Final Project.

For my final project, I decided to do a mixed media self portrait, using ink and watercolor. Unfortunately, I wasn't pleased with the ending result. I came across a lot of difficulties along the way, so for now I'm just going to say it's a work in progress. This was my first time really using watercolor, which was a lot more difficult than I had anticipated. Also, because of time constraints, I wasn't able to do everything I wanted to. However, I did get a lot out of this experience. I learned a lot about composition, the concepts of negative space, as well as the challenges of using unfamiliar mediums.

Rebecca Horn.

For this assignment, I chose to research Rebecca Horn, a German installation artist, most known for her body modifications and performance art. While Horn has done an array of different types of art, including films, sculptures, spatial installations, drawings, and photographs, I was most intrigued by her performance art and body sculptures and thus decided to make that the main focus of this project.

Rebecca Horn (1944-present)

In 1964, while Rebecca was studying at the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts in Germany, she contracted lung poisoning from working with glass fiber without a mask, something nobody had warned her about. From then on, she was only able to work with softer materials, such as fabrics and feathers. Horn became very isolated while confined to her bed, which is where her inspiration hit. "I began to produce my first body-sculptures. I could sew lying in bed." The goal of her art from that point on was to suppress her "loneliness by communicating through bodily forms." In her early body sculptures and performances, she also explored the equilibrium between body and space, as well as creating works of art that either inhibited or emphasized bodily movement.

Stills from some of her works:

Pencil Mask, 1972

White Body Fan, 1972

Rebecca Horn had an issue that she was addressing with her pieces - to quash her loneliness. For my piece, I wanted to address an issue that was personal and relevant to me. I chose to do a performance piece on emotional manipulation and how controlling people can sometimes be of one's emotions. While I made my issue something relevant to me, I also wanted to implement Horn's experimentation of body and space within my performance as well as emphasize bodily movement. I did this by using string to create a two-person body sculpture.

Here are some stills from my performance, "Manipulation":

"Manipulation"

Fly On the Wall.

For this assignment, I was given two slips of paper - one reading "Illustrative" and the other "Top of the wall." The adjective was to describe our artwork and the other instructed us where we were to put our final product for our critique. I played around with the word "illustrative," looking up all the different possible definitions and synonyms. I liked the synonym, "demonstrative," so I decided to make a giant paper mache fly and demonstrate or illustrate the cliche "fly on the wall." I took it a little further by secretly recording my classmates' conversations, then playing them during my critique. This was my first time working with paper mache, and it was actually a lot of fun!

Photography/Human Body Canvas.

This has been my favorite assignment to date. I was doing something that I absolutely love and had a lot of fun experimenting with using the human body as a canvas. The objective of this project was to create a piece of work as if we are in our major, using one material that we're familiar with and one that we've never used before. Because I want to go into Photography and Film, I decided to combine both skills into one project. I photographed my friend, using paint on her face and shoulders as my unfamiliar material or concept, then I took those photos and made a slideshow/video with them.

Here is my end result! :)

Altered Book.

This assignment was perhaps the most open ended out of all the projects we've had in this class thus far. The assignment was simply to make a book. So, for my project, I made an altered book about my grandparents. My book is a true love story, told through letters. The inner pages contain images of my grandparents and on the inside, there is a box of letters which my grandparents wrote to each other during World War II.

Surface Research and Destroy.

It all started with a photograph, and well, ended with the same photograph...just in a different format. 

I began by taking a photo of a leaf floating on the surface of a pond with branch reflections. I printed it out on 8.5" x 11" glossy photo paper then proceeded to destroy it by cutting it up into tiny triangles and making it into sculpture number one.

Here is my initial photograph (the color got skewed a bit when I printed it out, but I liked how it turned out, although I wish the quality had been better).

After I finished my first sculpture, I took a picture of it, then destroyed THAT by cutting it into thin strips and making it into sculpture number two.

I took a picture of sculpture number three then destroyed it by cutting it into strips yet again, but then rolling them up to make sculpture number three.

I think you're getting the idea now. Here is sculpture number four...

Sculpture number five...

Sculpture number six...

And FINALLY, my final product. Which ended up getting destroyed unintentionally from falling backdrops right after shooting this photo.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project. It was fun trying something completely new, although at times I found myself rather frustrated. But then again, I always love a challenge.

Top Three Prospective Majors.

This week, I visited the Pollak Building to explore my top three prospective majors. I went to the Photography and Film, Cinema, and Graphic Design departments, seeing as those are the areas of art that I am most interested in. While I was there, I talked with some people and got some very useful information on each department. I learned more about portfolios and the kind of work that I would be doing in each separate major. It was also nice to look around the halls and see the work displayed to see what kinds of projects the students do. Going there was definitely very useful in thinking about next year and choosing a major.

Photography and Film is my top choice of majors here at VCU. I was lucky enough to talk with some of the photography students and they really encouraged me to pursue photography as a major because they love it so much. We discussed the different types of cameras that are good to have if I were to go into photography. We also talked about some of the great opportunities that the major has to offer.