julia week 4

I started disecting tea bags this week and here are some pictures of it. It's like the body, like puncturing skin or something, I don't know but it's really gross while at the same time when you do it its very aromatic.

Daniel Lubniewski Week 4

In class I showed the results of my previous week of researching people in Italy and related topics. After recieving feed back from Jana and everyone else, I started to look at some of the formal qualities that all of my photos shared, namely the emphasis on arches and single forms. I them narrowed down all my photos to half the original number of 33, creating an abstract narrative that started with the image of a single person and ended with a crowd. Keeping this narrative in mind, I continued to distill this narative until I only had five photos to work with. Over the rest of the week I focused my efforts on these five photos, doing several semi-realistic and abstract ink drawings of each photo. I am starting to get an idea of the essences of these pictures and now have a myriad of pictures I can use to enhance the narrative of the photos.

Way Down in Kokomo

After a some-what minor emotional breakdown last week I've got some ground underneath now. I've chosen water-specifically the organic shapes formed when light hits the surface of the water and occasionally when lines underneath the water get disturbed. Usually they relate to one another in wider patterns but have distinctly individual shapes. I've been zooming in and out on these shapes from the water photos. I'm trying to have fun with it so I'm using whatever media fits best at the moment, with a lot of mixed media results. Eventually I should have twenty five of these drawings or explorations.
maggie

Zoe Hillenmeyer

I've tried it again. The pictures are up there, I just checked. So, hopefully, this time it will work. Ah, and I thought I had conquered it.

Adell

After studying the visual components of my own work so far, I realized that what I find very effective in a lot of paintings and drawings that I like is the creation of some kind of gap or hole, through the use of black or some other kind of severe contrast in color, material or texture. These breaks in the picture are often seen as mouths, windows, wounds, or anything where the harshness of the dark color used, contrasted with its surroundings, renders the void both infinite and severely two-dimensional. After finding the examples shown here, I'm going to work next week on re-creating that relationship in different colors and mediums.

Alessandra

Sorry about being slightly late with the blog! This week has been pretty hectic, as everyone has already mentioned. The assignments in class have most definately been thought provoking and forcing me to pick my brain for random ideas and memories from home. This past weekend i met my sister in rome and walking around this idea of grafiti and public self expression intrigued. I am not completely sure how to segway this idea into the assignment, because it seems almost too conceptual. What i was interested was how grafitti, this modern contemporary form of expression is specifically layered on the walls of old italian architecture. It is the idea not only of layering of different materials, but also the graphic and interesting designs that seem so personal are shown to everyone bothering to look. The question is however, how does one link such a thing to renaissance art. I feel that the form of layering on concrete reminds me of the fresca's of renaissance artists.

Week 3

Yet another week. And....that was a sentence fragment.
Anyway, in studio we have started exploring ways to associate words with certain types of marks instead of direct representation. We experimented with writing stories where the writing represents the words and coming up with abstract illustrations of different terms associated with home. We also took time to create pictures representing the essence of different types of space, such as streets, towns, countries, etc. (examples in photos).
The week culminated in a project assigned where we pick a characteristic that interests us and gather photo evidence of said characteristic. I was intrigued by the idea of exploring objects that seem out of place, and I tried to find examples during my trip to Rome (such as objects made from unusual material, objects of unusual size or makeup, etc.). Unfortunately, I was reminded on my return home that I need to focus on a specific physical characteristic, not an idealogical one. So....I will need to revise my topic and start a new collection this week. As of tomorrow I should be decided.

~ Rachel
http://www.flickr.com/photos/organize/?start_tab=sets

Abbey Teller

In class, we explored the relationship between words and gestures. This exercise was very useful for me, even though most of my work tends to be representaional. Although I did not really get the full gist of the draings immediately, I definately understood by the final charcoal drawing. This drawing helped me to consider my actual definition of home, versus where I live. It also helped me explore my thoughts on home in the future. Much of it had to do with the concept of having a connection with the place and the people or the environment- a feeling. Home is were you feel comfortable and like you belong, the characteristics of having an established community. However, there is something physical about home, as well. It is a place that you can return to, no matter what.

Allison Shellito

This week has been so hectic, in a good way! In sketchbook I am working on overhauling my drawings. Some days are very good and some are very bad. I love the good days! In Theme Sequence I really enjoyed the excersises we did to think about things abstractly. I am starting my work for the week and my topic is "hair." I am beginning by looking at hair in Renaissance art (see photos). I am thinking about all the other things that relate...I think I will make a mind map soon to get all of these ideas onto paper.

