"The Cathedral"

            After hearing how this reading was going to, "blow your mind," I had some high expectations for the short story. As I started reading I had many different thoughts in my head of how the story was going to turn out. With each new line I was nervous to see what would come next. However as the story began to come full circle there wasn't that shock appeal I was hoping for. After reading the story through I began to wonder why our teacher thought this story was going to be so mind altering. I soon realized what might have been the reason. I think the story is truly about the narrators spiritual awakening. At first he was prejudice and closed minded. It was unhappy in his life and was not even having a deep connection with his wife. He commented on how he didn't like blind men and talked about the typical stereotypes of them. It wasn't until the end of the story that we see it was really the narrator that was "blind" the whole time. He learned how to look at people as individuals and see them from an open point of view.  He was able to learn more about happiness from man who could see life more clearly than he, even though he didn't have the ability to actually see it. 

Project Five, Burning and Dapple

As we were first introduced to our fifth project, I was really inspired by the examples that we discussed in class. I was so shocked to hear the true source of the calm music. However as I began to think how I was going to take an everyday object and change it in a way that my audience wouldn’t recognize it, was challenging. My first step was to decide an object that I used everyday that I could transform into something else. For some reason a pencil came to mind immediately. After I was assigned the words fire and dapple, I was not sure on how I could incorporate those words with my pencil idea. The pencils I use most often are plastic, and I knew they would not burn. It was then obvious I needed to use a real wooden pencil.

I then got the idea to burn the pencil and document the process, I originally wanted to use video to capture the pencil as it burned slowly, however the pencil did not burn as long as I had imagined. So after I had to re-light the pencil a few times to achieve the burnt look I desired, I decided it would be best to use photography and Photoshop to create my project. After I got the pencil to burn quite a bit I let it cool and was anxious to see the new texture of the wood. To my surprise the pencil maintained its hardness however now it was the texture of charcoal. I then got the idea to use the charcoal as writing utilize and utilize its new form. 

I then had to think how to incorporate dapple into my work. I decided to create a dapple pattern using the paper towel I wrote “fire” on and create a spotted pattern. I then used that has an overlay to the images of the pencil I took as it was burning. The images are in order of occurrence.

I wanted to use Photoshop less in this project, and I wanted the focus to be more on the burning process and the actually transformation of the pencil. Again the final outcome was different then what I first expected, but it is always enjoyable to go through the creative process and see what happens along the way. 

The ability to be in a million places at once!

As soon as I heard about our new assignment, I knew instantly what I wanted my super power to be, however I was unsure on how I could portray my idea by utilizing Photoshop.  The super power I wanted to possess was to be able to teleport. I got this idea from always having the desire to travel the world, as well as wishing I could visit my boyfriend in Chicago in an instant, and then visit my brother in NYC in the next. Because I have a long distance relationship, I am used to traveling six hours to the city and six hours back to campus. I am constantly thinking how easy life would be if I could just blink my eyes to get from place to place.   I remembered a movie I saw titled, “Jumper,” that depicted the story of a guy who could teleport himself. I was instantly inspired and soon began looking up images of stills from the movie. Photos of him on the Egyptian pyramids, London’s Big Ben, and other monumental destinations all over the world cultivated some ideas.

I first started gathering images of the Seven Wonders of the World, but I couldn’t figure out how I could fit an picture of myself into the images and make it into one cohesive photo.  I think got the idea of taking three images of myself, appearing as if I were walking from Paris, to London, to the streets of New York, however it was hard to find images from the right point of view. I soon gave up that idea up, and started playing with the images from “Jumper.” I thought of maybe replacing the lead actors image, with an image of myself, however I couldn’t get the images to look right, the proportions were too off.  I soon turned to Facebook, and began looking at the various images of myself. I found an image of myself on the beach in Italy. I then began adding in the images I found from the various places all over the world. At the end I used the blur took to make it look as if the images were warped like I was moving super fast. I decided my new super power would to have the ability to be at multiple places at once.

Even though the image didn’t turn out exactly as I thought it would at first, I really like the image that was created in the end. 

Leaving My Mark

  As I began to think about how I was going to approach our third project, a few different ideas came to mind. I started thinking about over the past four years, where I have spent most of my time. I know most people would probably said the library, however that was not one of my first choices. Being in fashion and retail, almost every quarter I have a class in Campbell hall, so some of the rooms or even the bathroom was one of my first ideas. However I thought about who I would see in this building, and I felt that if I placed my sculpture in one of those rooms, it wouldn’t have really left its mark. Then I thought about the oval, I liked the idea we had spoken about in class about filling the whole field with red balloons. I then realized that the oval really didn’t hold a special place in my heart, so this led me to the idea of using the Rpac. To me our gym on campus is my place to escape my daily routine. It was a place on campus I actually looked forward to going each day. I thought about how it would be special if I could leave my mark someplace in the Rpac that people would notice everyday, however it wouldn’t be something they would directly connect to me. I soon knew exactly what personal item I wanted to use.

     When I was a freshman I created an image similar to the works of Andy Warhol. It was of the iconic image of Audrey Hepburn, and every since then I have hung the canvas above my bed. I thought this would be perfect because, if someone saw the image they wouldn’t probably notice that it was one of my pieces of art. I knew right away I wanted to use the treadmill because it is the machine I use most frequently.  I ended up liking four of the images I created, however they didn’t turn out exactly how I imaged, I think that my point got across.