An Unpopular War

Now this is a real challenge! I have never worked with Garage Band or Audacity, so it was fun, to say the least! I wanted to create an abstract piece about the events following and including 9/11; a bit of an anti war statement. I wanted to substitute musical sounds for military sounds, for example drums beats for soldiers, synthesizer for weapon sounds, etc.

I was a little foggy on the directions for this project, so this might be out in right field, but I liked the outcome.

I am fascinated by the concept of synethsesia, (spelling..ugh), the condition some people have when they are able to combine some of their senses, rather than having them operate independently. An example is when a person can feel the size and texture of numbers or they can taste music. I personally think this could be a possibility for everyone, it's just not something we have given the opportunity to refine. Or perhaps it is a recent evolution, who knows. But this assignment brought out these thoughts once again for me. When one uses music to feel or see something, that person moves beyond the use of a sense working independently. We all do that right? So why not try to take it further? How does music taste? What feelings are generated by different colors? What do you hear when you taste certain food? Its fascinating stuff if you think about it. Artistic people are prone to synethsesia more than others. Don't tell me you haven't thought about it.........hello?

http://www.public.asu.edu/~dniva

Timothy Leary

Wow! Is Illustrator FRUSTRATING! It must be one of those programs that once you get it, you love it....meaning right now, I'm hating it! UGH!
Now that I vented, I wanted to say that Timothy Leary is my inspiration for this last Illustrator post. He was a fascinating man with a plethora of radical ideas. What developed into ongoing acid trips started out as research into the beneficial effects of psychedelic mushrooms on emotional disorders. Whatever one may think about his methods, there is a renewed interest in mushroom therapy. He epitomized the culture of the 60's and 70's, advocating for peace and freedom.
I wanted to do so much more with this piece, but my own lack of Illustrator intelligence inhibited me, so for now I put Leary's photo, turned vector, on a psychedelic background and put his famous quote "Turn on, Tune in Drop out" which spoke of taking a group acid trip. The only clever thing I accomplished was swirling the background right at his winked eye....in retrospect, it's not all that clever. I know, Professor Peter, no self deprecating allowed. It does look like a poster design I could buy at Hippie Gypsy :)

Rosa

The concept for this image is to create a very stark contrast between black and white. This is a picture of Rosa Parks, the "international icon of resistance to racial segregation." It is an absurd notion that a person merits a seat on a public bus or not based on the color of one's skin. I wanted to reflect this thought in making Rosa a figure that is both black and white and neither black nor white. I also wanted to put her in a stark environment that is static and not at all organic; much like the abomination of racism. I didn't really need to do another version of this assignment, but I had an idea I wanted to play with. I also want to continue to attempt to conquer the beast of Illustrator, ugh!

Andy Warhol

I copied every quote I could find published from Andy Warhol (in the background), I am a bit obsessed and very curious about this amazing man! I also thought his quote "I am a deeply superficial person" was brilliant and SO Andy Warhol! This didn't qualify for the vector assignment since I didn't consult the directions until I was done....oops! It was done in Photoshop, not Illustrator, but it was great practice none the less.
As far as the vision for this piece, I wanted to show the complexity of Warhol along with the "superficiality" by putting the 3 Warhols on the same plane. Mounting it all on a backdrop of quotes by Warhol is designed to echo the theme that his thoughts were the genius of his work.

Beethoven

Beethoven's statement, "What you are, you are by accident of birth; what I am, I am by myself. There are and will be a thousand princes; there is only one Beethoven" may seem arrogant but then again how many people could write and conduct the 9th symphony while profoundly deaf? This piece is made up of quotes from Beethoven about music, substituted for the lines, in an attempt to show that music is what Beethoven was made of.

Abstract

This exercise is my attempt at abstract, perhaps not a forte, definitely not my genre. I envisioned a patchwork of letters, no meaning to the letters, just an aesthetic different look on each to create a single piece. Abstract is a challenge for me. As I study the masters of the modern art movement, I'm not sure that they loved their pieces, especially when they were eliciting a response that was more about shock value. If you are trying to say something with your art and you are challenging long held traditions about how art should look, do you have to like it? I'm not sure, I don't think I do.

Vector Exercise

Looking for a way to "explore the use of TYPE as abstract shape." Although I am new to illustrator, I had a great time doing this exercise. I actually did a few different words but settled on "Weeds" because of aesthetic value more than theory. I was intrigued by this particular font because it seemed so organic. With that in mind, I experimented with tools and found one that created leaves, so I went a bit overboard, much like weeds tend to do. I also brought in some lines to frame the word, and attempted to make them feel like a fence, thus creating positeve and negative space. I had fun!