think is very interesting. I mean who wouldn’t want to do that? I know I would.

For the theme of the creation of her own ideal city, she designed solely by herself yet was for the people of the city, not herself. This place was called RMB city, which was named after the currency in China, where she currently resides. She also works on videos. She has been an art director. And of course, she has created a character on second life. He second life avatar meets a man, flirts with him, and them finds out that in real life this man in really a sixty year old Marxist. She does not find anything wrong with this which I like her for. She can separate her real life from her video life. I would probably had a character on second life if you didn’t have to pay for stuff. I remember when I was little, I would play this computer game at school that allowed you to create you own city. I believe it was called Sim City. Playing that game was so much fun. I created the roads, the houses, placement of malls, gas station and the like. I basically created an ideal city for myself, which led me to choose Cao Fei because I can relate to her in that sense. I also believe that computer game had a lot to do with me wanting to be an architect. I want to design people’s houses and create the ultimate living space for them.

Does this artist inspire you? This artist does inspire me, but not as much as the last artist did.  I can see myself creating an ideal city or an ideal lifestyle, but not virtually. I would superlatively like to do that in real life.

Is it interesting? Why or why not? Yes, Cao Fei’s work is interesting. I find it interesting because she worked with digital architects that helped create her RMB city. That is the thing that I find most interesting.

What are your opinions about their artwork? Meh. They are alright. I didn’t really find much of it to be art work other then the creation of the workplace video that featured humans painted as animals. To me, the rest of the video was a documentary.

Jennifer Ghormley

Introduction to Digital Art and Design

15 October 2009

Week One Extra Credit

Out of the three artists presented on Art of the 21^st century I was most fascinated with Doris Salcedo’s work. I was instantly intrigued when I saw her segment was about installation art and furniture work (I recently changed my major to Industrial Design with the hope of focusing on furniture design).   Giving a extremely brief biography about Doris Salcedo is pertinent in understanding the reason behind her work.

Doris Salcedo is a Colombian born (1958) sculptor who came to America in the year of 1980. Colombia is a third world country who combats war, defeat, and victimization daily. And this is where Doris takes her perspective as an artist from.  She likes to create a work of art as if she is experiencing someone else’s peril, particularly those who live in Colombia. This is what Doris Salcedo’s work is about and this work is very much an inspiration to me. Not only is the objectivity of her work very interesting (creating a single furniture unit through multiple pieces of furniture), but what’s even more compelling is the meaning behind her work. I find that the meaning behind her work is to display the pain and suffering that people go through with the use of domestic materials. Often these events that she represents are political and economical.

The thing that I am starting to find the most interesting about “art” are artists’ meaning  or reason behind the creation of their work. I think the concept of that fascinates me more than the individual ideas. It just excites me because it makes me realize that I can create anything I want to for any reason I want to. How awesome is that??? It’s very awesome. But in accordance to Doris’ work, I like how she mixed different sets of furniture together to make a single set.  It is incredibly unique and unheard of in my regards.

I think Doris Salcedo’s work is something to be further investigated and I can see her as being a resource to pull from for my artwork in the future.

Thanks,

Natalie Breaux

Jennifer Ghormley

Digital Art and Design

15 October 2009

Project 4

            I chose David Carson by chance. It turns out that he was a professional surfboarder/ sociologist turned Graphic Designer. He has no educational back ground or training in graphic design. The theme that I find prominent in all of his work is being intuitive with your work, creating work that stems from your inner being, and making work that is pleasing for you. He is arguably the most innovative and influential graphic designer or the 1990s. He was dubbed the title “master of typography” by Graphis magazine and “the king of non-communication” by veteran Italian-American designer Massimo Vignelli. David Carson is known internationally.

            He made his mark through Transworld Skateboarding, Surfer, Beach Culture, and Ray Gun. He has also worked for Quicksilver, Nike, Pepsi, and MTV.

“David’s work communicates. But on a level beyond words. On a level that bypasses the logical, rational centers of the brain and goes straight to the part that understands without thinking. In this way it works just like music does—slipping in there before anyone has a chance to stop it at the border and ask for papers (Blackwell).”

One things that makes David Carson’s work unique is that he cuts up images, mixes them with type, layers them, and then distorts them. His work reminds me somewhat of Jean Michael Basquiat’s art which I definitely find hard to read. Like Basquiat, his approach to design and the creation and placement of typefaces are more expressionistic than anything else.

The artist evolves with the work, not from the work. Most of the work created by David Carson is proposed with two items: photographic imagery and typeface. David combines these two fundamental elements of graphic design in such a unique way.

Ray Gun‘s brief history: Overlapping blocks of copy; light text against dark backgrounds; dark text against dark backgrounds; running text across pages, including stories that are read horizontally across columns (just hop over the gutter between them); deliberately running photos upside-down.

