Emily Yaffe - Hand Art

Here is some interesting art. Well, according to Google, it is cool art. That is what I searched for, this is what I found. I just thought it was mesmerizing to see what someone created out of a hand. I guess I am intrigued by this creative canvas of sorts. I love animals and hands, so how could I go wrong with this? But I truly think that Google was right. This art is just plain cool. In fact, whenever I have shown these photos to my friends, they do indeed say "Cool!"

Hannah M: Sunflowers, balance, and a boating party

Be Bright! The image on the left is is my t-shirt design for the photoshop project. I started with a picture of a sunflower, it had leaves, butterflies around it, and a black background. I used the magnetic loop to isolate it, and went in to clean up edges. I played with hues, contrast, and blurs to create this final image. I love sunflowers, and be bright were the words that just kept coming to me, so this is what my image ended up being!

The image on the shirt was another I played around with, same words and same flower, but it includes a stem as well. I placed it on a shirt to see what it would look like.

The next image is a still-image of the dance group Pilobolus, a group formed at Darmouth years ago. Their work is amazing, their bodies moving in ways you didn't quite know were possible. I love this image, called Pinwheel, you can see the movement and motion in their stillness, your eyes constantly moving over the image trying to count bodies, legs, how many people are here? I love the color and contrast in the image here, wonder what it would look like in color.


The final image for the open blog post is the painting Luncheon of the Boating Party by Auguste Renoir. I've always been a fan of this painting, and over winter break read a historical fiction piece about this creation of this painting (a full length book called Luncheon of the Boating Party). The book brings to life the questions I always had about the painting, about the lives and stories of the characters here. It brights to life the (mostly fictional) story of all the interactions, dramas, and challenges inherent in a still life involving this many people! It weaves together the story of French society in which Renoir lived, from the impressionist painters, elite art-buying society, the local paint shop where he bought his supplies, all of which help the reader to imagine the world in which the artist lived and the motivations behind such a paitning. I love the busyness of the paintings, the colors, the feelings it conjours up; I want to hear the conversations, get into the mind of the women leaning against the rain in the yellow hat, feel the late summer air coming off the water in the distance. I imagine there must have been music playing quietly in the background.

42 - Olivia - T-shirt

"Eavesdropping"
I found this tshirt at threadless.com.  I like it because from a distance it looks chaotic, but when you read it up close, you see the individual expressions and conversations of each person.  I think the title "eavesdropping" is very significant.  It insinuates a lack of secrecy that the crowded picture clearly shows.

41 - Olivia - What is art?

Art can be a manifestation of an artist's thoughts.  An artist can attempt to record the world as subjectively as possible, but because visual perception varies between each individual, even the most "realistic" of paintings still has the bias of the artist's mind.  Art can be something that evokes an emotion or any other type of response in a viewer, whether it be positive or negative.  While typically judged as a work that is aesthetically pleasing, I think that a work can be considered art even if it is "ugly".  This begs the question, is something still art if it lacks an audience?  I think yes. In this instance, the artist represents the creator as well as the viewer.  This places no bounds on art.

40 - Olivia: Business Card

Kevin: What is Art?

Art is history: It is the mark of our society. Art will outlive us and become a defining mark of a generation.
Art is accessible: Anyone anywhere can make art. Anyone can appreciate art. It is a public good. Art is political: It is a silent rebellion. It touches touch people in unique places. It creates consciousness and bring them to arms.
Art is purposeless: I like the idea of art not needing to fulfill a purpose or a function. Strip away the money, academia, the culture, etc. Art is creation for the sake of creation. Art does not need a function to be valued.
Art is flexible: It is a malleable space that permits so many different forms and constantly changes. There are no codified rules or rigid expectations.

These works are by one of my favorite graffiti artists (Banksy) from the UK. A lot of his work is political. If you like his work, check out his website: http://www.banksy.co.uk/.

39 Kaleigh McKinney

Postcard: I decided to include an image of myself on this postcard in an attempt to personalize it. I feel as though it captures a side of me that I rarely express. The expression on my face is a somber one that almost seems as though I am sad or discouraged about something. In contrast to this I tried to use warmer colors to brighten the mood so that its a play of my complexity of emotions. All in all its a postcard to myself as a reflection of exact moments of thought or feeling. 

