For this assignment we were challenged to find a map of our liking, and then demolish it. Okay demolish may be a bit exaggerated, but we were asked to take our map and mess it up; crumble it, dye it, cut it, glue it…etc. My initial response was. ‘ugh’ I’m not really that messy of a person, so being told to destroy this map via such extreme measures didn’t really appeal me. First I took my map to my acting class and crumbled it up into a ball and used it for one of my warm up exercises. Next I sprayed starch on to my map to stiffen it up a tad.

Maps make me think of traveling w/my family when I was younger. One place that I went often was Hershey Park in Hershey PA. So when I looked at my map I thought of snacks that I would eat during a road trip. This prompt me to do my messiest task toward my map yet. I spread chocolate sauce all over it!

When I stepped back and looked at my mess. The combination of the crumpled paper of the map and the chocolate sauce reminded me of brownies. Yes the dessert! I realized that the nooks and cracks of the top of a brownie really resembled the roads, and pathways of my map. So I decide that I would create a piece of art that showcased just that.  I made a brownie (from scratch) and then took photographs of the top layer of it. Here are my results:

In order to complete my map assignment, I then decide that I need to present both brownie and map in a way that would be simple and intriguing. Do you think that I accomplished my goal?

CRITIQUE:

I recieved very positive response for my design!  I was told that it was quite creative and out of the box for this assignment. I placed my photos onto a black board. This also got good reviews from my classmates as being very clean.  Many of my classmates said that they next time they see a brownie they will think of my project (map)!

Greetings!

This assignment was quite time consuming I must say, but at end it helped me to look at things a little differently. This project took me 2-3 weeks to find the letters and numbers that I did. I had trouble finding numbers, while letters seemed to appear everywhere I looked. Very much like the Sound Map exploration, I at first felt like I had  no time in my schedule to find all of these alphabets and numbers. Over time I actually started to look forward to doing so. Below are my final photos that I took. Can you see the letters?

As I mentioned before, I had a hard time finding my numbers. I had to take a step back and really start looking outside the box to find these photos. Even though finding my numbers was difficult, they ended up being my favorite things to find. Below are my final photos that I took. Can you see the numbers?

Once all of my photos were found, I now had to decide how I wanted them presented. I knew that I didn’t want to present them in a poster format. It just happened that the week that this assignment was giving, my best friend announced that she was pregnant. This great news motived my descison on how to develop my photos into a piece of art. Here’s how my design: Can you tell what it is?

The thirds exploration for class was all about sound. I was challenged to sit in a location for a hour and record all the sounds that were heard in order to create a sound map of some sort. I ended up sitting on a park bench in Wright Square for this exploration. I used an audio recorder to document my experience. I also kept a time log for every sound that I heard.

When developing my sound map, I decided to do a painting that represented the sounds that I had heard during that hour. Because I was in a square for this exploration, many of the sounds seemed to revolve around me at times. To the left of me was a musical band of three men playing various instruments and singing. These men played off and on throughout the hour that I sat. Directly behind me were two gentlemen. I never turned around to see what they looked like, but throughout the hour they spoke of sex, drugs, and religion. It made for a very interesting time. To the right of me there was a bell tower that rang every 15 minutes. There was also a bell tower somewhere further to my left. This bell tower was quite faint, but would ring slightly before the tower to my immediate right.  I chose to paint an abstract design representing the many sounds that I heard during that hour in Wright Square.  I wanted to represent the energy that I experienced. There was always something happening…rather it was a tour bus circling the square, people walking pass me, the bell towers, or the gentlemen behind me talking about life.

-SM

Greetings!

For this assignment we were challenged to take the children’s nursery tale of Jack and Jill and create a piece of art that would represent it visually. Now initially I thought that this would be an independent project like the others had been, but Prof. Waldvogel apparently had other intentions. My group consisted of Aliyah Curry, Wilson Pena, & Marc Fleichmann. Together we formed a motley crew of designers! We were instructed that the story could take shape in any form it wished…to make it interesting and not basic. During our brain storming phase, we came up with two ideas.

1. Two friends going to a bar and then leaving drunk.

2. Two birds flying and then getting hit by a plane.

From these ideas, we concluded to create a piece based off the bird theme.

Our first conception of the Jack & Jill assignment I felt was a bit too literal. But when working in a group, one has to learn when to add and when to adjust for the groups needs. My original idea was the “Bar scene”, but two of my group members didn’t see how we could create such a piece using the materials we were giving (a sheet full of black icons and drawings). My thoughts about our concept was confirmed when we showed it to our professor. We were encouraged to not be so literal, and to really think about what we were trying to say. Another point that our professor brought up was how heavy some of our scenes looked. With this in mind we decide to divide the work based off our strengths. I chose to do the inking since I’m quite precise with that material. Another member would do all the tracing.

