Earthworks

Art Historical: Andy Goldsworthy 

The earthwork pictures turned out to be successful in the way the natural lighting worked and how we used the landscape to show how nature is incorporated with human interaction. What our group was intending to do was to capture how man and nature come together harmoniously. Reaching out to nature and revealing it in its true form. We were inspired by the work of Andy Goldsworthy and the way he uses the earth to show imprinting and continuity in his works. 

Native Americans used the earth and worshipped the creation within it. The earthwork photos we shot exemplify the way man uses the earth to its full advantage and appreciating its value. Native American's lived on what they could find and create simple necessities by using the earth. The man modeling in the shots showed a sense of appreciation and rejoicing in what has been given to him. The fascination and curiosity on his face including the dirt slathered on his cheeks was to show the his deep rooted interest in his culture (no pun intended). 

The 'strangeness' of Earthworks is a good thing and this was an important activity to do because it made me realize that the earth is more than just dirt and grass. It is an artwork in itself and revealed that there is so much use in it as well. It gave me a sense of appreciation and made me think about how each individual tree, blade of grass, placing and positioning of where things are have a purpose for being there. There is a sense of respect of nature that everyone should take time and enjoy what is given to them. 

The division of labor in our group could have been distributed better however, there was team effort and even work loads for each member. We all participated and worked together to come up with ideas with how we wanted our earthworks to be shown and worked together to make it possible. 

One Shot Movie

In the one shot movie we filmed, we intended our movie to have people skipping and giving the apple to others to exemplify how we should portray "giving" as. We had some technical difficulties with the division of labor in our group due to the scheduling and the timing to meet. Some people were missing and we had the hardest time finding the time to find a location and on what day to film our project. However, the teamwork in our group was successful in coming together to finishing the project up. By coming up with another idea, we managed to change it with a man eating an apple to show how people take giving for granted. By simply keeping it for ourselves. The black gloves was to show the dirtiness of how we can really be and the way he eats was to exhibit how we consume giving for our own purpose. 

Here's CiCi

Mask

Art Historical: Aztec Mosaic Mask 

Pre-modern:

My mask portrays an offense/defense in the pre-modern section by showing how there is a certain way we hide ourselves. We hide ourselves by putting on something others expect us to be while in reality we have no idea how we can really identify ourselves as. In the photo it shows a picture of a person (me) who is in a reflection on a computer screen and by touching the screen it was to show how we identify ourselves in the real world compared to the virtual world. We have become consumed by this altered reality we created and thus taking in the role of how we see ourselves. It demonstrates that we don’t really know who we are and we show our true form only behind a dark reflection.

Post-modern:

In the post-modern world, my mask exemplifies the map that comes before and creates a territory. Through this, the mask becomes a form of identification and where to start from there. It shows a roadmap in guiding where a person stands in who they are and who they claim to be. In creating a territory for ourselves, it puts us in a place where we start believing what we claim to be and create a person or a manifestation that changes our own perspective on how we see ourselves. My mask contains a spiral of blues and black to show that we become sucked into a distorted reality we created for ourselves. 

The pigmentation of light yellows intensifies the blue in the reflection of the computer screen. The dimensions and the perspective of where I am sitting with my mask works by taking a picture of the reflection rather that taking there picture with my mask directly. Rhythm is found along the different shadings of blue on my mask and along the blinds behind the computer. Natural lighting is used to bring in castings of shadows and dimension into my photo. The undefined reflection works essentially through bringing a meaning behind my mask and how it brings a distorted image to my picture.

The aztec mosaic mask is where I got the idea for my mask. The use of blues and textures in the mask inspired me to create it. One interesting fact about aztec mosaic masks is that some were created only for decoration or for display only. They sometimes do not have eye holes which relates to my mask as well. I created my mask not to have eye holes because I wanted to exaggerate the fact we do not really see ourselves as the people we think we are. The display also takes a role in the meaning of my mask by stating that we only put ourselves out there for display and try to please others as well as please ourselves.

Portrait

Ideal 

Real 

1.) What do I look like?

Elizabeth has big blue eyes and brood shoulders. She has sandy colored hair and a smile that is friendly and opening. She has a good fitted body structure with an oval shaped face and a defined collar bone. She has long, sand colored eye lashes and soft peach complexion. Her lips are light pink and medium sized and has a well defined nose bridge. 

2.) What am I like?

She is a fun loving girl who likes to explore new places and meet new faces. She is always a smiling person and always laughing. She is friendly to everyone she meets and is liked by many people. In her picture, she comes off as a sociable and lively person. In the photo with paint on her face, she also comes off as an inner childlike person that wants to be let out.

3.) Who am I?

She is a spontaneous, outgoing person. Her sense of humor and encouraging personality makes her a wonderful person to be around. When you have a conversation with her, she invites you in and welcomes you with a friendly "hello". When you speak to her, she talks in a way that is comfortable and calming. When you ask her about a deep thought, she speaks her mind in a way that is understandable and meaningful.

Ideal 

Real

1.) What do I look like?

