Quarantine Challenge

Day One: “Lila with her own unique style” 2005 vs 2020

Day Two: Lila’s Fort

Day Three: My Custom Made Mask

I created the base structure of the mask first and then layered recycled fabric over top! I also used newspaper clippings that discuss the virus and layered them on the mask as well.

Day Four: Clothing Collage

This piece was created using strips of old recycled fabric and a LOT of gel medium. In addition to the fabric, I used an assortment of yarn and beads that I found lying around my house.

Day Five: My Research on High Wasted Jeans

High wasted jeans are obviously created out of denim. Denim is a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes underneath the warp threads. The most common type of denim is indigo denim which consists of dyed warp threads and white, untouched weft threads. Originally, denim was created using indigo dye extracted from the dried and fermented leaves of the plant Indigofera tinctoria. Today, most denim is dyed with synthetic indigo dye in order to meet the high demand for the product. With either use of dye (natural or synthetic) the fabric is dipped multiple times. The fabric can be made darker or lighter depending on the amount of times it is dipped. Most denim today is woven on a shuttleless loom but some still choose to practice the traditional method using a shuttle loom.
Jeans were first created in 1873 by Jacob W Davis. Davis was a tailor from Nevada. He created jeans upon a request from a woman for a durable pair of pants for her husband to chop wood in. Jeans quickly became very popular among miners and workers who needed a sturdy more protective layer of clothing. Jeans were associated with cowboys and the Hollywood movie stars that played them in movies. They were predominantly worn by men at this point in history.
High wasted jeans were first introduced to society in the 1940’s when Levi began producing them for women working for the war effort. High wasted jeans allowed women to remain modest while bending down to work. They were not considered fashionable until 1952 when Marilyn Monroe wore a pair in the film “River of No Return”. High wasted fashion has faded in and out of style throughout history but was predominantly popular in the 70s and 80s.

Day Six: Portrait Day

My replication of the George Washington Lansdowne Portrait.

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CoLab Inside/Outside

For this weeks assignment, I chose to tackle prompts one, two, three, and four. These were the assignments that fit my time frame and interested me the most.

Prompt One: Letter to my future self

I chose to not address my letter to a specific address because I don’t know where I will be located in the future.

Prompt Two: Conceptualize, Design, & Document your Pandemic Aesthetic 

I have felt very creative this week of quarantine. This is how I chose to represent that.

Prompt Three: Interview someone you haven’t talked to in a while

I chose to interview my childhood bestfriend, Audrey Schmale. She moved to Massachusetts in 2015 and we’ve struggled to stay in touch since. Audrey is a very talented singer and songwriter. I chose to structure her interview like the 73 question videos that vogue produces and treat her like the celebrity she soon will be! Here is the transcript below. (and yes it is called voguegorl)

vogueGORL

Prompt Four: Exquisite COLAB

I made a collaborative piece with my dad. We used multiple different mediums such as paint, marker, pencil, collage etc. We ended up incorporating newspaper clippings on the corona virus, giving the piece a narrative. My dad and I are both very interested in color, design and texture. We had a great time working on this piece together and observing each other’s artistic processes. I think collaborating with another person really pushes you to adapt and forces you to be openminded.

 

 

Frame by Frame

I chose to study the portrayal of the female body in todays society, specifically the fashion industry. I layered magazine clippings that focused on color and pattern as well as my theme. After I was satisfied with the format, I outlined specific images that I wanted to stand out with a paint pen. The outlined images I either felt were important to the narrative or the composition. Lastly, I tied the composition together by applying paint using a spray bottle. By using the spray bottle I was trying to imitate street art or graffiti which is often utilized in fashion photography! My video includes 81 images.

COLOR!

Color Wheel Scavenger Hunt (All 12 Colors):

Monochrome: Color of focus BLUE! 

