Visual Narrative

These are the images I cut out and chose for the Visual Narrative piece. At first when I was looking through the magazines, I was drawn to people automatically; I was looking for authentic photographs of people and their surroundings. When I started to narrow down my collection of cutouts, I came up with the theme of “Teenage Angst” due to the mysterious looks in the people’s eyes. I wanted to run with that theme especially because of the age I am in, and most of my classmates as well. We all can relate to the desire of expressing ourselves in different ways, whether that be by different clothing, hair color changes, or the makeup we wear, etc. These cutouts can represent those feelings in different ways, and I hope to execute them the best way I can.

This is an aerial view of the word webs I created of all the pictures I cut out of different magazines. The instructions were to write down words that are related to this thing, or words that came to mind when thinking of this image. After doing that, we had to consolidate our piles down to 7-10 images, which was hard for me. As soon as I did that however, themes and ideas started blooming in my head; that’s where I came up with “Teenage Angst”.

This was the grouping I made, which involves the cutouts in the first photo. What really stood out to me in most of the cutouts were the harsh eye contact that gave off a mysterious or angsty feel. That really spoke to me. I also liked how each photograph had its own tonal quality that matched the emotion or lack thereof in the subject’s face. Together, they work well to hopefully make a unifying piece.

This paragraph or grouping of sentences describes the feelings I get when looking at the five images I chose. I see “teenage angst”, mysterious, understood, and frustrated underlined several times. From writing this paragraph, I wanted to express how we feel so much pressure as teenagers to live up to what our parents want for us, but that sometimes their perfect image of us can be misconstrued because of how we want to dress or act. We can be misunderstood even by the people that have raised us. We all want to represent ourselves the way we see ourselves, and that’s sometimes difficult.

When given the opportunity to select a word to help give our project an extra spice, I chose ‘anxious’ which I felt could work well with my theme. At first I was unsure, but after some thought, “Anxious Teenage Angst” did not seem too bad after a while. The idea of an anxious teenager being enveloped by the harsh city lights was an idea that came to mind after some collaboration.

This idea shows the unity of teenagers by positioning them so that one eye meets in the center. The circular effect could insinuate confusion and anxiety of the stage of life they’re going through. Each cut out would be slightly curved, so that it would be a  circular mess of cutouts.

This could show the overwhelming feeling of being in the city, therefore the teenager could be anxious. The city would be repeated, and reflected with a low opacity.

This was my first thumbnail. I liked this one because I think it best captured my idea so far. The most unspoken and mysterious of the Beatles will be showing through the low opacity of the city. I will add another effect to show the anxiousness and angst, but I like how him taking a picture of himself in the mirror adds a dark effect.

This was the last and least developed of the ideas. The city will be enveloping the girl in the center as the reflection of the skyline eats away at her. I like the concept behind this one, but I’m not sure how I will be able to execute it.

I am hoping that all of my ideas will soon come together, and allow one final composition to come through.

Response to the Incomplete Manifesto for Growth

Throughout our careers as artists, we are told a multitude of things that encourage us during our research and experimental stages of our practice. These things, and more, are listed in An Incomplete Manifesto of Growth, which covers all ends of the spectrum with advice and ways to go about certain ideas. All artists should be given this document at least once throughout their education because of how informative and inspirational it is. From the manifesto, there were several points that really stood out to me, the first being to allow events to change you. This one struck me not only because it was the first on the list, but also because this point is thought provoking. When experiencing new things and trying to form ideas for a piece, one must be open minded and be willing to change ideas when the opportunity presents itself. As artists, we all should be open to experiences that give us new ideas and allow inspiration to come through. Second, is to capture accidents. This one also stuck out to me, because when solving a problem, one answer may be wrong for one question, but could be right for another. Art and its meaning is all about answering a question, and finding a way to represent something visually. And lastly, one must explore the other edge. To me, this one means to go beyond what is expected and different from everyone else; explore other sides to a piece that someone has not thought of yet. All artists should read this manifesto, and add points that have helped them throughout their careers.

Two points I would add to this manifesto are to use found objects to heighten an idea and to observe. When making a piece, don’t stay with the usual mediums. Explore, and use things found on the street or in your everyday life that could be useful. Pieces that are inspired by other objects are not only interesting to the eye, but can provide a conceptual idea as well. Second, observe as much as possible. Watch your peers; ask them questions about their process and inspirations that allowed them to start an artwork. The best way to learn different techniques and understand different styles is to observe other artists.

One Minute Sculpture