Artist Post: Richard Roberts

Richard Roberts is a famous digital media artist who works in digital illustration. Despite being only twenty years old, Roberts yet he has gained international attention for his artwork and digital creations. He currently works as a freelance illustrator and artist based in Milwaukee.  Although he has been designing for a mere five years, Roberts has been featured in many magazines and blogs. He is a part of an international art collective called depthcore since 2002. Depthcore encompasses a wide range of artwork from digital painting, photography, digital media and music. His depthcore influences can be seen in where Roberts derives his inspiration from such as popular media, songs, movies, and other artists in the movement.

Supernova

                What I find the most interesting about Robert’s artwork is how he manipulates the images on the computer in such a painterly way and how much he uses light to his advantage. The piece becomes completely mesmerizing because the vibrant colors stand out against the stark contrasts of light and shadow. The surrealist atmosphere is partially derived from this lighting. In his piece Supernova, Robert’s painterly style and dramatic use of color are most evident. According to the artist, the image was inspired by his interpretation of the song Champagne Supernova. The organic swirls and halo around the woman’s head gives her an angelic aura amidst the dark atmospheric background. I was slightly surprised to discover that Roberts purchased a photo off of the internet and then manipulated the image into this digital painting. I appreciate that even though his skill is great; he collaborates with other artists to make his images. The volume of works that Roberts possesses at his age attests to the speed and versatility that computer programs have over traditional mediums.  As someone who prefers painting to digital work, I find the conglomerate of the two to be exceptionally inspiring.

Reborn

                In reborn, an illustration that is a member of a four part series designed for a client, Roberts narrates the journey of a girl through the various stages of her life. The struggle of the transition that the girl is experiencing is clearly evident, but the power and energy that is generated in the image promises so much life. The way that the vertical lines go from cloudy and dark at the bottom to extremely bright and almost perfectly vertical creates a feeling of power of light that surrounds the girl. So much energy is captured with the clouds and the lighting effects. The way that the figure is posed suggests a fetal position, yet the movement and the tension in the legs gives the figure life and suggests breaking free of previous constraints and individuality.

                Overall, I found Richard Robert’s work to be astonishing. The ability to manipulate images on the computer in order to create these illustrations and to have this talent without formal training is phenomenal. I find it exceedingly interesting that you can digitally paint on the computer and directly tie traditional art making processes with modern technology. 

Getting lost

 

I found a really pretty neighborhood out on the water. I do not get to see a lot of neighborhoods at College so it was a nice change of pace.

Project 2

Second Artist Talk: Gabriela Balisova

Collateral Image Portraits of Iraqi Refugees

Gabriela Balisova is photojournalist who uses photography to spread her concern for major social and political issues. She travels around the world and in the United States in order to document human tragedies and hardships. She has visited areas such as Chernobyl, Azerbaijan, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, and has recently done work in the Washington, D.C. area with women who have been recently freed from prison.

Throughout Ms. Balisova's talk, I was captivated by her images. I have little experience with photography, but the dramatic light and dark shadows, the color, and arrangements of her photographs capture the anguish and despair that her stories that accompany these photos are filled with. Many of the areas and events that she talked about I was relatively familiar with, but seeing the photographs gave me a completely new understanding and perspective. Seeing the mutated bodies, the war-torn areas, and the expressions of her subjects erased all of the mind-numbing effects that modern news reports has left on me. Being told of tragedies over and over again leads me to feeling desensitized, but this was not the case with the photographs. I was emotionally touched and troubled by her images and I was disappointed to find that the lecture ended so quickly.

Photography of a child disfigured due to the effects of Chernobyl

The clique expression that a photography tells a thousands words seemed to underestimate the gravity and power behind the images that she captured. People are visual creatures, I believe that more activism can be inspired by viewing a disturbing  image of someone in pain than by reading about the same person. I admire the bravery that it takes for a woman to travel to dangerous areas of the world in order to share other people's stories. She is someone who is using art for a purpose, not just to inspire thought, but to inspire change which is the ultimate measure of accomplishment.

