Also this...

I couldn't help but add this one of Sterling and Greta...and their same confused stare...it's typical.

Final Project

So, for my final, I kept it relatively simple.  Mostly because I wanted my images to speak for themselves.  Horses are such energetic, spunky animals and it was a lot of fun to TRY and capture them with my camera.  I say try because I had a hard time getting them to do what I wanted, I was happy though with the spontaneity of the pictures.

I found that a lot of my pictures featured a lot of natural sunlight.  We traveled to the barn in the evening, as the sun was setting, but I loved the presence of sunlight and consequently shadows.

This is one of my favorite pictures that I took.  This is one of the brood mares at the barn.  She insisted on putting her nose right in my face, she wanted to do what  she wanted to do...typical horse.

I loved this palomino. She tried so hard to force her way out of the stall, prompting Greta to keep pushing her back.  She was very affectionate and loved to be close to us...I don't think horses know their actual size.  Prime example, one horse stepped on Greta's foot and it took her a solid thirty seconds to save her toes.

 This sweet girl was my absolute favorite.  I was sad we weren't able to let her out of her stall but she was affectionate and gentle.  Again, the presence of shadows and sunlight are consistent between all the pictures.  There is also a consistency with the proximity, again, horses love to put their noses in everyone's business...literally.

Sterling was one of the equestrian team horses until one of the riders bought her, but she still boards at the stables.  I love, again, the presence of sunlight and shadows.  Sterling had just been out practicing jumps, and so she was determined afterward that she was going to enjoy some grass...at her own pace.  Stubbornness is a typical horse quality.

 

I loved the consistency of the barn; how the stalls are all the same but are each unique with all the buckets, blankets, and leads...not to mention the horses inside them.

This picture isn't so consistent with my theme, but I loved it.  Cos was enjoying some freedom in the arena.

Cos, again, doing what he wanted.  We were at his mercy, he's a little bigger than we are.  Again, presence of sunlight.

I thought this was a good way to close out my project, the sun setting over the barn.

Prepping for the final project...

I had no clue what to do for my final project.  Then I went on an adventure with my roommate, Greta, to the Sid Griffith Equestrian Center, where she trains for OSU's equestrian team.  I've been around horses my whole life, so I jumped at the chance to visit with her.

I'm still not sure what I want to do with the pictures I took (I took over a 100, I got a little camera happy) but I thought I could post a few of the ones that won't make it to the final.  Enjoy!

This is one of the foals born very recently, he was kind of a snot to be honest.  But the face made up for his feisty personality...and the nipping.

This horse had one blue eye and one brown one...it's a little creepy in person.

Some of the horses love baths...some do not.

Cos running at us as fast as he possibly could...nothing to worry about.

Trying to teach Cos to be patient for a treat...we weren't very successful.

Cathedral...

Raymond Carver's Cathedral talks a great deal about blindness, repeating the word blind a substantial amount of times, but also eyes, glass and other words that make us think about eyes.

Near the end of the story, we listen to the description of a cathedral to a man who has never been able to see it.  I can't fathom the idea of losing my sight.  It is almost an interesting idea to spend a day using other senses to describe an item, like a cathedral.  

How could we describe the cathedral to someone without them seeing it, but rather so they could create their own image in their head.  How does it feel?  Sound?  This would be an interesting way to create art, as art is about personal expression and the thoughts we have in our head.  If we had never seen a cathedral, how would we go about depicting it as others have described it to us.  Its almost as if we would have to paint with our eyes closed.

I almost wish I could experience the loss of sight for a day in an attempt to create things from my mind rather than relying on my sight.

Spill...

Spill:  [spil]  to cause or allow to run or fall from a container, especially accidentally or wastefully.

This is a close up of my cup after I spilled the water onto a paper I was reading; this is something that happens to me all too often.

On the occasions where I spill my drink, the aftermath is more of a hassle than a struggle.  My first instinct is to move my phone and other electronics out of the way.  Then I move to pick up the toppled glass and fetch something to catch all the water.  It's my goal, thereafter, to restore my work station to it's pre-spill glory.  

The true limitations of any spill is the need to stop everything else that is going on to tend to the problem at hand.  It's even worse if the contents of the glass can cause a stain, then you have to act more quickly.  I don't find that there are many opportunities that spawn from this form of clumsiness, other than having to get up from what your doing to combat the mistake by getting something to clean up your mess.  A change of scenery then.

I also wanted to include the pictures I took last week of a girl outside of one of my classes spilt her Red Bull.  I thought about how unstaged and natural her reaction would be so I had to document it discretely.

