Project 2

Place:

I began with the concept of sitting under leaves looking up at that layering and collage that occurs. Since most of my thoughts about this were of a 3d object hanging, I decided to go down a different path.

The next process took me to a train accident that occurred where most of my extended family lives in Graniteville, SC. It occurred January 6, 2005 when a train carrying a very concentrated form of chlorine collided with another train. The chlorine spilled into the ground and created a chlorine gas which killed 8 people and evacuated the entire town for almost a week. The images of fire trucks bleached white and metal buildings completely corroded in a day was far darker than my original peaceful concept. i created an altered book with cotton, paint, maps, cutouts, and photographs. Unfortunately, on the way to class it became bathed in coffee and separated.

Which brings us to the final concept. I ended with leaves that I cut out of a textured paper soaked in inks, paints, and colored with Lyra pencils on top of a moving blue background. It is the image that one would see in the fall canoeing down the Tennessee River, that has been my retreat and peace so many times.

Space Text Reading

Skip Schukman
I really enjoy the idea of going into one of Schukman's created spaces. There is something about using what is present and then knowing that it will have natural life of decay that rings very true to me. It brings thoughts of Buddhists sand paintings as well as walk through an old growth forest to mind. Since personal interaction is very valuable to me, the idea of working with a client on a day-by-day, at will basis is incredibly attractive to me. It is like he encourages the client to become a child and see what is around them everyday and what it could mean.

Victoria Vesna
While I understand that Vesna's subject matter is time and the digital age and that that in some ways makes her choice of media very appropriate, I struggle with both the portrayal of her works in the texts as well as some of her concepts. It seems that there is a natural inconsistency in trying to create space with no time with the fact that if you capture a static image, it will always be of that moment and time, or if you have something that is occurring, due to the limits of our existance and perception, we will always see and perceive it in a linear time, having beginning, middle, and end.

Mariko Mori
I was incredibly fascinated by Mori's "Dream Temple." The interactive and yet peaceful space is one that I would love to see in person. I think that her utopian concepts are a little lost on me in some of the other works with the alien-like creatures that pop up in random places.

Project 1 Critique

Reflections following critique:

It was interesting to me to contemplate the idea that I had made a domestic, functioning piece, as one reviewer mentioned. I think that there is something inherent to the subject matter that is fitting to the domestic realm, but it has had me revisit some of the decisions of simplicity. I am considering taking the chandelier in one of two directions. 1. Creating an object that focuses on smell, including some of my favorites like coriander, cocoa, coffee, and cayenne 2. Attaching the third tier that I had made and using fabric and paint to include images of past experiences in a bleached out, faded form.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Project 1

It has been a while since I have given myself the freedom to reflect and journal about major events that have occurred in my life. As an incredibly introspective adolescent and teen, it is a road that was too well-worn to journey down. Since becoming a mom, especially a single mom, trying to survive in the midst of school, parenting, and working to make ends meet has necessarily taken over the energy that was once spent in self-evaluation. Interestingly enough, this made it very difficult to accomplish the many pages of journaling. The end of the matter is that all of life, whether past, present, or future, is now seen, as a result of choices that I have made, through the lens of motherhood. Thus, I have chosen that as the main touchpoint for my identity project. I wanted to incorporate the baby food jars that I have been collecting as my daughter began eating. Combining these with the idea of how motherhood now sheds light on everything that I see about myself, I decided to created a chandelier. The process was interesting as I tried different techniques, christmas lights v. candles, chains v. wire, paint v. clear, two tiers v. three, etc. In the end I settled on a very simple form with two tiers, held together by wire, and lit with tealights.