T-Shirt: The zebra is a metaphor for someone who wants to run/break away from conformity. He wants to express his own individuality contrary to the normal conservative image. 

39 Henry Harding: Tee-Shirt and Postcard

Postcard: I have some experience with photoshop, so for my post card I wanted to try something new. I went to the media lab in List and messed around with a "tablet," which is basically a drawing pad that uploads your drawing instantly onto the computer screen in photoshop. For this image, I started with a photo that I found on google and assigned it to layer 1. I then created a 2nd layer and began tracing the photograph with the digital tablet pen. When I was done tracing, I deleted the 1st layer and replaced it with the yellow/orange gradient background. Lastly, I added some commentary/text to the image, assigned a border to the text with blending options, and then made the text somewhat transparent. I like the message because it has 2 ways of understanding it depending whether you see it through the eyes of a child or through the eyes of an adult.

Tee Shirt: I like this design mostly because it made me smile when I saw it. When I saw it, I instantly thought  of one of my friends from high-school who is like the giraffe. She is a really goofy, happy, and carefree person that didn't define herself to any one group, and she was comfortable being herself in all situations. I really like this tee shirt because it is simple (it only uses 3 colors) and it easy to read.

38 Maxime Long: T-Shirt and also Postcard

I chose this t-shirt because it's random and strange, it's the kind of thing that would make people glance twice at it I suppose. I mean, it's a ninja poking a dead fish with a stick. What's not to love?



I felt like someone should make a postcard that captures the beauty of Providence in a single sentence. And this is that postcard.

Allison-t-shirt
I chose to post this t-shirt because I loved the combination of different shades of blue it used. I also enjoyed the use of lines versus shapes. I think they make it more open for the viewer to decide what they see. I also think it gives it a sort of personality because none of the lines are straight, which gives it so much energy. The use of white as the background also makes the viewer focus more on the use of colors.

37 - Corlis Gross: T-shirt and post card

So I think this t-shirt is super cool because it changes with UV exposure. It has that connection to the environment we live in, like we discussed in class. I also really like how the architecture in the shirt is so pretty and fluid, and how the little ghouls that appear contrast so well with the buildings. You wouldn't expect them to be there.

My postcard is of photos that I have from my study abroad experience when I traveled to the Galapagos. I loved enhancing and playing with the color of the photos. It truly is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

3 - Neel Odedara - Postcard

While studying abroad in South Africa, one of the things that struck me most was how much this experience defied expectations. Modern, vibrant, and colorful to say the least, my experiences in there allowed me to see many things in a different light. For this assignment, I thought of how I could best reflect this and portray a different image of South Africa.

There are many stereotypical views of Africa - the sunset safari with the lone lion silhouette. As one South African told me, "We don't have lions crossing our streets all day." With this in mind, I chose to do the opposite of the somber image of the African sunset and tried to portray something more dynamic. I came across an image of a Zebra, and chose to use this neon light texture to blend it into the dark background - from left to right, its form slowly emerges from the darkness and its colors come into clear view. I chose the pitch "As You've Never Seen It before!" to highlight the otherwise hidden qualities that make South Africa a truly unique place.

35 - Nic Mooney: T-Shirt

In general, I am more attracted to weird colors and patterns than actual statements and graphics. I'm always looking for something weird and different, and I like this houndstooth t-shirt because of how it separates a pattern entirely from its construction -- a pattern created by a certain method of weaving is copied on the surface -- it has the appearance of the original without really having anything to do with it. As if aware of this, the back does not continue the pattern but is merely black, signaling its artificiality.

Topshop

caroline: t shirt and postcard

I bought this shirt for my mom for her birthday a couple years ago. It combines her love of start wars with her hate of George Bush. I like it because it's simple and I also think funny. And I like star wars and not George Bush.







I decided to continue my star wars theme into my postcard. I found the picture of the rodent things and then wanted to use a dinosaur because I like dinosaurs.