Spilling your Red Bull in the hallway can present a few obstacles:  having to clean up your mess, making sure others don't walk through it, acting as if you had nothing to do with the matter.  I found it really funny that after she knocked over the can, she brought 2 paper towels back, as if that would clean up the mess.  When that wasn't enough she used a tissue to try and mop up the rest.  She eventually gave up and went back to her nap, awkwardly on a bench in the hallway.

Friendly note, if you ever spill like this in a classroom building:  refrain from leaving the sopping tissue on the floor so you can go back to sleep and try to actually clean up the spill, instead of giving up after 2 minutes.

Super power...

So for my super power I decided to choose invisibility.  I placed my self on the main path of the oval, the place I find myself wishing I was left unseen sometimes.  I constantly am irritated having to walk on the brick path when USG is campaigning or other random booths set up on the oval.  When I'm on my way to class, and I'm usually late, I don't have time to stop and listen to everyone.

I decided that I wanted to make the people that were on the oval with me look like blurs.  This is how I feel they would look to me if I was invisible.  I liked the idea that my picture was photoshopped in because I can conspicuously take a picture of them walking, but it's hard to take a picture of myself with out looking strange.  This way, they already looked like they didn't notice me.

I added a few people from the other pictures I took.  It took me a while to master adding shadows, but I was happy with how they turned out.  I tried hard to make myself look like I belonged in the picture, but with my lack of professional photoshop skills I still look a little out of place.

I thought this was a fun project, it really relied on creativity and imagination.

Wallace Article...

Wallace's commencement speech had every good part of a classic college graduation speech:  a parable, sarcastic comments, realistic applications and a theme.  He speaks mostly about the realities of life, and seeing them for how they are, like the fish.  "This is water."  I appreciate the path his discourse takes; it borderlines cynical but he doesn't fail to make sure that his audience understands that everything is what it is.  I find that refreshing for a graduation speech, as most are fluff pieces aiming to inspire the listener to unrealistic goals.

That being said, he skips around a lot and tries to tie in a lot of little, separate stories that drag the audience on a long trip that isn't totally satisfying.  There is a certain limit of information displayed in a form like this that is acceptable, but Wallace surpasses it and I'm sure lost some of the attention of the students.  That was the hardest part for me; grasping everything he was trying to communicate and making sure it fit somehow into the whole picture that was his speech

Project Number Four

So, for my object I chose my desk chair, for two reasons.  The first being that I spend the most amount of time when I am at home sitting in my desk chair.  The second reason is I always want somewhere nice to sit when I have to kill time on campus in between classes.

My favorite spot on campus is in front of Hayes Hall on the Oval.  I've always appreciated the architecture of the building and it's proximity and view of the Oval.  If I have to spend time on campus, I would most enjoy sitting in front of this building and having the opportunity to sit and watch both the Oval and Hayes.

I wanted to keep the chair small and didn't want it to stick out.  In the first picture, it is sitting towards the bottom corner, facing Hayes but at enough of an angle that it is not solely focused on the building.  The second picture is meant to be one view from the actual chair.  I usually turn around in my chair because of the lack of arm rests and this would be about that view.  The last frame has the chair also in the corner, with it's back toward the camera.  It shows the whole other view that you get from the chair's perspective, as if you were sitting in it.

The toothbrush is the new paintbrush...

What a different piece.  Just as quickly and abruptly as it started, Kaprow's article ended, leaving me questioning his morning routine.

I identified mostly with his argument that most of the habits in our daily lives are so mundane and planned that we don't realize the true act of performing them.  He characterized this with brushing his teeth.  He picked probably one of the best actions to show how little we pay attention to our daily habits.  I know I'm not thinking about my brushing patterns when I brush my teeth in the morning, in fact I don't think I think about anything as I am definitely not a morning person.

I did disagree with Kaprow on some levels.  It's great that he wants to pay more attention to his actions and understand their every ebb and flow, yet I don't think that qualifies them as art.  Instead he is really just focusing on every little action his body performs, which is well and good but nothing of interest to anyone else because we all do it!  If I wanted to write a book on breathing I'm almost positive it wouldn't be on the best seller list simply because who cares, we all do it, why would you want to read about it?

MP3

This post gave me a harder time than the last project.  I spend a lot of time over analyzing the topics that we're supposed to be portraying.  I didn't struggle much with choosing the items that I would save over others; that was the easiest part of this assignment.

Postcard - This was a postcard from my friend from Germany.  It's nearly 3 years old and I still keep it in sight to remind me of the friendship and the bond between us.  She's actually the reason I started learning German.  All of my frustrations and confusions with the language fade when I remember spending time with her and how she struggled just as much with her English.  Lasting Friendship.