Full Spectrum Image:

 

Artist Research: William Eggleston

William Eggleston is an American photographer. He was born in 1939 in Memphis Tennessee, and was deeply influenced by southern, suburban culture. After working in monochrome for many years, Eggleston switched to color photography in 1965. During this time period, color photography was strictly used for advertising, making Eggleston’s work extremely controversial. Color was considered inappropriate for artwork. At one point, Eggleston’s 1976 MoMa show was described by the New York Times as “the most hated show of the year”.
Despite original criticism, Eggleston’s work today is very respected in the art world, primarily because of his use of color. Eggleston depicts mundane, ordinary objects in his photographs. He raises the tension that surrounds these items by enhancing the image with vibrant, overwhelming color. Eggleston invests in the most expensive photography equipment and processes to achieve his signature shrill colors. He uses a method called dye-transfer printing, which allows him to define and alter the color and saturation of different parts of the image, individually.
Along with altering the saturation of his images, Eggleston utilizes light and shadow heavily throughout his pieces. He specifically focuses on sunlight and its reflection off surfaces, especially hair and glass. Because of his dependence on the sun, his images mainly feature warm tones. Many of his photographs have strong red accents. Eggleston also experiments with color bouncing off shadow.
Color not only dominants Eggleston’s photographs, it creates composition. In one interview he commented “ If you take the color out of the photographs, they tend to fall apart”. Unlike most color photographs, color is not applied to the composition like a wash, color is the composition.

Color Research: Mauve

The color mauve is best described as a pale shade of purple with a slight tint of gray. The color is named after the mallow flower which in French, translates to mauve. Mauve was the first synthetic organic dye to be discovered. The color was invented by a young chemistry student known as William Henry Perkin in the mid-nineteenth century. Before Perkin’s discovery, the only way to create the color mauve was to use natural dyes. Substances used to create mauve dye included the mucus of sea snails.
At the time, the British army was in a losing battle with the deadly disease malaria, due to attempts to colonize tropical areas. The only existing remedy during this age was a substance called quinine. Quinine was extremely expensive to obtain, being as it had to be extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree, which could only be found in the forests of the Andes. It was extremely urgent for scientists to find a way to create a remedy artificially.
William Henry Perkin was a student of the German chemist, August Wilhelm von Hofmann. He was attempting to obtain quinine by oxidizing aniline when he discovered a black substance left over in result of the reaction. When Perkin examined the substance closer, he noticed it had a purple hue. Perkin had just discovered the first synthetic organic dye. After spending many years experimenting with his brother, Perkin patented the perfected method in 1856.

Examples from around my house of the color mauve:

A field guide to the not so random, trash and treasure, of my household.

Written Reflection on Louise Despont’s Art 21 Video:

I noticed similarities between Louise Despont’s work and my own almost immediately. Her work, like mine, consists of microscopic, tedious details built up to create a larger image. Despont creates many smaller images and then collages them together to create a mesmerizing final product. Although my work involves a much wider selection of materials, we both involve collage in our artistic processes. I appreciate Despont’s precision and attention to detail in an almost mathematical manner, along with her muted color palette and choice of surface to work on.
Despont’s reflections on working from her home especially resonated with me regarding my own experience. When commenting on her choice to work from home, Despont states that one of the reasons she loves her home environment is because there is less of a transition between her morning routine to her work. She states that because of this the work comes from “a quieter, more centered place”. Personally, I have always enjoyed working from my home, specifically, my own room. There is something extremely calming to me about having control over when you work and the environment you work in. Being able to work in a space where I fully feel comfortable expressing myself definitely has a positive impact on my work. I have already found myself trying new techniques and attempting to tackle deeper narratives in my work. Working from home introduces a whole new array of materials and inspirations for an artist to utilize. I recently have been interested in exploring items of nostalgia from my childhood and considering the narratives they might introduce into my art.

My Field Guide:

Final Performance

Reflection: In conclusion, I think our performance was very successful. I believe that we made necessary adjustments to the production that made it much more impactful. Some of these adjustments were designating a specific place for the audience to stand, having the creatures interact with their environment, each other and Dan and creating a solid beginning and end to the performance. We made the beginning and ending of the performance more purposeful by having it start and end with the creatures very still on the carousel. This made it clear to the audience when the performance was over. The stillness of the start and the finish of the performance starkly contrasted the chaos that happened in the middle which made the performance impactful. Designating a specific place for the audience to stand was extremely essential in the overall success of our performance. As a group, we agreed to have the audience stand to the side of the blue building so that the entire scene was in view. In our performance, we actively engaged the foreground, middle ground, and background in the environment that we were performing in, making it crucial that the audience was standing in a very specific position. As a group we also made the edit to have our characters interact more with each other and mess with Dan more. The piece originally lacked cohesiveness and the concept was unclear. Having the characters interact more as well as having Dan elevate his emotion made it clearer to the audience that he was indeed experiencing a bad trip. Overall I think our group pulled the performance off very well considering the lack of communication and the inconsistency regarding accountability. We did face the challenge of having one of our group members leave early for break and be unable to perform in the final piece which was difficult. I think the costumes definitely had more potential and could have been executed better with more time, thought, and effort. However, I was very proud of the zine that we collectively produced and felt as if the zine correlated very strongly with the performance.

