Zine: Outside Visits,Book Fair

I think this is a safe place for me to say that I cared less about the speakers for this assignment and cared more about the actual book fair itself. It was such a nice, new, and wonderful thing to experience. I visited some really nice booths, checked out artists who were selling zines, and even got to hear a bit from Bernie Sanders!I loved looking at the booths with older books the most and even bought myself an Alice in Wonderland pop up book, I will be bringing that beauty with me on Tuesday so that everyone can see! 

I choose to pay the most attention to Leela Corman's work. I am a firm believer that comics can go beyond the small Archie comics that you see in the store, they can be stories that impact you or simply just pieces of art. Although Im not the biggest fan of her style I can still enjoy her work because to me its less about the art and more about the story. However I don't think that she sees it that way. To Leela I believe she was trying to get across that the art and the written story go hand in hand. Its not just a comic, its not just a Novel, and its not exactly a Graphic Novel either its just her way of communication.

I hope that my zines are able to get my story across while still being good works of art.

Narrative Art Comic

This comic was based off my garden experience and was inspired by the poem and the writings that I journaled while out in the woods.

The comic reads:

Lets go for a walk in the garden

Lets explore high and low

through the leaves and trees we'll go

Follow Follow

Life grows everywhere

Explore the life that's out there

What is Comics Poetry?

Comics and poetry are two things that I enjoy to read and sometimes write. I personally never thought of combining the two thinking that they would be unsuccessful. In fact I thought by adding graphics to my poetry would lessen its value and on the other side of the spectrum I thought if I added my element of poetry to a comic I assumed people would laugh at the way the characters would be rhyming when they spoke. However one of my favorite poets when I was younger was Shel Silverstein and (if I understand this subject matter) I can see how his work could be considered comics poetry.

  

In the article it said how of course not all poetry needs comics and not all comics needs poetry and it wasn't that he was bashing the literature or the graphics but rather he was saying that sometimes they are so strong that they don't need anything else. But as artists its our job to explore these different worlds and make new experiences not only for ourselves (because thats why I am studying to be an artist, because I love to problem solve and explore) but for the viewer as well. It makes me think of what other loves for things that I could combine and make something "new" or have people see something in a new way (because everything has been done under the sun). Its our job to make those horribly embarrassing mistakes and take those experiences and turn them into something spectacular. 

I believe that the article was truly trying to talk about taking chances and growing as an artist and just used comics poetry as a means to do it. 

Landscape: In-Depth, My city Despina

Its only natural for me to choose the the hardest city to describe. When the assignment was first given about the reading I assumed thats all it was but WARP had different plans for me. I ended up choosing a story that didnt really talk about the city at all but rather the projection of what the city looked like from the distance to two different types of people. My city, Despina, was the city between two desserts: one of the sand and one of the sea. These men looked to Despina and saw ships to take them away or a calm oasis to escape to. The story did give me some very specific details but when read you realize that the men couldnt have seen what they saw from the distance they were at. To me it seemed that everything described was hazy and dreamlike.

I decided to take these mirage type images and make a projection out of it. I plan to work on my city more to make the image a little more clear.I believe the problem was in the way I formed the curtain and not having strong enough cuts in my cardboard.

Rhinoceros: In-Depth, Metomorphasis

This was my most challenging topic out of the entire series in WARP. Transformation and metamorphosis was a big obstacle for me. I knew that I had to narrow my intake of information when I first started this assignment so I chose to only transform one simple thing: toilet paper. I wanted to choose something that I saw in my every day life. I tried braiding it, laying it, ripping it, and gluing it but I could not get it to transcend toilet paper. I searched the internet for a way to make a paste from it, similar to that of paper mache and I found something much more interesting. This concoction made the toilet paper extremely hard to break which was a key component that I wanted to transform.

I began to rip, break, and build. At first I hated everything about this project but making the paste (although tiring) was fun. I tried to make a unique shape that would encourage the viewer to walk around, I dont think I achieved it in my first critique. I think its because when I first took this sculpture into critique I didnt know how to display it. After thinking about it and letting the paste dry fully I decided to rip out the inside of the structure and try again from scratch.

When I held it up to the light thats when I saw my piece transform. It reminded me of caves and lava. It was more interesting to look at and toilet paper can be found on ceilings all the time so I believe it truly found its proper home.

Landscape: Small Works Garden

https://vimeo.com/189802891

This is the video that will be playing on top of a cardboard wall that I made. Unfortunately my ceilings are not as high as the one in the WARP classroom, I will update this blog post on Tuesday when I present the piece.

Landscape: Small Works, Street

For this street assignment I really wanted to make an interactive piece. The goal was to take things that seemed ordinary and make it into something playful. I noticed that during my walk I cared less about the buildings and more about my immediate surroundings. I've been the type to notice odd things like the way paint chips off a fire hydrant. I was looking for a way to connect the viewer to a similar way of thinking. I realized that I became inspired to do this from a child's perspective because of a project I was working on in my Photography class. The assignment in the photography class was to create a new character and I thought it would be fun to be a child.

I believe in the end this project was more of a stepping stone for something greater. I wanted people of all ages to be able to play but the size of my piece didn't allow that interaction. I plan on changing the scale of these pieces to make them more accessible for adults. I would also like to create an environment that would create a sense of childlike curiosity.