Special Edition Blog #2 The New Museum

ALL IMAGES ARE GOING TO BE DISCUSSED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM (1ST 2ND 3RD ETC.)

Craft:

1st Piece:

Paint on canvas, random Colors.

2nd Piece:

Paint on canvas, random Colors.

3rd Piece:

Paint on canvas, random Colors.

4th Piece:

Charcoal sketch on white Canvas.

Concept:

1st Piece:

The concept here is once again a depiction of paint splattered on a canvas and it's in the museum so somebody thought it was art. (As I recall I made some similar paintings in first grade). This is by far my least favorite painting of all the ones that I saw in the museum.

2nd Piece:

The concept on this piece is a very black and white view of the world through the eyes of the artist showing particular attention to how random these paint splatters are.

3rd Piece:

The concept for the third piece seems to be a random collection of colors, but it's in the museum so somebody saw much more value in it than that.

4th Piece:

This piece depicts or at least to me seems to depict the Great Derpression, and the associated problems that it caused with people having to move around. It also seems to show that the scene is taking place in a very rural area.

Composition:

1st Piece: This piece was composed of a white canvas and lots of shades of red and blue paint were "Thrown" at the canvas when the artist had a bad day. Also some yellow and orange was used.

2nd Piece:

This was lots of black and white paint also thrown at the canvas when the artist had nothing better to do.

3rd Piece:

It is hard to tell what was supposed to be happening in this painting but I can see that one of the biggest colors that was used on this mostly virgin canvas was red particularly running in a near diagonal from the lower left corner to the upper right corner.

4th Piece:

This piece was composed probably by taking a photograph and then sketching the scene using charcoal and of all the art in the modern section this is the piece that really resonated with me because of it's connection to a bleak time in history.

Special Edition Blog #1 The Old Museum

ALL IMAGES ARE GOING TO BE DISCUSSED FROM TOP TO BOTTOM (1ST 2ND 3RD ETC.)

Craft:

1st Artwork:

Oil On Canvas

2nd Artwork:

Oil On Canvas

3rd Artwork:

Oil On Panel (?)

Concept:

1st Artwork:

The concept in this piece is a style common to europe in the later 1700's and is designed to evoke a more modern version of the "sophisticated" views of the time about the supernatural. It looks plain scary if you ask me, those eyes evoke a sense of demonic possession that I haven't seen before quite like this.

2nd Artwork:

The concept in this piece is one that illustrates a scene and is another style common to the 1700's. It depicts a town square and is a good example of these types of works.

3rd Artwork:

The third artwork depicts two angels (I suppose they resemble Cupid) kissing. This is a common concept of the 1500's that try to make religious connections to the modern world.

Composition:

1st Artwork:

This piece used brush strokes that caused the work to become blurry and probably adds to the demonic look of this possessed soul.

2nd Artwork:

This piece is slightly clearer as a good artwork and uses the Oil on canvas method of painting to illustrate a scene in a 1700's town square and I feel that it does so very effectively.

3rd Artwork:

This piece is an illustration of how society has become more secular as compared to 500 years ago and is also an illustration of the mid-evil view on love and spirits and is effective when it comes to illustrating this view of these "other-worldly" creatures.

Stocks 4/23/10

DOW Up 69.99 Up 0.63% to 11,204.28
NASDAQ Up 11.08 Up 0.44% to 2530.15
S&P 500 Up 8.61 Up 0.71% to 1217.28
OIL Up $1.42 to $85.12

My Stocks Up $1174.70 Up 0.42% to $284,054.40
Johns Stocks Up $1611.27 Up 0.59% to $276,442.35
Indian Trails Investment Club Stocks Up $990.76 Up 0.62% to $159,716.40
FORD Up $0.01 to $14.21

BIG Movers:
COF Up $1.18 to $46.73
DHR Up $1.02 to $85.41
GILD Up $1.08 to $41.67
GOOG DOWN $2.07 to $544.99
IR DOWN $1.90 to $37.10
SYK Up $1.17 to $58.89