Performance Process

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First we selected the location for our performance. We chose the playground because we felt it had some very interesting features that would evoke emotion in our performance. The location inspired a strong narrative for our zine.

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Next, our group assigned character roles. Four of us chose to be animals on the carousel. Since we had a fifth person in our group, we chose to add a human character into the story, to observe the events that were taking place. We developed character charts for each of the five roles. The features of the characters definitely morphed and changed over time as the performance evolved. Some elements from the character charts were lost, and some major additions were made. These were completed individually to brainstorm ideas, and then discussed as a group. This is an example of one of the character charts.

Next, a brief outline of the plot was developed in class. We decided to divide the tasks that needed to be completed. I wrote the script, Nelly drew the illustrations, Paige rewrote the story in a specific font, Hudson designed the layout of each of the pages (collaging images and adding in textiles), and Dan put the books together. Each group member was in charge of creating their own mask and gathering the necessary materials for their individual costume.

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Some images of the process involved in the creation of the final zine. In these images you can see how the drawings were collaged and layered on top of each other along with some scanned textiles. This gave our finished zine a very interesting, unique appearance.

Here is the pdf of our final zineDownload

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Next, we distributed our completed zine across campus. These are images from the distribution.

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Once the final zine was created and distributed, we created more in depth diagrams of what we wanted each of the costumes to look like so that each group member could begin creating theirs.

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We also created a diagram and model of the environment that we chose to perform in so that our instructors had a clearer understanding of the location selected.

Next, everyone began working on their individual masks. I chose to make my “mask” more of a headpiece. I used cardboard and crumpled up paper to construct the foundation of the piece. I used images of headpieces that were similar (from the internet) to base the basic shape of the structure off of.

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These are images of my final mask. As you can see the inside of the structure was very carefully and meticulously created in order to create a very strong foundation. The structure is a little off center and wonky which was unintentional but I ended up not fixing it because I felt like it fit the aesthetic of the performance and the location.

The top of the mask was created using a bowl and the eyes were created using the bottoms of water bottles. The entire structure of the mask was covered with paper mache two times to create the desired texture. After the paper mache was dry, I painted the mask and cut out an eyehole. Other than the mask, my costume consists of a dark green shirt and green leggings. Both the leggings and the sleeves of the shirt are extremely tight fitting to further portray the appearance of a frog.

The performance aspect of this project was more challenging than I thought it would be. It was challenging to fit every aspect of the zine into a physical act. We chose to not include music in our performance because we felt it created an eerie feeling within our audience. We experienced a road block while creating this piece. Paige went home early and was unable to participate in the final performance. Because of this, the group was forced to utilize a stunt double. It was difficult to organize and plan our performance since randomness and improv play such a huge role. There were unexpected challenges such as lack of communication and time management skills between the group members which made production hard. I struggled watching others not put the same level of commitment into their costumes as I had mine. When creating this performance, we had to think long and hard about creating a solid start and finish to the piece that left the viewer feeling satisfied and not confused. It was important to deeply consider how each character interacted not only with the space but with the other characters as well. Because we were attempting to depict a drug induced hallucination we had to over exaggerate certain elements of the performance such as Sid’s (the main character’s) eye blinking, stumbling, dizziness and over all confusion. As a group we had to address elements we hadn’t thought of before such as where we wanted the audience to stand and if we desired any background noise. Despite all of this, I think the concept and narrative behind our performance is very strong and I think that will be reflected in our final performance. Even though everyone chose to take a different approach to creating their costumes I think the lack of cohesiveness matches the environment that we chose to perform in. To go into further detail, I feel the old rusty playground is very out of place on a college campus. In addition to that, the observatory featured in the background of the scene gives off a very futuristic feel which contrasts that off the playground. In conclusion, I think the key to nailing our performance will be communication and the over exaggeration of movement and emotion.