Our 1st conception of Jack & Jill assignment.

My group and I met up at the Student Center to start working on the concept that we had created. Luckily my group member Wilson had gone ahead and created templates for each scene via Adobe Illustrator. I’m so happy that he did. This made our process so much easier as now we had to do was discuss what we want to change within the composition. we are also able to now finally see the project as it would actually look like once competed.

The next time we worked the project was in class. Only 3 of us were present as one of our members (Marc) is a swimmer for SCAD and had to be away. We this in mind, we made sure that he’s opinions were considered that night at the student center. We decided that we would meet the Sunday before our project was due so that we could assemble everything together as a group.  While in class, we printed the templates that we created the previous night at the Student Center.

Wilson working checking out our printed templates

Our templates look great printed out!

Once we had the template printed, we decided that our next step was to trace the templates onto a measured 8×8 bristol board so that we could begin the transfer process. Group member Alyiah was to streamline this part of the project while Wilson would cut our the 8×8 bristol board that we would use as our final projects.

Alyiah beginning the tracing process.

Wilson meticulously measuring our the bristol board.

When it came time to complete the project, we all met once again at the Student Center. With all the boards traced, we now began the process of coloring in the designs. We chose to use precision pins, india ink, and black markers in order to fill in all the icons and drawings within our design. Now I must say that I am quite ‘type A’ when it comes to using the india ink and tracing. I did have problems with the craftsmanship of my group members. I would rather take and hour to shade in a circle then ‘half-ass’ it in fifteen minutes and then have to go over it again later. Not that my group was “half-assing”, but I did have issues with their craftsmanship…especially since we all were to receive the same grade.

Alyiah finishing up our design

Marc & Wilson working on outlying.

Here is our final design. Can you follow the story?

“JACK & JILL”

“WENT UP THE HILL”

“TO FETCH A PAIL OF WATER”

“JACK FELL DOWN”

“AND LOST HIS CROWN”

“AND JILL CAME TUMBLING AFTER”

GROUP’S CRITIQUE:

The class seemed to think that we had a strong composition and that our story was creative

The craftsmanship  also got high remarks compared to other groups.

Classmates also said that our balance was good. But they weren’t’ sure on our layout. We chose to have our pictures horizontally in a line oppose to having them stacked  three on top on top of three like other groups.  There was a comment about how the last three designs didn’t have any sense of exit within their frames like the first three did. Overall the our project was well received.

At end, I did not enjoy working in a group for this project. I found it to be quite stressful because I had to rely on others for my grade. I’m quite sure of my strengths and to trust other to be so as well was not becoming.

One of the first things I do every morning is check out this blog. Broadwayworld.com is a great source for information on local, national, and international theatre. A main reason why I like this site is because of it’s unique format videos, articles, and casting call post. It most certainly keeps me abreast to all things Theatre.

Broadway World.com – #1 Site for Broadway Shows, Theatre, Live …

Playbill.com is my other go to when it comes to knowing wuz up in the theatre world. New York City is the “central hub” of theatre in the USA and so it’s great to read the content on Playbill’s site because they always keep you informed of the New York Scene. More specially there’s a blog within the sight that I quite enjoy. ONSTAGE & BACKSTAGE is a blog by a Seth Rudeksky who is a musician, actor, writer, radio host, and broadway personality. I enjoy this blog because Seth shows another side of the theatre business that most do not get to see; Actors off the stage.

The Style Blogger is a blog that I happen to stumble upon a few years ago by chance. Once while reading Esquire Magazine there was a “Best dressed Man in America” article that showcased a few “everyday” guys who were deemed “best dressed”in the Country. Being featured in that article is what sparked the creator of The Style Blogger to start a blogging his daily fashion. Now because of this blog, the once Wall Street creator has transitioned into the New York Fashion industry and has his own clothing line. My reasoning for using this blog is it’s unique format. The Style Guide is a unique feature that allows you to find clothing suggestions based off the weather or events that may be attending.

Qui Style in Savannah is the most recent blog that I’ve discovered. I have only been at SCAD for six weeks, and one thing that I have noticed is the various fashion styles of the students here. I am constantly pulling out my iPhone and snapping photos of interesting fashion that I see throughout my day. So I was quite excited when I found that there’s a local blogger who has noticed the same thing. What I like about this blog is it’s simplicity. The blog is very easy to navigate and it’s pretty much just photos that basically explain themselves. Many of the photos in this blog are of people whom I’ve seen before while walking to class….some of them I have class with! Another thing that I like about this blog is that the creator Mangue Banzima is a relocated to Savannah fashion professional from New York City.

