Mid-Quarter Work

Hello again!
Well, it's significantly chillier outside today, and it reminded me that quite some time has passed and I need to post some more artwork!
First off, if you live in Savannah, you should check out the SIC Urban Legends show at the Savannah Mall. Both Kellan and I have work hanging (mine is the piece I posted last time of Goat Man and Donkey Lady) and they are for sale too!
Now for the art:
Let me explain these first few. In my last update, I showed you the beginning of the Exquisite Corpse assignment in my Lithography class. The project is now complete, and I have three collaborative pieces to show for it. I have to be honest-- this project was extremely frustrating for me. It was very difficult to not be in control of my own work because of what was already completed when it was handed to me. It was a learning experience to let go, and to "go with the flow," and by the end of it, I had pretty much mastered the concept. These are not going to be in my portfolio by any means, but I am very proud of the growth they represent. Being a control freak is great when you are working alone, but not so much when collaborating with others! This assignment got me out of my comfort zone. I usually work with the mindset of "all or nothing," and end up doing a whole group project myself, or don't want to be associated with it at all. That wasn't an option here, and although it was very hard for me, I'm glad I had the experience.


"No Name Exquisite Corpse" 2010 Lithography and Chine-colle collaboration with Rhett Scott and Emma Davidson
The yellow and brown runs are Rhett's, which were after mine, and Emma wrapped it up with the cat's legs and exploding body. She had quite a challenge to make the yellow legs and my cat head work in the composition, since Rhett printed on the other side of the paper.


"Untitled Exquisite Corpse" 2010 Lithography collaboration with Rhett Scott and Emma Davidson
Emma started off with the light line work at the bottom and the teal run. She had trouble having her lines show up over the color, and when I created the body and shoes (to bring the feet back out), I had similar troubles. I wasn't sure if it was the paper choice or color, but everything seemed quite grainy. Rhett then added the heads, which I am wondering if perhaps they were meant to be flipped and connect to my body.


"Aliens Did Visit Us" 2010 Lithography and Chine-colle collaboration with Rhett Scott and Emma Davidson
The piece started with Rhett's robot body (minus the colored in plates) and brown background. Emma then added the head, and it was up to me to make the rest of the piece work. Registration was an issue because the bodies were not always in the same place, so I had to come up with something that would still look decent in different locations on the page. Another challenge was to break up or push the brown background, because it lay too heavily in the foreground. I chose to break it up with cave-painting images, which weren't as successful as I thought, and then wrapped up the theme by making his lower half a cave-painting horse. Then the body fell too far into the background, so I brought it out with the chine-colle leg, and pushed this idea further by coloring in the two plates on the robot. I feel as though I did everything I could to make this creature work, and as hideous as he is, the piece does follow many of the design elements and principles. Hooray!


"Let Go of the Past" 2010, Lithography print with Chine-colle
During our last run of the Exquisite Corpse assignment, we were also working on a trade portfolio in my Lithography class. I was very excited about this assignment for two reasons: first- we get to own other printmakers' work from our class, and second- the theme was "Dreams." I have always been fascinated with dreaming and the subconscious' way of telling us things about ourselves, and was thrilled at the opportunity to put that into my print work. The piece is based off a dream I had in which I was walking in the Sahara, near a town, and stumbled across an elephant sitting in the grass. His legs were covered with ants, and he was helpless. The elephant was dying. When I tried to brush the ants off, they stung me too, and I knew I had to run for help. I told people nearby, and no one seemed to care about the poor elephant. When I later looked up the meaning behind this dream, it suggested symbolism relating to personal problems I had been overcoming recently, which is how I came up with the title of the work.


"The Vicar Wine Label" 2010 Gouache
Meanwhile, in my Advertising Illustration class, we were working on wine labels. The wine our professor picked for us is called "The Vicar," which is the flagship wine of Chapel Hill Winery. My style is a little too child-friendly for alcohol, but I really love the way my piece came out. I chose to use less predicable religious imagery (the lion, a representation of Jesus, just as a Vicar is somewhat representative as well) because of the beautiful, warm complimentary colors of the animal's fur and the purple grape.


This is packaging for the top of the wine bottle neck. I did not create the logo.


Here's the label on my bottle! The topper is just an old trinket my mom gave me, nothing I took the time to create!


"Self-Portrait" 2010 Collage and Gouache
My last image to show you today is actually from my Introduction to Psychology class. We had to make a collage that described ourselves, and I, being always in illustration-mode, thought of an actual collage. Everyone else did clippings from magazines. Oh well! They seemed to like it, and I might actually use it in my portfolio. The metaphors here are clear-- I protect the people I love (friends, family, and even acquaintances I can empathize with) from the world, and can sometimes feel that weight upon my shoulders. The relationships in my life are extremely important to me, and I am a loyal person to those folks I hold close. Also, I wear my heart on my sleeve, whether it be anger, fear, joy, frustration, love or sadness. The color palette and pattern choices also are really indicative of my personality and life in general.

That's all the art for now! Keep an eye out for the final projects of the quarter. Oh, and some exciting news-- we have an actual client for my final Advertising project!! I could be a official working illustrator by the end of week 10. I'll give more details later.

adios,
caitlin