Art Show Summary

When visiting Anna Petlick's art show I had a few reactions. Anna's pieces focused on jewerly making, particularly broaches and earrings. Her work consisted of what she called puffs. They were gold colored mushroom looking puffs that she said represented a very nature like design. She was trying to express how today, modern, manmade structures are overtaking nature. She wanted to emphasis this throughout her show. The piece that stands out the most to me was the necklace and shoulder piece. It was probably the largest single piece of jewelry and I thought the two sided piece, one side being very precisely made and the other being the poofs, really represented the point of the whole show well. I thought her idea and her material choice, plastic bags, was interesting and well used.
The other pieces also on display were very interesting as well. There were paintings that showed a variety of things, these were well done, but the least memorable part of the show. Probably the strangest pieces were a short video piece that  showed a girl eating an avocado, and a box you could put your hand into in order to purify yourself. I'm not sure what the point of those two pieces were, but they were interesting ad memorable to say the least.

Final Animation

This is my final animation. My teammate and I thought that it conveyed our meaning quite well. I only wish we had more time to complete it.

Camaro Boy

In this short film, Kershaw uses different storytelling techniques to tell the story of his first car. When telling the story of my first car, I would use slightly different techniques. There are not nearly as many photos for my car, so I would rely more on animation and narration in order to create my story.

If I directed a film

As someone who already directs, I tend to tell stories about self worth and learning to accept oneself for who they are. Most of my films deal with love, either finding it, or trying to overcome a past one. I have made films all over the spectrum however, from horror, to sci-fi, to inspirational, to psa. I don't really mind making any of them, it's all about taking a creative spin on them!

Flash Animation Artist statement and Mind Map

For our flash animation assignment, we wanted to look at what home was, and how we defined home. Our main idea based around the concept that home is not where you are, but where you feel like you are accepted. We also chose to tell this story using a theme of nature because we felt that it helped reinforce the idea that home is not based on a specific location or building, but in those who surrounded you. The idea of telling this story using a polar bear came from the simplicity of the color scheme needed to tell the story. A polar bear would provide a simple black and white character that could be manipulated easily. Since our idea revolved around feeling accepted, we decided that initially the polar bear should be an outcast for some reason. At first the idea of giving him a black spot came to mind, as it would give a big visual representation of why the other polar bears wouldn’t accept him, while the pandas would. In the end, we decided to make him chubby. It was a more subtle way that would lead to the end result we were looking for while allowing us to make more statements on the question of what home is. We felt that having him first try and draw on his spots would show how home is a place where you are accepted for truly being yourself, and how trying to force yourself to fit in does not help. The scene with the bird was added into the piece to try and show how when looking for a place to belong and call home, we have a tendency to try and latch onto anyone or anything. It showed our desire to have someone to care for us. It also provided a nice example of how you can be liked by others without being truly accepted or really feeling that you belong with them. This is why the chubby polar bear ends up being happy when he first meets the bird, but the bird still flies away. The bird is fine with the polar bear, but has his own place to call home. Another way to put it is that even if you are accepted for who you are, there is a kind of mysterious factor that goes into being able to call a place home. Even though the bird is accepted by the polar bear, it is not considered his home. We started and ended our project with the polar bear appearing to be lazy because we thought it was a cute and somewhat humorous way to provide an example of being accepted. There were some issues in making the polar bear chubby enough to stand out, which is something we would try and further work on if given more time or if given the opportunity to reconceptualize this particular piece. Overall, we felt the various ideas and the overall meaning of our piece was maintained throughout and we are excited about the end result.

Ethics

When thinking about what is ethical in our culture vs others, we have to first examine what we as american decide is ethical. We tend to give a lot of freedom when it comes to how content is used and how it is displayed to us. Terms and Conditions when on a website are written so elaborately and subtly, that we are never meant to understand them. Ethics have also become more loose when you look at places like the movie industry. Very few things are now considered taboo for movies. Our money centered system lead to this. When money becomes a priority, ethics gets thrown out the window very frequently.