Ambiguity & Clarity

              From the critique, I received a number of ideas that I could apply to my piece. My message of progression from clarity to ambiguity was picked up by my peers which was great to hear. I received some suggestions as to the arrangement of my pictures. The first suggestion was to create an even spacing between each of the photos. Next was to use the same photo or location for each photo in the collage and use different crops or magnifications for each section of the photo. The only technical flaw that was pointed out was the settings on the camera when I took the photos. Each photo had a slight sepia tint (or large tint) that affected how each image looked. Next time I decide to take photos at night I should make sure to adjust the settings to prevent the sepia tint. In all, I am really happy with how my project turned out and hope to pursue photographing a similar series in the future but improve in my weaker areas.

Critique - Tracy

The critique was definitely encouraging for me in the process of my work.  The biggest piece of advice I received was to really focus not he progression of abstract to clarity. I really want to work with this piece of advice and implement it into my work for the next couple weeks. I also want to work with different colors in my project. So in all I somewhere in the middle of the process in terms of having a final product. I have taken a good amount of pictures to use (could always benefit from more though) and I feel that I just need to find a solid idea to base the rest of my project on. I think I have a good idea and I will work to develop it over the next week and start on it in photoshop.

Me in Portfolio Review

How does coming to art class help you as a student? 

           I would say that coming to art class helps me as a student as I am able to develop a creative way of thinking when approaching projects and assignments in this class. Coming to class and always finding something to do in order to benefit my practice as a whole has been a very productive skill that I have started formed over the last year in art class. I now always find something to work on that will benefit myself and or my project by creating new ideas, polishing my work among many other things.

What are you excited about in this class?

           I am excited for portfolio this year as I am able to find my own path in creating independent projects based on my own interest and strengths in photography (I also hope to try new things as well). I like how we are given so much freedom to really discover our own projects and are given time to think about and decide how we will use our medium to complete the project we decide on.

What do i need to know about you to support you this year?

          I would say I need some guidance in terms of each project. Having conversations with you tends to shed some light on a specific direction to head in terms of a final piece. I also think having set deadlines and a schedule to go by will also help me out especially once I know what I need to shoot and what work needs to be done in class.

Portfolio Project #1 Critique

          After the critique I got a lot of awesome feedback on my project. A few people really emphasized my use of directional movement, which I think focuses to a few parts of the piece. With that being said I think that for my final piece I definitely want to make the light more directional in its movement. I also could organize the pictures into a more defined triangle shapes for each picture, this was another comment from a classmate. I got a lot of people saying it is confusing and abstract which is really what I am trying to go for so in a sense that was good to hear. I would like to make the piece a little more intentional with its abstractness which I will work on after I am able to go out at night and shoot again. Other comments included geometry and shape. Also I will continue to play with in focus and out of focus pictures and try an create a contrast between the two as I continue the project (had some comments regarding focus and symmetry). For the conceptual part of the of the project many mentioned that my collage evoked a sense of distance, solitude, fire/energy and liveliness. I really wanted this piece to evoke a sense of distance and separation from society as like the contrast between vibrant society and darkness, so I was really glad that I was able to translate this message into my work.

Year in Reflection

Looking back over the course of the year I believe the project I was most engaged in was the Artist in Residence Project. Throughout the duration of this project I believe I developed and began to understand my voice as an artist. I believe when I was outside taking photos, I was able to reflect by myself for an extended period of time. In that time I thought about how I wanted to incorporate my conceptual intention into my photos. When I take photos I photograph the environment, more specifically, water. During the previous project I went to Cronkite beach to take pictures and I feel while I was there I was in a sense lost in the materials. I just stayed out on the beach, took photos and just reflected on everything. This was a meaningful time of growth for me as an artist and I am really happy I went out that day to take photos. This year has been really essential to my growth as an artist. I believe my overall practice has improved through being more productive, my conceptual intentions and finally an better understanding of composition and use of the camera. Towards the beginning of the year there many times I found myself sitting in class not knowing how to use the time effectively, but as the year progressed I believe I improved in finding ways to consistently be working on something related to my project. Throughout the first parts of the year I had trouble finding a theme with conceptual intentions to implement into my project. But towards the end of the year after reflection and talks with both you and Mr. O, I have found a theme that I would like to continue unpacking and developing throughout the next year into portfolio. I believe this has been my biggest improvement as an artist this year. Now for my actual photos, I feel hat I have been progressively improving with each project in terms of my practice and composition of each photo. I am gaining a more adept understanding of how to use the camera and editing tools to evoke the message I want to get across with each photo. I felt very comfortable with just taking photos and I think towards the end of the year that comfort was shown as I sort of took risks going to take photos, as a result some of the photos I took were either great or were just terrible. I really enjoyed the collaborative project. I thought it was really fun to make a sculpture and then photograph it. It was a long and rough process to make that sculpture but I thought the final photos we had were really intriguing. From my projects I think that my Artist in Residence project was my most successful as I was extremely happy with my final pictures of the series. The most frustrating project was the artist as activist project. I had the conceptual intentions for the project but I had a lot of trouble trying to implement these intentions into a compelling photo. I did have a couple photos at the end of the project that were not too bad but I feel this project was the most difficult and frustrating for me. Ms. Seal has some crazy meditation skills… No but for real, I think you give some great advice that has helped me develop and help me grow as an photographer the last two years. In my experience I think that advice I would give to the class is maybe have more projects for the photographers to work on. I like the very vague project guidelines but at time I became a little bored towards the end of the projects and I feel that I could have benefited from having another project to work on. Other than that I really enjoyed art this year and cant wait for portfolio next year!

Becoming Portfolio Reflection

Conceptual Intentions

What did you find meaningful about the process and practice of this project? Where does your voice and style as an artist emerge in this project? What are the habits and processes you can rely on as you develop your voice as an artist?

Throughout the duration of this project I worked on some small photoshop projects in class as well as taking photos outside of class. I felt that in this project instead of taking photos without a true purpose I needed to really think and plan out how my photos would evoke my conceptual intentions in the project. My voice as an artist emerges in this project as I again worked with light as my main focus. In this project to take photos I went to a beach and took photos of the city. Many of my photos were blurry so it was definitely a learning experience but I did have some intriguing photos I found interesting. I feel that habits I can rely on to develop my voice as an artist would be to continue in taking photos the I have been for the last year. I say this as I follow certain specific themes to take pictures, such as water and light. I hope that I can take some pictures over the summer as it would be a great time for me to continue this project, but if not then I look forward to next year in portfolio.

Gallery Art Reflections and Thoughts

I really liked Carries piece. I was really intrigued by here use of color in the eyes and everywhere else was black and white. I also really liked the detail of the silhouettes inside the eyes as well. I found that the drawing just confined to the eyes was very powerful and definitely sent a message. With the context that I know in regards to Daraja I really found this picture interesting.

Along with Carries piece I was really intrigued by Jacks collage he made in photoshop. I really liked his piece as I watched him put it together in photoshop. I really liked the symmetry of his piece as well as the darker tone of colors. His piece did gave me some ideas for a future project in which I'd want to incorporate photoshop in some way. Along with the symmetry and colors I thought the theme of Jack's piece or what I think it is surrounding issues of pollution, industry and its effects on nature is very interesting.