Mary Early

First Outside Art Event/Talk

Mary Early was raised in Washington D.C. and graduated from Bennington College in 1997. She primarily works in Sculpture using beeswax and resin in her work. Her pieces generally seem to have a uniform, repetitious quality about them, but their slight imperfections created by the handmade process add character and beauty to her work.
One of the things that I found interesting about this artist is that she takes in account for many different aspects of her audience's experience. Early pays attention to the space, the smells, the reflections, and the architecture surrounding her setups. It was interesting to see how she maximized the space available to her to create pieces that are simple, yet demand attention.
Something that I noticed about a lot her sculptures was that they seemed to be deeply rooted in math. Many displayed various types of symmetry, radial was especially prominent. Also, Early frequently talked about creating the illusion that the lines of the sculpture just continue off into space. This idea of infinity and the cone and cylindrical shapes reminded me a lot of calculus. Everything seemed uniform and carefully plotted, similar to mathematics.
Another point in her talk that I found intriguing was that she said artist have a certain romance with their materials. She described her fixation with beeswax in this manner. I found this interesting because while romance seems too strong of a description for how I personally feel about my art supplies, there definitely is some type of friendship. Some days I will discover something new about my materials, like a pleasant surprise from a friend, and other days there is this frustration that I cannot get across what I envisioned with the material. As I experiment with the materials, it changes me sometimes more that I end up changing it. The paints allow me to view something in a manner I never saw before and they teach me about themselves. They are like a good friend, there to correct you, yet also there to help you get you to your ultimate goal.

Sketch

Line Drawing

Self Portrait and Portrait Images

signature

Artist Post: Ilsabe von Dallwitz

Ilsabe von Dallwitz was born in Germany in 1945. Over the years, she has been an art, dance, and language teacher, while also developing her passion as a photographer and a digital media artist. The primary subjects that Dallwitz focuses on in her art work ranges from landscapes, architecture, to macro photography. Her travels around Europe and Asian are often reflected in her landscapes and their cultural influences are evident in the designs. Her works typically begin as digital photographs and then are transformed on the computer, laminated with acrylic and mounted a shadow frame. Dallwitz aims to search for new ways to design and to perceive reality. Her work centers on personal memories of moods, lights and colors of a setting or subject that has personally inspired herself. Her main objective is to keep the atmosphere of the original intact through an abstract interpretation combining photography and digital media.

The colors and the sensations of her images strive to draw the viewer into the image and to entice them to mediate. Dallwitz wants to foster positive feelings and calming emotions while also building up her viewer’s appreciation for the aesthetic qualities and the expressive nature of visual representations of nature and human interactions. Digital media enables her to combine the natural and the artificial which she feels best inspire thought and mediation.

In Dallwitz’s image, Asia I, I can really get a sense that this was originally a photograph that has undergone digital manipulation. Within the image, the patterns represented could easily be some piece of architecture or design native to the area which inspired this piece. Dallwitz wanted to inspire thought that is freed from the constraints of mathematical rules in order to enable the viewer to think and dream freely. In terms of being freed from mathematical rules, this piece is mostly successful although it displays mathematic principles such as balance and asymmetric symmetry. The architecture which inspired this piece still has left traces of its actual appearance, but it has been distorted and changed into this beautiful flowing design. The fluidity of the swirls and the patterns has a mesmerizing, hypnotic effect which does produce a feeling of calm. This emotion is juxtaposed with the color choices and the sharp contrasts of dark and light colors. The sharp color transitions add interest to the image in addition to creating a sense of captivation such as what is achieved when viewing a kaleidoscope.

In Germany I, this image uses the contrasts of light and darkness to highlight the subject. What I find interesting in this image is that Dallwitz has distorted the photograph to create a bean-like or fetus shaped curve amidst a dark backdrop. She could be trying to symbolize rebirth using light and dark imagery and shape. From nothingness and darkness a new creation, such as the ones she creates on the computer screen, forms. I like this image, but I think that she lost some of the atmospheric qualities that she wants to preserve in her work. She could have possibly done a better job with creating the center of interest and making use of the entire canvas. Dallwitz wants the square perimeter to be the only barrier in her work, but I feel a sense of restriction in this image. However, I do like the fluidity of the curve and how it draws the viewer’s eye in a circle.

Overall, Dallwitz has used the world of digital media to positively affect her viewers. Her work is original and creative and her attempt of uniting the digital and natural worlds is imaginative and intriguing. 

