Final Project

Posted on June 1st, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

For our final project we were to interpret the sounds of: a clock, death, an angry parent and shy child, jazz band, tuba and flute having a conversation, bumble bees making love, stomach growling, typewriter, and a car crash.  While we were to depict the sound we were to do so by not using the literal meaning.  I had a hard time with this; separating literal to metaphoric was not so easy.  This was especially hard for me when I am not very good at abstract.  I chose to use oil pastel as my medium, and we were instructed to do nine 10×10 panels of each sound.  I think my best was the stomach, and I thought my worse was the angry parent and shy child.  The class, however, thought that my angry parent and shy child was one of my stronger pieces.  I think over time it will grow on me.  Here are my final pieces:

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Found Patterns

Posted on May 25th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

I used patterns found in nature. I chose three different patterns: a tree(the bark), a bush, and hydrangeas. Here are my images:

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ABC’s and 1,2,3′s

Posted on May 23rd, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

As part of learning to explore our surroundings we were instructed to find the alphabet and 1-9 in naturally occurring incidents, such as trees; leaves; cracked sidewalks; etc.  We were then told to find a way to present these.  We could make a book or find another interesting way to display our photographs.  I chose to use a Brownie camera, like Eudora Welty used to take photographs.  I printed my images out and displayed them on single sheets of paper and then bound them together by using an accordion style binding.  I used made the front and back covers out of board and then covered it with leaves to represent the organic materials used, and to represent my original idea (to make a book with tree bark as the cover).  I then turned the images I used into small thumbnails and inverted the images so they appeared as negatives as I placed them on film.  The pictures were to be seen through the film, but unfortunately the film was too dark, thus making the images not visible.  Overall, I thought I did pretty well on this project through my use of creativity, and my own artistic expression.  In critique I was advised maybe to not use the film as it took away from the camera and the book; others though that I should keep it because it showed artistic expression.  I personally like it, I just wished it had turned out right.

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Exploration Post

Posted on May 18th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

When she arrived home on this particular day she was surprised to find an unusual envelope addressed to her love with a matchbook to their favorite place on top. She felt as though there was something missing such as a missing piece of a puzzle. She felt as though their love had been growing like a large oak tree, and now it had suddenly stopped as though it’s growth had been paralyzed. Lost she decided to go out on a quest to find the footprints that would her to a conclusive answer. Instead she only found a broken necklace and overheard stories of lovers who never worked. Finally giving up, she made her way home, hoping things would be how they were before she found the envelope and matchbook.  Instead she found a vase of blue hydrangeas and the smell of another’s floral perfume. Devastated she ran to the bedroom to cry, only to realize her beloved had left his most loved thing behind…….

his storm trooper helmet.

The End.

I chose to make this into a story because I thought it would be more interesting than a series of photos.  I chose a love story because the elements seemed like something from that genre.  The storm trooper helmet was chosen because it is one of my boyfriend’s favorite things that he refuses to get rid of, and I thought that it would add some comic relief to the depressing story.

FYI: This is story is not based on personal events.  This story is purely fictional.

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ABC’s and 123′s book ideas

Posted on May 16th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

So above are some inspiration that I have found for my ABC’s and 1,2,3′s book idea.  I love the different vibes each of these books give off.  Each gives me a different idea from being structural, to detailed, to organic, and lastly playful.  I think in my composition I want to go for something organic, yet still keep the idea of playfulness in it like the bottom image.  I don’t want to do a book to large because I don’t want to lose the idea through the size.  I do, however, want to catch the attention of everyone.  In the end I think I will use all of these ideas by incorporating organic elements, structure, and playfulness into my idea.

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Black Squares

Posted on May 11th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Using a square groundsheet we were instructed to place 4 black squares on paper to explain each of the words:
ORDER
INCREASE
BOLD
CONGESTED
PLAYFUL
TENSION
I used a 8×8 groundsheet for each of my sets of squares. For the squares I used different sizes/varieties, and placed them in a sequence to describe the word.

