Art Event: Video Game Gala

The video game gala on December 9th was a lot of fun and in my opinion, a huge success. Before this, I did not know that there was even an event where students could show these types of works- I did not even know we had a videogame class to begin with. The mood of the night was light and cheerful due to food, friendly faces, and an overall array of fun games. To be honest, I only got the chance to play four of them due to long lines and I was a little disappointed by this. However, the games I did play were fantastic.

One game that caught my eye was an adventure-platformer dubbed The Natty Boh Hunt, the art of which was partially created by a friend of mine named Kristin Seymour.  Seymour is an art major at St. Mary’s College of Maryland and she provided all the visuals for the game, which is just as important as the programming to make for an overall appealing game. Her influence on the style of the game is blatantly evident to me since I’ve seen a few of her other works before. Long story short, Seymour loves Maryland. Natty Boh, chugging Natty Boh, the Maryland flag, terrapins, and SMCM have been predominant themes in her works over the past few months and we can see this reflected in the game clearly.

After speaking with her on the subject, obviously Mr. Boh was her choice of main character. The object of the game is to send Mr. Boh around SMCM and find as many hidden beers as possible without getting too drunk that you fall into pits or off of ledges (which is a very real danger while intoxicated on campus).  The game was very well made, but with me being an art major I decided to focus more on that aspect of the game. Seymour explained to me the process of making the graphics for The Natty Boh Hunt. She worked mainly in photoshop and illustrator, utilizing a few different techniques. For the background Seymour photographed many places on campus for your character to explore, then she would digitize and pixelate them to fit in with the game’s old-school 8-bit look. Mr. Boh himself was easier, only having to create a simple body and legs for his iconic head. Finally, we come to the beers and food. Kristin would first draw her objects in only color, no black outlines. This technique allowed her to go back in after each object was complete and outline her work, but not in the traditional sense. Seymour would outline the works so that some of the color spilled outside of the lines which gave the game a very old school cartoon look which fit in nicely to the surroundings.

Overall I had a great time at the gala. It allowed me to take a look at all the possible ways to develop one’s self as an artist and the different outlets that technology has and is making for us to express ourselves. It really makes me think as an artist “I’ve made a pretty picture, now how does it move?”

Art Event: Studio Art SMP

           The Studio Art SMP exhibition over the past two weeks has been a lot of fun and it was very cool to see what projects my friends and fellow students have been working on. One of my favorite exhibits was Kristin Seymour’s, titled “Terrapin Soup”. Kristin is an art major at St. Mary’s and she does a lot in field of photography and graphic design. Her focus on terrapins throughout her work drew me in due to my love of nature, but it was the details of her work that kept me looking.

            Kristin used to play lacrosse for St. Mary’s and she has still kept her passion for the sporting world. Although you may not be able to tell at first, I have heard that this love has had an impact her works. A while back, Kristin was trying to get an internship for Under Armour in order to pursue her dream as a designer for their clothing, creating patterns and visuals to capture the eyes of customers and competitors. I saw this graphic element in her giant painting of a terrapin that had been detailed with black shading to create the image of a turtle without actually drawing in the outlines. Displayed outside of the event, she’s even transposed this image onto many other things including phone cases, shirts, and pants to get an idea of how her images can be used. It was very interesting to see how she used different media to represent her favorite animal in many ways. My second favorite piece was her terrapin sculpture created from air pockets in glass panels, allowing the viewer to gain a sense of depth as he or she looks on from above or below the turtle. I don’t know if it’s possible, but if it was able to be viewed from all 6 sides that would be insane.

One of my favorite things about her work is that she was not limited to just displaying it in our gallery alone. Kristin has even made smaller stickers of her turtle graphic which she is able to post and spread wherever she pleases. Reportedly, she left a few behind around New York on her SMP trip that happened not too long ago. I love the idea of spreading an image to gain popularity and notoriety. I hope she continues to pursue and push her turtles everywhere because I think they might just catch on…

Identify Yourself reading

I enjoyed this reading very much. I've always had thoughts and been in awe of how far technology and the internet has come in the short time of its existence, especially when you consider the length of time that we as humans have existed. I liked that the reading addressed the fact that, at the end of the day, humans were the ones who created technology and the internet and therefore it is inherently vulnerable to human error as much as we are- making it not fully liable as a 100% accurate source to get an answer from.

One paragraph I was very intrigued by, despite its brevity, was:

"What has identity become, now that our social selves are laid bare online? How is identity established within the form-fields of Facebook? Our connections are tagged and bound to our profiles. These digital networks have not only transformed our societal structure, they have also re-shaped our internal selves."