Group Members:

Daniel Alessi

Paige Castleman

Hudson Bell

Nelly Rose

Brenna Turner (as a stunt double in the final performance)

Story of the Space

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Images of the Progress

Our group chose to divide up tasks in order to complete our final zine in time for Monday. My role was developing the narrative of the space. The location that we selected instantly inspired a narrative within our group. The space included very strong objects like swings, carousels, and slides that already have a very distinct feeling of nostalgia associated with them. We chose to center our story around the carousel and having the animals cemented on it come to life. Because this concept has such a fantastical element to it, I found it extremely difficult to convey in a cohesive, logical story. I found that inserting a main character into the plot to experience what was going on was pivotal in making the piece clear and concise. It was extremely challenging to translate every group member’s ideas into one cohesive piece. The story definitely transformed as it was created. For example, the plot originally was meant to focus on the animal’s experience of coming to life and existing in the real world. Eventually it became more about Sid (the main character) and his experience observing the situation. I do not think this altered the overall effectiveness of the plot. I chose use very descriptive language to describe the events taking place in the story as well as the environment they were taking place in. I did this to provide content for the people in my group producing the drawings as well as context for the reader. Some of the drawings were created before I had written the plot which meant I was forced to mold the plot to fit the images. This was also challenging.

final-pdf-of-scanned-book-2Download

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Here are the images of the distribution process

In conclusion I am very proud of our zine. I think a lot of time and effort was put into the production and I think that is reflected in the finished product. In my opinion it was extremely wise to divide tasks based on skill level and expertise. To me, this maximized our potential and resulted in a strong, cohesive, product. I think adding different textiles and collaging the drawings overtop of each other gave our book a very interesting appearance. The narrative of our book is very creative and if it is executed correctly through the acting, the production will be very successful. The costumes are a very crucial part of the performance. It is very important that they are completed with precision and detail.

Performance Proposal

final-pdf-of-scanned-book-1Download

Script of the Performance: The performance will start with Dan lying face up in the grass. The other four performers will be hiding in surrounding locations (such as behind trees and other structures). Dan will feel the earth around him and show extreme confusion regarding where he is. Dan will close his eyes again. Someone will push the swing in a discreate, unnoticeable way in order to produce the creaking noise of the chains. Dan will get up and walk over to the carousel as if in a trance. We want to produce the effect that he is being attracted to the carousel as if it is a magnet. When he finally gets to the carousel, Dan will fall to the ground huffing and puffing. Dan will emphasis breathing very loudly for a couple minutes so it is obvious to the audience. This will produce suspense and create anticipation. Dan will start fooling around and tapping the carousel out of boredom. We want there to be a sense of carelessness and lack of purpose to his actions. Eventually Dan will stand up and start to spin the carousel faster and faster. Dan stands back and looks completely mesmerized by the whizzing colors. When the carousel stops Dan turns away, pretending to already be distracted by something else. Suddenly the four creatures (Hudson, Nelly, Lila and Paige) begin to move very slowly out of hiding. We want to give the effect that they are waking up from a long nap and stretching out their limbs. Meanwhile, Dan has turned around and noticed their movement. He is blinking his eyes feverously. The creatures move very gracefully and with extreme purpose and intent. Dan closes his eyes for a long period of time. While Dan’s eyes are closed, the creatures drift past him so that they are out of his line of sight. When Dan open’s his eyes the creatures have “disappeared”. The creatures begin to chatter and giggle causing Dan to look behind him. He turns fully around and sees the four creatures running and leaping playfully in the distance. Dan keeps blinking furiously as if he is trying to erase the scene from his head. Dan grasps his head in extreme pain to show that he has been overtaken by a very painful headache. He falls limply to the earth in despair. Dan closes his eyes. In the far distance the creatures continuously giggle and dance. Some of the dances are individual while others are interactive with each other. All interactions between the creatures are very inquisitive and playful. The creatures continue to distance themselves from the scene resulting in their chatter becoming fainter and fainter to the audience. They keep moving until they are out of sight to the audience. Dan drifts off to sleep and the scene closes very peacefully and quiet.

