new work: Constructions

OK, again I never post to my blog... but I'm back in Houston right now, and I've been thinking a lot about my images I produced this summer, and I'm pretty certain my visual thesis will be based on these images, the construction of space, and the way to use light to lead the eye into the different elements. Some of the images produce more of a painterly effect while some are more chiasm-like. I think these would be really suited for something like an illustration of a story, so I'm thinking about that, but I'm not much of a writer and therefore am hesitant to introduce another element that I'm not formally trained in using. However, I saw some information on something called Chinese Shadow theatre which was really interesting looking and seemed to tie into the products I make for my images so I think that will need to be researched further. Overall though I am seeing a connection between my constructions and a storyline, just not sure what kind of story.

Please view my new images here

New Pics

Ok,
now that it's springtime, I'm in the mood to break out and take pictures of this season. I don't care what people say, I love gardens, there's something so whimsical about even the starkest gardens. Here are a recent pics.
Enjoy!

Summer Opportunities...

OK... so I've been formerly invited to the NPS Residency in New Zealand, I have not decided if I will accept the offer, but it certainly is exciting to have options available for the summer!! On another bright note, I completed my first phone interview for Anderson Ranch and I think it went pretty well, I was concerned about being nervous but I refrained from getting tongue tied and I managed to articulate my thoughts to the interviewer, so that is another option on the table.
My only concern now is for the residency I applied to with Amber, which I haven't heard back from, so I should probably put in a phone call soon to check out our status.

I am beginning to wonder if a residency and a break over the summer would do me more good than working the entire time... I really plan on teaching when I get out of RIT, so teaching and networking are incredibly important, however falling behind from not producing work for three months makes me incredibly nervous. I'll update this blog as soon as I hear back or make some decisions.

NPS website

Anderson Ranch website

New Work: The Stephogram

So I happened to discover the fun art of the scanogram while working on my digital book assignment this past week. I haven't delved deeply into the concept yet, but it was exciting to experiment with a new process, and I think there might be something to the graphic and yet un-photographic image that is created from the scans. I also think this may be the way to use the stitches and my photographs to create gestures and architectural spaces around and through my body. I have this strange feeling that this may be the bridge I've been looking for to mesh my body and architecture. I also really appreciate the manipulative way the digital artifacts can make my own image fade in and out. By using the transparency of the photographic image I am visually reconstructing and rendering an object that otherwise could not be altered by my hands.

Mock-through

We had our preliminary walkthrough, or "mockthrough" today, it didn't go too badly, but I'm not really happy with the images I have to present for walkthrough. I'm currently working with the stitch and the photograph, but many of the best images from my grandparents' home (the original inspiration for this project) don't really seem to work with the stitch. So, I'm sure I need to move into another the space, or figure out another way of presenting the images. I've contacted a couple of people and maybe I'll be able to shoot another space prior to walkthrough, but maybe not as I have 2 papers and a project due on Monday and another paper and project due on Tuesday which leaves very little time to fix my images before next week.

New Work

Ok, so I haven't ever really used this blog.. but I'm going to try to keep it updated from now on.
It feels kind of weird writing to an empty audience, but here it goes.

I'm looking forward to going home over Christmas break, be flying out tomorrow at 7am, eeesh. But I'm happy to take a break and read some more for myself, I seem to have very little time to focus on my own personal reading, so I'm glad to do that over break and I'm really excited about my new work. This past Thursday was the first time since I arrived at RIT that I actually walked into class believing that I was onto something interesting to me. I think I'm a slower developer than some of my peers, so it's taken me some time to figure out what exactly I'd like to focus on and why... so I've moved away from the pop-up and fairytale books and am now going to focus on illustrating and visually rewriting the texts, I've never done work like this before so it's pretty exciting for me, I just hope I can pull it off.

In any case here is a brief introduction to what I created this week. This is my first attempt, so hopefully it will get better from here. Some people mentioned learning about animation and cinematography but I'm not sure that's what I'm interested in, I like the idea of the slide or picture book format and I don't want to get into a project that I can't control. It's all appropriated imagery.