It's always struck me that, in the past, people who wanted to record their lives would have to do so through journals, diaries, and extensive writing or biographies. We now live in a world where, if nothing gets deleted, we can theoretically record our entire lives, connections, friends, and memories at the simple click of a button. One day even my kids could go back and look at conversations I had with my friends on Facebook in 8th grade; I don't even know the what school my dad went to in 8th grade.
Its a great feature to have, but it can also have a dark side. What if you didn't want people to know your past? Will there ever be a time where its impossible to start anew? where every mistake or grievance follows you for the rest of your life? We intergrate our lives more and more with technology each day, and if the day does come, I hope it comes later rather than sooner.

reading: http://idyrself.com

Vector Artist: Cristiano Siqueria, aka CRISVECTOR

Cristiano Siqueria is an accomplished Brazilian vector artist who works under the name Crisvector. He began his career as a professional illustrator back in 2005. He has worked with many famous clients ranging from Nike, Gillete, ESPN, Master Card, The Wall Street Journal, all the way to Playboy. He began his career as a graphic designer for posters, magazines, CD covers, and even books. His work has been featured in some big-time publications like Advanced Photoshop, Adobe Master Class Illustrator, Digital Arts, Arts, and Vektorika. Cristiano started his work in the art word with traditional media cub as painting, drawing, etc. He started working in a graphic design studio but was unable to produce graphics by hand, so one of his coworkers suggested he try a digital approach and he soon became the "Adobe Illustrator guy" to his boss back in 1998. He worked 5 years in a row in illustrator before beginning his foray into photoshop in 2005 after purchasing a Wacom tablet. He has become known for his recent style which takes advantage of pressure sensitive line strokes. In addition to all this, Cristiano also does work as a packaging designer for food and toy companies. He's also taken time off of his work to go to university in Brazil and study editorial publishing and production, a lifelong goal for Cristiano. One of Cristiano's favorite projects was the comic page done for AIDES along with Goodby, Silverstein & Partners in 2011. He received the Clio Award, an international award, under the category of "Print: Public Services" for this project. One of my favorite works of his is the promotional piece he did depicting Lionel Messi back in 2010 for the world cup: 
I am a big fan of his work because not only is he able to create bright, flashy logo and label designs (such as the works he's done for Nike, below), but he is also incredibly talented in the field of portraits which we can see through his portraits of Steve Jobs and Edgar Allen Poe. in his free time, Cristiano enjoys spending time with his girlfriend Mari and traveling around South America.

see more here
read more here

Logo Remix

Vector Portrait

Drawing what you hear with Illustrator

Vector Art & Portraits

Technology: It's Effect on Modern Life

Line drawing and Signature

"Whale Line Drawing" by Eileen Kosasih

Artist Post: Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey is a digital/street artist born in Charleston, South Carolina in 1970. Fairey became fascinated with art as a young child and went to the Idyllwild School of music and the Arts where he graduated in 1988, before attending the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design. Most notably known for his street art and propaganda-style works, his roots started in the punk music/skateboarding "underground" scene.

Fairey's "Obey" campaign began in 1992 and started out as a joke between himself and a friend when Fairey was asked how to stencil a T-shirt. What started out as a random example would grow into one of the biggest experiments in Phenomenology, or "the process of letting things manifest themselves". I found this very interesting, especially in a world where one's worth is equal to the amount of work and notoriety that one makes for himself. Fairey lets the public do his marketing for him. The simple act of ordering someone to "Obey" naturally makes them curious as to what they are supposed to be obeying- which ends up getting the viewer interested in this product or brand that they know nothing about.

Now an established artist, Fairey is trying to grow the street art movement. He has appeared in many films on the subject such as Bomb It, Popaganda: The art and Crimes of Ron English, and is notorious for his role in Exit Through the Gift Shop. I find it very interesting that by playing on the mind of the general public via many psychological ploys can result in such a "giant" success.

Sources: 

http://www.obeygiant.com/about

http://arthistory.about.com/od/namesff/p/fairey.htm

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1735854/

Mashup

Fixed images

Technology Log

7:30 - Turned off phone alarm
8:20 - Used OneCard to get into Mac Lab
8:30 - Began using computer/scanner
9:20 - Learning in class via projector/computer/computer programs

Digital scans

I got sick last week and have fallen a bit behind... I'm sure more is supposed to be written here, but for the time being- here are my 10 scans:

SMCM Lacrosse Hat

iPad

All of my "Pens"

Headphones

The Ceiling!

Some nice tacks

Shoes

Da $$$$

Scotch Tape (I think its pretty neat)

Calculator

Flannel 

digital artist: Charles Cohen

Charles Cohen used his skill with a camera to make a statement showing nothing at all. Through the artistic process of "erasure" he digitally removes the subjects of his pieces, people, to create voids of white space. This requires the viewer to fill the void with their mind and create a reality all of their own. In Cohen's "Buff" series, he takes the figures out of pornographic images, essentially making a dirty picture "clean", if you will. Despite this, it is still fairly easy for a viewer to determine what the original picture was- addressing the idea that just because something isn't right there, doesn't necessarily mean its gone.
(http://www.promulgator.com/buff.html)

The "Buff" series makes a strong statement on the 'presence of absence'. It's honestly shocking how some things that are taken for granted, such as a person's existence, create such a huge void when they're finally gone. My generation is obsessed with recording every waking moment of their lives via camera or picture-phone. It may seem annoying and tedious, but what if that person just disappeared? How would it affect your life? It's amazing how a picture can mean nothing once it's main focus is gone.

By going down the route of pornography in the "Buff" series, Cohen has really grabbed his viewers' attention. It really makes someone stare and figure out what their looking at- the absence of a visual makes someone dive deeper into the picture and experience all the other details around it.

Sources:
http://www.saatchionline.com/profiles/portfolio/id/7294
http://plane-shift.blogspot.com/2012/08/presence-through-absence-charles-cohen.html
http://www.promulgator.com/buff.html
https://blackboard.smcm.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-94085-dt-content-rid-444332_1/courses/13FA-ART214.01/13FA-ART214.01_ImportedContent_20130826114536/ChristianePaul.pdf