Rhizome Profile

Dallwitz's Webpage

Line Drawing Scans

Artist Post #3: Chuck Close

Chuck Close is an artist who has worked in a wide array of mediums, but he is best known for his portraits. Close was born in Monroe, Washington in 1940, and attended the University of Washington where he received his bachelor’s degree in 1962. He continued his education at Yale where he was awarded his Masters in Fine Arts in 1964. After his studies, he went to the University of Massachusetts where he taught for three years before moving to New York City where he could concentrate more on his artwork.

            Many of Chuck Close’s beginning works are large photorealistic portraits completed in black in white. He strove to shock his audience with the inordinate amount of detail in the faces of his subjects such as replicating pores of the skin and strands of hair. In the 1970’s he began to incorporate color in his work and in the 1980’s he began to play with abstraction. However, the most significant change to his style was not exactly intentional, when Chuck Close suffered the collapse of his spinal artery in 1988. This incident left him paralyzed with limited mobility in his upper body. In order for him to continue painting, he had to have someone attach paintbrushes with straps to his wrists and then move his upper body in circular motions. He began using a hydraulic lift that allowed him to move around larger pieces in his newly restrictive state.

            Arguably, some of his best work sprung from this incident. Chuck Close redefined portraiture and he took his super realistic style and slightly abstract finger paintings to a whole new level. He began to grind off blocks on a canvas and then filled each block with rings of color which seem hap hazardously assigned, but a portrait reveals itself when viewed from a slight distance.

Big Self Portrait- Acrylic on Canvas
This shows how detailed and photo-realistic Close was able to get prior of his accident

            I think that Chuck Close’s work is absolutely incredible. The ability to take such a life altering event and transform it into the something positive is a remarkable feat. He was able to use his limitations not to restrict his art, but to actually enhance it. I really like how his portraits capture everyday people, in their faces there is something that everyone can connect to. They are not always smiling or look particularly happy; they look genuine. They look like someone who you can meet on the street that you would normally just pass by, but their representation in this incredibly large and realistic or interesting depiction makes them uniquely remarkable and fascinating. 

Self Portrait- This piece shows how his abstract side and grid work

            Chuck Close went from simply copying faces into representing someone more creatively, which shows his dimensionality as an artist. When he was given a hardship, he was able to take his creativity to a new level, and I really cannot think of any ways in which to make his work better. The concept of grid drawing is not novel, but the way in which Close handled the grids is so original and unique that I cannot think of anything that I would want to change about it.

            I have always been a fan of Chuck Close’s, but when I was able to see his work up close in person I gained a completely new level of respect for what a remarkable artist that he is. 

Reference 

Reference 2 

Digital Remix Final

Digital Remix

For some reason the JPEG and the PSD look a lot different

Before and After

 

Debra Swack

Debra Swack is a media artist who has displayed projects all throughout the United States. Swack’s work encompasses a wide range of material ranging from photos, drawings, sculpture and sound installation to videos.  I discovered Swack on Rhizome and was instantly interested in her emotions project Debra Swack was born and raised in Monroe, Louisiana and currently resides in New York City. She received her Bachelors of Arts from SUNY at Binghamton and also has a computer science background from Phi Theta Kappa. She has also expanded her education by taking courses at NYU and Pratt Art Institute.  In addition to her work as an artist, Swack is a consultant at SUNY Buffalo Research Foundation.

"Emotions"

What I find particularly interesting about Swack’s artwork is that she shows appreciation for natural beauty and simplicity such as what is seen in “The Trees of Central Park,” which is a time lapse photographic project that explores nature and the cycle of life. While this is a relatively universal theme that has been previously explored, she shows an appreciation for topics which everyone can relate to. She expands upon her artistic talents and intellectual ability by delving into fields of psychology, biology, body image, fashion, abortion, and even cloning. Another of her projects that I really admire is her work with Darwin’s idea of the universality of emotions. Darwin stated that emotions and expressions were a universal biological basis for self preservation, which is the simplest way to communicate our feelings with others. The beautiful thing about this concept is that no matter the age, gender, social status or other external variables, we can still communicate through emotions. Aesthetically, I like how the four panels she created each have a color which helps to exemplify each emotion she is displaying. I think that the portrait style of her work and the fact that she omits text from the panels adds a nice effect; allowing the viewer to experience this universal phenomenon on their own.  If anything, I think it might be interesting if she added more panels 

perhaps of more complex emotions, which would also allow her to diversify the ages and ethnicities of her subjects. I think that the addition panels would drive home the idea of universal connection emotions provide.

