SHAPES

Restructuring Architecture

For our project we had to research an artist and a movement.  My artist was Lebbeus Woods my movement was Russian Constructivism.

Lebbeus Woods

Woods was educated at Purdue University School of Engineering, and University of Illinois Architecture.He has many different architectural exhibits all over the world.  And is considered a international artist.  Woods is not only known for his amazing architecture but also is known around the world as a scholar, lecturer and publisher of the art in the architectural world.
He has many pieces scattered across the U.S. his work has been shown at New York City’s Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, Cooper-Hewitt National Design, San Francisco museum of modern art and many other art museums.

The majority of his work deals with the design of systems in crisis or chaos.
His designs are very politically charged, and his art looks at the world through different visions of reality.  Woods also likes to examine the idea of cause and effect.  For example in some of his pieces he demonstrates how a city was before a tragic event and then show through architecture how that idea is expressed.  He trained as an architect, but in 1976 turned to theory, experiment and most notably to his signature sketches, searing renditions in colored pencil and ink.  He draws a world where buildings ignore the expected traditions. Windows have no sills, openings have no doors, roofs do not enclose.  I feel like this has to do with our project because a person has to look at something from a different perspective. This is interesting because he was originally an architect but later became known for his sketches and his art pertaining to architecture.

Woods’ work was not only inspiring to the architectural world, but also in the world of design and concept.  I feel that his style and ideas are very relevant to our project in terms of how shapes work together making a visually stimulating image.

Russian Constructivism

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Constructivism was an artistic and architectural movement that originated in Russia from 1919 to 1940.The idea of Russian Constrtivism is that art exists for social purposes, and was used after the 1917 revolution to educate the public using art.  This type of art is considered minimal and based on a series of shapes or objects broken down into a simplistic depiction of the object at hand.Overall I feel that the theme and and the shape distribution is a good start or basis of what our project should be.  Architectural elements are also incorporated into the background of these pieces which help balance out the composition.

Digiscape

Artist Statement
My piece is about the idea of scale, and how scale differs depending on your own universe.  Us as humans live in a scale where mountains are considered very large and bugs are considered very small.  On an even larger scale the universe is infinitely big and germs are so small that one cannot even see them without magnification.  For my digiscape I wanted to merge all of those worlds making scale no longer the issue.  The issue rather is the beauty that everything in our universe possesses, and how they exist together.
In terms of the visual components that bring my piece to represent the idea that I wanted to show; there are a number of different aspects that represent scale and perspective.  For example, when examining the wings of the butterflies in my piece they are actually made up of different landscapes.  I did this because a butterfly’s wing is something that would be considered small and insignificant, but when placing it with an immaculate sunset it all of the sudden gives depth and a sense of scale to that object.  Manipulating something that has seemingly no meaning and then manipulating it so it has a lot of meaning really changes the overall definition of that object all together.  And that was my overall goal with the butterflies
Another aspect of my digiscape piece is how I chose to make the two figures in the foreground look as if they were drawn.  I did this because a drawing in general can vary in size depending on how the artist wants to portray a certain figure.  Therefore, the choice to show the figures as sketches rather than actual images changes the context of those figures in terms of scale and content.  The image could be seemingly huge or very microscopic, and that is for the viewer to decide.
In my digiscape I wanted the viewer to be able to take different aspects from my piece.  With the scale and the layout it is almost as if the viewer is sitting in the back seat of the vehicle being driven.  This was a conscious decision because I wanted to viewer to place themselves and their scale into this piece as well.  I feel that in art it is important for the viewer to find a sense of “at home” within a work.  I tried to do this by using perspective and foreground.
Overall in my piece I want the idea of scale to be questioned manipulated and explored.  In essence we are always going to be bigger than something, and also much smaller than something else.

Finished piece

Other ideas I played around with.

