raymakesartthings

[raymakesartthings]

The book Sabrina & Corrina was incredibly beautiful and moving book. One that I really loved and honestly made me tear up a little bit was the story titled “All Her Names”. In it the main character goes on a nighttime graffiti adventure with her ex boyfriend after she finds out that she is pregnant with her husband. It’s a story about how scary and confusing life is and how you never really know where you’re going. I decided to do a drawing to show the different elements of the story. There’s two pregnancy tests for her two positive pregnancy's, etc. At the end of the story she thinks back to a moment when she was nineteen and she was out camping with her much older husband, and she looks out at the numerous stars and can’t find the north star. She remembers her father telling her if she’s ever lost that she should look for it, and when she tells her husband that she can’t see it he points it out implying she just can’t see it because she’s drunk. Then she lies telling him that she found it. This part was so beautiful and sad because this sweet 19 year old girl was already so lost in the world. I represented that moment by having the night sky coming out of the spray cans and the fire is lit by the santo candles that’s mentioned earlier in the story. The fire casts a warm glow across the drawing to show how that one moment stretched across the rest of the story. I loved this story and the rest of the book and I’m so excited to read more of her work.

[raymakesartthings]

Although I cannot completely relate to all these stories, I did find myself seeing some relatable parts. The story that really hooked me was honestly the first story titled “Sugar Babies”. I was really interested because I kept thinking about how I was adopted as a child, and I kept making connections to this feeling of abandonment that Sierra felt with her mother. When I was a child, and did not fully comprehend my adoption, I was very upset with my biological family; I felt like they abandoned me just as Sierra felt, and I was angry at them about it. It’s a horrible feeling as child, to believe that you were abandoned. It’s scarring almost. In fact, to this day I’ll admit to sometimes feeling like this still. My final project is a photo-shopped image of a concept idea of abandonment. I figured I would start with a background that showed this feeling of abandonment, so I decided to choose a photograph of part of the ruins in Detroit, Michigan. I used shattered windows as a collage part of this image to reinforce this sort-of lonely/abandoned feeling to the work. Then lastly, I decided to use the image of playing cards blowing around aimlessly as a metaphor for something along the lines of “being discarded”.

[raymakesartthings]

I found this project both fun and challenging. As an artist I don’t like to be involved in the viewing of the art, but this was definitely more fun than I expected. I focused on the monotony of the recent few months, and because I work in the service industry I work almost everyday and we’re busier than ever. The last few months it feels like all I do is get up, do school work, go to my job, and then rinse, wash, and repeat. That's what I wanted to capture in this video. I struggled with portraying night and day because my blinds fail at blocking light in the first place but I think the point gets across. I am not the most confident person, especially in front of a camera so it was cool to push some boundaries with this piece.

[raymakesartthings]

To Work (1st)

To Quit (2nd)

To Draw (3rd)

To Write 

To Live

To Eat

To Drink

To Think

To Lie

To Sleep

To Create

To Paint 

To Fall

To Love

To Find

To Lose

To Walk

To Begin

To Join

To Search

[raymakesartthings]

4D Reading Response 4

The first reading was a very fun read because it went through the history of performance art and the different people and times that utilized it as a tool. One of my favorite things that it said was that performance art historically has been used as a tool to break stagnance in the art world. People who rejected the current norms found their voices amplified by this form of avante garde art. It was also cool to read about how performance art changed through the introduction and growth of technology.

In the second article I was amazed by their cage performances. It was such a powerful statement about racism and culturalism, especially in the art world. The way that they went about it was so interesting, dancing, speaking in different languages, and even showing their genitals for money is mind blowing. It’s a really disturbing look into a very real part of western history, showing “native” people off in cages that is. That's the power of performance art; if you saw a painting of a man in a cage it’s pretty powerful, but seeing a man in an actual cage dancing for money it is so much more impactful. 

I myself struggle with the idea of doing performance art. I’ve never been a overly confident person, especially when it comes to performing, but I think that it is such an incredible and commendable form of art.

[raymakesartthings]

I had a lot of trouble thinking of a concept idea that I would focus on in the super cut project, and I was thinking about art and what it means to me so that’s what I ended up focusing on. If you search “What is Art?” into Youtube there’s literally thousands of videos that all try and tackle the age old question. As I started watching them I started to think they were really funny so I made a supercut that has funny and serious parts to try and capture that. I think that art is such an impossible thing to define and it really comes down to the individual. Overall I’m very happy with my supercut and this is something I’ll probably mess around with again. Bonus shot of my roommate watching me make the video at the end. YOU! YOU'RE ART!

[raymakesartthings]

This was a fun one to make, and I’m pretty proud of the final result.

