Artist Statement

When I was beginning this project, I had not a clue what images I was going to use or even what Alyssa story to tell. I knew in my mind that my artwork had to look wild and crazy because that's how her personality is. I started off with the long boarding story and this image is by far my favorite, mostly because it looks like something I've never done before.

It took me a bit of time to decide what other Alyssa stories to tell through my artwork, but one at a time they hit me. Where she is wearing the tribal head dress is the image symbolizing how I remember meeting her for the first time. A casual hang out in our living room ended with her in that thing. Also, in the top left corner is Alyssa looking ferocious in a lion hat the last day I saw her after her accident. Once again, she was just chilling in her room all alone in a wild hat.

I was at a lost for how to portray my final image because the story is long and must be told in order to understand. Basically, Alyssa went out to Q Bar for the first time with people she had never gone out with before. She drank long island iced teas, blacked out, and was found on the side of High Street by a random couple sent from heaven. They called me from her phone, I begged them to bring her to me on Summit because, of course, I too was very intoxicated and had no way to go get her. They did so, I gave them $20, Alyssa accused them of kidnapping her when being carried out of the car, and I spent the rest of night chasing the hysterical girl around my friend's house trying to make her go to bed and making sure she didn't pee on the floor. I was just glad she was safe.

What I did not realize about my projects until I was finished was how the three connect in their own way. The tribal head dress image represents the first time I met Alyssa back in January. The blackout bar story is about 3 months down the road of knowing her, and the long boarding incident happened recently, about 5 months of knowing her. In a way, the images show a sequence of events with my experience with Alyssa, and I am very happy to have had her as a roommate because I have never met someone like her and could always count on her for a laugh and a good time, at any time of day.

Final Projects

Blog 10

Thus far in the project, I have changed my ideas numerous times and have been playing around with all of the different filter options. I have managed to work out of order, starting with the plot (middle) of my story and the ending. The reason being I am debating on what to do for the first image to start the story.

The first image I altered was the long board. I started by using the paint bucket and coloring the background black, leaving it blotchy looking due to it being on wooden floor boards. I then filtered the look to Plastic Wrap and thought it looked intense, making me change my original idea of having items on this image. I moved the items (beer, sign, mask) onto a new document, made the background black, and altered the size and rotation of the three images as well as filtered them all to Watercolor. I am not sure how I feel about this one and feel it needs more to it. My final image as of now is a picture of my roommate, Alyssa, with her cast still being a wild child because her fall barely stopped her from still being a party girl and you would have thought it would. I used the sketch filter and then Charcoal and proceeded to alter the contrasts and such to my liking. I love the final image of her, but feel nothing about my photos flow and I need to work on that.

Pre Final Images

Ideas for final

My initial ideas were to document my route to work at Easton Mall, the day in the life of a cat, or the life of a bum. Instead, the winning idea came to me when my party animal roommate returned after a month of being home for a month due to a broken leg. I decided her story is hilarious and needs to be the topic of my final. The first day she purchased a long board, she spent the day drinking beer and learning how to ride it. Her night ended with her riding down High Street, drunk, on a long board, wearing a scary Halloween mask, attempting to scare those she passed on the sidewalk by hissing and screaming at them. Of course it ended in her falling and breaking her leg and every ligament in her ankle. She's graceful, to say the least.

Blog 9

I did not understand the ending of this article and expected something totally different to happen. The blind man and the husband were drawing the cathedral, and I do not understand why the blind man insisted on doing this exercise. Also, I was confused by the way they talked, mostly the blind man, because he repeats unnecessary parts of the sentence every time he talks, or asks if the person he is addressing gets what he is saying. 

I did, however, enjoy the article and how the husband finally gave the blind man a chance and realized he could sit in the room with him while his wife slept and not feel too awkward. Also, I found it lovely how the blind man and the woman with cancer got married because everybody needs a significant other in their life to support and love them.

MP 5

I chose to have the ability to talk to stray cats because I've always loved cats and feel bad for the stray one's. Stray's are normally either extremely needy or extremely mean, making people not want to take them in, when it isn't the cat's fault they are like that. If I could talk to them, I would tell them how to behave in order to help each of them find a loving home. I decided to pick this ability by first thinking about Eliza Thornberry from the show The Wild Thronberry's because I was obsessed with it growing since Eliza could talk to all animals. From there, I narrowed it down to just talking to cats. I chose to make a cartoon photo of myself to go along with the cartoon cats, while the background is a real image, as well as the bucket of fish and bag pipes. I am happy with my final outcome and find it very humerous and different than anything I've done thus far in the class.

Blog 8

The article "In the Water" confused me the majority of the time. I understand it was his form of a graduation speech, but the way he jumped from example to example to an explanation was not easy for me to comprehend.

I did, although, enjoy his thought series of how learning how to think is learning how to have control over what and how you think; what you choose to pay attention to. Until this, I had never thought of thinking in such a manner, but now I see it in a new light. It's so true, everything he says about this subject. When you don't pay attention due to being unable to be interested in the matter, you start thinking about other things to entertain yourself, choosing what you are wanting to show your attention towards.