Outside Visit: Miami Book Fair, Destination Comics (panel discussions)

For this topic we had two choices of were to go for our outside visit, I chose to go to the book fair because it fit in my schedule and my friends were planning on going too. It was my first time at the book fair and it was ok, I don't enjoy reading so the book fair was kind of 'meh' to me. The panel I went to was the 3:00 one about Best American comics 2017, I expected this to be about actual comics that professionals or a series of people deemmed as the best. But no it was about a book series called americas best and this was the comics version. This book has a bunch of random people's comics in it. The issue I had with the panel is that the people were unorganized and awkward, they didn't even know what to say next. I did not like this visit compared to the rest. 

Topic 5, (Narrative) Paratactical Incongruencies

We got into random groups of 3 and we each got a random piece of paper with the general statements of :

• I believe in "_____________".
• I "verb" + "subject".
• The "noun" + (verb) "adjective".

For us the statements said I believe in health, the soup is cold and I F*** Aliens. For my group the last piece of paper was the funniest and yet the oddest. In our group of 3 we had to make a narrative/comic using 3 panels about our pieces of paper. I decided that we do it all about drugs and we all agreed on that. So our whole idea was that this believer of health was making a vegetable soup and added some drug chromes and when he ate it, he started imagining himself with alien chicks. 

In-Class Exercise #5: Book collaboration

     In this assignment we were to create a little narrative with a protagonist and a theme that we were given. I paired up with Adriana and our protagonist was a demon and our theme was "Revenge is a dish best served cold". The biggest challenge besides time was to create a well understood narrative. We first thought of an idea and we would then story board it. We thought of the silly idea of a demon who wanted a jacket on clearance but then someone bought it first, the demon's conscience would then tell it to do something so the next panel says 20 years later and its the demon eating the person who bought the jacket.
     It was an oddly hard assignment because of time restraints which would then hinder our rendering skills. This was also a challenge to visually narrate something without many words. Besides that it was a fun exercise.

In-Depth: Landscape

     This assignment is all about landscapes, so it could be any thing that we have explored in this topic. They wanted us to be more ambitious than before so the had specific criteria that we had to met. For 2D works we would have to make 6 pieces of a series, and that sounds pretty crazy so I picked to do the 3D assignment that must fit  24'' cubic volume. This would be the largest 3D piece I make.

      From the small works I made two 3D pieces with the exploration of clay, I liked how it was easily manipulated and could be given a great amount of details. In the small works 3D pieces, the clay allowed me to make forms that looked realistic and that is the goal I was trying to achieve in the In-Depth piece. 

      For this landscape inspired piece, I went with the idea of focusing on the smaller inhabitants of our landscapes. I focused the art piece on insects, I took creatures that are very minuscule to us and i scaled it up. I wanted the audience to really feel emerged into the piece, to get a bugs eye view. 

      The insects I included are 3 ants, 1 fly and 1 millipede. The insect's bodies are all made with grey self harding clay and once dried that were painted with acrylic paints. Some of the limbs (ant legs, antenna, and fly wings) are crafted from floral wire. For the wings of the fly, I first bent large wires to create the shape, I then got thinner wires to create the vain like structure, after I got the wire part done I then got kitchen plastic wrap and melted it over the wire to give it a see through skin look. The fiber board was painted black and then I covered it in natural top soil, reindeer moss and floral moss to give it a lively appearance.

      The lollipop was a way that I wanted to show scale in size with the bugs and a human made object. The stick of the lollipop is painted a PVC pipe, it was hollowed out and gave it a sort of manufactured lollipop feel. The actual lollipop is made of real candy, it is melted down jolly ranchers, so because of this it gives the sense of smell, taste and texture of a real lollipop. Before critique started I had the lollipop laying down, and I then found out that the 3D had to be 24'' in width, length and even height. My piece was way too short and it would not have made the cut, but the lollipop saved my piece, I sat it up and it was a full 30''. Not only did this work but Don even said that the piece benefits from the lollipop staying up.

Topic 5; Telling Stories (Narrative) Reading.

Reading:    "What Is Comics Poetry: An Essay By Alexander Rothman, Editor-In-Chief of INK BRICK"

From the option of artists that we had to choose from, I chose an image by Marion Fayolle.