Sketches

Inspirational Arists Continued

Jean Zapata

Jean Zapata is an artist who is based out of Columbia.  The reason that I chose her to be one of my inspirational artist is for a number of different reasons.  The first reason that I chose her is because she encorporates drawing and digital manipulation.  She first draws out the idea of what she would like to project and then she scans a number of those different drawings in and manipulates them digitally.  In terms of my piece I would be very interested in doing something like this.  Secondly, in terms of her space manipulation she uses figures that are primarily in the foreground of a piece and there is very little background distraction.  In terms of being a digital artist it is very important that one considers making sure that ones piece is not too cluttered.  Too much clutter can really skew the viewers perception of the work.  I feel that Zapata has this aspect of her work down to a science.  Thirdly,  the actual figures in her pieces are very cartoon like.  This is important and consistent with how I work because I also use “cartoon realism” in my work.  In terms of the actual figures that she uses it is important for me too see how she colors those figures and uses them.  Fourthly, I love the colors that she uses.  I feel that it is important when one is creating a work of art that the colors are consistent with one anther.  However, I also feel that it is important for one to take advantage of the color manipulation that photoshop has to offer.  I feel that Zapta does a great job with this.  For my “Digiscape” piece I would like to take bits and pieces from her work and incorporate her style with mine.

Michael Cheung

Michael Cheung is an artist who was born and raised in Hong Kong.  Cheung said that his art was influenced by both western and eastern cultures.  As a child he grew up admiring comic style characters.  In terms of what I personally like the most about his work is the small details that he includes in his animal portraits.  I also really love the content behind his paintings and find it important to include those ideals.  Cheung said that most of his art is conceptual in terms of he comes up with the concept first and then bases is art after this.  For my project I would like to develop my concept and then develop a work from that.

Digital Artists

These two images were made with the purpose of making human pictures look like japanese cartoons.  I had never seen anything like this before and it was said that he used photoshop and a bunch of other tools to really manipulate these images.  I found this images on this site,  http://shechive.com/2009/11/18/what-if-japanese-cartoons/ but I am unsure of who I am supposed to be giving proper credit  too.  I love how human and how cartoon these images look like.  I also love the theme of cartoon realism.  I may want to incorporate an aspect of this in with my digital manipulated print.

This was a digital artwork by a woman named Christine Le.  I feel like this specific piece is very relevent to our project because she used a bunch of different images to make one image.  However, my favorite part about this piece is how Le incorporated text into the somewhat landscape looking background.  Before this print i had never seen anything like this and I may want to do something like this when I make my final piece.  I also love the colors that she used.

This is a piece named “Watching the Sun” by Jean Zapata.  This is a piece that was done in photoshop.  The reason that I chose her as one of my artists is because she seems to be very good at the manipulation of color and shapes.  In this piece Zapata seems to be focusing a lot on the integration of color and how those colors work with each other.  Even though there is a lot going on there doesn’t seem to be a bunch of misinterpreted ideas, and the overall look seems pretty together.  I also like how the figure is black and white.  I feel like this really helps to make the facial expression stand out.  When I am making my print I need to make sure I consider all of these things.

This is  piece called “Save Animal” and it was done by the artist Micheal Cheung.  I really like this design because when I very first looked at it is seemed to be just a ribbon like shape.  It wasn’t until I saw the title did I realize that is was a whale.  I feel like this piece is a very good example of content within a work of art.  It is very simply done and could project a number of different ideas from this image, but with the title the viewer knows that this piece is an animal activist work.  I also like how the background just fades very simply from black to white, but it looks really nice.

Finished Wallpaper

wallpaper

Artist Statement

The idea that I want to express in my wallpaper is how a woman’s role in society has changed throughout the years.  In the Victorian era women were a lot of times defined by their appearance.  Typically women were judged by what they were wearing specifically the jewels that they adorned themselves with.  I want my wallpaper to express the idea of over abundance of jewelry.  Although my wallpaper looks like an overly “girly” print the actual idea behind it is how there is more to a woman that just what she looks like.  Having an excess of jewelry on the walls is almost highlighting and over emphasizing what women’s role in society was, and how it has changed today.  There are still issues in the feminist world, but I hope that my wallpaper will better stress and show how woman have changed overtime.  In terms of another wallpaper project in the future, I would like to stress the modern day woman (the working woman) and how much women have changed.