Morgana Wallace, a mixed media artist, creates beautiful figures out of textured paper. She layers the paper cut outs to make intricate designs as well as adding vibrant colors by using watercolor and gauche. She focuses on mythology and wonderment to create the enchanting paper pieces. I love the detail and intricate design that she puts into her works of art. Each figure that she creates is something unique and different and adds to her collection of fairytale like characters. The whimsical yet meticulous design to the pieces gives the work a mystery about it because those two things juxtapose one another, but somehow Morgana makes it happen.

PART ONE

After listening to the student presenters, I was inspired by their advice. Here is a what I think about each presenter:

Brandy: I thought that her blog was easy to read, clean design and I loved that she had put her resume on her blog so that potential employers can easily see it. I felt that was an easy and simple way to brand herself through her blog.

Maryhelen: The biggest piece of advice that I found useful was to create a body of work outside of your academic life because it shows that your interested and willing to fuel your own creativity.

Maria: The piece of advise that I found the most helpful was that everything on your blog should be put there with intention. Whether it be the font, the theme, the captions to photos, everything should have a meaning behind it.

PART TWO

Four websites that I find compelling:

– http://www.strangelove.nl

-http://www.adidas.com/com/apps/predator/

-http://www.think.edu.au

-http://sud.ramoneurs.ch

I found these websites awards.com. I chose these websites because of their attention grabbing design.

 

 

In my Visual Studies class, we have been doing a project on Gestalt principles and taking photos that reflect the principles. I was drawn to the picture of this crumpled piece of paper and cigarette because it is seen as a dirty and trashy thing, but in the way the paper is crumpled and the cigarette is bent, it creates shadows and folds that I find interesting. I think that it would have looked cooler if I had taken the picture on a lower level and a little closer so the details could pop more. For the Gestalt project as a whole, I wish I would have thought out the pictures a little better to reflect the principles.

In my Drawing I class, we have been learning how to draw transparent forms in space. On this particular day, we learned how to draw a vase with colored water and wooden stick inside. What I like most about this drawing is the shading that creates the shadows. I am proud of myself for making it apparent that the vase was transparent. I think that I could have gone slower and really took the time to perfect the details of the drawing which would have made the drawing more aesthetically pleasing.

PART ONE:

1) The article “What Entrepreneurs can Learn from Artists” discusses the importance of allowing innovation to be natural rather than innovation being a forced process.

The main point of “Are Artists Entrepreneurs?” was that artists and entrepreneurs are no different because they both have to build themselves in the beginning and fight against the demands of the market.

2) Artists can learn to ask for help and use the bountiful resources they have available to them to make their vision come true. They should have a support system and backing like entrepreneurs often have, rather than doing everything on their own.

3) I definitely agree that artists are entrepreneurs because artists are starting a project on their own just like entrepreneurs. They both have this idea that they are turning into reality, which unifies them in their comma goal.

4) The 12 artists characteristics I agree with are that artists are humanists as well as craftspeople. I agree with all the others as well, but I identified with these two in particular because I consider myself to be extremely empathetic as well as a very “hands on” person.

5) One thing I would add to the list of the 12 characteristics is that artists see the world differently in my opinion. We see the nuances and shadows of the world more vividly because our brain and eyes are drawn to those mysteries.

6) I thought it was interesting that both articles talked about how the business world needs more creative people because we excel at innovation. Twenty years ago it was all about math and science when getting into jobs and learning in college, but now the creative people are emerging as a valuable asset.

In “Tunnel 57”, by Roman, the story of Ralph Kabisch is told of his heroine journey building a tunnel under the carefully guarded Berlin Wall. At the time of great conflict within Berlin, Ralph and his peers, college students at the time, managed to build this tunnel in six months and helped 57 people escape to the west side of Berlin — hence, the name of the tunnel.

I found this article/podcast to be very intriguing. The story took place in a time that I don’t know much about and the podcast had very good background information. What I found to be the most interesting is that the students had the smarts to live at the bakery as to not attract attention if they were to be going in and out of the building. That seems like a simple idea, but in reality was very intuitive. The courage and determination that they had in a time when fear was so rampant is astonishing. It was so easy to get caught if they messed up even a single part of their operation and they managed to get 57 people out before the tunnel was discovered. I can’t imagine the physical and emotional duress the diggers went through and the leadership that Kabisch had to step into.

How this relates to Gestalt is through continuity. The tunnel is a continuous space which falls under Gestalt principles.

What I couldn’t believe was how short of a time period it has been since this story took place. It’s only been about 50 years since the Berlin wall was constructed ad the tunnel was built. This story seems so archaic, when in reality happened recently in the grand scheme of the world.

I can’t begin to imagine what Ralph Kabisch and the others felt at that time. It broke my heart when I found out that his cousin never came through the tunnel before it was discovered by the East Berlin police. Overall, this article was enlightening.

TWO MEN FIND SCARY UNDERGROUND CHAMBERS IN BACKYARD

I found this article a couple of months ago and thought it was so interesting. The fact that they found this underground world where many men during the war spent their days is unbelievable. The spookiness of the chambers also adds to the appeal because I would like to explore it at night and see what sorts of things happen.

LINK TO ARTICLE: http://www.sliptalk.com/underground-pipes/

 

Through the craziness of the first few weeks of college, it has been hard to find a normal schedule. Each week it feels as if there is a new event or obligation that messes up the carefully laid plans that I have put down. Each day was different this last week and here is a summarization of my week.

On Mondays and Wednesdays, I get up at 7:45 and then eat breakfast before my 9 AM class. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, I get up roughly around ten. When I’m not in class during the day, I usually am either doing last minute homework or talking to my friends. It really depends on the day and what is due. After dinner time, I say that I am going to do homework, but I always get distracted and put it off until the morning or later that night. Each night I go to bed roughly around 12-1ish.

Each day seems to be a little different from the next, which is a problem because I am a person who thrives on a schedule and routine. I need to start planning my days better in order to maximize my time to do everything I would like to do throughout the day.

 

 

The first thought that came to my mind while watching Stan Brakhage’s, Stellar, was human tissue. Okay, this may sound extremely strange, but the first images at the beginning of the video looked like those pictures of brain tissue through a microscope. I realize that he probably intended for the images to look like stars or a galaxy, but from my perception it looked different.

I noticed several of Gestalt’s principles while watching this video. The first obvious principle I noticed was repetition.  Every slide that was shown had some sort of colorful bursts of light out of a black background. On the other hand, it could be considered not repetitive as well because it appeared that each slide had a unique pattern and design to it. The second Gestalt principle that I observed was grouping in the fact that all the slides had jeweled tones to the colors. There were deep greens, yellows red’s and blues that made each slide cohesive and made it appear to go together. The third Gestalt principle that I noticed was Brakhages playfulness with proximity in terms of the speed of the slides. The first few slides went by slowly and then gradually grew in speed until the slides were going fast. The proximity between the slides grew as the video went on.

After watching the video a couple more times, I suddenly had an idea. The first 20 seconds or so of the video start off by showing the slides slowly and then increase in speed until the finishing at the end with a white light. This may be a total stretch, but it kind of reminded me of a persons life. When looking back on your life, the memories of being a child come slowly and trickle in because it was such a long time ago. As you remember the more recent times, the more memories come flooding in. Then, it’s time for your life to end and the white light comes and whatever you believe in happens next. The video could be interpreted in so many ways, which is one reason why I find it so interesting.