My interest in graphic design began at the end of my first year of college. I was influence by my friends and family to try a semester in art to see how I like it. After the first semester I knew it was for me. I found that when I'd advertise for my friends' bands, or make a comp card for an inspiring dancer, or any graphics related art, I was finding my niche. Occasionally I had some restrictions with what the buyer wanted, but with my people skills, creative problem solving and editing; I could come up with something that they loved. When it comes to any type of art it feels unnatural to do any less than 110% and my grades reflect this. Happiness to me is one of the most important things in my life, and pursuing a career in graphic design will help me achieve this goal.
Who are three of your art heroes? Please tell us why you feel this way.
Albrecht Durer, François-Auguste-René Rodin, Clyde Butcher
Durer's control throughout his life is enough to admire, starting at the age of ten with his extensive self-portraits, and later printmaking and mass production. Durer has always been a favorite of mine because of the moment he captures in every painting. The subtleties that could be left out, but if were, wouldn't make it a Durer. I truly admire his ability to capture a moment and portray it on the canvas. He is also one of the first and only artists to have a complete documentation of his self-portraits on canvas. Rembrandt did a body of work similar, but Durer's was much more precise in order and date. His woodcuts and engravings can be considered one of the highest forms of graphic art, thus influencing me further in the field of Graphics.
Rodin's lack of control brought me to his work. The movement and emotion that was saturated in his pieces hypnotized me. Was I looking at realism, or was it impressionism? The sculpture was exactly that, both. I admire that he created the work in a state of passion and excitement towards the piece. His emotion can be seen with the rough movement captured in each piece. I find that his style has influenced my 2-D works. I now realize that even with a loose brush stroke, or a quickly done line, a successful project can still be achieved if one's heart is poured into the piece.
Butcher's passion for nature and technical mastery sends chills down my spine. To walk up on a 12' X 8' photograph, with no spots, no evidence of burning or dodging, with no visible imperfections, is so impressive it made me want to emulate him. This meant more then just "taking pictures of nature". I stepped in his world of isolation from man-made objects and surrounded myself with nature. I found that it came quite natural. Being that I love Florida, and Butcher is like the Ansel Adams of Florida, I immediately was drawn to his work. After emulating Butcher, one gathers a new respect for photography, nature, and the preservation of what is left. I still feel compelled to continue to document the "realism" that nature has to offer us.
In conclusion, my three art heroes, all three in different eras, are hero's to me because they all possess qualities that I work on in my life and artwork that I hope to master. The subtleties and realistic moment that Durer captures on canvas, the looseness and emotion struck sculptures that Rodin found natural, and Butchers technical excellence and deeper thought towards nature are qualities and similar set goals that I have for myself.
What was one of the last creative problems you solved? Please include a description
of the process you followed in achieving your result.
When working on the final project for my Photo II class, I came across a few questions. What was I trying to convey to the viewer? How was I going to achieve this? How could I best display this project to achieve my goal? I looked back at my previous works and tried to narrow my focus to what interested me the most, nature was it. I now asked myself a series of introspective questions trying to find what I felt needed to be heard through my photographs. I believe that most Floridians don't appreciate or pay close enough attention to nature and what it has to offer us. Ok so now I knew what I wanted the viewer to experience, paying closer attention to nature. I took 28-80 shots of nature and printed them 8 X 10 and then took 80-300 macro shots and printed them 16 X 20. The size alone would force the viewer to look closer at nature. To display this project, I built a wooden structure frame covered in black cloth. Five 16 X 20 images hung flat on one side, all dealing with artistic qualities that nature has for us to view. On the other side of the structure was a shelf set-up, displaying three 16 X 20 images hung from the top of the structure and directly under them laid the 8 X 10 images of the zoomed out nature shots. The larger 16 X 20 images, being the zoomed close up images, actually forced them to look closer. I placed a magnifying glass on the shelf, setting a subtlety of "looking closer" in their minds. Throughout the entire process I asked others opinions of what they would do. With my editing process and display of the images I acquired an aesthetic display that did not take away from the images and forced the viewer comfortably to take a closer look at nature.