Short black/brown layered hair with silver/white/blonde bangs. I have hazel eyes with an olive skin colored complexion. I have a somewhat of a flat nose bridge and small pink lips. I have a medium sized body and a big boned structure. My face resembles a little bit of a square shaped form and have inward eyelids. 

2.) What am I like? 

From the photographs, I see a caring and curious person. Someone who is understanding of others but is a little conflicted with herself as well. Compared to the black and white picture, I come off as an open person but hides something deep on the inside. 

3.) Who am I?

I think I am the type of person that is artistic and curious. I like to experiment with all different types of art and I love people and getting to know them. I am always asking questions and always wondering about the world around me. I love laughing with people but also sitting down and getting to know them more. To understand where they are coming from. 

- How do the notions of real and ideal alter the questions?

It is sometimes conflicting because there are different sides of a person that is hard to capture in one shot of a photograph. With the ideal and the real, it is somewhat hard to tell who a person can be and who a person wants to be. In a photo, it can only capture a certain time and place; displaying what is there outwardly than inwardly. 

- Has anything changed since you made them in the way you understand the pictures?

This assignment taught me that it is hard to show yourself in a photograph compared to what you are like in reality. It was somewhat hard to capture what a person is really like in a photograph and tell a story along with it just by using their face. There is a deeper meaning behind pictures and looking carefully at them and analyzing them is a good way to better understand that specific meaning. 

My own assessment: neither of the portraits of you are really you.

Agree or Disagree? Why?

In a way, I both agree and disagree with this assessment. I agree in terms of how we portrayed ourselves in our portraits but in retrospect, I disagree because there is more to a person behind the photos that our eyes cannot see. It is hard to show who you really are not only in photos but also in real life as well. We still are trying to figure out who we are in real world and where we stand in society. 

Image of God

Art Historical: The historical context behind my image is the God picture above. Using the intensity of the ranges in the photograph, it makes the image more alive and more eye opening. The art historical used in my picture was to represent God’s imprint on the world. The way his body laid on the cloth showed that his human existence showed a form. An imprint. The outline of a human in the leaves was to show how God created the world in his own image and that his sacrificial love will forever be imprinted in our hearts. 

Photograph: The image contains intense dark purples, lighter reds, oranges, and the intensity of the grass is exaggerated. The human like form on the ground creates an emphasis that brings the picture in unison and space around the form works essentially through giving an even weight distribution. In applying the dark shadows along in the leaves, it makes the image more superficial and more lively. The meaning behind this photograph is the representation of the earth and how God was once human. He imprinted himself within in the earth by walking with man in his human form. This exemplifies the aspect of how God has left his mark in this world.

Landscape

My landscape image has color mixes between the blues and yellow-greens that give the image a feel of calm and relaxing. Implied lines are seen through the small branches in the trees which gives the trees its shape and stance. The defined formation of the dark trees and the light tint off of the surface of the sidewalk brings more of a balanced figure ground that evenly distributed the weight in the photo. The point of view in where I was standing was my ideal purpose to capture space and movement of the sidewalk along with the cemented bricks beside it. With the flow of moving back in the photo, it brought rhythm through where the trees are positioned and how the dimensions of the wide sidewalk made the background seem so far away.

Claude Monet- Branch of the Seine near Giverny

Claude Monet was famous for his landscapes and creates beautiful imagery through small brush strokes and hazy coloration within his paintings. He was an impressionist painter who painted plein-air landscape painting which means that he painted outdoors that worked with natural lighting. Compared with my photo, they both have tints of white along the surfaces. Spatial dimensions, shady trees, and a central point that end on the left hand side. However, his painting had more of a hazy and luminescent feel with light strokes of purple and green. His picture gives the allusion of the landscape being real but close up it contains cloudy strokes. In my photo, it had distinct and harsher lines. There are hints of reds and oranges in the leaves on the ground and lighter greens in the grass. My picture also contains darker shadows and more revealing details in the trees, the cement, and in the leaves. 

Earthwork Image: The earthwork image we used capture how man was in nature and how human can be one with nature.  Nature in itself is a beauty that God created for us to take time and appreciate, however, He also wanted us to look at nature in a way that has not been seen before. That is, to understand its purpose and why it was meant to be there. Like our earthwork photograph, my image of the landscape is the same by the source of lighting that was used and the capturing moment of balance and a sense of control. 

Earthworks are more about participation with the landscape, working with nature, and working within a community of collaborators.

Landscape, just by the mechanics of a camera and the convention of one-point perspective, puts the viewer at the center of the universe, in a position of mastery and control. A place of the single individual, not a community; a place that once thought to be occupied by God. (The theme of the Renaissance: "Man is the Measure of All Things." The idea that we occupy the center of the universe, (at least in our imaginations) that we own land and resources ourselves without necessarily acknowledging the earth as a gift from God, that we have autonomy over the earth to do with it as we please, is a problem and is at the root of many of our issues in the world. Is that an inherent problem reflected in the way we view the landscape? 

1.) I agree on the differences between earthworks and landscapes. Earthworks is woven in with the landscape and portraying nature in its true form. To show the beauty that it contains and working with it as a whole to create something that should be appreciated more. With a landscape, it is about the angles and working with the angles to see nature in different perspectives. To have control and finding a balance within a certain location. 

