Alejandra's final

-Alejandra and Martin teamed up to do a two part project. they would paint a mural and document it with a digital camera. the final presenting was both the viewing of the film in the editing office and the viewing of the painting in Alejandra's studio.


-As a studio art ed. major i have a concentration in painting. this made me really curious about how others incorporated such a traditional material with a newer one. Having heard Alejandra speak about her painting before i was very interested in seeing her work. I had some exposure to martin's work in another class we had together but that really highlighted his design skills. i was interested in seeing him paint as well.

-The Big Idea of the work on the surface were about cultural identity and heritage. with process and presentation spoke of a larger sense of identity with its cooperation and dual contributions and the sense of overlapping work methods. there was an instant compare and contrast between Alejandra and Martin.

-I am assuming that The presentation was split to even the work load. Martin presenting the film part and Alejandra presenting the painting. I don't think this was the best plan of action as i didn't really see Alejandra make a connection to the new media. The on film she was reluctant to speak. When she was being filmed martin was in dialogue with her so we were aware of him being involved. I don't remember any dialogue when martin was being filmed so i have to only assume that it was Alejandra that was filming it

- the imagery of the painting was very symbolic so there are many questions about the specific symbols used and how they relate to one another and the painter. I have various technical questions. how does one balance a project between two people. Who gets credit who gets blame? where do you stop controlling a project and let it be what it is?

- Alejandra's imagery was researched rather that drawing on a personal inventory. I didn't get the impression that either one was familiar with the process of developing a film before hand so i was impressed that such a task would be take on. To me a film in complicated and technically involved so to take on such a huge task is admirable. I think that the project was more about the collaboration than it was about the work produced. I would have like to know more of a "reality TV" version of how this came together. When addressing the class martin spoke about the completion of the project in plural term: we, us, our. although Alejandra referred to Martin and his part in the painting she spoke completely in singular terms; I, me, mine.

-my connection to the work comes largely from the realization that i would not consider many aspects of the work. I would never ask to work with another student nor would i agree to do so if asked. I would never consider making a film. I would consider it beyond me. I would never consider doing a mural sized painting in so short a time. These launch me into a whole set of "big idea" or through lines about myself and my work. Why am i limiting myself?

-The teaching implications are huge with this. any time that children can be documented as being children is valuable. the learning of cultural symbols, the learning to divide the work, the credit, the spotlight. one of the first art teachers that i had said that the masters work was beautiful at every stage of its development. being able to track the development of a piece of artwork is huge!

outline for my identity project.

The ideas / issues that am exploring in my identity project are sex and religion. I have been gay my entire life. This is not something that happened over the years through accumulated experience. This is not a hormonal surge that started with my sexual coming of age. It is intrinsic to my character. I was gay in kindergarten and it was obvious. I was also catholic. These two areas of my identity came into direct confrontation with one another when I was 13. Puberty was in full swing and about to be confirmed. The year was 1983 and the pastor of my parish who was “teaching” my confirmation class had some particularly ugly things to say about AIDS being a punishment. I had always been good at religion. My intention was to become a priest. I had some bible quotes for my “teacher”. I was barred from the class and possibly heaven. Sr. Ausumpta , my home room teacher found me in the hallway and had me explain how I got there. When the pastor had left the classroom she took me into the class and closed the doors, all the doors even the ones leading to the coat room. . She gathered the entire class around her in a huddle so we could hear her as she whispered. In a clear and gentle voice she told us “Ignore everything that mean, bigoted, old-man just said to you. I have not devoted my life to an angry and vengeful god. My God, our God is one of forgiveness, mercy and love. You are about to be confirmed, you are becoming adults in the eyes of the church. You all know when someone is acting out of love and when someone is not. You must think for yourself.”
That afternoon defined me. That remarkable, simple, woman gave me permission to trust myself to “know better”. and I do. This project will allow me to play with some of the rich cultural history of both the catholic church and the gay male culture.

I will be re-constructing classical Christian images through Photoshop and possibly Illustrator using web based gay imagery as a palette. I will be attending the basic of web design in the CAC on 07NOV06 and 09NOV06 in order to post the final images on the internet and possibly animate the images.

In addition to the classes and scouring internet through google image search. i will be reading various books that I feel add insight or shed light on the project. These will be posted to my blog as they are utilized. I would also like to explore some of the image store houses that the library has access to.