After looking at all the other images on the site, this one seemed like a form of table of context for the rest of her images.The images of these characters are shown in other comics. I liked that this image had many characters but doing their own thing, like they have their own story, but are in the same room. The art style also caught my eye, it is like a simple style of human anatomy and proportion. The intriguing part is how this image and all of her others do not use text, it is able to tell the story only through the images.

Small Works #3- Calvino.

Clarice

Invisible City—Identify four different materials that convey something about the mood or tone of the Calvino City you chose. Make an exploratory work with EACH of those four materials in which you attempt to use and emphasize the material qualities to present that mood or tone to a viewer.

"Clarice, the glorious city, has a tormented history. Several times it decayed,then burgeoned again, always keeping the first Clarice as an unparalleled model of every splendor, compared to which the city's present state can only cause more sighs at every fading of the stars..."

    

Rapid Fire Material Analysis:

    The materials that were used in these art pieces are, water color, marker, black indian ink, acrylic, tinfoil, dirt, moss, clay, glass, and other organic materials. The use of clay and organic materials is to demonstrate life, especially the kind of life that would drive from the city of Clarice, Mushrooms and insects tend to live off of the decomposing which is the dilemma that is happening to Clarice. The investigation of watercolors and indian ink are to convey the mood of the city through color by using many grey and black tones.

 Rapid Fire Formal Analysis:

    The pieces have a lot of organic forms and are then contrasted by straight lines and edges. There are organic forms with the large larva and mushrooms especially that they are made of clay which is an organic material. Then with the paintings they use a lot of grey tones and also some straight line work to show the industrial aspect.

Interpretation of Contextual Referent :

    The context of material and form bring about the sense of environment that is Clarice. Clarice was very decayed and home to infestation, along with a lot of debris and ruble lying around. The materials I used such as glass, tin foil, wood, dirt, and moss are all things that could all be possibly be found in a place like Clarice. 

An Understanding of Place Through Conveyance of Mood:

     As described before, Clarice is a desolate city of decay that is covered in debris and trash. All of the pieces were to represent the harsh times of Clarice, the use of Grays and black demonstrate the mood of a dystopian society, that it is dark and upsetting. With then the mushroom piece, that was to demonstrate the decay of the city, mushrooms are decomposers along with millipedes that I also included. From decay there is life, as there is moss shown which over time will grow to demonstrate the city's rebirth. The tin box is to demonstrate something eye catching and sort of pretty, but one you lift it up it shows a grub which to a lot of people that is disgusting. When Grubs are placed in dark places they begin to transform in to their final/adult stage which is magnificent. The use of the tin box was to show that process of transformation, Clarice was one a gross city but then over time it flourished.

In class exercises #4: Landscape

      Authority

        We were asked to go out and explore the downtown area of NWSA, while doing that we are to collect a minimum of 3 objects that we find in this enviroment. In this exercise we needed to partner up, I partnered up with Adriana and we went to a field like are that isn't too far from NWSA. Adriana and I collected a large leaf, a reddish leaf, a snail shell, a large branch and a millipede.

   After returning to class with our objects, we were then to pair up to a larger group of up to 10 members. The other members of our group collected a large play kitchen designed for a child, receipts, children's toys, beer caps, some paper garbage, etc. As a group we were to collaborate and make something depicting the term that we were going to be given. Our term was Authority. It was difficult at first because we all struggled to choose an idea. Another problem was to figure out how we were going to demonstrate it, many of us that that performative would have been the best ides but in the end we didn't follow through with it and instead choose to do a writing of it. So at the very end we went with the idea that in order to succeed in life you must outgrow your childish behavior and grow into an authoritative state.

In class exercise #3: Depiction from oberservation at park or garden

"Birds EVERYWHERE, I can see them, I can hear them... The mosquitoes aren't that bad at the moment, but they are annoying"

        In this assignment we were to pair up with a partner and read each others observations. Based off of that observation we were to collaborate in an art piece. I partnered up with Adriana, we both observed natural settings and mostly focused on the animals in the environment.
         I picked her sentence about birds and she picked my sentence about mosquitoes. Based off of those sentences we chose to make something weird. From those we created a bird and mosquito hybrid. This assignment was a fun collaboration to see how others think.