Blog 23 (reflect & select)

I would say that my last six blog posts were a very important turning point in my views and interests in art and the art-making process. This is where I looked more into photography, and that is where I am heading toward the end of my concentration and for my breadth. Finding websites such as the one about light photography and the one that listed the top art blogs has opened up new areas for me to explore. These particular blogs were essential because I realized that I have a great interest in photography, and it allowed me to add on another idea into my concentration of transformation from painting to photography (which could also be interpreted as adding on to the idea of transformations in technology over time). As we find new interests and think of new ideas, we make more technology. As I found new interests and thought of new ideas, I made more types of art. 

(http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images/)

http://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/long-exposure/

http://www.complex.com/style/2012/06/the-50-greatest-street-photographers-right-now/steve-mccurry

http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images/

http://www.fubiz.net/2016/04/04/new-inspired-conceptual-situations-by-brock-davis/

http://www.visualnews.com/2015/03/12/the-top-50-art-blogs-to-follow/

Blog 24 (conclusion)

My original statement in August was "I intend to explore the areas that interest me most in art, and currently, that area is appropriation. I want to find ways to transform well known pieces into something that relates to today, specifically by incorporating technology. I want to make as many statements as possible through my art about technological advances, whether it is a positive or negative element."

I have skipped between different ideas as I grew into new interests during the year, but my statement has not actually changed as much as I would have expected. Even though I have ended up making a concentration very different from what I originally planned, it still lines right up with my first artist statement. I am still exploring areas that interest me within appropriation and I am still transforming them into pieces that relate to current times. It just so happens that this statement can still apply to the photography pieces in my concentration. When I was first posting on this blog, I knew that I wouldn't be able to make a whole concentration on art that did not interest me, and that has played out into the changes that I have made in my concentration. Once I realized that I was getting too bored with painting, I started to look into photography (http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-artist/). I started out by exploring and writing about appropriation with technology statements because that is the main idea behind my concentration, but as time went on, I started looking into a broader spectrum of media such as photography. By the time I was on my third or fourth post this semester, I had gone from blogging about appropriation to blogging about light painting in photography. This is where I realized that I could incorporate other types of art into my concentration other than just painting, so I started working with photoshop, and then I decided to create a transition from painting to photography, so right now, I am creating a piece that combines painting and photography. Another source that has given me many ideas is the website that lists the best art blogs  (http://www.visualnews.com/2015/03/12/the-top-50-art-blogs-to-follow/) . My interests have not changed conceptually, but they have formally. The formal aspects in my work have gone from painting-- whether it is blending colors together or keeping them as separate as possible-- to digital media and photography. Aside from my concentration, I finally formed an idea for my breadth because of the research I have done on this blog and also looking at previous AP students' portfolios. Some other links and websites that aided my conclusion were http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images/, http://www.fubiz.net/2016/04/04/new-inspired-conceptual-situations-by-brock-davis/, and http://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/long-exposure/. These blogs and websites allowed me to further explore my interests in formally based photography, light painting, and conceptual photography. Overall, my general art interest has remained the same with only slight changes in certain aspects of it.

Blog 22

Today I found a blog on the same website that I included in my last post (the top 50 art blogs to follow) that related to "light painting" in photography and it was very interesting--- two different photographers were working with the idea of combining light photography with sports/dance. One photographer, Joanna Jaskólska, essentially handed some LED lights to her friends and let them breakdance while she captured the light as it was twirling and spinning within the picture because of the motions they were creating by dancing. The other photographer, Zach Ancell, was combining sports that "involve long fluid motion" and light photography. He captured the photographs of the athletes in front of a black background so that the light would stand out even more and it allows us to see the actual motion that these athletes make while they make motions that are common in their sports (i.e. basketball players dribbling, gymnasts flipping, tennis players swinging the racket). I find this interesting because normally, if someone is creating a light painting, you don't see the actual person creating the image, but just the results. Instead, these artists used the athlete or dancer as the main subject and the light enhances what they do. Here are some of the pictures:

(http://petapixel.com/2013/06/01/beautiful-light-painting-photos-created-with-dancers-and-athletes/)

Blog 21

Today, I was wondering what kind of art blogs are out there that would be beneficial for me to follow, so I went to google and searched. I found a great website (http://www.visualnews.com/2015/03/12/the-top-50-art-blogs-to-follow/) that listed the "top 50" art blogs to follow, and then I clicked on one of those links that took me to a website called Fubiz (http://www.fubiz.net/2016/04/04/new-inspired-conceptual-situations-by-brock-davis/) where I found the artist around which the predominant subject of this post revolves. That was a little wordy, but nevertheless, the artist I found today is named Brock Davis. Weirdly enough, he is an American but his biography on that website was in French even though it seems to be an American website..anyway, he basically takes every day objects and plays with what we think of them by altering something or placing them somewhere we wouldn't normally expect to see them in order to observe what the human mind creates and imagines. Here are some examples:

Through his photography, Brock Davis is attempting to use humorous images to provoke the human brain. For example, someone who sees the picture of the tissue box with a phone that has a picture of a mountain on its screen leaning against the box may imagine a tiny mountain goat climbing the box of tissues, or someone who sees the image of the pencils as chopsticks might cringe while imagining how it would affect the taste of the food to eat using pencils. The reactions to these pictures go on. 

