TERM 4: PHOTOGRAPHY AND PHOTOSHOP

The series of underwater photos ultimately represent me as a person, along with my dreams and ambitions and my thought processes. I am really happy with my final product, and feel I have achieved the atmosphere I initially aimed to create.

Before I actually took the photographs I had to think about myself a little. I found that my element is water, as is my comfortable place. I am very determined when I set my mind to something, and I have huge ambitions, such as winning an Olympic gold medal. I am also a very happy person and really strive to live life to the fullest. I also thought about my senses, and found that I love the smell of vanilla, the sound of rain, the taste of chocolate and the feeling of gliding through the water.

After thinking about these things, I knew straight away that I would take my photos underwater, so I decided to think about how I feel when I am underwater. I came to the conclusion that when I am swimming or am underwater, I feel like I am away from everything, like a getaway; yet I feel like I have a purpose; goals to strive for. Once I thought of this I was able to take the photos.

I decided to have me moving forward through the three photos, as if I am getting closer to my destination or my goals, which in this case is an Olympic gold medal. However, I didn’t just want to focus on the destination, but rather the journey as well. This is why in the first picture I am looking up, as if I am looking at the journey, as well as the destination. I have lane ropes and a black line over me, which I did by adding another layer on Photoshop, which represents the hard work and the journey.

The next image has me spiralling forwards. Using the layers tool on Photoshop again, I also have a stop watch over the top of me. This represents the race against the clock and the hard work a dream entails. A path is not always straight, and you have to sometimes go the long way round, especially when you encounter setbacks, however, you learn from these setbacks and you come out better than you were. I found that by having me spiralling, and not in a straight forwards position, it represented this quite well.

In the third image I am moving forward looking very steadfast, and as if I am moving. I have put very lightly the Olympic rings over the top of me, as that is my destination. I have not reached that goal yet so I am still moving forwards, however, I am further forwards than the other two images which shows my progression, and that I have already accomplished tasks/goals.

In all three images, I am holding a white sheet which represents the goal I have carried with me from the beginning. The sheet is white as it is the base of my journey and from there I have added to it and grown.

Additionally, the images encapsulate the senses that I initially thought about. The smell of vanilla and the taste of chocolate seem to come through, as even though I have used a cool colour scheme, the images seem quite warm or sweet as I have really attached my emotion behind the images. At the same time, I have represented the sound of rain with the blues and whites, which are the colours I thought of when I thought of rain. Also, my positions in the water really show the feeling of gliding through the water and being almost one with the water.

In each of the images, I have duplicated myself using Photoshop, and by doing this, it seems as if I am moving. Ultimately this is what I wanted to create as I am always learning, growing and accomplishing new things on the journey.

Wendy Stavrianos

I decided to do my podcast on Wendy Stavrianos. I find her work very interesting, and love the colours, simulated texture and archetypes she uses.

This is Wendy Stavrianos's Mantle for a ritual dance. This is my favourite painting. I thought it symbolised a patriarch. It is a very strong figure which portrays not only belief and knowledge but also power. The colours portray strength, and the simulated texture Stavrianos has created makes the clothes look as though they are made of metal. I felt that the colour, symbolism and simulated texture really encasulated its meaning.


I have researched Wendy Stavrionos and her work, and handed my podcast in late last term. I think I was able to fully understand her techniques and reasonings and was able to see connections between her works and archetypes.

Doll Term 2

DOLL – ARTIST’S STATEMENT:
The archetype I chose for my doll was an actress. I found that this archetype encapsulated not only myself, but also people I look up to such as my parents.
The emotional analogues of an actress that I used in my doll are passion, emotion as well as fear. It is described as, “Soul gives sensation to spirit… allows us to get involved in life, giving us passion and drive to express who we are.”

In my doll I decided to make the heart the centre of attention, which I made out of fleshy coloured buttons. Everything then flows from the heart as I felt that it showed that in this archetype everything comes from the heart, portraying emotion and passion which is so very important in the archetype of an actress. The doll has a large skirt which shows the different emotions that drives a person forward or backward. I used the colours, blue and yellow as well as the colour red that flows throughout the doll, showing linkage to the heart. Blue I thought resembled fear which is a shadow of an actress, yellow on the other hand portrays a very positive emotion. The red ribbon, as well as the lace on the skirt continues the pattern of everything coming from the heart, affecting how you do things.