Headphones - I feel like every human being is impacted somehow by music, so it may be cheesy that I too would save my phone/iPod but it is a very important item.  Music is how I wake up in the mornings, how I walk to class, how I drive; it literally is incorporated into every part of my life.  I find myself whistling and humming when I don't have my headphones in simply because I'm constantly caught up in music.  Habitual Addiction.

Necklace - This is a token of a ministry that I have taken part of over the course of two summers.  I spent 12 days biking 250 miles in Ohio and then in Michigan.  It reminds me of all the heat, humidity and headwinds of those rides.  But it also reminds me of the people that I met and how I still keep in touch with every single person from those trips.  How many late nights I spent talking to those people and how many laughs we shared.  Strong Connection.

Bracelet - It's fairly simple as to why I would save this.  When I joined my sorority last year I had expectations; every single one of them was surpassed.  I have never known a more loving and accepting organization and a source of so much knowledge and growth.  This bracelet reminds me to always think about my sisters first and to love them unconditionally.  I carry them with me everyday and they lift me up continuously.  Sisterhood.

Bobblehead - This is obviously my most prized possession!  I won this autographed Gordon Gee bobblehead last year at BuckeyeThon.  I literally am in love with it, partly because Gordon Gee is the best and mostly because it reminds me of the night I won it.  17 hours of standing and dancing to help raise money for cancer research.  Every thought of it makes me smile with pride for the Buckeye community's commitment and support of this amazing philanthropy.  It was probably the experience that has most defined my life, especially my time at Ohio State.  Philanthropic Dedication.

The hardest part of this assignment was deciding how I wanted to lay out the pictures.  I played only a little with the size of the objects, pulling Gordon Gee and my bracelet a little larger to show their importance.  I also overlapped the images to show that they all are linked in a way.  I discovered that a lot of the things I chose were items that linked me to someone else or something else and they overlapped in that way.  I also decided to leave the background blank.  I wanted to keep the idea simple:  that all of these items have meanings and memories that have shaped me.  I wanted their shape to be clear and I didn't want to outshine their meanings with too much clutter and glitz.  It might seem a little boring but it is my way of showing the most important things to me and my dedication to them.

Feet in smoke...

John Sullivan's Feet in Smoke was a hodge-podge of thoughts and ideas about the author's brother's near death experience.  I found the piece interesting in that he witnessed his brother's anguish like no one could, but he kept it to himself.  I don't think he wanted to tell anyone about witnessing his brother's seizure in the hospital bed because he didn't know how to help him.

A lot of emphasis was put on the medical terminology, and how Worth was only functioning at 1% of brain activity.  Sullivan states that he can imagine that while his body is unresponsive to the human eye, the brain is trying fervently to repair itself, causing the anguish that Worth experiences and Sullivan sees for a brief moment.

I like the tie into his near death experience, imagining himself on a riverboat with Twain's Huck and Jim.  It may seem a little random but I think that is what Sullivan wants to convey.  The idea that the only person will understand what happened on Worth's deathbed was Worth himself.  It's suggestive that each individual has a unique experience in combating death, that no one will ever know the feeling of death until it comes there time.

Map Project...

So, this is what the route from my house to class looks like on any given Monday or Wednesday morning.

I started off with a picture that is from the perspective of standing on my lawn. It then follows the sidewalk, to the street sign. I walk across the oval, past one of my favorite buildings, University Hall. Then it's past all the construction to the Shoe.

One effect I played around with was blur. I wanted to make the images feel like I feel in the morning. The first image is the blurriest and as I start to "wake up" the images get sharper and sharper.

I also played around with saturation. It follows the same pattern where the first picture lacks a lot of vibrant color but the final picture has really beautiful hues. I felt this was similar to what I see in the morning; when I start out I'm tired and don't appreciate all the colors around me, but as I start to wake up I see more of the vibrant colors like in the photos.

Visiting the Wexner...

So, today was my first time being inside the Wexner Center and I really had no idea what I was doing.

I stumbled upon two exhibits, both were video presentations. One was My Own Private River featured in the box. I was more intrigued by the room itself than the movie. It was appropriately named as it felt like I was stuck inside a box (I'm sure that was the whole point). The cube cushions also played into "The Box" mindset.

The movie itself was peculiar. I'm not sure if it was meant to skip a bit or if the film was damaged but that was once obstacle I faced.

I came into the movie once it had already begun, so I'm not quite sure where in the movie I had actually begun watching. I didn't learn much about the characters because of my late arrival but I sensed a very close bond between them.