A very basic time line.


Nov 7 I will have decided what classical images I will be playing with. I will have started a listing of google searches that provides me with images. I will have finished the first book. “The last supper”. The story of an artist who was hired in 1951 to paint an exact duplicate of DaVinci’s Last Supper. He felt that inorder to be true to the painting he had to understand Leonardo as a man and painter and his relationship with each of the apostles. I will post to my blog at least once a week to confirm my progress and share the process.

Nov 14 I will have finished my CAC courses and will be able to determine to what extent I can play with these images given the time restrictions. I will have secured at least two more books and searched at least one image storehouse. I will have decided on six of the apostles.

Nov 21 I would like to work solely on the image this week. Deciding on the final six apostles and Jesus as well as their environment.

Nov 28 present to the class

Crash Course lesson plan

A Crash Course in Story Telling

• Story telling is an ancient and powerful communication tool that communicates the truth of life rather than the mere facts. Often taken for granted, there are formulas, techniques, themes, and craft to successful story telling.
• What is the importance of story telling?
• The structure of the lesson is basic and can be tweeked for any audience. This particular lesson will be geared to an audience of artists and future teachers.
• The first step of story telling is to exert control of your environment. Do what ever you need to be comfortable. The story teller is in charge. A story is then needed to "activate the space". This gets everyone into the mind set and leads into an explanation of "story", the mutiplicity of story, the scope of story and the difference between the truth and the facts. The snake story is then given as a model which can be adapted to anyone. It is important at this point to stress that this is not a written story, three ways of memorization are introduced. The only thing left then is to tell stories.
• Most of the lesson is conversational allows for dialogue between teacher and audience. The students follow with the instructor through the steps of building a story and finally the students are given an oppurtunity to tell.
• It is very obvious with the stories if the students understand or not. Story telling is universal, it is already understood the lesson is to gain more control and a deeper appreciation of it.
  
• Because of the personal and flexible nature of story and the univeral theme of the snake story this lesson evolves organically each time it is given depending on the audience. Question can be directed to students to promote a more fluid dialogue, to engage the audience.
  
• It is necessary to understand the structure and the power of story in order to exchange large ideas in safe, closed but uncontrained way.
  

mixing two images for a Symphony

i found a bunch of pictures of the vatican which were screeming to be used for something. then during a toyally random search i ended up in a personal photo album. this was one of the pics. the gentleman is Monkey. the last pope had a run-in with a dove before he died and there are tons of pics of him swatting at the bird (lots of wings to choose from). this is such a needed visitation.

trying things out

this is one of my favorite pics. my biggest problem was i didn't want to ruin the photo. but once i figured out the reasons i like the photo i could tweek those and play from that point. the boy's face in the crowd is fantastic!

pedestrian throughlines

1. the artists describe this as street sculpture. how else can one include the formal elements of 2D in 3D work?

2. how does a a radical change in vantage point affect the viewer. what other vantage points can be played with? to what effects?

3. how important is the narratives of individual characters in the pedestrian clips. at what point do they become individuals?

illustrator empathy

i have been playing around with oak leaf images for a couple of weeks now. when we had to pick an image i thought that it would be a perfect chance to lay claim to one of my favorites. then i found out what we were doing. when others saw my image i got all sorts of sympathy and empathy. for a moment i had a doubt...

Throughlines based on Noah Wardrip-Fruin's "Screen"

1. Should there be absolute control over an artists finish product or should there be room for participant alteration.

2. Letter forms. What happens to a letter or a whole word when it becomes a 3D object.

3. Can the first time you spelled your name? (The circumstances and the effect it had on you.)

Throughlines based on Henry Kaufman's "The Memory of Your Touch"

1. What are the health and safety concerns of a publicly handled artifact?

2. Memory and touch are played with in "the memory of your touch" of the five senses which acts as the strongest trigger of memory. Can we manipulate particular memories by tweaking the other senses during remembrance.

3. Do these impressions fade? How can we (erase? diffuse? realign? reverse? clean? ) these impressions?

Throughlines based on 09/19/06 class discussion of Scott Snebbe's work

#1. Know your sources. Art is subjective. Be aware of the packaging and delivery of information. What is the agenda of the source of your information.

#2. What role does the viewer play in art.

#3. What traditional origins does the tech draw from. Is the tech necessary