Wednesday, February 18, 2009

What to do?

For class on this afternoon we are supposed to have prepared a basic statement of what we plan to do for the first project, however I seem to be suffering from a bit of artist's block. I have never taken a screen printing class before and therefore have no idea what to expect from the process. What can I put in? I know that I want to incorporate some multi-media aspects, but I am confused as to how far a screen print with digital stencils will allow me to go. In the past I have been successful with pure painting, drawing and sculpture. This new inclusion of the digital aspect and the screen printing technique is a bit intimidating.

I think that I would like to play with something commercial, a universally recognized image and then use the tools I have to manipulate it in some way that will completely change the way a viewer interprets it. I want it to be a very recognizable image that way everyone will have some sort of prior connection to it. Possibly taking an object from an advertisement (Absolute bottle? Skyy? I like the idea of using alcohol because it in itself is a tool used to 'manipulate' reality) and then incorporate that image into a larger, partly hand drawn, partly photographic scape. Maybe a cityscape with bottles as buildings? Will that create a narration that is able to be interpreted? What does that say, that alcohol can blur the lines between reality (the photographs) and fantasy (the drawings/paintings?) I want it to be enchanting though, not just a stark narration of the effects of the substance. I am afraid that this manipulation is a bit to basic for this project though. 

Also, as an English major I see a lot of text every day of my life. I was thinking of somehow 'manipulating' text and using it as a form of mixed media, if you will. Maybe taking the information aspect out of the text and using words and letters purely as a design element. Maybe have text/letter/word cutouts on top of an image (so you could only see the image through the text (I would be manipulating what part of the image is seen, and how it is seen-you see the words first, and the words allow you to see the image). Just an idea. 

I need to consider a lot of things and to learn more about the process that I will be using before I can answer these questions and settle on a concrete idea. Any ideas or help would be much appreciated.

2 comments:

  1. I think you have some really interesting ideas. I think you were the one who talked about Ulysses and how that book changes the look of the text to reflect a different mood. I think the idea of manipulating text is really interesting and could be combined with your idea of commercial and alcohol. What about the fact that alcohol also can manipulate your speech--words can be slurred, slowed, rambling, incoherent-- advertising also uses very particular language when selling alcohol. I think maybe manipulating text to make it appear slurred or nonsensical could be an interesting approach and maybe you could manipulate a message about drinking or comment on alcohols role in our society to manipulate...

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  2. I really think manipulating text would be pretty interesting. You might want to think about font typefaces and how you can play around with different scales and sizes within your composition. I would do research on typefaces and old texts.

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