This weekend we went to Rome and I am so exhausted from all the touring! I am pretty sure we saw everything (even the pope!). I loved the Modern Art Museum. We were even able to sit outside for awhile in the gorgeous 60 degree weather and sketch. So I would say the weekend was a sucess and I can't wait for more travels. A presto, Allison

Jane Philipps

This week in studio we worked on defining movement within certain spaces and places. In my ink drawings I attempted to capture the different types of movement in my home spaces (i.e. street, neighborhood, country, etc.). Thinking about home in a more conceptual way was challenging, but after awhile I became more comfortable with the idea of home as more than just a place. It can be difficult to grasp what exactly home is, being so far away, but I think the gathering assignment helped because I could see similarities and differences between home and here. The final exercise we did was a map of our home, or various homes, and for me, this really made me think about the various places I consider home. Growing up in one place makes me feel like that is where I will always belong, but spending time away from home at school (both high school and college) makes me feel like those other places are part of my home too. I enjoyed all of the exercises and got back into the rhythm of different types of mark-making with both ink and charcoal.

lee graf|week 3

This past week the home exercises were kind of difficult for me. Although I know my home so well, it was a little bit hard to describe certain feelings and scents and emotions that come from home. It was almost tougher to describe elements from my home than it was to go out in florence and gather things from this new "home." The exercises in class were interesting to really kind of hone in on what home meant for all of us and to get to know the meaning individually as well.

As I began my next assignment, I continued with the idea of rhythm in terms of light and how it streams through windows, etc. My pictures are both of the class exercises and of examples of light as a visible rhythm.

Cassie Week 3

soooo first i apologize for not getting the photos from last week on until today, but hey! they're there! and i found my computer cord, which is super great. i was having some problems with my camera this weekend, so i gave it a rest and charged the batteries today, in hopes that tomorrow it will be feeling better and all the world's problems will be solved.

the theme i have chosen is a form. you might call it a U-shape, or if you turn it upside down, it could be a hump or an arch. i've found that hills have reappeared again and again in my recollections of comfort and home-like situations. as jana has encouraged, i've begun to attempt (a bit blindly, no?) to explore the significance of this hill-inspired sensation through consideration of its physical form. since i've been in florence, i've found that two particular situations tend to make me feel happiest - 1) standing in a location that is high above the city and the land, so that i can see both and how they interact with each other (i.e. hiking in sentignano or sitting on the wall of la chiesa san francesco in fiesole), and 2) standing in the middle of the street in the evening when it is dark and the street lights are on, surrounded by people, buildings hovering (creating a sort of shelter?) over me. this is where i find the arch, the hump in the ground, the sensation of being hugged and surrounded by something much bigger than i am. i love the feeling of the ground, as well. it feels so...here.

i am thoroughly enjoying the touchy-feely, emotional, get-in-touch-with-your-inner-child-ness that this class is encouraging me to explore :-)

Meredith Nelson (week3)

Our work in class was based around the week's reading about home, places, etc. We did several excercises based on this reading, drawing on words and concepts from the text and applying them to our own sense of home. This was expressed through abstract drawings in ink and charcoal. I used charcoal to represent the three places I have called home: Champaign, Washu, and Florence. Champaign is represented with simple, repeating lines to show that life there is relatively relaxed and uncomplicated. WashU is very busy in contrast, but also very self-contained. Florence is an offshoot of my drawing of Washu, because in some ways I feel that where I am is an extension of the Washu bubble. It's easier to escape here, however, and I conveyed this by having many lines extended from my representation of "florence."


http://www.flickr.com/photos/30039363@N00/sets/72157594517392574/

Nina de Casa

I spent the afternoon today researching the definition of home. Spent it, rather than wasted it. The afternoon I mean. Anyhow, I realized something new about Steve Erkel from Family Matters. Every time that Carl Winslow got fed up with Steve's shennanigans he'd explode into a fit of "GO HOME STEVE!"'s. No wonder the poor kid was always at the Winslow household. That was where he considered home to be, not his house with the parents we were never introduced to. I thought that was a nice little epiphany. This past week I focused on family networks as an extension of home (i.e. divorced parents beginning new relationships and branching out the family pods, the adoption of boyfriends as sons by mothers, the tendency to call close friends of the family great uncle so and so). Dealt a bunch with last week's idea of memory (me mori) and completely lost track of my being in Florence. Focusing all your energies on mapping out the various 'homes' you've had can do that to you- something about having to recall where in the house you felt most uninhibited and comfortable, and expunging this from your system in line forms really takes it out of you. All in all, a reflective week filled with mountain yelling, joining our fibers with those of the earth and realizing that I am not what you'd call a homely girl in nature, but rather Una Nina de Casa.
`Nicole

Jessica Rogen

This week we focused our work around the ideas of what make up a space. Using a reading we identified what our connotations for Space, The Street, Neighborhood, Town, Countryside, and Country were. I worked with Maggie to identify words that we associated with different parts of the word Country. We focused on barriers and division and asked what makes a country. Alone, I made quick non-representational ink drawings of all the terms. In my most successful drawings I used a combination of ink wash with fine line to capture my feelings without recognizable images.

