Personal Project 2 - 30 Days of Photos

Chalange Provided by living-photographs.tumblr.com/ 

Personal Project 2:  30 Days of Photos

By: Maxine

Instructions

1: Every day starting sept 1 take a photo based on the
photo prompt provided by living-photographs.tumblr.com/ 

2: Add Photo To this Page

3: Share with the Facebook Group

4. Enjoy and add Positive Criticism to all the photos on the group

5. Grow my Photography skills! 

     So this was an idea posted on the Nerdfighters facebook group, the idea the split off into its own group. We decided to start on Sept 1, just to give a chance for people who wanted to join to find the group (though really you can start day 1 at any point... its like the 30 day fitness challenges that facebook loves so much! so if you are just seeing this but want to join feel free).

     Going to add each photo to this post... 

Day 1 - Triangles 

Not the best of starts... :S But it was HOT and lazy...

Day 2 - Through Something 

     It was raining (a lot) as I walked home from work, I was almost home when I saw the way the rain was moving through these trees looked cool... It was kinda fast because i didn't want to get my phone too wet... but its more interesting than day 1... :P

Day 3 - Something you love about yourself 

     This is kinda a two part photo (mostly because I didn't like the photo that showed the whole room at once). I want to show the two parts of me and the way they are reflected by the two work stations I have in my office... I am both an Engineer and an Artist at the same time. The mixture of the two sides of me is what I love, I love math but I love the visual art world just as much... and I love that I can find ways to be apart of both and keep that balance in my life. 

Day 4 - Light

     Part of me feels like I want to compalne about my cammer... the other is telling me not to worry about it... so not worrying.

Day 5 - Texture 

     Not worrying doesn't mean I shouldn't stop taking night photos... night photos do not work without a flash.  

Day 6 - Lines

     I know kinda boring... but I do like the way hallways / buildings are so very linear... 

Day 7 - Vintage

Calling Incomplete on this one... I am currently unsure what to photo for this... I don't have much that is older than 10 years...

Day 8 - Books

     Two projects in one on this one. Art Assignment 13 done!

Day 9 - A Hobby

     Well that got a little trippy... :D

Assignment 12: Imprint, By Maxine

Assignment 12: Imprint

Title: Ready For School

Provided by: Sopheap Pich

By: Maxine

Episode 12 instructions 

1. Choose and object you find interesting

2. Cut it, making a flat surface

3. Dip the cut surface in paint

4. Press it on to a piece of paper repeatedly to make an imprint

5. Upload to you social media platform of choice using #theartassignment

     There are 5 days left to this summer... now that doesn't mean that I am going to suddenly stop doing the Art Assignments, but it does mean that the summer is almost done... and that school is on my mind a lot right now.

     So I wanted to do one last assignment before class starts next week... and I thought about inprint, and using school supplies to make prints... and well... now those prints look (kinda) like my schedule... :D

     I started off a lot like the walk on it assignment, fining a peace of card from my recycling... and then painting it a solid light colour. 

      From there is was time to gather a bunch of stuff that could be cut apart... In the end I found more stuff than I used... its hard to see but my favorite was the little peaces of glue stick...

Also the pencil crayon split really neat...

The top half was sawed apart... then it split...

I am happy to say no fingers were harmed in the halving process! 

     The painting was messy but fun. I used the paint bottle to make time slots....

Since all the pain I am using is OLD, like really old it gets a little gloppy at times...

      There was no way that the pad of post-it-notes was going to get cut in half... instead I cut it into a fan like brush... that worked pretty well to be honest... and it felt like what Sopheap Pich was going for when he used the materials at hand to make whatever he could with them.

     The little blue lines were used to highlight the start of class, since I have classes back to back... That shape was from a bunch of staples stuck together... The pencil crayon made a border... 

     I was a little sad to cut the eraser in half... and it got a little dangerous because its so small... but it made a nice little stamp. The Yellow is supposed to be tea time... because 3:00 pm is Tea time...

Air Guitar by Dave Hickey

Air Guitar

by Dave Hickey
(Art Assignment Book Club 1)

