beautiful...

Mary V. sparked my interest in this and I am so glad that she did! Although she is not a highly renowned artist, I am glad that I looked at her. Her work very much deals with the ideas that mine does. 

~ Shea Glover ~

Glover, an 18 year old student from Chicago, did a social experiment in which she took a video of someone and said to them, "I'm taking pictures of things that I find beautiful". The way that they reacted was amazing and varied from person to person. Some people laughed awkwardly, some giggled and said "thank you", some didn't believe her and stormed off, some people were so flattered as if they had never heard it before. I love that she did this and that she chose a broad variety of subjects to take pictures/ videos of. 

Here are a few of the pictures that she captured of before she said anything vs. after she told them they were beautiful. 

Here is her overall video... it is very interesting and I think you all should watch it!!

preview....

how to display your art. 

How you display your art is very important in a show. You have to think about when you want it shown, where, how... do you want it by itself? Should it be closed off? Are there other pieces in the room? 

For those of you who were a part of our critique the other day, we talked in great detail how it will be displayed. Y'all each gave me great ideas and helped paint the scene for when the show comes. I am excited to share it with everyone, but for those who haven't seen it and weren't a part of the discussion... I don't want to give too much away. 

When thinking about how to display my art, there was a lot to consider. After bringing in all of the elements (time, color scheme, warmth of the space - or lack thereof, size, proximity to other pieces...) I feel like we have a pretty developed picture of how to effectively portray the feelings that go along with it. I am excited to see how people react to it and potentially record those reactions. 

Question... 

How would y'all feel if I had a camera (kind of hidden) to record your reaction? Or would that seem like an invasion of privacy? On the flip of that, what if I had everyone write down their feelings after they listen to it? Maybe I could place a stack of notecards or sticky notes in there so that they could record how they feel on their own. I think I like that rather than videoing them because then they can respond in their own way. This piece could potentially bring up something that struck them from their past. It could be a very emotional response for some and not so much for others... I just want to be able to capture their responses in some way. I like the idea though of letting them record it themselves. 

What do you think? 

obviously not exactly what I want (really not at all) but I wanted to include a visual of the idea of looking into the space in which you art is placed ....  

so far...

This week, I wanted to update y'all on how I'm doing so far. 
Recently, I have gotten in touch with a vinyl pressing company out of Europe. I will have to discuss prices and such with Mrs. Miller and with the company, but I am really excited to hopefully be able to get my piece pressed onto a vinyl record! (yay!) Although it is not technically finished and ready for an art show, this piece is pretty much done. I have all of my recordings up to date and have been able to edit it into an mp3. I'm excited for you all to hear it soon! 

What's Next???

Also, I have begun working on my next project. I recently had one of my friends come over and was interacting with her and figuring out how to work in her different emotions. I am thinking of some different emotions and how to incorporate them into this project. I would like to use video of each emotion and string them together, but this is proving quite difficult to record. However, I am excited about what I have so far and about getting more in the future! 

Just something random...

Although I am not going to use this, I just really love this picture. We were all standing around on the dock in my backyard, and one of my friends was telling a story. Chanley, the girl in this picture, was listening to it and looked quite peaceful (it really looks quite staged, but it's not). I decided to take a picture of it and it turned out looking like this. 

(Obviously this is unedited... I have a better version of this on my other computer - without the shadows and whatnot; however, it wouldn't transfer over)
It's kinda weird... when taking pictures of the others there, they turned out almost the same. They all looked kinda posed, even though they were in conversation with each other. Maybe they were just nervous and always posing??? ... haha... who knows. 
I loved this picture though (not for this project but just in general)

The Future....

maybe eventually, I can dabble in photography some for future projects... who knows???
I would love to spend more time with my camera and be able to capture the breathtaking moments around me...

this is interesting...

How Psychology Plays Into Art 

(this may be kinda random, but I found it super interesting - it ties into why I do what I do) 

I have found so much interesting material when studying the type of art that I like and different artists who will be/ are influential to me. I found an article about the psychology behind making art. This sparked interest in my eyes because I am very much a science person. Psychologist and photographer, Art Shimamura, has written many articles and has done many studies behind the psychology that drives an artist and how the viewer interprets the art. In an article from (psychologytoday.com), he says, "The story (behind every piece of art) may be about the human condition, about our society's plight, about the artist's personal experiences, or even about art itself. As beholders, we share in a story told by the artist." This is exactly how I feel when it comes to conveying certain feelings and emotions to the viewer. Specifically in my current project, these emotions are able to be expressed through the spoken word. The audience is engaged in the hauntingly true stories that each person in this piece shares. With such a widespread selection of stories and experiences, the audience will be able to connect with this piece more easily.

Art Shimamura wrote about some of his specific pieces. He tells stories about how certain audiences have connected with them. Here are a few of his pieces that I specifically like.


"Graceful Aging"
Shimamura tells about how a woman approached him one time in tears and told him the emotional story behind her mother's recent death. She looked at him with tears of sadness yet fond remembrance and said that this one picture really connected with her.


"Broken Memories"
This is one of my favorites of his. Although at first glance, this piece just looks "an abstraction of colors and shapes", he wanted it to also "represent the feelings behind objects that were once a part of someone's life."

This is one of my favorites because I love to connect back to the past. I love to hear stories behind old houses and things that you would find at flea markets. I love to listen to grandparents tell stories of how they fell in love and what the war was like. ...etc. This is something that really interests me and I would love to do something with this is the future.


This is also kinda short, but I like how different this artist is. In his many published works, he always talks about how beautiful the mind is to make us take in art in the ways that we do. It is interesting to study how different each person's reaction may be to certain pieces and to see how art can be manipulated to appeal to each person's senses.

This one was a little more random but I just thought it was interesting.



Citations :
psychologytoday.com
http://fineartamerica.com/profiles/art-shimamura.html

concentration??? new direction???

Am I Moving On? 

I've recently REALLY been thinking about how the project I'm working on now is going to affect people. I like the idea of being able to captivate my audience and see how they will respond to my work. 

Ann Hamilton 

Mrs. Miller suggested that I continue to look into different artists and see how their works can affect me. Ann Hamilton is one of these artists. She is very interesting. After looking into her, I feel like I want to expand this idea of reaching vast audiences in large and sometimes overwhelming ways. Hamilton used swings in one piece to incorporate her audience... (See pictures below)

She also uses the walls and ceiling to incorporate people into her work. 

What I Have Taken From This Artist 

After studying Hamilton, I have thought of a few ideas. I want to capture this idea of emotion and other people's feelings in other ways. I want to maybe expand to a new medium and use video to portray these emotions (sadness, joy, anger, frustration, peace...) Like Hamilton, I want to use the audience's surroundings by projecting these videos onto a wall. This way, the audience can experience these emotions and possibly be overwhelmed by them. I'm really excited to see how this idea will play out in my next project. 

Sorry this blog was a little shorter.. :)

Citations: 

http://www.art21.org/artists/ann-hamilton