We use and harvest the land to build and create what we are given for good use. In our minds, it is true that we believe that we own everything but in reality, we do not own anything at all. With the indians, they acknowledge the creation and worshipped the created instead of the creator Himself. We take advantage of the earth without realizing it which causes conflict and division with our brothers and sisters. 

2.) My landscape was supposed to be celebrating the earth because I wanted to capture what God created and show that something simple can be elegant and beautiful. I wanted to portray a new coming of the earth and the start of a new beginning. 

Getting Lost

Slideshow

Individual Pictures 

Media Quotes 

This slideshow incorporates colored photos mixed with black and white photos as well. Implied lines are presented within nature itself through the shadows casted and the figures that stand in the foreground have a defined form. Shapes are seen as well through the darkening of shadows and with the casting glimpses of light. The colored photos contain yellow tints and shadings of darker browns with exaggerated yellow-greens. The black and white photos contain shades of darker grays to lighter whites and highlighted white. Weight is distributed through asymmetrical balance yet has a central point that keeps it from looking out of place. Dimensionality is presented through a farther perspective of being away from the object and manipulating it into making the people in the photographs smaller compared to the trees and wildlife.

Media quotes within my images show how we should see things in different perspectives and to have a sense of adventure. The small people within the media quote show how we as people can be so vulnerable and helpless yet take risks in reaching the outside world. With this being said, I chose these images to show that by expanding our curiosity, we can show no fear in taking chances. This reflects my consciousness as a person in culture by revealing that it is alright to step outside the comfort zone and to show that a person willing to risk anything is far likely to go beyond any expectation.

Similarity in my photos show people exploring the forest and reveal that there is a sense of adventure. With proximity, there is space among the people and the road they stand on. There is clustered amounts of trees in some of the spaces but balances out with the open pathways and casting of light. Continuity is seen when the eye travels through each picture and moves the eye towards the focal point or emphasis which can be found in the people or in the bigger or smaller object present. Within the means of each photograph, I find closure in the in the people because of the figures they form in nature and how there is closure in the end of my slideshow where the person leaves the place they were in.

Within the slideshow, there is a sense of expansion and freedom in nature itself that there is still to be explored. What is working is how the slideshow ties each photograph together piece by piece and making the story behind it clear. However, what can be improved is the balance between the black and white photographs mixed in with the colored ones and maybe change the lighting within the colored ones to make the flow more coherent. I would have planned my slideshow differently by taking more variety of pictures or maybe change the storyline.

In "The Tree of Life" it has this sense of how nature is captured and how it incorporates people on how they go about their lives before death arrives. It is presented as a means of what people go through and what they have learned along the way; the morals they gained, the hardships they faced, the memories that are remembered, and close verge of how earthly lives must come to an end. In the movie, it also ties in how culture is incorporated in the film through what lifestyle the main character lived in, the environment they were exposed to, and what raised them to be the way that they are when they became adults. In a way, grace is tied into the film based on the forgiveness of the main characters father and the relationships that were being built along the way. The way of sympathy the main character had towards all the people he encountered in his life and through coming to realization that life is too short.

In my slideshow, I have edited some images out and brought in new images to make them have a coherent flow and balance. By putting in some black and white images in the slideshow, it was to reveal color contrast with the colored images as well. I played with space and dimension to show a little persons perspective of nature and what they see in there point of view. In getting lost, there is a sense of adventure in places you would least expect. Finding adventure in the most unexpected places.

Do you want to see the Body??

Lines used in this photo were expressed with harsh/dark pigmentation and were also a little exaggerated with the lines slanting in order to capture form. Value was established going from the lightness of her skin to the darkness of the shadows casted within the cloth and the fine detailing in her hair and skin. Her posture demonstrates her hidden shame and gives a sense of innocence being taken away. The even balance is shown in where the woman is placed in the picture which gives central focal point to look at and an even weight distribution. This body was used to represent innocence being exposed and the shame the woman was feeling when being stripped of her dignity.

Art Historical: My photo was inspired by the work "The Thinker". It was created by Auguste Rodin around 1902 and was formed using marble, bronze. Rodin thought of the statue as Dante who was a poet who wrote "The Inferno". The figure is actually part of an the entire piece was called, "The Gates of Hell". This statue was formed during the period of realism and is a representation of philosophy and learning. It expresses the way man has evolved in intellectual thinking. His facial expression and chin resting on his hand reveals a strong disposition of deep thought and forms a way a person analyzes ideas.

The angles of the chairs bring more emphasis on the girl posing in the photo. The way the textures are shown through on her sweater, on her pants, on the brick wall, and on the couch show great amounts of detailing. The black and white balances the picture and brings it into perspective through the castings of shadows. Her stance displays some sincerity and exhibits how a person shows interest in an idea or is having an idea at the time. The framing is to show space around her and the mirror in the back was to show other works she focuses on. Rhythm is revealed in the symmetry of chairs she is sitting on and along the bricks behind her.