"My Perfect Child"

Also, Swack’s work titled “My Perfect Child” again provides some interesting material to consider. Swack explores the concept of creating the perfect offspring; a pursuit society seems to have become obsessed with. This fixation to produce and rear the best child is evident in the popularity of child rearing manuals, to selective abortion practices and new scientific possibilities such as genetic engineering. The default answer expecting parents give when asked about the gender of their unborn child, “oh we don’t care, as long as the baby is healthy,” could turn into a genetic competition to form a society of perfect people. From Swack’s “My Perfect Child” I gather that she is trying to reiterate the idea that perfection is in the imperfect. Genetic engineering and selective abortion is not needed, children are already perfect. Their insecurities, battles, oddities and quirks add to each flawless creation. Ask any mother and she knows just like Swack that the perfect child already exists, without the help of genetic engineering. Aesthetically, this picture is not particularly complicated, but I think that it gets at this message of childhood simplicity and natural perfection.

Overall, I am impressed with Debra Swack’s work and the intellectual complexities that she incorporated into her art. Swack’s ability to explore important and meaningful topics combined with her familiarity of a vast array of artistic mediums makes her an intriguing artist. 

Debra Swack on Rhizome

Collage

The Mirta Kupfermink Project

Scans

Artist Post #1: Nancy Burson

Beauty Composites

Nancy Burson is a living, influential digital artist whose work has had practical applications in addition to existing as ascetically stimulating images. Burson was born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri in 1948 and studied painting at Colorado Women’s College from 1966 to 1968. From Colorado, Burson moved to New York where she flourishes as an artist employing digital media. In New York, Burson teamed up with EAT, or Experiments in Art and Technology to help develop what she is most famous for, the method and apparatus for producing an image of a person’s face at different ages. She received a patent for this technique in 1981. She is considered one of the first individuals who used digital technologies to morph images and objects together with the use of composite imagery. For example, her work with Beauty Composites was very popular as she highlighted the qualities that made an individual beautiful. She looked at how beauty was currently being defined by modern culture and what ideals were being pushed on women. I think that this concept is really interesting and I like how she was able to take popular figures and identify some of the reasons for their success and attractiveness. However, I think that Burson could have added to these composites by combining images of women from past generations, creating a timeline of how cultural standards have changed and developed. In a society where body image and eating disorders have become alarmingly prevalent, it would be interesting and beneficial to go back to a more “natural” time and see how society has twisted the standard of beauty.

Not only has Burson been an influential artist, but she has made a real positive impact in a functional way. Her work with creating an apparatus for aging a person’s face has been extremely beneficial to the police force among others. Now missing children can have their pictures digitally altered as they age which could increase the probability of becoming reunited with their family even after an extended period of time. I believe that art should not just be pretty and interesting, but also functional such as what Burson has accomplished.

Another one of Burson’s creative accomplishments is seen in her work Visualize This from 1991. This was used to spread information to educate society on the dangers of HIV and AIDs. Visually, this is a very intriguing object which instantly grabs the viewer’s attention. Burson used marketing and creative skills to get across an important message and to raise awareness for a significant cause. I think that this was executed very well and that it accomplishes the goals that Burson set out to fulfill. 

Personally, I think that it is very inspiring to see an artist experiencing such success who is still living. I thought that it was interesting how Burson started out from a very traditional background in painting, and then diverged from her roots to find tremendous success in digital media. It is the mark of a true intellectual and artist to create works that not only inspire, but that have a purpose beyond existing as visually pleasing pieces and interesting concepts. The ability to use artistic talents to benefit others is truly commendable. 

 Source for this Post 

First Blogging attempt

Hello! This is my first blog post so here is some general information about myself.

My name is Shannon Rafferty, but I often go by Shannon Renee.

I am a runner, I love country music, I drink too much coffee and I always try to do everything. I am more of an observer and an introvert, but I have my outgoing moments occasionally. 

Here is a link to my website shannonrenee92.weebly.com...

...and here is a classic source of inspiration. Calvin and Hobbes is always a classic.

Calvin and Hobbes