Protest Project (week 9)

The recent events surrounding the battle over Governor Scott Walker's collective bargaining legislation (i.e. the Walker Bill) will certainly have their place in history. The bill will affect the lives of every public worker in Wisconsin, as well as their friends and families. It has opened the door to similar legislative decisions across the country. For this project, I want to reflect on the infamy of these recent political and social events. Never have I seen a group of people from Wisconsin so strongly take a stance and band together. I want to create a visual reminder for the viewer and get them to think about their own future actions in such a situation. I want to create an image that represents the general situation in a very stark, graphic manner, and be dramatically abstract in order to reflect the complexity and importance of these events. At the same time I want it to be easily recognizable, but neutral in a way that both sides could relate to the enormity of the occurrence. My target audience is primarily the people who take this situation seriously and have an active concern for the future of our democratic society. They would include my peers, family, friends, faculty, all state employees and importantly, anyone who exercises their right to vote. The photo to the left is of the sea of protesters, washing over the lawn of the Wisconsin State Capital. I plan on using this photo as the basis for my project.

Shame (week 8)

I was astounded that the bill was passed at the Senate level on Wednesday the 10th. It was my understanding that they needed both parties to vote, so that there are twenty votes total. I knew that all 14 Wisconsin Senate Democrats left the state to stop the vote from taking place. So how did the bill get pass? I read an article by Fox News, "Wisconsin Senate GOP Votes to Strip State Workers of Collective Bargaining Rights." It explained how the Senate requires a quorum to take up any measures that spend money, but the Republicans split from the legislation of the proposal to curtail union rights, and a special conference committee of state lawmakers approved that bill a short time later. This is a horrible corrupt uses of the system. I makes me question why this is even possible. How did it come about that out legislative system has such loopholes and how can they be fixed? The problem is that we have to use the system to fix the system. I feel like this would just stem into a cycle of issues, only creating more in the process. This particular loop hole allowed the Republicans to pass a stripped-down version of a misconceived bill 18-1. Now the State Assembly and Gov. Walker can pass and put the bill into effect. What I want to know is what can the people of Wisconsin do about it now? How far are we going to let this go? Is this not a stepping stone? Have we cracked open a door that leads to the loss of more than just union, collective-bargaining, and worker rights? Are our civil rights in danger? Our human rights? What is certain is that the future will come, we will have to face these questions, and it is up to us to decide the answers.

Kill The Bill (week 7)

In my quest to further understand the resent events in our state government I read an article in my research, "Wisconsin budget cut protests, union reactions, news and analysis Gallery," compiled by Justin Bank of the Washington Post staff. The first thing I notice was a photo of what looked like bager fans in a stadium but the caption read; "Wisconsin budget battle: Protesters rally against anti-union bill. An estimated 25,000 protesters gathered at the Capitol building in Madison to protest Republican Gov. Scott Walker's legislation to cut public employees' benefits and eliminate most of their collective bargaining rights." It turn out thousands of protestors have converged on the state Capitol over the past week in responce to Republican Gov. Scott Walker's budget plan, which would strip most public employees of collective-bargaining rights. The conflict could and will escalate in the coming days. Walker issued a warning to state employees Monday that they could receive layoff notices as early as next week if there's no agreement to his plan to roll back benefits for public workers to make up for budget shortfalls. The article later goes on to make a n important statment about Wisconsin being ground zero in the war over the future of all of organized labor. In a n iterview with Ezra Kliein, she give a discription of the current situation that I feel speeks true to the opions of the plublick workers; "The deal Wisconsin made with its state employees was simple: Accept lower wages than you could get in the private sector now in return for better pensions and health-care benefits when you retire. Now Walker wants to renege on that deal. Rather than stiff the banks, in other words, he wants to stiff the teachers - but the crucial twist he's added, the one that's sent tens of thousands of workers into the streets, is that he wants to make sure they can't fight back once he does it.The reason you can't stiff bondholders is that they can make a state or country regret reneging on the deals they've made. They can increase borrowing costs far into the future, slowing economic growth and, through the resulting economic pain, throwing politicians out of office. That gives them power. An ordinary teacher does not have access to such artillery. Unless, of course, she's part of a union." She make a very important point about why teachers are being targeted instead of private companies. What I want to know now is what are good solutions to the budget problems and what were the other solutions considered before this bill was chosen? Furthermore how can these solutions be implemented. The problem lies in the fact that there is no solutions that don't have some sort of negative affects or consequences.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/22/AR2011022205319.html

Mapping Project (week 6)

My main goal in this project was to create a challenging drawing that is aesthetically pleasing if not deeply captivating. I want to intrigue and impress others with my work while learning about my style and the materials in the process. My audience includes my peers, professors, friends and family. These are the people that I interact with and inspire me daily. I want to return that sense of inspiration to my audience though my work. My secondary goal was to create a good portfolio piece that exemplifies my drawing skills. I am very career driven and am currently looking for a job, co-op, or internship and have been strengthening my portfolio. I purposely chose an ideology for this project that was common and easy to convey, so anyone looking at my portfolio could understand and relate too the work. In this sense, my audience would be potential future professors, employers, and co-workers.

