Thursday, December 6, 2012
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Tree dancers: Body as Object
This is my tree photo before I started the project
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| This is the end result |
In choosing "body as object," I couldn't (mentally) leave the tree idea to start something new. I knew working with photoshop may be trying and time consuming, but I stuck with it; and, I'm happy to say, I am pleased with my final project and its results. Thank you Paul and Cody, down in the media lab, for all your time and patients. And thank you Tyler for encouraging further corrections to make this a great piece.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Continuous Line art
Tape Figure - Feeling sad
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| Day 1: Dana's Right Leg |
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| Perfection! I was able to create the perfect lady crotch |
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| Figures finally done and completely assembled. Mine is the one to the left (or to Dana's right). |
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| Nothing else to do with our figures but to give one another a massage. What a perfect fit! |
During the construction of the tape models, Dana and I had a blast. I wanted to photo document my progress as I taped her and then in the end, we wound up just having fun with our models. Her original theme, or topic, was "body bag;" however, once done, we decided to place our figures side-by-side and then one in front of the other, as if she was giving my model a massage.
Overall, the project was great. We had a blast working with one another and nailed our figures to look exactly how we intended.
Just in case you can't tell who is who, I am the much shorter, stockier model and Dana is the taller figure. Aside from my model being just about an inch shorter than my actual size (I think I cut my self off at the waist), our models represented our body types extremely well. Using the crisscross, short tape technique, allowed us to really have good contour around our more feminine areas.
Sunday, October 21, 2012
Right Knee - No. 10
Ten, Ten, number 10 there's so much to say about her...my right knee that is. Born on April 22, nineteen seventy something, she came into this world attached to me. Over the years I was not very kind to her. I fell--a lot--and she suffered numerous scrapes and bruises, like her sister, the left; but, on April 28, 1993 her look and feel changed forever.
It was a bright, hot day in South Texas. I was attending a cheerleading clinic, with my varsity squad at the University of Texas. As one of the better jumpers on our team (for toe touches anyway), I was asked to participate in a "jump off." The winning jumper would win a medal as well as the number one slot for the cheer competition segment of the day. No biggie. We were confident in our routines and even more confident I would win the jump off, like I had since the 6th grade, at all the other clinics and camps we had attended. It was just another day in the life of an awesome cheerleader for me...no pressure.
Shortly after noon time, we warmed up. I squeezed in several practice jumps on a new "high-tech" spring board floor. My jumps that day seemed higher and prettier than ever. I was super stoked about picking my number and waiting in line to take my shot at having the winning jump. My biggest competition that day was Rene, a male jumper from one of our rival schools. Still, I knew with my background in ballet and profound flexibility, I would take it. As I approached my turn, number 12, I felt a little nervous but mostly excited. I calmed myself and found great focus on imagining the look of disappointment on Rene's face when they named him second place and crowned me the winner; I had this, the medal was mine.
I took the floor, prepped and jumped the best jump of my life. It was so awesome, I felt like it was all happening in slow motion. I felt myself gain height and reminded myself to point my toes and fist both hands...IT WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME...until I landed. As my legs came together to finish my jump the sounds I would hear next were next to disgusting. I landed on that spring board floor to the sound of crunching, popping, and ripping. The sound of the crowd's deep inspiration (of shock) came just milliseconds after...I fell all the way down to the floor. Shocked and embarrassed I attempted to get up, just to realize I couldn't. I was overcome by excruciating pain and emotion. The highlight of that moment was being carried out by one of the hottest male university cheerleaders ever. It is truly a moment I will never forget; however, number 10 would never be the same after then.
After my trip to the Emergency room, an MRI, and multiple appointments with the Orthopedist, I got the news that I had suffered a complete tear of the ACL and meniscus. My knee was mobilized and surgery was scheduled for May 28, at Edinburg Regional Hospital. I would be out of cheer season for at least six weeks. Devistated, my surgeon promised with rigorous physical therapy I would be up and jumping again in precisely that time (6 weeks), just in time for competition season.
Surgery came and went. I had a pin, a staple, and some cadavor ligament put in place to correct the damage created by the best jump of my life. Luckily, my recovery went far better than I imagined but I stuck to a strict regiment of PT, diet and exercise to keep me focused on my goal. As my surgeon promised, I was back to cheering for the last two games of the season and back to practicing daily for our upcoming competition. The remaining years of high school and cheerleading went without fail. I was back to my old self, with the exception of a scar. While my surgeon was the absolute best, in my opinion and named Surgeon of the year 3 years in a row, he was a terrible seamstress. Number 10 may be scarred and not be as pretty as her sister, the left, but she's given me many miles and countless hours of walking, biking, and exercise since having suffered prolonged abuse. She even carried and extra 52 pounds of weight with my first pregnancy, 27 for my second, and 18 for the last. Number 10 may not be pretty, but I still consider her the best! Thank you Number 10!