“The message that the type sends, I feel, is as important as what it’s saying. When those work together, you’ve got really strong communication. You cannot not communicate. If I make this [page] totally unreadable, that’s communicating something. And it might be about the magazine, it might be about this group. It’s sending a message. So that’s much more powerful than leaving it blank, which also sends a message.”

I’ve never had a conversation with anyone familiar with Ray Gun that did not include a dismissal of the magazine as unreadable. For Carson, that’s a misnomer. “If you think it’s

hard to read or too weird, you’re probably not the audience, and that’s fine.

For Ray Gun readers, decoding the text is part of the fun. It’s a heady font soup, and only strong swimmers ought to jump in. If stodgy graphic-design stalwarts are incensed that Carson breaks so many rules and gets away with it (the magazine sells 150,000 copies an issue)– well, odds are they have no interest in pop-music artistes like Porno for Pyros, Moby, the Beastie Boys, or P.J. Harvey anyway. If you think Ray Gun is illegible, you just may not be the Ray Gun type, and that’s OK. You can still make yourself useful– try handing your copy to someone who can appreciate it (Clark).

Jennifer Ghormley

Introduction to Digital Art and Design

15 October 2009

David Carson Bibliography

            Blackwell, Lewis and David Carson. The End of Print: The Graphic Design of David Carson. United States: Laurence King Publishing, 1995.

            Carson, David. David Carson: 2^nd Sight: Grafik Design After the End of Print. Enrique Jungbauer. 2^nd Volume. New York: Universe Publishing, 1997

            Carson, David. “DCD.” <davidcarsondesign.com> (15 October 2009).

            Carson, David. “David Ray Carson.” <davidcarson.com> (15 October 2009).

            Carson, David. Fotografiks: an Equilibrium Between Photography and Design though Graphic Expression that Evolves from Content. Gingko Press, Incorporated. 1999

            Hillman, Curtis. <www.hillmancurtis.com/index.php?/film/watch/david_carson> (15 October 2009).

            Clark, Joe. “Accessibility. Design. Writing.” 19 March 2007.

< http://joeclark.org/design/davidcarson.html> (15 October 2007).

            Trek. Corte Madera: Gingko Press Inc., 2003.

Jennifer Ghormley

Digital Art

13 October 2009

Assignment Six Artist’s Statement

            I chose to use the metaphor of “hold your horses” because it came to me by chance. This is a phrase that I still use today and used the other day, giving me the idea to use that particular metaphor for this project. The purpose of this project in particular is to display my Photoshop skills, try to project the metaphor “hold your horses” through that use of representational objects, as well as fitting in a gestalt principle into the mix with the appropriate use of Elements and Principles of Design. 

            I would have to say that most of my work begins by chance. I like to work off of something that comes natural to me. When I force a concept or idea, I know that I will not be satisfied with the process and the end result (if I have one) with my work because it has no meaning to me. When my work isn’t going well, I tend to find that the problem stems from a lost cause of production. You can’t magically come up with a great project if there is no reason or purpose behind your work. .  On the other hand, When I feel like a piece has turned out really well, the things that accomplished are that the project reflects the understanding of the project goals, the project meets the size/media requirements, the project is presented cleanly and the craftsmanship is strong, the project has a strong use of design elements and principles, the project feels complete and fully resolved, and lastly that the artist is engaged in their work and has challenged themselves on a high level.

            The thing that I like best about the way I work is the initial ideas that I come up with. I feel as though they are original and relate to my life in some way or another which I feel is the most important thing about a work of art: purpose. Without a purpose or an idea behind a work of art, there is no art. Art does not exist. This follows the notion stated in the paragraphs above. The favorite things about my work are the vibrant colors, the central placement of each of the objects, and most of all, the space that I created.

My favorite tool is the Brightness/Color Contrast tool. The use of this tool in my piece really put “the icing on the cake.” Before I changed the colors, the drab colors did not match the authoritative and demanding meaning of “hold your horses,” which actually means to “hold on” or “be patient.”  The patterns that emerge in my work are balance and symmetry. I don’t feel like I can have an effective work of art if it is off-kiltered. Even though I could see the use of an anomaly as my Gestalt principle, I chose not to use that because I wouldn’t feel right with my work being out of balance. On the same note, that is why I chose to use similarity as my Gestalt principle because it gives my work an overall balance. The group of horses is balanced in the center of the page. The horses recede back from the center horse. The horizon line crosses the center of the page and the hand that holds the horses is located on the top of the page in the center as well.

            I know that my piece is done because there is an equal amount of unity and variety, giving my work a sensation of balance and I am satisfied with my final presentation. If I could change or add something to make the piece even more satisfying to myself and my viewers, I would add reigns around the horses, place the hands as if they were “cupping/holding back” the horses, and then I would add a little bit of dust around the horses as if they had suddenly been stopped from their movement. But even without these changes, I am pleased with the work that I produced considering the minimal amount of skill I previously have had in working with Photoshop.