10 Words: A challenging read forcing one to think more about art. 

     This book is a collection of essays written by Dave Hickey.  I am not completely finished this book yet, nor do I feel I have really understood what I have read on this first read through, but I would like to put a few thoughts down before Sarah talks about it. I have read 13 of the 24 essays and can only really say I understand two of them (Dealing and Magazine Writer). Yet just because I am finding the content challenging to understand doesn't mean I am not enjoying the challenge, the ideas that are there feel important, they are just not ones I feel have really had to think about before.
     One of the essays I understood was Dealing. I found the ideas it brought up interesting, and important. I  read it last week when I was working on my "Never Seen, Never Will Peace" (it's so close to done... so close). I was thinking about his words, and the way he talks about the value of art and how its value isn't really something that can be measured with money. This idea ran along my head because I am currently feeling really happy with my Never Seen, Never will project. It is the first time I feel that something I have created is "art" vs a craft, or a project... I feel that there is a statement I am making with it and it is an important statement with value.  I have had friends who are artest, and always wondered how one goes about setting a value for the art... In my mind its a mixture of how much you spend on the tools you used to make it (paint is expensive) and how much you value your time... (am I making minimum wage selling this to you?) I have read articles written by web comic artists or just artest online who do commissions, where they are forced by the community they are hired by to justify those costs... people think that the argument "if this was cheaper I could buy it" is a reason for someone to work less than minimum wage... The value of the art is always such a hard thing to set in a way that everyone can be happy about. I think his essay does a really good job of explaining the process and the problems.
     I am about to go camping and I will continue to do my best to understand a few more of the essays while in between the canoeing and walking... I have always felt that its important to write about the books I read because it forces me to think about what i have read more. In the same way it is important to think about art, and the different ways it has built and affects our world. This book is not simple but thats ok. It is going to take more than one read through for me to get what Dave Hickey wants me to think about, but I feel that I have started and am definitely willing to keep trying. 

Personal Project 1: Puppet Making

Personal Project 1: Puppet Making

By: Maxine and Flow

Instructions

1: Buy Fabric

2: Make Puppets

3: Decide How the Puppets Act 

4. Interview People at Convention with Puppets

     Flow has spent a few weekends this summer at different conventions. She went to one in July where she spent most of the time interacting with people with her puppets. Our friends started to talk about going to a convention at the end of summer. 

     At first we thought about potential cosplay options, but then we thought about making our own puppets, with which we will be able to interview & talk with other con goers. 

     The first step of this project involved getting together fabric. Flow has lots of furry fabric around, and this plan happened to coincide with a big sale at Fabricland. 

 

So with fabric all around the room, and cats in the way. We broke out the sewing machines and netflix and went to work. 

     My plan was to make a monster. I had found this funky headband that lights up in the laundry room (its kinda a communal I don't need this but if you do take it kind of place). 

So I got funky orange pattern and that solid orange which is CRAZY soft. Flow had a bunch of light blue fur from other past projects. 

     Flow's plan was to make a bird. This is the reference bird. Though he's going to be a reporter so I was going to make a hat for him and a microphone. 

     Flow ran into sewing machine problems, because every sewing project needs some kind of sewing machine problems.... (/sigh) 

This meant that after spending a ton of time trying to fix is she gave up and started just hand sewing most of her puppet. 

     Meanwhile my head started to take shape. First with a mouth and a place to put my hand.

  

Then I added fur and finally eyes.  By the end of the day I had a pretty good looking monster head.

     Where I started with the head, Flow had started with the body. The next day we continued and Flow shad a better day than me. She got started with her wings. Which look badass by the way!

I spent the day fighting with my body.. and getting frustrated every time I ended up cutting fabric and things not work.  

 

There were two major problems I was having. The first was making the body big enough to match the head... I kinda made a very big head. The second was my fabric. I real wanted to use that orange for the body but it just wasn't working. The fur fabric from the head wasn't blending well, so a new plan was needed. It just wasn't happening that day because I was to frustrated. When I was able to work on it again a few days later I was less frustrated. 

     I ended up using the blue for the back of the body but kept the pattern for the front, and kept the super soft belly.

 

 Then all that was left was to make some hands, a place for my arm through the center of the body and too stuff it.  

Yay Monster

She doesn't have a name yet, and Flow was going to help me put wands on the hands so that I can move them.

     Heres a bird head! I don't have as many bird photos because it was finished at her house as mine was finished on my own.

     Step three and four are yet to be done, but so far so good!

EDIT: Step 4 Didn't work out too well at the con we went to... it just didn't work for the type of CON it was and there were WAY more people than we expected there to be.... We will have to just try again another time. 

Assignment 8: Walk on it, By Maxine

Assignment 8: Walk on it

Title: Sunrise at Sunset

Provided by: Kate Guilmore

By: Maxine

Episode 8 instructions 

1. Find a big piece of wood or board
2. Paint it heavy with a colour that you love
3. Put on a fabulous pair of shoes and walk on it. When it looks cool, you're done. 

4: Share

     I didn't get this assignment... I am still not sure if I do but I think putting together that little video helps a bit. I get the idea of Process Art that is talked about in the assignment video. I like watching myself trying to skate in a small little aria over the painted cardboard... I think that the fact that I was waiting for it to dry and all of a sudden it was almost too dark to film... the fact that Flow was holding a flash light on me in order to film... all these things could be thought of as a disastrous to what we were trying to do... but really it worked... 

     I feel that a lot of the way my assignments have been presented is using this Process Art idea... using this blog I am taking photos / videos of me and Flow while we are making our assignments. While I am working on the project I am continually thinking of what we are doing that will make interesting photos to document the process... like stopping for tea while we waited for the paint to dry...