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Structure

Posted on May 11th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

In Savannah, one of the most beautiful things about old homes is the structure, the incredible attention to detail, and the old wood flooring.  I live in an apartment in an old Savannah house that has quite a bit of “character.”  ”Character” meaning chipping paint, cracked walls, uneven flooring, etc.  I think this is part of what you get when you live in an old home though.  So to do my exploration I decided to take a look at my ceiling.   Molding and ceiling are usually things overlooked.  My ceiling of course has quite a few cracks in it, cracks that sometimes make me wonder if the neighbor above me is going to fall through when she stomps across her floor.  I also have noticed the molding.  It is not the original molding to the home, but it still provides quite a bit of character.  What I notice the most though, is the paint peeling from the seams of the walls connected to the ceiling.  The whole ceiling/wall-to-ceiling is screaming “PLEASEEE PAINT ME!”, and while I should carefully put myself on a ladder with a paint brush and give it some attention, I can’t bear to do this.  I think if a line, crack, or chip went missing from this it would cause a disappearance of character.  So, maybe that’s what gives a room it’s overall character not the walls, the floor, the decoration within it, but the ceiling in which we so rarely notice.

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Jack and Jill

Posted on May 11th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

In our latest project, we were to use the nursery rhyme Jack and Jill but use a theme to tell the story. I chose to use the theme of the rise and fall of young Hollywood. We were given a grouping of images that we could pick from to describe this theme and tell the story. I feel like everything I wanted to display wasn’t truly given forth in my work. I did enjoy this project, I just feel as though as hard as I worked, it still wasn’t as great as it could’ve been. I ended this project fearing that I could’ve done more.
In our classroom critique most of the response was that it could’ve been better, and ideas and ways that I could’ve changed things. I wish that I had done things differently, but at the end of the day I still do like what I have done. I just would’ve tweaked it a little bit. What do you think?

Jack and Jill

up the hill

To fetch a pail of water

To fetch a pail of Water

Jack fell down

and broke his crown

and Jill came tumbling after

Final 2

Final 3

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Xerox Repetition

Posted on April 25th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Our latest project dealt with the repetition of one image and turning it into a completely different image through xeroxing.  I chose my image from one of Joseph’s nature magazines (as my fashion magazines don’t lend much as far as black/white images go).  My image was a tree, the bottom half, with these crazy roots and leaves.  I spent dollar after dollar, dime after dime making sure that I had each photocopy just right.  I zoomed in, I zoomed out. I did the original image, I did the negative image.  I lightened, I darkened.  I swirled, and I moved the paper every possible way I could.  When I began working on this project I was a bit flustered, looking down at 50+ copies of the same image in multiple forms, shapes, and sizes can be a little exhausting to the eye.  I did begin to notice this really cool water like pattern, and then realized that the tree roots began to form themselves into finger like shapes. So I took out my X-Acto knife and began cutting.  I wanted to keep the really cool water image and the finger images, yet still keep part of the tree.  I layered the tree parts over and over again to form the idea that one is looking at a 3-D design.  I think maybe I went a little too far with they layering as it can feel a bit heavy, but I really loved the way it turned out.  I think the one thing that I would change, as it was pointed out in class, would be the awkward negative water like image on the left side.  Overall, I am really proud of this piece, and I believe that my hard work really did pay off.

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Ted Talks: Denis Dutton

Posted on April 25th, 2011 by Lauren Sandling.
Categories: Uncategorized.

Denis Dutton’s Ted Talk on a Darwinian Theory of Beauty was interesting to me.  Darwin’s theory of evolution does have to do with our idea of beauty.  Beauty has evolved over time, today we don’t find cavemen attractive; today the idea of in humans, art, and nature typically deal with symmetry, something that has never change.  Yet, they also have something to do with the interest of something being unusual.  I believe that the unusual is what our idea of beauty has started to gear towards, while the ordinary, the typical, are still beautiful if they are symmetrical, interesting has much more to do with what we find to be beautiful today.  Today, however, the idea of beauty is built off of things being subjective.  What I find to be beautiful may not be to the next person.  Today, we have so many images of beauty that we all have our own taste.  I think it’s interesting to think of how pop culture has to do with our idea of beauty.  While I do agree with Denis Dutton that some points of our idea of beauty have evolved through a Darwinian theory, and it provides an interesting theory, I do not believe that we can completely attribute our idea of beauty strictly to evolution.

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