Due to my dedication to graphic design I haven’t had any studio classes since Life Drawing a year ago. In addition, I haven’t done as much drawing as I usually do in the last year. Thus, I chose to challenge myself with a detailed drawing on a larger than usual scale. I normally work with a 9/12 Canson sketchbook and this piece is on an 18/24 sheet of recycled paper by Strathmore. I also challenged myself by using charcoal. I always use graphite when I draw detail because it is easy to control and predictable in how it sits and spreads on the paper. When I was using charcoal for the photo-realism in my piece I could really feel the loss of control. To over come this had to use both vine charcoal and charcoal pencils. The vine charcoal wiped away too easily and was difficult to sketch with, but worked great for layering shading and getting rich darks. The pencils didn’t erase well so I couldn’t sketch with them, but I could shade rite over the pencil and not lose any marks. This was important to me because each mark has purpose behind it in sending my visual message.

The ideology I wanted to work with is the common connotation that life is a path. Life is said to be filled with “winding roads” and “bridges” that everyone has to cross. In a literal sense, we map the pathways around us using road maps. I wanted to create a road map were each path is named after major “road” or “bridge” that we “drive” through in life. For example, I used names like “Death In The Family Crossing” and “Final Exam State Bridge.” I wanted the audience to feel like they are looking at a mapping of the subject’s life and at the same time be reminded of major events in their lives. My hope is that these memories with stir up emotions that allow the audience to feel connected to the work and give each viewer a unique experience. I feel satisfied with how the work came out visually, but I am curious to see how the class will react and if they are intrigued by how I conveyed my concept.

Mapping My Process (week 5)

Here are some sketches I did for my first Drawing 3 project. In Jeremy Wood’s piece, Meridians, it is apparent that Wood chose the location very carefully to best express the quote he chose. He was conscious in his decisions on the size, shape, and location of each word. Without this attention to detail and planning, his work would not have the same effect or meaning. I wanted to make my piece as strong as possible to best convey my concept, so I chose the subject very carefully. In Julie Mehretu’s, Looking Back to a Bright New Future, the imagery is very abstract and the message is hard to decipher. The work seems to rely on its name to give the viewers a sense of what the artist is getting at. I decided to use the human figure and road maps for my subject to make sure that my message is clear. The model had to have captivating eyes so that she would be intriguing even with out any facial expression. I didn’t want my audience to be focused on an expression and try to see meaning that wasn’t intended. I wanted her body to stretch across the page and be a surface for the topographic effect and road map that I wanted to incorporate. I also wanted her to have light color hair so it wouldn’t be distracting or disrupt the visual balance. I did 12 sketches in my sketchbook using a few stock photos of women that fit my criteria. I focused on body position and looking at the negative space to decide what to do for my final piece. I did not feel inspired and was going to resort to combining the sketches, folding it up like a map, and treating the paper to look old. Instead, I kept looking for a photo and found one that didn’t fit my criteria, but after one more sketch I new what I wanted to do for the final work. This model had the eyes I was looking for but her body is not visible and her hair is dark, so I decide to use her hair to map the ideology I want to use.

Humane Expression (week 4)

I was reading Katelin's intro on her blog (http://drawingkatelin.blogspot.com/) and her appreciation for the human expression and form in her work stood out to me. I decided to post my response:

The figure is also one of my favorite subjects. I consider the face, body, and hands the most difficult, and thus satisfying subjects to draw. I love to reproduce unusual and captivating facial and body expressions. I'm sick of every photo where every person has that cheesy "Say Cheese" smile on there face. Of coarse, the beauty of a true smile is endless if you can capture it. I prefer goofy or weird expressions so that with my artwork I recreate those feelings in every viewer in some small way. I think part of the reason we both enjoy drawing faces is that there is a whole section of the brain devoted to facial recognition. This part allows babies to recognize there parents. It allows us to picture people in our mind and remember a face we haven't seen is a long time. It's the reason we see faces in ink blot test, clouds, and that bumpy ceiling stuff.

Here is a poster I made using photoshop for my 2D Digital Imaging class. The purpose of the assignment was to convey an expression, and in this case "frustration" was my subject:

Mapping My Ideas (week 3)

My first assignment in Drawing 3 is to use maps and/or mapping as the subject. We are free to use any mediums or approach that we can justify. The work can be illustrative and narrative or abstract and conceptual. You can map more than just places. Life, time, and even dream spaces can be mapped. You can map actions, ideas, emotions, and people. Maps give information and expose something. So any injustice or hidden agendas can be revealed by mapping the issue. Maps can be boring, exciting, funny or scary.

Ideas:
1. Map the out side of a person- start with a realistic drawing at the top of the body, that fades into a shaded topographic map, then to a linear road map of the body
-use a woman laying on her back in an expressive manner facing up towards the drawing plane and cut the page so it is skinny an tall
-or use a woman laying on her side and cut the page to be short and wide.
2. Abstract World Map- made up of realistic drawings of people from each country, each person located over their home land, wearing clothes common or unique to that area.
3. Prime a rectangle wood board and layer paint, glue, electrical equipment, glass, and paper mache to make a 3D land scape representing a place or places. Draw with charcoal the roads and places of importance to me.
4. Create a map in the shape of a human body. Lable the roads as paths that people commonly such as "Education Rd" and "Family Traditions Circle." The bridges as struggles people face such as "Death in the Family Crossing" and "Final Exam State Bridge."
5. Do a combination of these ideas and some new ideas (based mainly on number 1 and 4) to some how gain a satisfied feeling (in this one piece of art) that I explored all of my ideas related to the endless possibilities of mapping.

Types of maps:
Printed- road, typographic, statistic and census info.
Digital- google, map quest
GPS- garmon
Hand drawn- directions

Things that maps do:
Tell stories
Give direction
Inform
Expose
Lead
"All maps are cognitive."

Keep in mind:
People with power create maps
Technology allows precise maps
You can map things that are wrong in daily life, politics, etc.