Original video: BRONSON: Keep Moving https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grYhC0-fSMo

Original Audio: Rezz and Yultron: Hell on Earth https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr-6qxQcHjY

[raymakesartthings]

Time is, in my opinion, one of the most difficult elements to describe in art, especially 2D art. When it comes to 4D and even 3D the prospect becomes a little more doable but still difficult, and that's why I enjoyed the readings so much. They made something that seems so unreachable like time seem like something that is within reach. In the chapter from the text book they give many examples of implied time in the arts and even in the commercial world. One that I particularly enjoyed was the Bunny story by Chris Wedge. It’s incredible that it took seven years to make and only runs for seven minutes, but it tells so much in that amount of time. I also really like the article Projection: vanishing and becoming, because it connected the worlds of religion, phycology, history, and art so wonderfully and skillfully. It was a really fun and interesting read. All in all I feel like I am closer to understanding how to show time and motion in an easier to reach way. Maybe not in my 2D works quite yet but certainly in the upcoming project.

[raymakesartthings]

The Loop was an interesting and very different project to create. I had a hard time thinking of a theme or congruent concept that could unify all of them. So I started by just watching lots of videos to try and find inspiration. I love how certain images tell such a wonderful or sad story with such a few images, so I decided to focus on creating short GIFs that are emotive and tell a narrative. This is hard considering that they’re 3-5 seconds long, but overall I think that it worked out decently well. I also made a couple pretty clean loops, which I’m really proud of.

#theloop #gifs #4d art #msudenver

[raymakesartthings]

Technical Exercise 2: Making Mini-Cinema

Oumi Janta || Berlin Street Skater Original Source || https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STMZsfAhxwc

I took a small clip of the original video and then copied it and reversed it to make it a continuous (and.. as seamless as possible…) looking loop.

[raymakesartthings]

I actually really enjoyed making GIFs, and of course I wanted to make a weird one. Enjoy!

Source Opiuo: Ginger Lizard music video

#minicinema

[raymakesartthings]

I never viewed GIFs as more than just little joys of the internet, sometimes beautiful, but mostly very strange and even more hilarious. It’s amazing to read these articles and realize that they’re so much more than that. I had never stopped to consider that GIFs could be auctioned off just like other art, I never really thought of them as art at all. It’s fun to think about and to see GIFs in an entirely different light. I’m actually really excited to make some GIFs for myself, I think that it will be a highly challenging but fun project.

[raymakesartthings]

In Flight

In the past I have liked to focus on birds for subjects because I think that they are very amazing creatures; I have always been in love with their ability to fly. I believe that the birds themselves, along with their ability to fly, have many symbolic meanings. Birds have been used as symbols for escape, freedom, and even death. In general, I think that birds are great for expressing different parts of someone’s life, and I believe that these birds are an expression of my own.

In Flight is an experiment of digital collage artworks using the motion of birds to imply time. I was first inspired by Giacomo Balla’s Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash to incorporate motion, to then imply time; and later inspired by Constantin Brâncuși Bird in Space, to use birds as my main subject and image. I thought that by showing motion within the artwork would ultimately imply movement in time as well. I decided to use a very minimalist approach to further strengthen these views of these bird figures flying, landing, and their movement in general. I also decided to take inspiration from the artist John Baldessari, by covering up the actual figure of the bird by using a solid color. I believe by doing all of this, a viewer can focus less on what the bird actually looks like and instead focus on how the bird is positioned, the form of the figure, and the overall composition of the piece; which would further reinforce this concept and theme of motion and thus implied time. Within the three images, I have tried to use either - space and size, repeating patterns, or positioning and posture of the figures to create this sense of implied time and movement within the piece.

[raymakesartthings]

Remember Implied time collage

[raymakesartthings]

This project, “Portraits of Tomorrow”, explores the connection between identity, nature, and time. As we are natural beings exploring the inherently surreal world of humanity, there are often amazing and disturbing moments that define our duality. The human forms matched with natural plants and insects whisper of our existence and demise. The bright colors and natural greys hint at the end. Are we natural beings or are we more? Is there more to us then decay or not? I started this process by looking at classic portraits and re-imaging them without the pure human element. Connecting classic portraits with natural decay. I tried to have my process be my concept by starting with a human image and then taking it away piece by piece.

[raymakesartthings]

Disappearing Acts: “A Leash for Your Imaginary Friends” by Ariella Chipps

Does your imaginary friend long for you when you are away? Take them with you everywhere you go with the revolutionary lease and harness. Register your imaginary friend as a service friend and take them to the coffee shop and grocery store! Show off your imaginary friend to your real friends! Never worry about your imaginary friend running off or getting lost on your outings. Imaginary friends need fresh air and exercise too!

(Google Images edited for the soul purpose of archival practice and exercising creativity by the deletion of key elements of composition: Google search: animals on leash)

[raymakesartthings]

Disappearing Acts: “Normalizing the Mask Mandate..?”

Photos cut from popular fashion magazine Marie Claire, (Volume 26-Issue12 and Volume 27-Issue 3) and photographed. Analog version of TECHNICAL exercise. 

Will mask wearing ever be normal? “Smile with your eyes,” -Tyra Banks