I found out after visiting the exhibit that the video was a redone version of My Own Private Idaho, as a tribute to the late River Phoenix, completed by James Franco. That might be why the video was harder to follow.

I'm not sure if I'll ever visit the Wex again but it was definitely an interesting experience. I personally would be more interested in paintings and photos over video but it was interesting to see what artists come up with.

My Name on Campus...

Scrounging for pictures this weekend resulted in me having to post this morning, but most were taken in Columbus.

In both projects, one similarity I experienced was feeling like a dork snapping random pictures all over campus. I tried very hard to look inconspicuous, however I feel I probably didn't succeed. I noticed that I spent more time on this project as I was trying to take pictures that fulfilled certain criteria.

I much preferred the first project because I liked taking pictures of whatever I chose. I feel that most of the best pictures I've ever taken have been spontaneous and not detailed and planned.

I'm probably most partial to the outdoor photos, especially those taken close to the Wexner Plaza as the architecture is really playful and makes for creative pictures.

See above for my name on campus...

More Pictures...

Pictures...

"Wait, the painting is called Nipple what??"

I loved hearing responses from my friends when I told them the title of the story I was reading was "Nipple Jesus." Even a fictional story about a picture of Christ made of boobs gets people talking.

It took me a little while to understand the reasoning behind the creation of the picture. After understanding that it was meant as a provocation piece, I realized that Hornby is really doing the same thing to the reader. Think about it: If you proposed this type of art to anyone you are bound to get some kind of reaction, negative or positive. I think that Hornby did a really great job of showing that art is what you make of it (through Dave's perspective) and that no matter what you create, someone else is going to hate it. Think of Dave's feelings on the onion at the end, it might not be as controversial but he still has strong disdain for it.

The ending was kind of anti-climatic and I was disappointed. We got the reaction from the people, resulting in a smashed portrait of Nipple Jesus but then there was confrontation between Dave and Martha that ended with Dave showing no more interest on the topic. This might be Hornby's way of showing that controversy over provocative art dies down after time but it didn't play into his beginning theme of wanting the rise out of others.

To Ensoul...

It fascinates me that anima in Latin is translated to soul, and the difficulty that is faced by the subjects of this paper to capture a human-like soul in an animated object.

Chances are there aren't many people who haven't experienced high profile animation in modern movies. From Jurassic Park to the special effects of Avatar, there has been significant advancements in animation. I took to the article in that there are so many different objects that are difficult to animate. I would have never imagined that milk would be the most difficult. It is a as simple as one perceived color in a glass, but the details that are seen by the naked eye are so much harder to capture in animation. I would have guessed that there would me more struggles animating trees or humans but there is so much detail in every object.

I argue, in a naive sort of belief, that I don't think it is necessary for animators to master all 5,000 facial expressions capable of humans. While we will perceive the falseness of the object being animated, there is nothing wrong with it not being perfect. There is a separation between reality and imagination and personally I don't see anything wrong with that fact. Why does the movie industry believe that making all movies 3D will entice viewers to want to see their production even more? I'm a fan of the fiction of movies and then I promptly return to reality. It is impressive that so many advancements have been made, but a certain point animators need to be happy with their work and enjoy the real world; take time to smell the real roses, not the artificially animated ones on the green screen behind you.

From Rolling Stone to Cereal...

I loved reading Terry Barrett's article on denotation and connotation. It was such a fun and creatively written piece, that featured research spanning from adults to preschoolers.

He created a quite conducive learning curve that made the concepts he was presenting easily understandable to the reader. I identified mostly with his opening example of Panzani. I think most people can admit to staring a any label on a grocery item and feeling persuaded by it's image. That's what Barrett is arguing in his research. The denotations are simple: fresh produce, packaged spaghetti, lots of reds and greens. The connotations were relayed just as simply: the image is trying to create an image of what Barrett calls "Italianicity" and makes our mouths water and our minds imagine a home cooked meal. Barrett made a point in his case study of denotations and connotations across age gaps extremely accessible for the readers and the people he was studying.

I struggled to find meaning in his constant persistence about the Dalai Lama and his role as a subtitle on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine. I felt he was trying to convey some deeper role of the editorial that was feature in the same issue as was the image of the sexually provocative Destiny's Child. However, I found no deep connection to the two other than who the reader's are familiar with and how that might change their perceptions of the magazine's content.

I have a big idea...

Learning to pick out the BIG idea from the mass of other concepts is the goal of Walker in this article.

