Justin Fletcher

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.” ― Albert Einstein

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Final Artist Statement: 

These gifs are inspired by the changing landscapes and the different feelings I have every time I venture out into nature.The earth is a beautiful place and is constantly changing. Leaves fall, colors change, water levels fluctuate, and the weather has a mind of its own. Nature destroys, rebuilds, and will continue to do so until the Earth is no more. But these are the things that make me love the outdoors so much. And it is these things that will forever keep me thankful for living in such a wonderful place. 

**All photos taken by me**

[kelsey3219]

I’ve never been much of an art person. My real passion is sports. So to do a minute of something I love sounded fun. Sports are a way for me to relax, enjoy and really focus in on something. A game to me could be kind of like a performance in a different way. It’s not extreme like the Marina story and performances but it’s something I enjoy and like to do.

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

I actually like this a lot. Most people wouldn't see lacrosse as  art, but being able to cradle the ball like that is certainly an art form. 

[scrollingcolors-blog-blog]

Project #5 was very challenging for me.  I have not had a “live” performance which had to be recorded and published.  I figured with the dancing of my shadow, it would be interesting.  No face, only shapes, light and darkness.  I did enjoy finding a song to put in the video.  Thank goodness I am not a professional dancer, I would be the least hired on record (ha-ha).  My rhythm may not be on time, but it was definitely a challenging and interesting project to complete.  

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Lol, this was pretty entertaining. I like how you played with light and shadow. Good job.

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Reading Response

Performance art has placed itself in an un definable category. With the uses of video, dance, narratives and other countless numbers of attributes, performance art blurs the line between traditional art and performance. One of my favorite aspects of performance art, is the relationship between the art itself, and the public. Without an audience, performance art would have no meaning. Golberg makes a good point when she says, “public interest in the medium stems from an apparent desire to that public to gain access to the art world”. Performance art allows the “Average Joe” to experience art first hand, and actually be apart of it. It is the curiosity of the public that makes performance art so impactful. The fact that the audience gets to see the art form unfold is a unique experience. Unlike traditional art forms, such as painting and sculpture, performance art allows the audience to see the process behind the piece. I think this makes it a more intimate type of art because the audience can experience first hand the creation of art.  

I find performance art particularly fascinating because of how complicated it is to record. Sure, you can photograph or video tape it, but the experience will never be the same. Performance art is meant to be viewed in the moment, and not captured to be shown later on. Even if the performance was done multiple times by the same artists, it would be a different experience every time both for the performer, and the audience.

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Exercise #5

Verb List:

1. To restore

2. To withstand

3. To pour

4. To inspire

5. To endure

6. To become

7. To chase

8. To react

9. To erase 

10. To cringe

11. To scream

12. To cry

13. To believe

14. To give

15. To perceive

16. To confuse

17. To rise

18. To throw

19. To gather

20. To endure

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Vanishing and Becoming: 

 When I think of vanishing and becoming, I think of the component which allows us to see anything at all; light. With zero video experience, I figured the best and easiest way to create something appearing and vanishing would be to project light, then take it away.

 I've always been a fan of horror movies and creepy art, so I wanted to produce something with that vibe. This video, surprisingly, turned out exactly like I had envisioned it. I had a lot of fun shooting and editing this project, and hope to do more video work in the future. 

 I used iMovie for the editing and extracted the sound from a youtube video.

[ink-r-blog]

Exercise 4: This is a claymation video I made a few semester ago back at frontrange. I thought it would be good material to use to try and make a music video with!

Song: Adiemus, Karl Jenkins

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Very impressive

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

4D Art Music Video

I’ve been a big fan of Elliott Smith for a long time, so I thought this would be the perfect time to showcase some of his music. I thought the drone footage worked perfectly for this song.

Song: Between the Bars by Elliott Smith

**Drone footage not by me**

[mahanarosa-blog]

Project 3: The Loop (Forever)

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

This is a great idea! I like that you drew on the images instead of making them out of video clips.

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Reading Response

Time and motion are all around us. Whether we realize it or not, we observe time and motion every day. From the hands on the clock, to the movement of traffic, we experience time at different rates, duration and tempo. While reading the text, I was reminded of how important time and motion are in art. 

My favorite example from the reading was Lian Amaris Sifuentes and film maker R. Luke Dubois’ collaboration “Fashionably Late for the Relationship”. Here, the artists used recorded time and different rates of motion to display a performance piece that was later turned into a video. Rate and tempo were both key aspects of this piece as it was performed very slowly, then sped up in the following video. The artists achieved a sense that the world around the actress was moving incredibly quickly, while in reality she was moving very slowly. I like the idea of altering speed in real life, than changing it in post production to give it a new meaning. Time can be skewed depending on the context and the person assessing it. 

One of the most fascinating parts of this reading was the implied movement. Being able to have your audience see motion in a still image is pretty neat. Whether it’s causing your eye to move from one part of an image to another, or creating a sense of fluctuating space, implied movement can completely change the nature of a piece of art.

[bredillon]

Forever Loop-Module 3

Artist Statement:

When I first thought of this project it made me think of old animated cartoons and drawings and that is what I was inspired by.  I wanted to try and recreate something that had that same look and felt very old school and animated.  I decided to draw each of my gifs in individual frames and then create a gif out of it.  I think when I started with this idea I didn’t actually realize how much drawing it would be lol because by the end of it I felt like I bit off more that I could chew but I think overall they turned out pretty well and I like the fact that I created each one from scratch.  I think that this project was the most interesting one for me so far I loved creating the gifs and seeing what different things I could come up with and how I could manipulate them by drawing and using photoshop to make a still image come to life.  

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

It's great to see you took this an extra step and drew it all yourself. I think these turned out really well!

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

(These may take a moment to load)

The Loop (Forever):

I have always been fascinated by lightning storms. Their beautiful yet destructive nature has always frightened and excited me. For this project, I wanted to capture the beauty of these incredible feats of nature. My favorite kind of gifs are the ones that loop seamlessly. The ones where you can’t tell where it starts and stops. I thought lightning would be the perfect subject to create gifs that continue on and on with no clear beginning or end. I had a lot of fun making these, and watched a ton of really cool storm videos before choosing the scenes for my gif animations. I’m glad I got to learn this technique,  and I certainly plan on making more gifs in the future. 

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

My own gif creation:

I was recently told I have an immature sense of humor….. So I made this gif. I think its hilarious. Enjoy!

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

Reading Response

Ive been a user of Tumblr for a few years now, and as a Tumblr blogger, I have seen my fair share of gifs. The popular gifs are typically those of people falling, or popular movie/TV show scenes with a little quote at the bottom. With all of the gifs i have seen, never have I thought to put them in the category of “art". Gifs to me, always seemed like trashy, quickly thrown together snippets created for amusement, never anything of value. These articles really made me think of gifs in a completely new light. The gallery showing that was made up entirely of gifs was fascinating. Not because it was complex, but because what seemed like such a simple idea, was put together in a way that made people see it as fine art. Reading these articles made me realize that gifs can be so much more than very short video clips. They can be creatively edited, presented, and inspiring. The fact that people are selling animated gifs as fine art is a little mind blowing. When I think of purchasing fine art, I think of paintings, sculptures, photographs, but never a digital media file. It makes me wonder if animated works will become more popular as a “fine art” medium in the future.

[pre-party]

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

The seamless looping of this gif is very well done!

[energy]

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

90′s TV was the best TV! 

[silly-luv]

[amouthfullofthunder-blog]

I love the way the creator placed the gif within the photo.