Ratings 4/23/10

Ratings For Thursday 4/22/10:
5p FOX NEWS Glenn Beck (413)
6p FOX NEWS Special Report W/ Bret Baier (403)
7p FOX NEWS Fox Report W/ Shepard Smith (334)
8p FOX NEWS The O'Reilly Factor (720)
9p FOX NEWS Hannity (484)
10p FOX NEWS On The Record W/ Greta Van Susteren (346)
11p FOX NEWS The O'Reilly Factor (370)
Total-Day FOX NEWS (314)
Prime FOX NEWS (517)

Sports 4/22/10

Detroit Tigers 5 Los Angeles Angels 4 NOW 9-7

MLB:
Double Digits Club:
Tampa Bay 10 Chicago White Sox 2
Milwaukee 20 Pittsburgh 0

NBA Playoffs:
Chicago 108 Cleveland 106 CLEVELAND LEADS 2-1
Oklahoma City 101 Los Angeles Lakers 96 LOS ANGELES LAKERS LEAD 2-1
Phoenix 108 Portland 89 PHOENIX LEADS 2-1

NHL Playoffs:
Philadelphia 3 New Jersey 0 PHILADELPHIA WINS SERIES 4-1
Ottawa 4 Pittsburgh 3 F/3OT PITTSBURGH LEADS SERIES 3-2
Chicago 3 Nashville 0 SERIES TIED 2-2
San Jose 5 Colorado 0 SAN JOSE LEADS 3-2

Week 15

Craft:

For my revisions I used the Stroke tool under "effects" to create the outline around the text which worked properly on two of the three posters, the problem with the middle one as to with the colors mixing badly.

Concept:

The concept is an attempt to make a promotional poster for my radio program on WXAV.

Composition:

I used a stock background in photoshop, modified the text to have stroke (an outline really) around the text. I also took the boxes and matched the colors to the top and bottom boxes and then alternated the colors and colored the text to correspond to the boxes.

Style:

My style was called "center-radient" and I used the boxes to attempt to draw in the readers eye, I feel that if I had used arrows it may have worked better.

Week 14

Craft:

I created these posters by making the squares on the outside using the paint tool by making a box and then filling it in with color. I wanted to try to draw the readers eye into the text.

Concept:

The concept here is to try to get people to listen to my radio program on WXAV.

Composition:

I used a stock photoshop background, and combimed it with standard (default) text and then I added the colored squares using the paint tool.

Style:

The style that I used is called "Center-Radient" because of the way the squares draw the eye into the center of the piece.

Week 13

Craft:

I started with a stock background in photoshop and overlayed text over the top of that and used drew the squares on the sides to form a border by hand.

Concept:

The concept that I was trying to employ is one where the squares on the outside of the image draw the viewers eyes into the text.

Composition:

I liked the way the squares on the outside turned out in their three different color patterns. I will have to change the background pattern and the text color to bring everything together.

Style:

The style that I used is called "Center-Radient" because of the way the squares draw the eye into the center of the piece.

Week 12

Interestingly all the critiques and sort of ideas for what I was trying to express with my "sandwich train" collage were basically along the lines of a sandwich (or piece of bread) riding on a train. As such this was exactly what I was going for so my message was communicated quite effectively.

Week 11

Changes (Image is located on week 10):

I did not make any changes as it seemed painfully obvious what I was trying to accomplish. The critiques I received were mostly related to the experimental version of the image. It was understood that the image depicted a sandwich riding a train. This was exactly the message that I wished to communicate with this piece.

Week 10

Craft:
Dislike: The filter on the altered piece was not well received in many of the critiques.

Like: They did like how good the photoshoppin gwas and tended to like the color scheme that I used.

Concept:
Like/Dislike: The concept was apparently unclear to nearly everybody, so there were no positives for the concept.

Composition:
Like: Some liked the sandwich and some others liked the color of the train and the combination from the original photo.

Dislike:
The filter was disliked widely with one reviewer saying it looked "Pee Colored".

What I intend to do to fix this:
I intend to modify the car and the sandwich so that it looks like the sandwich is a hobo riding the open rails. Hopefully by giving it a face and classic hobo garb it will appear that it is an abstract representation of an entirely possible condition for any person. This would have been especially true 60+ years ago.

Week 9

Craft: I wanted to show something that was both subtle and impossible. A sandwich riding a train in the middle of nowhere in winter seemed to fit the bill pretty well.

Concept: This the finished version of the layered collage assignment.

