Artist Statement and Final Image

As I sit down to begin thinking about this narrative project, I'm struck by how completely unsure I am.  The ways in which I can manipulate imagery, the images themselves that I can use, and a narrative of some form are all variables that I have yet to pin down.  My favorite projects were Micro4 and Micro5, if I could figure out some way to incorporate those then that would be excellent.  Not really sure how to turn that into a narrative though.

Finally figured out how to tell a story, although I should add that I THINK I know how to share a narrative with the class. The first way would be to tell the educational story of myself, and twist it to end up as starving college student ends up with superpower and changes the world as in Micro5.  The other would be to show the 'life' of an engine.  Take photos of a block or powertrain at various stages in the production and work cycle to portray just what it is that these man-made steel hearts are capable of.  The more I type the more I prefer this over the first option.


I found the conclusive inspiration for my final project in a rather unlikely place, the a letter adorning the side of a Yuengling can.  As the letter from Dick Yuengling (President of the company) went on to discuss the tradition and history of the company, it struck me that prior to Art252 I had no real experience with image editing whatsoever.  Therefore, all my work is a sort of history of my growth and accomplishments.... not that I will be dethroning DaVinci anytime in the near future.

Having a concrete idea of what the main thought of my final project is, I began to try and decide how to represent this 'history' that I know have.  Originally I planned on using sections and images out of each piece as links back to the piece as a whole.  However, I began to play around with GIMP and found that utilizing a whole canvas to show the pieces in their entirety looked infinitely better and didn't require any massive previous knowledge to comprehend.

To conclude, I sought to manipulate the images to show not only progression and differentiation between the images, but to also convey the journey of my work.  I began with a simple photo of my hand, followed by projects 2 and 3 which I judged to be more of a demonstration of my technical abilities.  Project 4 was where I felt like I started to feel comfortable enough with the software that I could venture in expressing myself.  This was done through to differing perspectives of my place on campus and how no one could see it like I do.  Project 5 was just plain fun.  I always wanted to make some poster like this and never had the knowledge or tools to do so.  With permission from the instructor to be as corny as I saw necessary, I attempted to be as straight up as possible and flirt with the absurd and completely nonsensical; I believe I succeeded.  The final project was in contrast to Micro5 in that I was an interpretation of a random object and was entirely personal.  Ridicule from my interpretation was impossible as no one could ever see it like I do because they are not me, even if we were to sit down and vocalize the same thoughts word for word.

The connect-a-dot overlay to this image was not at all planned.  As I leaned back and looked at the tornado in the background sort of blending into the motion blur of the images, it struck me that to anyone else there's no logical linkage or order between this images.  Thoughts of the old backseat road trip game from my child years came to mind; seemed straightforward and readily understood so I utilized it.  This was easily the most difficult project due to the lack of guidelines - aside from the order to stay out of jail - but I enjoyed it.  It has become a showcase through narrative for a full 10 weeks of my thoughts and work.

Response to Carver

This short story was layered and kinda strange at first.  Indifference and jealousy dominates the story in the beginning; told by the husband who chooses to leave the officer nameless and direct condescending comments towards the life of Robert and his initially unwelcome entry into his life.  However, the story takes a turn when the dope is brought out and his wife falls asleep.  In this drug induced stage, he and Robert become 'linked' through the explanation of the cathedral.  Here the husband is finally able to transcend his norms and biases he originally possessed and 'see' from the eyes of a blind man, as shown by his thought "But I had my eyes closed.  I thought I'd keep them that way for a little longer. I thought it was something I ought to do." 

This story seems to have been designed to show the transformation of an individual through the catalyst of a non-desired experience.  Originally I had issues with all the what I believed to be superfluous information about his wife's life in the beginning, but I believe Carver did this to help the reader see how self-centered and indifferent the husband really was.