I deduced from the latter part of this article that rule breaking is another central idea, similar to that which Hickey wrote about. It's almost as if numerous artists and writers believe the time battered phrase "rules are meant to be broken." Who knows? Maybe they are right. In the case of art I agree with the statement. If rules weren't constantly broken in the art world be stuck going to galleries filled with glorified cave drawings. If the artists of past centuries had not set forth to break the mold of their generation, we would not know of the forms to come: cubism, surrealism, impressionism and countless others. I found this idea to be slightly inspiring, even outside of art. There will always be someone ahead of the times, aiming to break that mold and move culture forward.

One thing I would've hoped for from Walker in this article is a paragraph detailing how one chooses a big idea. On the first page we see a generally randomized list of examples but no real thought process into why they are considered to be big ideas as opposed to subjects or themes. It was simple for myself to understand the difference between subject and big idea but I struggled a little more separating themes from big ideas, mainly because there is the opportunity for them to be the same.

Basketball is art...

I thought I knew plenty about basketball, then I read this article. Nevertheless, Dave Hickey was a very entertaining read.

I had no trouble grasping his connection between the fluidity of basketball and it's similarity to art. "It's okay to drip paint." I had no trouble grasping the rules that began to govern both art and basketball. Hickey also focused on how rules affect every citizen from birth to death. Bringing in his own defiance of adolescence and later relating rules to the loss of freedom in basketball. The line that stood out most to me was "...when a rule ceases to liberate and begins to govern." I think a lot of times in society we perceive that all rules are meant to govern and control us. And while that is true in many instances, there are just as many that liberate us. Hickey even makes that point about basketball where rules were established that prohibited zone defense and made the game more of a "match-up."

I did have some trouble following along with his mannerisms. He was particular to basketball terminology and did talk about some plays that an amateur basketball watcher doesn't isn't always familiar with. It didn't inhibit Hickey from getting his point across to my reader base but I did struggle to keep up with his vocabulary. I felt no other detrimental effects of his writing and did enjoy the connection between the art and basketball worlds.

If I ever have to hear about Flatland again...

So, after reading The Cheese Monkeys excerpt by Chip Kidd, a little piece of me laughed while the rest of me wanted to beat my head against a wall as my head swelled with memories of suffering through Abbott's Flatland.

I read through the first two or three pages trying to get a grasp on Kidd's sarcastic style of writing and was later pleasantly entertained by his teaching of basic concepts. Visualizing the advertisement of a tomato for a farmer was by far the easiest to interpret. In conceptualizing big and small and it's usefulness in such an advertisement, Kidd made clear the proper time and place to use either approach. Going from a photo focusing a red background detailing tomatoes, however not accurately depicting them, to a picture slightly showing the stem, while still characterizing the tomato as large so that it invokes a certain imagery and is appealing to those in search of a perfect and mouthwatering fruit. It was a courageous approach to teaching a lesson in big and small that defined the proper approach to using either and catered to even the simplest minds.

I struggled a little bit more when Kidd introduced in front of and in back of. While he redefined the helpfulness and relevancy of big and small, he further introduced overlapping and perspective of clarity. I have had the privilege of reading Flatland, and by privilege I really mean it was forced upon me. I had more trouble, in response to this article, fitting dimensions and there infinite span into the rest of his claims. I don't quite understand how he is trying to connect the concepts of in front of and in back of to that of a sense of realization that comes with the dimensions around us.

I also chuckled at his statement comparing the seduction of the enemy into accepting what is and isn't real with the Pope and Catholic Church's enticement of millions of followers. It is a very broad and distant span of topics to try and connect but still quite humorous linking the two.

Making an Impression...

You wouldn't believe the time I spent simply coming up with a title for this blog. I fiddled around with so many options that my head started to spin. Then it dawned on me that only I would be this crazy about picking the perfect title...nutty in fact.

Nutty. The word that exemplifies my adventures and conquests.

I live a nutty life, literally. It doesn't help that my university's mascot is, coincidentally, a nut.

I've been requested to use this blog to complete projects for my art education class, but who knows, I probably will continue to ramble here long after the class comes to it's inevitable end.

A little more about myself.

My name is Laura, and as I previously stated, I'm a Buckeye who is trying to make it through her Political Science major and German minor. I devote my time to Delta Zeta and Buckeyethon, two wonderful organizations and where I have met most of my treasured friends. I discover bruises on a daily basis as I have no grace whatsoever...and that's ironic, because my middle name is indeed Grace. I also thoroughly love Maroon 5, The Barenaked Ladies, Paolo Nutini, Tonic and John Mayer. These are the most important facts of my life that can be condensed to 150 words.

And if any M!ch*g@n fans have stumbled onto this, see that little red X in the top right corner, CLICK IT.