Composition: I used the layering methods demonstrated in class to combine the shots from the previous posts (week 7). What was most challenging in this shot was to show the sandwich lined up in a way that made it feel as though it was a part of the scene. I attempted to accomplish this by lining the sandwich up with the side sill on the top of the car.

Week 8

Craft: I wanted to show something that would ordinarily make no sense and do so in a way that was subtle.

Concept: This is the rough version of the collage we were to compose for this assignment.

Composition: I combined the two photo's from last week (week 7, sandwich and railcar). I wanted to line up the bottom of the sandwich with the top sill of the railcar. I had to attempt to find a spot that made sense without making the edge of the sandwich stand out in a way that looked cut and pasted. I then deleted some of the sandwich making it look as though a bite had been taken out of it because it would not line up as well as I had hoped. By deleting this part of the image I was able to make the sandwich fit more smoothly in the collage.

Week 7

Craft: The images were taken over the course of a couple of weeks (the railcar over spring break and the sandwich just before spring break).

Concept: I wanted to find to images that could be combined in such a way that they would become odd, impossible but in a very subtle way.

Composition: For the railcar picture it is actually a pretty well done grab shot as the train is going by. The sandwich was taken in my dorm room in artificial light (you can see the shine on the counter). It was a random shot as I was trying to find object that I could use for the collage.

Week 6

Craft: First I used the standard idea that we were using of leveling off the images and organizing them in a way that achieved a reasonable balance. But in the first one you can see that the Images become uneven on the bottom. Then I got the idea for an upside down pyramid which I will discuss in the Composition section.

Composition: I made my Pyramid by using a 4-3-2-1 system to make it. I also put the images in order to keep the cohesion of the 10-step process.

Concept: The concept here was to organize the 10-step process so as to be able to both draw out the images and to keep the 10-steps in order.

Week 5

Concept:

The Idea behind this image is to show that without the microwave there would be no Macaroni And Cheese.

Craft:

I took the image from the previous post and as instructed emphasized the microwave, as the most important image.

Composition:

As can be seen in the Image the microwave is the most important thing in the image. I emphasized it because of it's importance to completing this process. Since the Macaroni And Cheese requires cooking the microwave is the most essential part of the image. I discovered as a result that when you shoot an LED screen it's best to have the flash off so as to not "blind" the screen from showing anything to the viewer (Time etc.).

Week 4

Craft:
In order to make this Image first I had to take the picture then transfer them to the computer and into photoshop. Then I had to put them onto the same document and block them together. They had to be specifically sized and then they had to be arranged in a specific way. The way they are layed out starting at the top left an moving to the right you can move across and read the entire process for making the Macaroni And Cheese.

Concept:
The concept here was to show the 10-step process for making macaroni and cheese in such a way that it would be possible to duplicate even without any words.

Composition:
The 10 step process needs to be shown in such a way that it is easy to understand and to do this I used a philosophy that incorporates the least amount of "background noise" as possible into the shots.

Week 3

Craft
I laid out the neccesary components, and began going through the steps to make the Macoroni & Cheese.

Concept
The photo represents step 10 in the 10 step process to make Macoroni & Cheese.

Composition
By using the empty counter to frame the cup of Macoroni & cheese I was able to accomplish 3 things. The first is the elimination of destracting "clutter" in the shot that takes away from the subject. The second is that I was able to get the best lighting possible for the shot, considering that my camera did not arrive until around dusk and I had no choice but to shoot with elctricity being my light source. Third, by making the shot at a shallow angle I was able to enhance the illumination of my subject.

Week 2

10 Steps to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich:

1. Take peanut butter, bread and jelly out.

2. Take lid off peanut butter.

3. Stick knife in peanut butter.

4. Spread peanut butter on bread.

5. Put lid on peanut butter.

6. Take lid off jelly.

7. Stick knife in jelly.

8. Spread jelly on bread.

9. Put items away

10. Close bread on itself.

Week 1: The Introduction

Name: Christopher Duva

Age: 20

Hometown: Ann Arbor, Michigan

Hobbies: Being on the radio (WXAV) and sleeping.

Reason For Taking This Course: Credit.... Everyone needs credit.....

Year: Sophomore

Major: Communications.....

Drives: A Ford Crown Victoria better known as the civilian version of a police car.

Goals for the course: Pass the course.