     I am continualy working on two different art projects with every project I complete... and I realy like this way of making things. I like that I am thinking about what i have done, that more is coming from each project than just me finishing it and continuing on. It meens that you discover more than you thought you would about the art you just made.  

     When it got late and we almost couldn't film I got worried... but now that I have looked back at it I really like that it was done in the dark... there are interesting actions and colours that I see as I edit that make the experience important. 

      I like these dark images of putting on my skates with there bright pink laces... it is so contrasty to the normal way they are worn... (by the way I do have a helmet on). Skates are my fancy shoes because they represent a different identity to me the way fancy shoes can. It is similar to the reason I poured yellow paint on the cardboard... When I took up roller skating (through Roller Derby), I gained a new identity. One who is less scared of things, who gets back up when she falls and keeps on trying. I like that person, and often look for her when I feel week... Art never makes me feel week... but its still fun to attempt to skate on paint... 

Encase anyone was worried... they cleaned up easily :D

     I will try to get Flow to write about her peace... but until then here is both of our final's together.

Assignment 2: Stakeout! By Maxine and Flow

Assignment 2: Stakeout! 

Title: The Lollipop Tree

Provided by: Deb Sokolow

By: Flow and Maxine

     This turned into the most fun Assignment we have done yet. Originally we had waited on this episode because when it came out it was winter, both of us didn't feel like leaving something out side and watching it during the winter, we also felt that there wouldn't be many people to interact with it. After watching the Highlights episode  there was a lot of great new ideas that we had been given. We decided that it seemed like it would be more fun if whatever we placed outside had multiple things, giving more people the chance to see it and interact. After some thought we came up with the idea of a Lollipop tree. 

     We broke out the cardboard, markers, and scissors for this one.  The trunk is a paper towel roll, the bottom part of a box. Cuts were made in both so that it can slit together. Leaves were also made from cardboard, stuck on dowels and silted to fit more leaves. Holes were made for the lollipops to fit into. 

         We also decided we wanted little papers on them. One side had a quote, or a thought, the other said #theartassignment. We also made a poster. 

Which also had the hashtag on it. (I have now realised that spelling got the better of me for that sine... oh well...) Putting this together ended up taking longer than we thought it would. Which meant that we put taking it out for another day... because we wanted to go to my house and make this:

Nothing is greater than Desert Pizza... even art!

(some things are just so amazing you need to share them... instructions found here)

A few days later we took the tree down town. We set it up in down town Toronto. On the Ryerson University campus there is a road that has been turned into a Pedestrian aria. There are chairs set-up and lots of people walking thought it all the time. So it seemed like it would be busy but a calm busy (not like Dundas square busy...). First we put it on a table, but that table had chairs the people sat in as soon as we walked away, this stopped anyone else from touching it. So we moved it to a big rock. 

The tree had to be taped in place... and blew over a few times...

I wanted to try with no sign at first, I wanted to see what people did with no instructions. To my sadness they didn't really do anything...

So many people walked right past...

 There were a coupple exciting moments. The first being after about 5 min these two people..

Followed by this man who was very interested but in both cases they didn't axially take a lollipop in the end. I like to think that this is a point about the Canadian tendency for kindness... that when people didn't know why it was there they assumed that there was a reason and didn't want to disturb it. (This happened after about 10 min's of watching)

I love the way he walks past, 

Notices it as he was passing

and then approaches it

and so after 17 minuets I let flow add the sign. 

Take a Fruit from the Lollipop Tree. #theartassignment

Three minuets later we had the first person to approach it and take one! Success!! 

Hurray!

From here on we had many more people approach it. It was fun to watch there heads turn as they walked passed, or to see them reading the note we put on it. Lots of people took photos of our little tree, every time they touched there phone flow was hopping that they were looking for the hashtag. Every head that turned towards it was exciting, but some just looked and kept walking. 

Something going to happen... Something going to happen... /sigh nothing happened

     The most exciting moment happened a little bit off to the side of the viewpoint of my tablet. There was two mothers talking, on had two children with her. They talked a bit then walked off, the one with the children off to the right, you could see her head notice the tree like many others, but she approached it along with her kids. 

Hurray!

      But this Mom continued to on to do something a little different than everyone else, she dug through her bags, eventually asking someone else for a pen, and she got her girls to write thank you to us on the poster.

Your Welcome!!

      This little act was so exciting to watch!! We continued to watch people notice, photograph, and enjoy our little Lollipop Tree for another half hour before we packed it up. The experience was really fun, it was neat to watch people. The people sitting at tables nearer us could tell we were the ones that had put it there because we had to refill the tree a few times (and fix the tape...) one man was really interested in watching people along with us.  This was extremely fun, the best assignment yet. It had ups and downs, and moments where we didn't think it was going to work but over all it was great. I hope that anyone who found it liked it as well and you are all welcome, from Flow and myself, we hope it made you day a little better. Lollipops should always grow on trees.