34 - Nic Mooney: Postcard - Africa is Not a Country

Postcards are usually sent as to indicate your location while traveling. This got me thinking about the politics of place, thus leading to my subject:


Saying "Greetings from Africa" is like saying "Greetings from North America" -- a pretty worthless statement. A postcard simply from the continent of North America is meaningless because it lumps Panama with Canada, New York City with the Sonoran desert. But does "Greetings from Africa" have the same absurd connotations? To many, I bet not. I've heard multiple people, including here at Brown, refer to Africa, the world's second largest and second most populous continent, as a country.
My postcard is meant to make a statement on misunderstandings, geographic and otherwise, of Africa, as well as low awareness about the world in general. Nothing in the image fits together -- the setting is in Egypt, the boy is Sudanese, giraffes do not live in the Sahara, and tigers don't live in Africa at all. It condenses an entire continent to a few striking, though anatopistic, images, and Africa becomes either exoticized or stigmatized.
Geography is not simply memorizing capitals...I believe an understanding of the vastness and the layout of the world are crucial in understanding our planet's problems. Stereotypical simplifications that reduce 53 countries to a small patchwork of starving children and strange animals is decidedly problematic.

Julio--T-shirt

I found this shirt on threadless. I was looking through their shirts and this one caught my attention. Perhaps it was the color of the shirt or that fact that there was a random giraffe. I find it hilarious how two of the elephants are sitting off to the side not doing anything. I usually dont like wearing shirts with a lot of designs but I am enjoing the scenery posed in this t-shirt.

Julio- Postcard

So this is my postcard. I found it really hard to use photoshop and it took me a while to get the hang of it. The image of the chicken is slightly altered but I spent most of my time on the eggs. I basically made copies of an egg and changed its dimensions, color, lighting, shadow. The eggs on the bottom are bright and colorful, a contrast to the egg the chicken is holding (more basic). I'm not quite sure why I decided to do this but at the moment I was thinking about Easter...so I went with it.

Emily Yaffe - Postcard

Here is my postcard. It is an ocean scene. I put some of my favorite things together with some different textures and effects to hopefully result a postcard someone would like to receive in the mail.

Emily Yaffe - Dino T

Here is a T-shirt I liked. I like dinosaurs. But I also chose this T-shirt because it is simply a dinosaur until you get closer to see the full scene. It's funny. It makes a statement. Go dinosaurs!

29 - Brielle - T'shirt

I like the simplicity of this t'shirt, and feel that because it only uses black and white, the message really stands out. The contrast between the colors immediately catches my eye. I also really like how the word "coexist" is created by using different relgious symbols instead of just using plain text. (I'm not sure if you can see it in the image, but underneath the word "coexist" it says "imagine" - I think the main reason I like this t'shirt so much is beacuse it's message is so powerful and very meaningful in my life)

28 - Brielle - Business Card

I found photoshop much harder to use than I expected! It took me a really long time to figure out how to do something - and even then it didn't end up working exactly the way I wanted it to. I ended up creating a business card for a local bakery cafe from where I'm from. I took an image of flowers, used the pen tool to cut them out, and then put on a filter (glowing edges). I then used the magic wand tool to highlight specefic parts of the image, and somehow (I don't exactly remember which tools I used) made those areas into colorful dots. I also added text, but in the photoshop image it looked slightly pixelated, but I couldn't figure out how to fix that. Hopefully someone can show me in class!

27 Kevin: Inogu Fabrics T-Shirts

All three of these t-shirts were designed by a friend of mine from high school, Jordan Ma. He goes to UC San Diego and started his own t-shirt company Inogu Fabrics (http://inogufabrics.com/), so I wanted to give him a shout out. The t-shirt company has done pretty well, all of their first release shirts sold out. I particularly like his choice of colors. You don't see enough bright purple shirts...

26 - Kat -- Postcard

I wanted to create a Valentine's Day postcard that was both romantic and graphically interesting. I found an image of peonies online and raised the contrast to make the colors pop and then used the magic wand tool to erase the area around the flowers. I wanted to change the texture of the image, so I tried a few different filters, eventually using the "cut out" filter--it reminds me of the technique that Matisse employed in Jazz. Finally, I used the paint bucket to fill in the background with a dusty blue that contrasts nicely with the flowers.

