Central Michigan University 2009 Student Annual Juried Exhibition: accepted
Recently I submitted some artwork into the 2009 Student Annual Juried Exhibition at Central Michigan University, and to my delight both of my pieces were accepted. I’m not going to lie, these pieces were not creating out of some deep dark emotion that I have been holding in and do not have an underline meaning to them. My artwork is never meant to convey a meaning or provoke emotion from the viewers. Naturally though, that is what art does. Usually my pieces do not have a title to them because I want the viewers to derive their own meaning and outstanding of the work without a title bias. These pieces do have titles but I am going to withhold them from you because I am curious to hear what you have to say about them. How do these pieces speak to you? What is the first thing you thing of when you see them? Please comment here or send me an email, I’m curious to hear what your thoughts are on these pieces.
Have I told you lately how proud I am of you? Well, I am. I came up with a title for the top picture: "Gettin' old stinks".
I like the collage of your pictures from Beaver Island. I like the progression from one photo to the next. It seems as if you're taking us on a tour of a house. The first one – it looks like he's thinking back on his life….like he can see the photo of himself (it's of himself, right?) and is thinking about how life once was, or how it could've been. I'm still trying to figure out what's going on in that window and what all that writing is.
Also, your logo looks awesome! I really like the colors and the design. Nice work!
So my gut reaction to the first photo was, "That's not the same guy! It's not true." Journalism bias. I know. But looking at it again, I can start to create a narrative, and think about what his life was like. Still, for me at least, the facts get in the way of the art. I'd like to heard your thought process behind it.
As for the second, I'm liking it. I've always been a history buff, and old buildings have always fascinated me. It's interesting how after the people have gone, the buildings continue to live and become something of their own, testifying about a time that once was.
Nice Dan. Love the first one.
Thanks Alex for the ideas, to the you the truth, there is no real reason why the image is the way it is. I just wanted to make a piece that would make people come up with their own idea about the piece. The polaroid could come down a little bit more, I burnt in the edges to take away from the whiteness but a little more wouldn't hurt. As far as the writing goes, I have my reasons but I will tell you in a different format so I don't spoil it for others
Dan–
I dig these ideas. Congrats on the acceptance. I like this montage idea of your former story subject. The only thing that gets me a bit is the stark whiteness of the polaroid. It could be symbolic the white because it represents an earlier time in his life. However maybe it just needs to be taken down a notch in curves. It looks like you took down the opacity on the picture to bring out the writing but I'm wondering if there is away to mellow it out a bit. I don't know just a thought.
I'm not sure what your process in photoshop was but I'm interested in how these came about. These are rad. Keep it up! It is inspiring me to continue my composite works as well.
Take care.
-Alex