FINISHED PRODUCT: INSTALLATION
While this was one of the more interesting projects I have ever had to do, it too was fun. My body part, as mentioned above, was the right knee up to the pelvis (femur). I shot my photos in two parts because our man was just too tall for the camera's capabilities (my iPhone). But in the lower photo, you can see the scar to the right knee. I was intent on placing a screw in the middle of the scar to represent the actual hardware I have in my knee now, and then the picture above is just the rest of the complete product.
It was a bright, hot day in South Texas. I was attending a cheerleading clinic, with my varsity squad at the University of Texas. As one of the better jumpers on our team (for toe touches anyway), I was asked to participate in a "jump off." The winning jumper would win a medal as well as the number one slot for the cheer competition segment of the day. No biggie. We were confident in our routines and even more confident I would win the jump off, like I had since the 6th grade, at all the other clinics and camps we had attended. It was just another day in the life of an awesome cheerleader for me...no pressure.
Shortly after noon time, we warmed up. I squeezed in several practice jumps on a new "high-tech" spring board floor. My jumps that day seemed higher and prettier than ever. I was super stoked about picking my number and waiting in line to take my shot at having the winning jump. My biggest competition that day was Rene, a male jumper from one of our rival schools. Still, I knew with my background in ballet and profound flexibility, I would take it. As I approached my turn, number 12, I felt a little nervous but mostly excited. I calmed myself and found great focus on imagining the look of disappointment on Rene's face when they named him second place and crowned me the winner; I had this, the medal was mine.
I took the floor, prepped and jumped the best jump of my life. It was so awesome, I felt like it was all happening in slow motion. I felt myself gain height and reminded myself to point my toes and fist both hands...IT WAS FREAKIN' AWESOME...until I landed. As my legs came together to finish my jump the sounds I would hear next were next to disgusting. I landed on that spring board floor to the sound of crunching, popping, and ripping. The sound of the crowd's deep inspiration (of shock) came just milliseconds after...I fell all the way down to the floor. Shocked and embarrassed I attempted to get up, just to realize I couldn't. I was overcome by excruciating pain and emotion. The highlight of that moment was being carried out by one of the hottest male university cheerleaders ever. It is truly a moment I will never forget; however, number 10 would never be the same after then.
After my trip to the Emergency room, an MRI, and multiple appointments with the Orthopedist, I got the news that I had suffered a complete tear of the ACL and meniscus. My knee was mobilized and surgery was scheduled for May 28, at Edinburg Regional Hospital. I would be out of cheer season for at least six weeks. Devistated, my surgeon promised with rigorous physical therapy I would be up and jumping again in precisely that time (6 weeks), just in time for competition season.
Surgery came and went. I had a pin, a staple, and some cadavor ligament put in place to correct the damage created by the best jump of my life. Luckily, my recovery went far better than I imagined but I stuck to a strict regiment of PT, diet and exercise to keep me focused on my goal. As my surgeon promised, I was back to cheering for the last two games of the season and back to practicing daily for our upcoming competition. The remaining years of high school and cheerleading went without fail. I was back to my old self, with the exception of a scar. While my surgeon was the absolute best, in my opinion and named Surgeon of the year 3 years in a row, he was a terrible seamstress. Number 10 may be scarred and not be as pretty as her sister, the left, but she's given me many miles and countless hours of walking, biking, and exercise since having suffered prolonged abuse. She even carried and extra 52 pounds of weight with my first pregnancy, 27 for my second, and 18 for the last. Number 10 may not be pretty, but I still consider her the best! Thank you Number 10!
While this was one of the more interesting projects I have ever had to do, it too was fun. My body part, as mentioned above, was the right knee up to the pelvis (femur). I shot my photos in two parts because our man was just too tall for the camera's capabilities (my iPhone). But in the lower photo, you can see the scar to the right knee. I was intent on placing a screw in the middle of the scar to represent the actual hardware I have in my knee now, and then the picture above is just the rest of the complete product.
Karen's "Mind, Body, and Spirit"
My interpretation of Karen's Genre and Topic: So I feel like I kind of cheated a little being paired with Karen to critique her work. Over the coarse of the last couple of weeks, she and I have had several discussions (before class) regarding our projects; therefore, I already knew what topic she had chosen, and about the fact that she, too, had changed her genre on multiple occasions. Having said that, however, I went into her critique with an open mind and I was blown away by the display of multiple works/genres she had created in such a short amount of time (since the first day of class).
Her first display, I didn't get...at all. She attempted to use structure (using the plastic wrap/tape method) which didn't work well for the message she was trying to get across. I really couldn't even make out the structure she was trying to create.
The second display was a scale of three aluminum plates, wired to wooden dowels/steaks, which hung from one of the light fixtures in class. I interpreted it as a scale, symbolic of balance; and, as we had previously discussed in class, it was probably also a way to deliver the message of balancing the inner self with the outer self. The scale appeared to be very balanced, as also represented by the triangle we see on gym walls and in Yoga classrooms. We discussed, for just a moment, how in Buddhism, mind, body and spirit all hold an equal piece of who we are and they basically feed off of one another...a happy and healthy mind promotes a healthy body/lifestyle, and a healthy body reflects a healthy spirit, which then leaves a healthy spirit to continue feeding the mind and the body, and so on.