Using photography to incorporate humor is something that I appreciate because my favorite type of art is humorous art. (not really political cartoons or anything of that sort, but aesthetically pretty and humorous art)

Blog 20

Today, I found another light photography website that had some very interesting samples of peoples' work (I will attach pictures below). Something that I would like to explore is light exposure and what types of things can be made by using light to create, essentially, digital paintings. I would most likely focus on the formal aspects of the work because that is the main idea of light photography that interests me. It is fun to look at and fun to see how the pictures turn out, because you don't know until you finally hear the shutter click and see the preview of the image. Although, it is possible that I could include some conceptual aspects, depending on the subject. This past week I went on a cruise and took some pictures that involved light painting and I found some new techniques to work with, such as moving the camera as the light is being taken in and also zooming in and out as the picture is being formed. 
Anyway, here are some pictures that I found. 

(http://digital-photography-school.com/25-spectacular-light-painting-images/)

Blog 19

This week, I'm looking at more light painting/light trail pictures. I particularly like the following pictures and the idea of pictures involving cities. Since I am working on a photoshop picture right now with an old image and a new image, I'm hoping to do a project more like this next to change things up. I'm attaching a very interesting website below that has long exposure images of everything from glowing worms and jellyfish to forest fires in California. This technique of using long exposure to accentuate light is cool to me.

Here are a couple of the images from this website: http://www.thisiscolossal.com/tags/long-exposure/

Blog 18

Today, I was trying to find double exposure pictures where people take old pictures of cities and edit a newer picture of the same place over it. I didn't find that specifically, but I stumbled upon some interesting double exposure pictures of city and tree lines edited inside people's silhouettes-- they seemed interesting to me. I would consider doing some portraits like these, but I especially am interested in the combination of old and new pictures to show change over time and how things look since development in technology, whether good or bad. 


It could be fun to learn how to make these pictures for technique purposes. I am in the process of learning how to use photo shop so that I can take a picture like this:
and combine it with a picture like this: 
I don't plan on doing this for a lot of projects unless I just love it, but I would like to do some normal pictures that I have for quality or breadth. 

Blog 17

I found a new photographer named Michael Bosanko who works with light in his art. He says "Light Art (or Light Graffiti) for me had its humble beginnings back in summer 2004 in Greece when by chance, photographing a moonlit landscape went unexpectedly wrong. Unclipping the camera from its tripod, I quickly discovered that by putting the camera into long exposure I could move the camera in my hands and use the moon itself to write out a word. Buzzing with excitement, the next natural stage was to keep the camera on a tripod, and use torchlight to ‘draw’. Ever since then, I have been on a solitary journey of discovery, pushing the limits of my photographic knowledge, my imagination, and always overstepping the boundaries of what is feasibly possible." 
I find this interesting not only because I am interested in light photography, but also because I am pretty sure the first time I figured out how to use long exposure was while I was trying to take a picture of the moon over the ocean at the beach. Here are some of his shots:

I like that he doesn't act like he started out as a professional "light-painting" photographer but points out that he found this skill by mistake. I would like to take pictures that manipulate or use light as part of the composition, whether it's light shining through a flower petal or a strip of light stretching across a street as a car speeds by. This doesn't relate to appropriation or technology, but it is something I enjoy so I'm trying to figure out where to fit it in. I'll probably use some of the pieces that I get from this concept for my breadth or quality. 

http://www.michaelbosanko.com/photo17499835.html

Blog 16

(for yesterday)
This week, I found a photographer named Steve McCurry. I really like his work because he is a renowned street photographer, and natural photography of surroundings is something that greatly interests me. He takes risks and goes to strange and far away places to take pictures, which is interesting, though out of my comfort zone definitely. He has gone to India (a place I would particularly love to travel to), Italy, Cuba, Russia, and many more countries. Here are some of his pictures...

 ( http://stevemccurry.com/bio )

( http://www.complex.com/style/2012/06/the-50-greatest-street-photographers-right-now/steve-mccurry )

I enjoy that his pictures are straightforward and realistic, but still interesting to study. He shows many different cultures in his photography, and that is something I would like to do in the future. 

