Portraits Real/Ideal

                 This project begins to deal with portraiture. Portraits have a long history, and can be seen across many different cultures and time periods. From the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci in cerca 1503, to the ancient burial portraits of the ancient Egyptians, portraits can be seen everywhere. My personal favorite artist mentioned in the lecture was Richard Avedon. The way he captured Marylyn Monroe in her typical mood, and then also in her more depressed and contemplative mood was moving. Avedon, regardless of his methods, does a great job of expressing people's inner  selves and capturing truly meaningful portraits.

                For this project, we were assigned partners to work with. We were to attempt to portray our real selves, along with an ideal self we may aspire to be like. My partner for the real and ideal portraits was Erica Forkner. When we talked about what she felt her ideal and real self were, they seemed to be pretty similar. Erica is very content with who she is and in a stage of her life where she has a very joyful inner essence. She always desired to be a Wheaton student (she's a third generation), and now she is attending the school she always wanted to go to, loving every minute of it. She is joyful and funny, and loves her family and friends deeply. We encountered an issue because Erica doesn't have an ideal self that she aspires to be more like. She is content with how she is. I showed this by picturing her in two fairly similar photos, with one showing her more true spunky self that lives life to the fullest.

                    The two images I chose were shot on Blanchard lawn. This is significant because Erica loves Wheaton and it means a lot to her and her family for many generations, and Blanchard is commonly used to represent Wheaton. The first photo is the ideal. It shows the "Ideal" Wheaton student that Erica sometimes feels pressure to be. They must be put together, mature, and studious. The real Erica is being goofy, carelessly laying in the grass, not acting as studious and serious as a Wheaton student may be expected. I think this image does a great job of capturing Erica's joyful and energetic spirit. She loves life, and enjoys where she is at along her journey at Wheaton.

 

 

 

Picture about God

 

My picture about God includes some pictures from Gold star chapel in Beamer Student center. My work was partially inspired by the work of Matthias Grunewald picturing the crucifixion of Jesus. The hands that he portrays in the picture are very expressive. Jesus' hands are clenched in pain, while Mary's are clasped, almost pleading with God to save Jesus. John is shown pointing at Jesus. I tried to include hands clasped before the thrown in the second tryptic. I also included a section of Grunewald's piece that shows the battered flesh of Christ in the third triptych.

The stained glass also helps portray my image of God. The first piece shows the shepherd guiding and protecting his sheep. The second piece shows an image of the Father embracing the prodigal son. To me, the cross connects us to the father and allows us to be embraced by him by the mercy of Christ. The cross between these images seems to connect the prodigal son to the shepherd father. The order and placement of the images helps to accentuate this meaning.

The third picture I posted is my favorite. I love the way Christ's torn flesh contrasts with the beauty of the stain glass. It shows that his suffering in contrast with the glory of Heaven. The triptych itself also creates the shape of the cross, which is similar to the way they design cathedrals in this way, in the shape of the cross. This image does the best job portraying my image of God.

To me, the most incredible thing about God is the fact that he sent his son to suffer on earth. In almost no other religion does the Deity humble himself to servant hood, yet our God died for us as though he were a criminal, in order for us to experience his presence. Thus this is why I focused on the crucifixion and it's contrast with the beauty of the stain glass. Again, I think my final image does the best job of portraying this.

 

Obstruction

Our project is centered on interruptions.  We hope to convey how we often do not recognize all the beauty around us because of the constant distractions of life. We will convey how our tendencies to focus on technology and the hurried nature of life often subtract from the beauty of nature. Part of what we are trying to convey is how all the interruptions we face have changed the way we view beauty. Technology, media and industry are constantly infringing upon nature and framing the way we see nature in its original state. Nature seems more distant and unknown because we constantly view it through screens or man made constructions of nature. Our project puts the foreign objects of technology and man's handiwork in contrast with raw nature.

The fairy tale that we incorporated is that of Hansel and Gretyl. They are sent away to die in the woods, but leave behind a trail of bread crumbs so that they may follow it back through the wild to find their home again.  In this tale, the bread crumbs stand out in the nature in serve as a signals to guide the children back to safety. Our images attempt to portray the technology and media (computer, light bulbs, posters) like the bread crumbs. They stand out and  are a sign of the way we ultimately find ourselves distant from nature. Luckily, we snapped a picture of a bread truck seemingly driving through the forest. This quite literally represents a trail of bread crumbs.

                                           Our approach is similar to that of Thomas Cole. Thomas Cole mastered the use of lines and texture in the creation of his work. For example, in his oil paintings, Romantic Landscape with Ruined Tower and The Return, Cole effectively used the elements of line, color, and shadow to bring attention to the beauty of the natural landscape that exists in different settings. We hope to be able to use similar elements to be able to draw attention to God’s great artwork and his great wonders. We also hope to make a distinction between the ever-changing nature of man-made structure and the constant nature of God’s creation. In Cole’s work, he often displayed man-made structures breaking down and falling apart, as nature maintained its grandeur.                 

Misdirected

                     In this project I contrasted the advertisements for some popular technological devices with real pictures of people actually using them. The contrast showed some misdirection that occurs within the advertisements. People seem to be entirely consumed by there phones and other devices. They use technology as a window to distract themselves from their own lives, and to become disengaged from the people they are with. In the movie Rear Window, the main character does the same thing. He uses his neighbors lives as a way to disengage from those who are around him. In the same way, we stare at our phones and create a world within them that allows us disengage from the people and events around us.

                    The order of the pictures is intended to progress through the different ways the advertisements entice us, and the ways those enticements actually play out in the real world. It begins with  love and entertainment, and then moves to revolution and life companion. Overall, the order just allows comparisons between the advertisements and corresponding pictures.