Dianne

= = = = =**concentration.3 ** = **In the final quarter you will be focusing primarily of making sure everything gets done. This quarter may be your last chance to really push your understannding of your project. You now know what you are doing and have developed some expertise in materials, techniques, and ideas. What are you attempting that is more ambitious than anything else you have completed thus far? Is it more intricate, larger scale, more images, deeper idea, etc. How have you pushed your project beyond its current state? **



= = = = =concentration.2 = =At this point I've adjusted my concentration concept to incorporate images that relate to my "evolution as an artist" - or something along those lines. For some reason I started out with the intent to find pieces from unknown sources, and bring out my interpretation of the works and their makers, trying to generate a new appreciation for them. After going through my house and finding mostly old stuff of mine and my mom's, I realized that switching the focus to things that had to do with me and my own background made my concept a lot richer. It's been a lot easier to make sense of what to do with this stuff than it was with random findings, and they mean more, so I don't really get bored. = = = =**concentration ** = =**It's been harder than I anticipated to find pieces that I respond to. Maybe this is because I've been looking for thrown out art in thrift stores and junk stores instead of coming upon them randomly. My first piece has the found element incorporated almost seamlessly, and that could very well be because I found it on the side of the road a year ago. ** =

 =**digital project: The part of photoshop that's so helpful is the magic wand tool, because it allows you to change the piece quickly and makes everything even. Working digitally is strange to me because I like interacting with media and making an entire image while only touching a mouse feels very surreal. I don't really plan on using photoshop for my 12 concentration pieces, but we'll see. ** =

<span style="font-size: 13px; font-weight: normal; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;"> =<span style="font-size: 36px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">chaos project: ** The purpose of this assignment was learning how to go into a piece without a vision. I like the way my two random objects ended up complimenting eachother, and I think that could bea strategy I'll use later on. My piece started as a towel with a geometric pattern, and my first step was spilling a load of burgundy paint all over it. When I incorporated the camera and feather I had sketched earlier it really broke up the piece to give it balance and visual interest. In the end, I worked with a lot of washes to make the objects interact with the pattern in the towel, and had a bit of fun with some gold spraypaint. **=

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=<span style="font-size: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">** layers project: I struggled with this project at the beginning because I had a hard time grasping the narrative component of the assignment. I worked on several different ideas, but in the end, it made much more sense for me to illustrate something from my experience, so I chose to paint a very specific image I remembered from Maine. I spent week or so in Cape Elizabeth, which boasts having the "most photographed lighthouse in the world," the Portland Headlight. Next to the lighthouse, the rocky edge is marked with a simply painted shipwreck memorial, which has a kind of mystery and iconic sadness to it that tourists seem to ignore, all raving about the famously beautiful oceanfront scene.I made a simple dark background to give the feeling of the coast at night, but put most of the detail in the second layer of the rocks, because I wanted the memorial to be a focal point. In the foreground are the darkest elements to the painting, the spectators, because they had to come forward against the background. Thinking about value and color choice in layers helps give the piece depth and emphasis, and later on I think I need to plan more carefully in that way before starting a project, because it definitely makes the whole image look more deliberate and complete. ** =

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<span style="font-size: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">** ﻿ ** = self portrait project: For this project I chose a lovely photograph of my face on the far side of some blinds that was taken by the amazing Miss Catherine Willett to replicate in a drawing. The bright, white blinds that cross over my face relate to the expression that my eyes communicate, one of wonder. White in my piece seems to vividly represent the other side of the window, the object of my interest and destination of my focus, which is just beginning to delicately illuminate my face as I approach it. Instead of capturing an explorer on site, my piece illustrates the emotion of an expedition's start, and the wonder of what the window's exterior might behold. As this was one of the last and most spontaneous pictures Catherine and I took, it demonstrates that the openness to work off of an unplanned idea that I brought to the shoot was essential to the piece's outcome. =

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= object project: The object I initially chose was probably the most basic thing there is, a rock. Thinking about rocks led me to the imagery of stalactites and stalagmites, which are really interesting to me because of their constant, steady growth. Even though they are strong and magnificent, rock speleothems are built by fluids, eternally continuing, and their incredible detailing adds to the overall splendor of a cave. Caves have this incredible feeling to them which I've always related to that of a cathedral, because both seem to exude divinity. In my project, I wanted to try and communicate that relationship, and make a cavern seem like a sanctuary. I tried to use rich colors and a lot of fluid movement in my piece to bring in the cathedral motif, and by the end I added a lot of arching shapes that give the feeling of gothic vaults on top of the scene I was focusing on earlier. Working with paint, I was able to use washes and multiple coats to continue adding depth and light as I went, which was really nice because the piece changed so much over time. I'm also glad I picked paint because it was easy to show the fluidity of the few stalactite shapes I added in. If I were to turn this project into a concentration, I would probably look at caves in different angles and use watercolors. =

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=<span style="font-size: 1.4em; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 5px;">** a card: ** =