Kevin: 3 Takes on a Business Card

For my business card, I started out creating a card for myself. I was searching images for a scientist and found an image of beaker from Sesame Street. I liked the image, so I drew up a business card with him in it. My idea was for it to be a card that I could distribute to people I meet at career fairs. I'm not sure if the image of Beaker makes it stand out or is too un-professional.

My second business card, I was trying to pick something else I identify with. I'm want to live in the Bay Area after I graduate, so I took a satellite image from Google of the bay area and put in on the card. I then tried playing around with the various filters to make the image more subtle.

For the last business card I created, I really liked this image of this cartoon man giving the middle finger and so I tried to find a way to incorporate the image into the card. The first thing that came to my head was "fuck the man," so the idea just snowballed from there. I like the way it turned out. I don't exactly plan to use it as a business card, but I think it would be fun to distribute to friends after they had a bad day. Maybe the workers at Nice Slice would want them...

25 - Gillian - T-shirt

I think this shirt is hot shit for a number of reasons. ONE, purple is a sweet color. TWO, I am all about stripes. THREE, snake! Awesome! But also I like how this is sort of an optical illusion, how there is no blank space, but also the SNAKE, WOAH! WOAH!!!

23 - Hannah M : Eat more Kale!

Here is my photoshop play!

I decided to make a business card for the position I hope to take next year at the nonprofit I currently volunteer with. I made a front (the sunflower one) as well as the back, which makes the card functional by giving lots of information about how to find locals food in the city. I like the bright, happy image of the sunflower. I had fun playing with photoshop, and feel like I am barely scratching the surface of what the program can do.

For the t-shirts, here is one of my favorite shirts. As we discussed in class on tuesday, the words on people's shirts can say a lot about who they are, what they believe in, etc.
I do not frequently wear clothing with text, for there are few things I feel comfortable expressing through t-shirts. Too often I find text on t-shirts, especially activist t-shrits, too preachy. I once bought a t-shirt on sale that said "Nature Needs You, Plant a Tree" but cannot bring myself to wear it.

In contrast, this "Eat More Kale" t-shirt I found a couple years ago is the exactly the gentle communication that expresses my activist style and that I feel comfortable and enjoy wearing.
I found this shirt at a folk festival a few years ago, and run into the maker Bo at various events around New England. He started small, selling them at a farmers market and other venues, and now has a small business out of his home in vermont. He has others that say "cheese," "compost," and more.
Unlike other activist t-shirts, I found these shirts to be a gentle, fun way to engage people in the issues I am passionate about. I also love kale, and it has so many great nutritional benefits that i really do think everyone should eat more kale! I love the soft, round, irregular font, and the words always bring questions and conversations.

Sofia: Business Card and T-shirts

My aim was to create an eye-catching, memorable business card. The colors, red and black, work well with the theme. I think the monkeys, in addition to 

adding some humor, really communicate a festive atmosphere. I used Photoshop to cut the monkeys out of a picture I had, got the disco ball from Google, cut it out of the picture it was originally in, and used the brush tool in order to create the lines of light emitted by the disco ball. I had to use a lot of layers in order to achieve this effect. I really enjoyed learning to use Photoshop.

I found two t-shirts that I liked... I really liked the colors and the composition of the Pollock t-shirt - it's a shirt I would wear -, whereas I found the other's logo more amusing. I have a "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster in my room, which this is a parody of, so I thought it was fun. I also liked the Darwin t-shirt.

Kat -- T-shirt

I am not usually a big fan of joke t-shirts, but I love this one because it is subtle.

22 - Gillian - Postcard

I don't know how thoroughly we're supposed to explain our images, so I will do this as briefly as possible. I'm really into jellyfish, so I decided to use a picture of them. I cropped it into the 4x6 shape, then changed the hue to a reddish color and lowered the saturation. I used the magic wand to select the background chunks, and then subtracted single columns from the selection using the single column marquee tool. I liked the way the dashed lines look, so I took a screenshot of the picture and started working from that. I added the black bar and text, and here you have it.