These are a few of the blogs the take my interest on a week basis. I think that all of these blogs have a easy navigation layout and do a great job in being precise  and unique within their respective fields of interest.

Today  in class we were challenged with another Exploration exercise:”The Black Square Problem”. Using only black squares (via any media you care for) the exploration challenged the creation of designs inspired by six terms: Order, Tension, Playful, Congested, Bold, & Increase. Because the previous assignments required or I chose to used tangible materials, this time I chose to use Adobe Illustrator to create my black squares and designs. Using Adobe allowed me to play around and create the black squares in ways that I felt really helped to convey the task at hand.

In order to create these designs, I first needed to understand the meanings of each word. Using a dictionary I looked up the many definitions and pick the words that stood out to me. Here are my findings:

CONGESTED/ concentrate, in small or narrow spaces/ clog

INCREASE/ to become greater, intensity, size in numbers or amount

BOLD/ fearless, prominently

CONGESTED/ INCREASE/ BOLD 

Congested/ Increase/ Bold

ORDER/ arrange, regulate, command, to place

PLAYFUL/ humorous, fun, frisky, fay

TENSION/ stretch, stres, extension, unbalance, hostility

ORDER/ PLAYFUL/ TENSION

Order/ Playful/ Tension

This assignment was interesting. I saw some fellow classmates designs, and it was great to see how everyone defined the terms using the squares. Some people decided to take the design literal and create shapes via the squares that would then create another recognizable shape. Happy Mid Terms Everyone

Till the next post

-SM

ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS
Problem: Combine principles of form and repetition on complex grids

Materials: Regular tools, templates, tracing and/or layout paper, illustration board

Final size: Exactly 10”X10”, inked on white, cold-pressed illustration board

Method: • Draw any regular, repeatable form and use it to pierce a second, larger form.

CRITIQUES:

*Not a lot of rhythm

*Very creative

*No focal point, but it makes the piece unique

*Lots of negative space in certain sections

*Points for trying something different with the board, but it may distract from the actually design

*”Kissing” triangles are nice…wish there were more embedded into the design

*A sense of movement could be improved on the design.

*Superb craftsmanship.

MY THOUGHTS ON THE PROCESS:

I found this project to be quite stressful for me. There were a lot of particular steps that did not allow for many mishaps. I am quite “type A” and so when it came time to ink my design, the possibility  of unfixable mistakes really stressed me out. I made  the decision to “think out of my box” and not pick the symmetrical design that I normal would of I called myself being “Subvert” with my design, but I conclude that I did not meet all points precisely. The negative feedback that I received during critique from prof and peers kind of pissed me off. I do appreciate constructive criticism when it is actually given, but I do wish that the process allow for some type of critique prior to the final project submission. That being said, I did learn via this project of what is exactly expected for completions and what the prof. is looking for (or not looking for the most part). I now look forward to the next assignment and the challenge of making it a better process then this one was for me. I would not like to “repeat” this one.

-SM

My Concentration & Isolation designs

I used a bit of nature to inspire and accomplish my goal of Isolation

Here my design inspired by nature. Can you see the isolation? I decided to use color as a way to solve the problem of isolation. All the leaves are the same, expect for the color of the brown one.

For my concentration design I decided to work by hand and create shapes using paper and glue

Here's my result from the black paper. Can you see the concentration? In this design I used shapes to help solve the problem of concentration. By grouping many strips of black paper on top of each other in a "cluster" I was able to direct the viewer eye to one side.

What do you think? Did I accomplish the goal? What would you do differently? Leave comments!

Greetings!

So we had our first critique on Monday. I must say that I was cocky in thinking that just become I’m an actor, that I could take critique better than anyone else. In the Theatre World, you are critiqued 24/7 based off your talent. But in truth It was hard to hear someone not like your initial  design that you’d worked on for days. I didn’t care for the tact or lack of that peers used when critiquing, but giving constructive feedback isn’t everyones forte. Out of my four designs, the one which received the most critique was the curve lines design:

Curve lines

Critiques:

1. Calm feeling, but disproportion

2. Curves don’t match each other

3. The curves don’t present a connection to each other. There’s no relationship being presented

4. The negative space dominates the design.

5. Doesn’t satisfy the requirement of Subdividing.

As a result of the those critiques (in which I completely agreed with) Here is my re-do design of curve lines: I hope by using the white space more efficiently that this new design creates a since of connection with the curves. It’s also my hope that the subdivision is better exucuted  then before.

Re-Design Curve Lines

-SM