MicroProject 6

My action words were CHIP and ROTATE.  I will admit as the list was read aloud I really desired flying and fire so I could take a photo of a burning roll of toilet paper flying through the air.  As I tried to think of how to represent my words I went through everything from literal interpretation such as chipping off an ice block to rotating the arms on a clock. 
In the end I decided to display rotation through all 6 faces of a rubix cube.  This is not a typical everyday item for most but it is for me.  This is not from my supremely awesome intellect where I can solve it in 4 minutes, but from getting frustrated and using it as a paper weight on my office desk after I solved just the one side.
I believed the rubix cube to be unseen for the most part, outside of the short episodes of its existence where people attempt to solve the riddle, these cubes usually sit on shelves with only a limited portion facing the occupants of a room. 
As for documentation, I originally contemplated a short video clip of the cube rotating across the desk.  However, I decided against this when I felt it would look too much like 'rolling' and my lack of camera stand resulted in a one-handed video camera with shaky footage that made me slightly nauseous to watch.  The still camera images are much like how it is presented in the world.
Lastly, I attempted to sort of interpret the cube.  I left the solved, orange side of the cube the largest and brightest side in the picture with a blank background to offset it.  This orange sides represents our never ending desire to solve and do everything perfectly in life, and instead we fail to see the jumble that life really is and that this jumble is what makes it life in the first place.  The other 5 sides that I darkened out are the 'jumble' of life and darkened; despite how they maintain positions in front of the orange side, they are not the focus of the life journey/audience. 

MicroProject 5

For me the most vexing stage of this project was deciding what power I wanted to possess.  Started with wanting to fly, then read people's minds, ability to talk to inanimate objects, then I realized something; life is one big experience.  There are so many things I want to do and it hit me that one major factor stood in the way - money.  So, the ability to create a 100,000 stack of $100 bills when I strike a certain pose (as demonstrated above) seemed like the perfect ability. 

This ability allows me to cover all the necessary life expenses and, therefore, negates all reason to hold a traditional full-time job.  With all this newly realized time I intend to use the results of my power and live life to the fullest.  Each picture here represents a small segment of that life.  I would start by continuing my education (after I pay off OSU of course) through the culinary experiences of food and drink as represented by the beer mug.  Develop an appreciation for beer and eat my way around the world.  The shooting trophy in the bottom left signifies my desired goal of becoming exceedingly proficient with a broad range of firearms across all applications.  Ever since middle school my friends and I have talked about entering the Baja 1000, hence the Mopar car flying through the air top left.  My skills with my dirtbike are never enough to satisfy me, so my superpower would enable me to find the instructors necessary to elevate my skills to the desired level.  For me the snowboard is a personally irritating source of discussion.  The majority of my mates can snowboard, but as I played hockey growing up I naturally break out the skis during winter.  I don't go but two or three times a season and instead of spending them busting up my face on the snow with the board I just continue skiing.  A season long trip to Colorado would be in the cards to enable me to achieve proficiency; financed by my superpower.  I'm a fan of the old-school technology that was present for the World Wars and I love flying.  I would take my ability and purchase a P51 Mustang prop fighter to fly at my leisure.  Lastly, the truck.  As a self admitted bushwhacker (Australian equivalent to country boy), all of these life experiences follow a stop at closest dealership and truck chop shop.  I would take the above 1 ton Ford frame and body, sway in completely modified and built Cummins, bolt on an Allison transmission, and lastly install Mattracks in place of tires.

This is my superpower = the ability to live life on my own terms and enjoy it as much as possible.  Life is short.

Response to Wallace

This was easily my favorite blog assignment that I have read so far this quarter, and I say that out of sincere interest and not ass-kissing for being sick Monday and missing class.  From the very beginning Wallace is engaging with his illustrative story about the fish and water, then leads into using that required commencement component to help illustrate the 'norms' of life and how they change us as individuals.  Instead he focuses on talking to these graduates about "teaching you how to think".  He diffuses the situation by directly addressing the insult that this is typically seen as, and now with a sense of camaraderie he launches into a speech about becoming well-adjusted and viewing things as they ought to be seen and not as we see them and explains his point of view in a readily digestible format. 

For me, I loved page seven.  Leading from his early narrative about religion (I am an Atheist for all intents and purposes), he finally revealed worship. 

"This, I submit, is the freedom of a real education, of learning how to be well adjusted.  You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn't.  You get to decide what to worship."

 Wallace's perspective on worship made complete sense to me, I had never thought to break it down as he had and rationalize it in that way, but I lack any argument with his positioning.  The issue with mankind as an individual is keeping this truth ever present instead of slipping into auto pilot where we become the center of our environment.  He even went so far as to call out that this worship is a subtle thing, slipping further into our being day by day, and therefore we need to be selective about what thoughts we allow to cross our consciousness. Life really is an an educational process that we don't lay the final mark with any of the letters of the alphabet, but with how we live life through or ability to be well-adjusted and open to the possibilities instead of closed off and self-centered.