After these excersizes, we worked on developing a "mark vocabulary" by drawing marks that corresonded with different words associated with home. Then, thinking of our own homes (whether that is singular or multiple) we drew our own homes using only non-representational markings. In order to accomplish this I thought of my different homes and just let my arm move without thinking about the acutal mark too much. It turned out very dark and layered... eep. I think it represents the activity of my life no matter where I am.

Water

This week I’m gathering stuff about water. A bit broad as a topic, but hopefully through the gathering process I can narrow it down. On Friday I went further down the Arno and just watched the river. People came and went, which was part of the intrigue, but my constant companions were the swans (how can they fly they’re so heavy!?) the river rats and the fisherman. We never made eye contact (the fisherman, that is…the swans stared me down) but there was an acknowledgement between us as I suppose there usually is between a spectator and the viewed after a patient amount of time. I saw him catch two fish, both gigantic, probably from the superhuman toxins of the arno river. The river changed too with its shadows and each time the animals ventured off the bank to make new ripples. I recorded some of the rythyms and wildlife with a few sketches. I also went to the camera shop on Friday and they’ll tell me in a week if it’s salvageable or fit for a paperweight. Some of the paintings in the Uffizi involve water so I got a postcard from there and I also have some pictures from before the death of my camera that relate. Though the picture isn’t great, the mosaics in Ravenna had amazing scenes involving water-most of which was the baptism of Jesus. Very interesting how they attempted/achieved transparency with stone. I’ve also included some images of the work we did in class last week mapping out home in a visual sense and trying to diversify the mark marking process. This saturday I also saw a mens water polo game. Water as a space for sport-sprinting and violence. very cool. I dropped my camera off at the repair shop and I find out in a week if it will be salvagable or not. I also included my inclass work with mark making and maps
Hope life’s treating you well
Maggie
p.s. I tried creating a space or place set to separate those photos from the rest- I dont know if itll work

Daniel Lubniewski Week 3

During class we did a series of exercises involving the expression of words and qualities by means of abstract lines. I first worked with ink to abstractly expressed the essences of various types of spaces from the United States as I remembered experiencing them. I then practiced doing various types of lines with charcoal. Over the week I have been doing research for a small exibition for class that will involve the theme of people on the streets of Italy. Through two brainstorming session I expanded this idea to include how Italian food and fashion help shape the identity of Italian people and how I am similar or different from Italian people. I have also taken numerous photos of Italians on the streets as well as related items.

Julia

So there are a few forms that I've been particularly interested in. One is decaying, peeling, exposed walls. Another is grotesque stuff--mainly grotesque meaning of the body, like the animal organs in the central market or the pieces by spoerri having to do with actual organs or medical engravings of them. The third is tea bags. Weird, I know, but they totally hit this subconscious thing in me. I think it has to do with the fact that when I was a little kid, what I did for fun was a.), make "potpourri," aka pick berries, leaves and flowers, crush them up and put them in a dixie cup; b.) attach balls of moss to sticks and stick them in the ground and call them trees, and C) do the poutpourri thing but put in in a plastic bag and then twist it tight so it made a little ball of poutpourri.
I mean, its a form similar to tea in tea bags. I dont know what I find captivating about it, but I realized the other night as I was stealthily videotaping a tea bag floating in a cup of water and setting off steam, in my room, like a psychotic person basically, that it is something I've found captivating since I was really little, like 5, and didn't know any better.

So there are a few forms that I've been particularly interested in. One is decaying, peeling, exposed walls. Another is grotesque stuff--mainly grotesque meaning of the body, like the animal organs in the central market or the pieces by spoerri having to do with actual organs or medical engravings of them. The third is tea bags. Weird, I know, but they totally hit this subconscious thing in me. I think it has to do with the fact that when I was a little kid, what I did for fun was a.), make "potpourri," aka pick berries, leaves and flowers, crush them up and put them in a dixie cup; b.) attach balls of moss to sticks and stick them in the ground and call them trees, and C) do the poutpourri thing but put in in a plastic bag and then twist it tight so it made a little ball of poutpourri.
I mean, its a form similar to tea in tea bags. I dont know what I find captivating about it, but I realized the other night as I was stealthily videotaping a tea bag floating in a cup of water and setting off steam, in my room, like a psychotic person basically, that it is something I've found captivating since I was really little, like 5, and didn't know any better.