Blog 15

This week I'm looking at an artist named James Turrell. He uses light as his medium and says: "'My work is more about your seeing than it is about my seeing, although it is a product of my seeing. I’m also interested in the sense of presence of space; that is space where you feel a presence, almost an entity — that physical feeling and power that space can give.'"

Basically, Turrell has been interested in light since he was a child, and likes to experiment with the idea of space while letting his audience decipher the meaning of his pieces. 

A weird side note is that apparently Drake had a very meaningful experience with Turrell's work and decided to rip him off by featuring it in his music video for "Hotline Bling". Turrell said he was "flattered" although he hadn't given Drake any permission to do this. At least the artist found humor in the whole situation

. 

Blog 14

Even though I'm in the middle of painting (update pic below), I keep looking at photography. It just interests me more I guess. Anyway, I found this artist who experiments with light in photography (AKA light painting) and I love playing with shutter speed and light. His name is Bruno Mesrine, he's French, and here are a couple of examples of his photography. I tried to look into some of his biographies but they were entirely in French an and a little hard to read. From what I can tell, he takes a lot of pictures in France of different monuments and buildings and either spells words with light or edits different pictures on top of each other, which is partly what I am hoping to do soon. I also have some pictures that I might use as a breadth piece that are similar to this style. (One of them is the background on my blog)

http://lightpaintingphotography.com/light-painting-artist/

Blog 13

(this is my Monday, Feb. 1st blog)
Like I mentioned in my last post, I'm interested in playing with photography for some of my concentration and I'm trying to figure out if there are any artists who do what I'm trying to do. I basically want to take some pictures that I took in the mountains of Tennessee and edit pictures of buildings from New York into them so that there's a mixture of outdoors/urban city to show development over time. I might also take old pictures of downtown Montgomery and try to take a picture in the same spot and edit those together. If anyone knows of other artists who do this type of thing, please let me know! Here are some pictures I might use 

Blog 12

As I continue working on the Magritte piece (pictured below), I'm starting to think of ideas for my concentration. To be completely honest, I'm getting really bored with just appropriating paintings and exploring nothing else exciting. So, that being said, I've decided to try something new. Except I haven't completely decided what that is going to be yet. I know I'm interested in incorporating photography with my work because I love photography, and I figure it might interest me more. I found an artist on this website (http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2000/5/painting-on-photography-photography-on-painting.php) who both combines pictures to create a large image, and also paints on his pictures. His name is Randy Hayes. This is an area I'm interested in. I will still be including my theme of technology statements, but I might try to combine images I have taken, or potentially paint on top of them. We'll see

Here you can kind of see how he painted the little shack.

If you look closely, these are all little pictures

of old, country houses.

Blog 11

Today, I was searching through practically every name listed as artists under the appropriation Wikipedia page because, for whatever reason, I have the hardest time finding artists who either relate to me or that interest me. I found a guy named Brian Dettmer who has formally interesting pieces that also incorporate ideas of appropriation (finally!!). He takes items such as books, albums, maps, and recreates them into his own piece of art.

His artist statement is as follows (spoiler alert. He basically takes books and gives them new meaning and role by transforming them into a new item because he fears that history is slipping away and needs to be seen in a fresh and new form.):

"The age of information in physical form is waning. As intangible routes thrive with quicker fluidity, material and history are being lost, slipping and eroding into the ether. Newer media swiftly flips forms, unrestricted by the weight of material and the responsibility of history. In the tangible world we are left with a frozen material but in the intangible world we may be left with nothing. History is lost as formats change from physical stability to digital distress.

The richness and depth of the book is universally respected yet often undiscovered as the monopoly of the form and relevance of the information fades over time. The book’s intended function has decreased and the form remains linear in a non-linear world. By altering physical forms of information and shifting preconceived functions, new and unexpected roles emerge. This is the area I currently operate in. Through meticulous excavation or concise alteration I edit or dissect communicative objects or systems such as books, maps, tapes and other media. The medium’s role transforms. Its content is recontextualized and new meanings or interpretations emerge." 
http://briandettmer.com/bio/

Blog 10

Once again, my objective is basically to explore the elements of appropriation by making statements about technology through the pieces that I choose to appropriate.

As I move on to my next project, I have decided to appropriate another piece by René Magritte called The Son of Man, which I mentioned in my last blog. I will most likely maintain the same techniques and the same color palette as the piece (pictured below), but I will replace an element of the painting (most likely the fruit on his face) with something that relates technologically to present-day culture. I enjoy Magritte's work because his pieces are fairly straightforward and sometimes simple to analyze, though it is still highly conceptual. Also, since he is a well-known artist, his work is great for the use of appropriation.

**also for those who said they didn't understand this, here's what Magritte said**

"At least it hides the face partly well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.^[1]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Son_of_Man