To my surprise, Karen was trying to demonstrate the complete opposite of balance. Because real life is a constant struggle, and maintaining mind, body, and spirit is rarely done in equal parts without holding out on one thing or another (exactly like we had previously discussed in class with the painting of body image), she wanted to show how although we do stay happy and maintain healthy bodies and good in spirit, there is always a sacrifice (in our American culture) to maintain one certain aspect of our lives or another. In the end there is usually balance, if speaking in terms of percentage, but reaching that is never a perfect 33.333333333% contributed by each of the three--mind, body, and spirit.
Her last display, I thought portrayed her message clearly. She used three rounded plates, all of the same size and color to once again represent the scale model. On each of the plates she had the same volume of rocks (in weight)--again, representing equality and balance. But to show the unbalance of how we naturally function, one plate held large and bulky rocks, mostly rounded and all of the same size; the second plate held very sharp, pointy, and flat rocks; and, the third held much smaller, very round and shiny rocks (almost pebble like). I thought her concept was easy to visualize and understand. After discussing it further, she verbalized wanting to take it up a notch and we kind of thought that maybe she should decoupage her concept onto a frame or onto a table top if she wanted to take it to a larger scale for display.
Her first display, I didn't get...at all. She attempted to use structure (using the plastic wrap/tape method) which didn't work well for the message she was trying to get across. I really couldn't even make out the structure she was trying to create.
The second display was a scale of three aluminum plates, wired to wooden dowels/steaks, which hung from one of the light fixtures in class. I interpreted it as a scale, symbolic of balance; and, as we had previously discussed in class, it was probably also a way to deliver the message of balancing the inner self with the outer self. The scale appeared to be very balanced, as also represented by the triangle we see on gym walls and in Yoga classrooms. We discussed, for just a moment, how in Buddhism, mind, body and spirit all hold an equal piece of who we are and they basically feed off of one another...a happy and healthy mind promotes a healthy body/lifestyle, and a healthy body reflects a healthy spirit, which then leaves a healthy spirit to continue feeding the mind and the body, and so on.
To my surprise, Karen was trying to demonstrate the complete opposite of balance. Because real life is a constant struggle, and maintaining mind, body, and spirit is rarely done in equal parts without holding out on one thing or another (exactly like we had previously discussed in class with the painting of body image), she wanted to show how although we do stay happy and maintain healthy bodies and good in spirit, there is always a sacrifice (in our American culture) to maintain one certain aspect of our lives or another. In the end there is usually balance, if speaking in terms of percentage, but reaching that is never a perfect 33.333333333% contributed by each of the three--mind, body, and spirit.
Her last display, I thought portrayed her message clearly. She used three rounded plates, all of the same size and color to once again represent the scale model. On each of the plates she had the same volume of rocks (in weight)--again, representing equality and balance. But to show the unbalance of how we naturally function, one plate held large and bulky rocks, mostly rounded and all of the same size; the second plate held very sharp, pointy, and flat rocks; and, the third held much smaller, very round and shiny rocks (almost pebble like). I thought her concept was easy to visualize and understand. After discussing it further, she verbalized wanting to take it up a notch and we kind of thought that maybe she should decoupage her concept onto a frame or onto a table top if she wanted to take it to a larger scale for display.
Karen Says...
Karen's interpretation of my genre and topic: "Interesting and very pretty." She knew, almost right off the bat, that my topic was related to transformation of the body into an object. Because we had just listened to the very extensive explaination about body image, she thought my inspiration was also driven by my desire to be something other than what I am now. She liked the black and white mottife and suggested I continue in that fashion.
After I explained what my target was for all of my sketches, and portraying "body as an object" due to my only experience in the arts, she could understand why my bodies had no faces and why I chose just sillouettes. Together, we came to the agreement that long, slender, and flexible bodies (as we see on stage a lot of the times) were best used to take the shape of the objects I chose for my three sketches.
Karen's Critique: Continue with my scheme for color, structure and concept, but branch out on a larger scale. She suggested I add more to the sketch of the wheel and work on adding other elements to the sketches to make them more a part of a scene and not just individual objects sitting on their own. For example, a tree, you would find in a forest or in a park...a tree isn't just a tree...it typically sits among other elements and/or other trees.
After I explained what my target was for all of my sketches, and portraying "body as an object" due to my only experience in the arts, she could understand why my bodies had no faces and why I chose just sillouettes. Together, we came to the agreement that long, slender, and flexible bodies (as we see on stage a lot of the times) were best used to take the shape of the objects I chose for my three sketches.
Karen's Critique: Continue with my scheme for color, structure and concept, but branch out on a larger scale. She suggested I add more to the sketch of the wheel and work on adding other elements to the sketches to make them more a part of a scene and not just individual objects sitting on their own. For example, a tree, you would find in a forest or in a park...a tree isn't just a tree...it typically sits among other elements and/or other trees.
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