Artist Statement

       To Start my final piece for this class I was very clueless, But I was simply reminded to not reinvent the wheel. So I decided to go back to the list of "Richard Serra Verb List" and choose three words at random. The three verbs that I came up with are:
To Fire
To Tear
To Suspend
However, I only decided to use two of the three words for my four different images. I used "To Tear" and "To Fire". In my first three images I used to "To Tear". The one thing that I knew when starting with this verb was that I wanted to do an image with a tear through the image. I just did not know what image I wanted to use. I thought deeply about what images to use then I thought about how much love I have for sports and the athletes that play them so I resorted to my Sports Illustrated to look for images. The three athletes I found are very recognizable faces, Muhammad Ali, Michael Phelps, and David Beckham. I tore the photos out of the magazine and then made a tear down the middle of the photos. Then when I thought about these three athletes they all are very important to their own respected countries. Thinking about this, I wanted to put their country into my piece in some way. To do this I put the countries flag into the background of the piece. The flags fill in the tears in the piece. I really like all three of these images but most of all I like the Muhammad Ali photo. I like how Muhammad himself is the main focus of the picture with the tear showing the american flag to the left. Honestly, I feel that this Muhammad Ali piece is the best picture I have done yet. 
         For my final piece I used the verb "To Fire". At first thinking about this verb I thought about Donald Trump firing someone on his TV show but when I thought much more deeply about it I thought about firing a gun. Then it hit me, I wanted to to a picture that is looking through the scope of a sniper rifle. So I put a black soldier like figure in the photo firing his gun. But little does this soldier figure know is that he is being secretly looked at through a sniper rifle. At the bottom of the piece I put some text in it reading, Ready!!!... Aim!!!... I did this so the viewer could figure out my verb. I also did this to leave the viewer in a little bit of a cliff hanger because as most people know the saying goes as Ready... Aim... Fire... So what do you as the viewer think? Does the sniper fire on command? 
       This concludes my final project, overall I am very happy with my work. This project was a lot of fun to do because there was not a strict set of guidelines to follow. Also, This class as a whole was a lot of fun and a great experience. It really allowed me to realize that I do have some creativeness and artistic ability.

Final Project Blog #1

My thought process up for this final project went from a cluster of things down to just a few really quickly. When I first read about the final project I thought there was a million things I could do, The thought of having a "Big Idea" was almost overwhelming. I thought no way Im going to be able to narrow this broad topic down in a short amount of time, but within minutes I was simply reminded that you do not have to reinvent the wheel. Meaning I could take a topic from a previous project and make a few changes to it. Thus, my thought process on my "Big Idea" was finally narrowed down. I decided to use the "Richard Serra Verb List" to pick three words at random. To randomize the selection I used my friend Trey; I closed my eyes and slid my finger up and down the verb list and Trey told me when to stop.Whatever word was the closest to my finger when it stopped I chose. At the end of this process I came up with three verbs:
To Fire
To Tear
To Suspend
 I have yet to decide if Im going to use all three, two of the three, or just one for the final project. Guess we will just have to wait and see!

"Tension"

At the beginning of this project I was given two words, disarranged and tension. I chose to use the word "tension" for my piece. I used the sport of basketball because it is something I do nearly everyday of my life, and to me there is no moment that is more tense and nerve racking than the end of a basketball game when it is close. I also used my favorite basketball player, Carmelo Anthony and put him into a situation where he is going to shoot the game winning shot. I did not choose to use Carmelo because he is my favorite player, I chose him because he is one of the most clutch players in the NBA. Everytime the game is on the line for his team he is always the one that steps up and takes the game winning shot. I also input some text into the piece, I tried to make the text sound like it was a sports broadcaster announcing the final moments of the game. The purpose of this text is to show how important the shot is, and to create a little tension within the piece. Also, I used the question at the bottom to play as a basketball court. If you notice, the two pictures of Camelo are balanced across the top of the font as if he was standing on a basketball court. The question that Carmelo is standing on top of reads "does it go in???". I purposly put this question there to create tension and to leave the viewer with a cliff hanger. So after viewing my piece what do you think? Does it go in???

Super Human Powers

     Every single time I watched any type of super hero on television when I was younger, I always thought about how cool it would be to fly. I would always wonder what the world would look like from a birds eye view. Then this project came up in class and it was the perfect opportunity to allow myself to fly. The situation I chose was saving a man falling from a building and me flying in and saving him. When I was brainstorming this idea I knew what my special power would be but I did not know what situation I wanted to put myself in. Then I thought about super hero's and what they stand for. One thing all super hero's have in common is that they always save people from dangerous situations. So I went with a man falling from a building and me zooming in through the air to save him. Overall I am very happy with how this project turned out but if I were to change one thing I would probably make the whole thing a cartoon, instead of having only my super hero suit look like a cartoon. Even with that said, I still and very happy with this piece.

Johnny Bravo

     The object that I chose to take pictures of is the Rpac. I chose this because I have always admired the building itself and I am a very big on staying in shape and what better place to do that at than the Rpac. When I was taking pictures the strangest thing happened. The cartoon character Johnny Bravo kept getting into my pictures. I tried yelling at him to get out of the way but he never did. He snuck into the corner of one picture and he even went all the way up on the roof to get into one of my pictures. He also kept making the same pose to show off his muscles. Ok, honestly I used my imagination on this one. I was taking pictures of the Rpac and decided to put Johnny Bravo in the pictures because I was always a fan of his cartoon when I was growing up. Also, he is always showing off his muscles in weird crazy poses. Since the Rpac is all about getting in shape and building muscles up I decided Johnny Bravo would be perfect.

     I got the idea of making this project a funny but random piece from Claes Oldenburg. We looked at many of his works in class on Monday and I figured why not make mine in a more non serious manner. I hope that my viewers look at this piece and think it is in some way funny cause I sure do.

Project 2 Explanation

The ten pictures that I have chosen for this project represent me in their own special way. This project represents what is very important to me and what my passion and dreams are. These pictures are all very important to me but one thing this project does not show is my character as a person. I love all of these things and they mean a lot to me but these do not show how I act as a person. Hopefully people view me as a nice, kind, and caring person and I feel that these pictures do not show that. I used Photoshop to crop these pictures and place them into no particular order. My life is always a cluster and I would not consider myself to be a very organized person. I feel that I have a very hectic lifestyle and never know what is coming next. This project was very fun to do, and I am looking forward to doing many more projects that represent who I am as an individual.