JK! Final Forrealz

without swirls.

final portrait...

Not what I originally thought it would look like, but i am relatively happy with it!

The real one doesn't have white around it. I dunno whats going on here...

Mirta Kupferminc

Mirta Kupferminc was the second artist to visit SMCM during artweek. She joined the photo-drawing-digital round robin and debated the philosophy and theory behind art during the discussion portion. For the last hour or so of class, she showed some pieces from her portfolio and went about explaining the process of creation that she follows. Later, she gave a lecture on the art she has created in response to the Holocaust-related experiences that she has had to deal with through the stories of her parents. Her talk in Cole Cinema focused mainly on her work with yarn, film, and installation.  

From the lecture and discussion portion of the round robin, she described, sometimes in detail, the process behind some of her work, which is primarily digital. Several of her final digital works have other mediums included. For example, she showed us several final works that had grown from other mediums along the way. She would start with a sculpture then paint a painting. From there she would do some etchwork. After completing all of these steps, she would either scan or photograph each piece to transfer it into a digital format. Once in the digital format, she would combine each piece – etching, sculpture and painting – to make a completely new and different work of art with each element. I particularly admired this technique, etc. because I have an interest in many different mediums and the combination of multiple ones. The crossing of the mediums adds a lot of interest to the work.

In her formal lecture, she discussed a particular showing she had at a college recently. She took a winged chair and based an entire exhibit off of the chair and the meaning behind tattoos. She had a young, very tattooed man sit in the chair while she photographed him. His entire body was covered in ink, by choice. In juxtaposition, she placed her mother. Her mother only has one tattoo and that is the number that she was given while living in Auschwitz. She made a point at the beginning of her exhibition by having each attendee receive an ornamental tattoo. If the person was wearing something red, they received a number and if not, a design of their choice. She had two very interesting parts to her installation. One part was with a projection she had on the wall that was text. When someone walked in front of the projection, casting their shadow on the wall, “invisible” text was revealed. Another interesting part of the installation was a mirror tunnel-creation. There was a hole in the wall that people could stick their head into. On each end of the tube-like structure were mirrors, so that it appeared endless. She had text on the inside of that structure as well.

Mirta had a lot of great ideas and projects that she presented while she was here, that I cannot include them all in this paper. She is such a multi-dimensional, charming artist that her work never fails to impress. Her presentation of her work, in her words, in her way certainly helped my impression of it as well. 

Sean Heisler and Brett Layton

Sean Heisler is a graphic artist who specializes in logos and "brand identity." He has been working in graphic design for approximately 13 years. His work is defined by the simple colors and lines that he uses. Visually, they have more of an impact then they would if they were more complex. I could find very little history on his work or his background and what I did find, I paraphrased for above.

Sean's logos work because they are clever and take ordinary images and ideas to be combined into something completely different. I have found that through art and poetry, etc. my favorite work is that which makes us think about things in different ways. Sean creates logos that appear to be one thing when they are looked at as a whole and another when focusing on the details. He makes up the main image with related images that connect to the main concept.

This image, like many of Sean's work, is a very strong logo. It is essentially monochromatic, but it works because of the different in value. Also, it is clearing read and recognized as the word "killed" but it is changed in a way that would make one pause and chuckle because in the overall context of the work, it makes sense. Oftentimes the letter "i" can be equated to a person. The fact that this is the letter that is knocked over is not an accident. It would have made less sense for him to knock over an l or twist the e. This clever yet subtle manipulation of meaning is what makes Sean's work fabulous, creative and noteworthy (though there is not much history about him).

Once again, the logo sticks to two main colors. This refrains from distracting the viewer with colors and directing the focus to the actual visual image. A beer bottle and a flower are two images that could very easily be (and have been) placed in juxtaposition to each other. It gives the words and name more weight by placing emphasis on their taken-for-granted irony. I would say that Sean's body of work as a whole relies on his play on words and clever way of approaching the written word and its relationship to an image that makes his work so fantastic.

 

Again with the two main colors, and again with the simple imagery. Whether the colors are in the same family or not, he sticks to two colors. In this image the words play directly into the image. A rocket is the first image that you see and then the golf tees are the second. In this image and the last, he directly correlates the words to the image. The first word you read is the first image you see and likewise with the second word and image. Sean Heisler's work is not so much about the complexity of the process in making the graphic, but about the cleverness it takes to support such work as logo design.

I think that the same concepts emphasized in this analysis of Sean Heisler's work can apply very easily to our projects now and the creative process as a whole. As reiterated again and again, it is not necessarily the complexity or difficulty of the project that makes it significant. Sometimes a work can be simple, but it must be supported with a solid underpinning idea. In Sean Heisler's work it is his creative cleverness and revealing of irony.

1. http://creattica.com/creatives/ethereal-sean-heisler/14871
2.http://logopond.com/members/profile/showcase/22632&page=1
3. http://www.etherealbrands.com/
4. http://weburbanist.com/2010/08/02/illustrated-logos-bringing-a-brand-to-life/


Brett Layton is also super cool: http://www.behance.net/blayton

also sean heisler!!!

self portrait... rough!

the real one does not have the white around it!

critiques and comments requested please! this is a rough of my entire image, including background.

 lemme know what you think!

David Constable... Blek

Visiting artist, David Constable received his BA in Fine Art from Grays School of Art, in Aberdeen, Scotland in 1989. After graduating, he immediately went into construction work with his father. For several year he worked in construction, while thirsting after a career etc. in art. Several years later, he went back to school for his Masters of Fine Art from Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois where he met his wife. He lives in Norton, Virginia, with his wife and daughter and is an Adjunct instructor at the University of Virginia's College at Wise.

Constable’s approach to his talk was focused on his history. He discussed in great detail the history of his life and behind his works. In some cases it shed great light on rationale behind his work but this was not so in every case. Some of his paintings and drawings depicted the bleakness of the land where he now lives, and that bleakness he connected to his time in construction in Scotland. He now lives near coal mines and expressed that that has had a major impact on his work. He has been impressed by how the land is so torn up and the landscape appears grayer because of the work the miners do below the surface.

Another of his works that Constable discussed in depth was his study in architecture. The Chemistry department at the college was moving their files to digital and getting rid of dozens upon dozens of large tomes. Constable requested to receive all of them and once he had, made a sculpture out of them. He talked about how he had to remove pages from some of the books in order to have an even and level top to his sculpture. He experimented at first, building a castle for his daughter and scattering the books around in random columns, before deciding that he was going to make a wall. He stacked the books in a long horizontal wall-like structure.

One thing that greatly annoyed me about this artist was his attitude. I did not feel that his work warranted the attitude that he had concerning it. He was very cocky and, after showing badly exposed photographic prints, claimed that he meant to send a message about the deteriorating landscape. None of the work that he showed during the talk made me think of a medium in a different way nor did it impress me. I may have been more open to his work had he not seemed so arrogant, but since I did not have this chance, I do not have a high opinion of him as an artist. His work seemed rather unoriginal, especially in comparison to the artist, Mirta Kupferminc, who spoke later in the week.