Nelly’s Costume

Lila’s Costume

Hudson’s Costume

Paige’s Costume

Dan’s Costume
Characterized by striped t shirt, overalls, and converse

List of Materials Needed: Paper mâché paste, strips of paper, hot glue gun and sticks, cardboard, acrylic paint, color coordinated clothing, fishing line, phones to film, beanie, backpack, ping pong balls, googly eyes, elastic

Timeline: On Monday November 18^th we will review our proposals, distribute and copy our zines, and begin working on our final project. On Tuesday November 19^th we will work on our costumes and props for our performance. By Thursday the 21^st, all our props and costumes will be completed, and we will begin our rehearsal of the performance. When the performance is edited to our liking, we will film it due to the fact that Paige will be out of town on the day of the final performance. On Monday November 25^th we will have our dress rehearsal and clean up our space. On the 26^th we will present our final product to our classmates. We are going to make a conscious effort to document every step of this process. We understand that not everyone will be able to work at the same times everyday, but we are planning on making final rehearsals absolutely mandatory. This is only so everyone feels like they have an equal role in the final production.

List of Jobs for the Group: Everyone is responsible for making their own mask and costume. Lila is in charge of documenting the process of the production with photographs. Paige is in charge of editing the video portion of the production. Hudson and Nelly are in charge of directing the production and making sure the acting directly correlates to the script. They are in charge of making sure that every element of the script is included in the performance. Dan is in charge of making sure that everyone sticks to the timeline and stays on task. He is responsible for checking in and making sure that everyone is putting solid time and effort into creating their masks. Everyone is expected to give their undivided attention and effort towards making the performance cohesive and successful. Everyone is expected to attend the mandatory rehearsals.

Model of the Space

Places and Characters

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Images of my group’s space.

We chose this space because of the eerie elements it possesses such as the weathered colors and the creepy facial expressions of the animals on the carousel. The area is very worn down and old which is in contrast to most of the structures on our school’s campus. Another main reason our group chose this space is we instantly were inspired with a narrative. The narrative that we want to depict in our performance revolves around the four characters (the frog, kangaroo, snail, and tiger) being cemented into the carousel and spinning involuntarily in circles. In our performance, we are going to attempt to depict the characters on the carousel coming to life and experiencing the world for the first time outside of going in circles constantly. Each individual is going to possess different character traits which therefore are going to affect how they interact with the environment for the first time. For example, I am going to be the frog. I chose to make my character super grouchy, and mad at the world. I am hoping this will contrast the more cheerful characters involved in the performance.

List of objects in the space: Grass, dew, mulch, metal, peeled paint, normal swings, child swings, metal links, cracked plastic, Leaves, Blue building, chipped wood, plastic bags, Styrofoam cups, Twigs, Observatory, dead grass, weeds, rocks, rotting wood, frog statue, snail statue, kangaroo statue, tiger statue, rust, moss, trees, bark, insects, dead brush, chain, slide, seesaw, bulldozer seesaw, sandbox, trashcan, asphalt, bolts,

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Documentation of my character sheet.

Group Members: Daniel Alessi, Hudson Bell, Nelly Rose, Paige Castleman

When forming my character I really was interested in taking a unique approach with creating their personality. I wanted the description of my character to be very vivid and excessive in detail and humor. My goal was to create a character that had a negative reaction to literally everything especially existing in the outside world and confronting new surroundings. It was my hope that this would contrast the emotions that the other characters in my group depict. I thought this would give the performance depth. I wanted to have my character have a very strong personality. I wanted my character ” Carol Croaker” to be a grouch. I wanted her to complain a lot and have a very bad attitude about every aspect of the performance including be stuck in the same repetitive circle of life. I wanted her to have very specific little pet peeves such as kids sitting on top of her that combined humor with the functionality of a carousel. I think giving each of the four characters that sense of individuality will make the performance more relatable and humorous which in the end will make it very successful. I think our space that we chose set us up for success in regards to creating a very strong narrative in our piece and I think it would be foolish to ignore that potential.