itp oddities

PERSONAL REFLECTION:

Is it weird that no matter what I create or make, I still have issues calling myself ‘artist’? I still remember when I took an ‘art for non-art majors’ class in my last semester before dropping out of my first undergrad school. The room was full of architecture majors who’s artistic and technical training training shined and I compared myself to them with the sinking feeling like there was no way I could measure up to their technically brilliant pieces. My teacher even tried to encourage me and said my work was good for someone with no formal art background but I simply didn’t believe her.

Art is something that eludes me because with academic or work endeavors I can hold myself to a standard that is easy to measure. I can hit the KPI’s, I can get the grades- essentially I know how to find my way within the structure. Would I say I thrive in those situations or feel challenged in the ways I need? Maybe not, but I know what works.

There is no one direct way to ‘succeed’ in art. You can tell your story well, you can execute something beautifully, you can research and build out ambitious projects… but even if you do end up doing everything right, sometimes it still won’t satisfy. It begs the question, can one even ‘succeed’ in art anyways or is that simply chasing the idea of something that doesn’t actually exist?

But maybe that is one of the most satisfying things about creating art, that is leaves you hungry. You make something you feel great about while also knowing there is always more you can do and other levels you can push yourself to reach.

I am not sure I will ever feel worthy of a title like ‘artist.’ Perhaps that second guessing and hunger for more is part of what being an artist is- never feeling like you have reached your peak and that gnawing feeling that you can do better and there is always more to iterate on.

In some ways I know I am not ‘succeeding’ here in the ways I normally would measure success in school. A lot of what I am learning is hard and it can be difficult to not fall into my old patterns of comparison. But I guess learning to free myself from such a simple definition of success, even if I can’t quite say artist, is a win in itself, no?

. ݁⊹ ݁˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚. ݁₊

ASSIGNMENT // STOP MOTION:

The prompt: In teams of two, create one stop motion loop. Export as a movie file or Animated GIF for the next class. (Length should be Between 10s – 30s)

.⋅˚₊‧ 🜲 ‧₊˚ ⋅ PROM QUEEN .⋅˚₊‧ 🜲 ‧₊˚ ⋅

Alyssa and I almost immediately agreed that we wanted to do something really tactile and fun outside the confines of a screen. We both settled upon a print and scan type of project and after tossing around some ideas, decided to do an iconic movie that many know- Carrie.

The iconic prom scene would not only be recognizable, but be a really fun setting to work with. While the scene itself is a little disturbing, we decided that going with a cutesy, prom queen, year book vibe to combine opposite aesthetics would be a fun way to approach the project.

Alyssa took the scene and exported it into individual frames that were then printed out in black and white so we could take the 90 odd frames and unleash our creativity.

We decided that the first step would be to paint all of the blood in a technique called ‘rotoscoping‘ so we wouldn’t have to wait for it to dry later on when we were in the middle of scanning. Once that was complete we moved onto the other visual elements of the layout that included the flowers, letters, chalk pastels, glitter, and confetti.

After arranging all the pieces, we scanned in each image one frame at a time via an app on our phones and sent the PDF containing the frames to a computer to lay everything out in After Effects. We elected to use the scanning app technique because it made sense for the flat/2D format of the project and helped make the glitter pop.

For the final touch, we picked the perfect girly-pop anthem to set the scene to, Kylie Minogue’s “Can’t Get You Out of My Head.”

This project was definitely a lesson in ‘trust the process’ as it was hard to see just how everything would come together in the end. It was also a labor of love and took probably close to 14 hours to concept, design, create, and execute the entirety of the project for a mere 14 seconds of animation.

Overall, it was fun to get our hands dirty and create something outside of the confines of a screen and I would definitely create a stop motion piece like this again.

. ݁⊹ ݁˚ ༘ ೀ⋆｡˚. ݁₊