One of the most important aspects of the doll would have to be the buttons which you can see sewed on to the right arm and on the back. They are all joined by the thick red string that joins them to the heart. On the arm, I have used more neutral coloured buttons which match the buttons of the heart. I wanted to put forward the message that what this actress feels is put into action. On the back however, I have used blue and red buttons, trying to show that the archetype’s emotions are very much a part of the doll, even if some of the feelings they have they may try to hide, which is exemplified by the blue buttons which often resemble a negative or shadow.

The coloured wire on the left arm and coming from the heart not only show emotion, but strength. An actress holds a lot of inner as well as outer strength; hence, I thought it appropriate to add this very symbolic material.

The head piece’s meaning is not so obvious, however probably holds one of the more important emotional analogues. In the archetype of an actress, it is described as holding fear. Although we all like to think that we don’t have much fear, it is ultimately unavoidable. The head piece is tangled showing the range of emotion and worry that often goes into ideas such as fear of falling from whatever it may be. This is shown by the tall piece of wire that suddenly falls after a lot of worry and confusion which is resembled by the tangled wire. The green thread which runs through it, as everything else goes through the heart and amidst the head piece, symbolising fear, which I think green encapsulates. Additionally, it is no surprise that I used a heart as my background and red fabric as I have based everything on the heart.

Inspiration has been drawn from Wendy Stavrianos’s work. She is very definite in the symbolic meaning in her work and uses a lot of colour to put across emotion. These techniques have helped me create my doll’s archetype as I was able to find ways to put my message across.

SELF EVALUATION:

I am really happy with the finished product. I feel that I have been able to understand the archetype of an actress and put its meaning into my doll.

I have had to think a lot about symbolism and colours as well as how to put forward this archetype as a whole in the doll. I have also worked efficiently to not only get the doll done, but to draw inspiration from other artist’s such as Wendy Stavrianos. Hence, I think I have utilized the time given at school well as well as working hard outside of school to make my piece something of a high level. Next time I think I might have taken longer in the brainstorming stage, purely so that I could think of more ideas to better put across the archetype, however I am very happy with not only my finished product, but my whole unit of work.

EMOTIONAL ANALOGUES

JOY:


















DETERMINATION:


















HOPE:


















EMOTIONAL ANALOGUES:

We were to choose three emotional analogues that related to us. I picked:
joy, determination and hope.
From there we were to create non representational symbols that related to the emotional analogues that we chose.

For JOY: I went with the colours yellow and light pink. I felt that to have joy you need to feel happy and in a way, free. I thought of joy as living in the moment, this is why I think the symbol I drew really suits 'joy'. It looks as if the colours are dancing with eachother, very free and light hearted.

For DETERMINATION: I chose the colours: blue, yellow, and orange. When I think of determination I see pathways that lead to a goal. It is where you put all your effort into a goal, or destination. This idea of a destination is what I thought of when looking at symbolism.

For HOPE: When thinking of hope, soft, happy colours come to mind. That is why I picked the colours green, yellow and a light orange. The bottom symbol shows the combination of strengths and weaknesses: Light/Dark, that together form something to be hopeful about.

DOLL - FINISHED!

This is the finished product of my doll mixed media work. I think that the colours and tones flow well throughout the piece, and that a sense of three-dimensionality has been created. I ended up using the following materials within the doll: cont'e pencil, graphite, charcoal, pencil, pastel, watercolour pencils, paint pastel, ink, shlack, tar, gesso, turpse and paint.
All the squares in this final product use different techniques and materials. In some squares, I have used methods that I used in none of the other squares. Whilst other squares I use similar techniques and combine some of the materials that I had already used in some of the other squares. All in all, each of the squares portray differnt techniques and media, and as a whole, it helped me to better understand all of these techniques and medias.

Dolly

Well thought I would put up the picture of what I have done so far:)