AspensIllustrations

Hello! My name is Aspen Stivers. I am a Freshman in the Graphics Design program at the University of Arizona. I work in a range of mediums, and right now I am learning Photography. You can see my progress here, as well as my other works of art. I am open for Commissions! Based in Tucson, AZ

[aspenstivers]

In the end, I decided to go with the location inside of my Mazda. I wanted to capture the inside since this is where I spend memorable times. My vision for my collage was exactly this. I wanted to show a birds-eye type view to capture all of the features of the car. I had it in neutral with the parking brake on. There is trash and my plush toy to represent that this car is owned by a person. It is a personalized car. During our critique, however, a great suggestion was made to include me in it since I am portraying my appreciation and pride for the vehicle. If I ever revise this piece, I will most certainly add that in. Even so, overall I am very proud of this piece. It is definitely my favorite project I made during this class!

[aspenstivers]

Project #3 Ideas

For our third and final project, we were to choose a location that was important to us and take over one hundred photos of it. We would then take bits and pieces of each photo and makeup one large collage of the location within Photoshop. I had three main ideas:

TRAK (Therapeutic Ranch for Animals and Kids): This is a ranch that is very dear to me. We used to live on its property and I would keep my horse there. We became very good friends with the owners, staff, and volunteers there. Even though the ranch moved, I still keep my horse there. I even worked full time there until I started college. That ranch is family and that is why the location was so important to me.

Lucky Strike (Bowling Place): This place was a landmark that represented my best friends and the great times we had together. We would all go there and have fun. There ended up being a serious falling out that happened and we all went our separate ways. Now that place represents the absence of my old best friends and makes me sad. I wanted to capture the story of how at one time it was an upsetting place, but now I want to make new happy memories, starting with using this location for my project.

2006 Mazda Rx8: Out of all of them, this location is specifically oriented towards my accomplishments. I have always loved cars. I would point out the rims and the spoilers at four years old. Growing up I fell in love and had the dream of getting a sports car. I graduated high school as a junior and worked three jobs until I figured out what I wanted to do. I saved up and finally bought myself my first car over the summer. I absolutely love driving it. No matter how bad my day has been, the minute I get in the car and blast the music going home, I feel free of everything. Another accomplishment tied to it is that I taught myself stick shift in the car. I did not even know how when I bought it! I had my mom’s friend test drive it for me at the time. This is why this location is important to me.

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Here are my photos! 

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Project 2 Statement

For our second project in my photography class, the topic was “Utopia vs Dystopia.” Typically I have a negative connotation with Utopias, while Dystopias present more interesting and varying concepts. This is why I went with the topic of Dystopia. I wanted to explore either a global issue that I am interested in or the idea of “opposites”. For that, I would either construct upside-down photos or photos with people whose clothes are inside out. However, after a lot of research, I decided to symbolize the global topic of trash. I wanted to show the trail of our trash once it hits the inside of a trash bin. I believe the phrase, “What you can’t see won’t hurt you,” or, “Out of sight, out of mind,” is what I wanted to focus on. Even though we might know where it goes, most people have never seen those places and therefore can remain ignorant of the situation. From our hands to the bottom of the ocean, trash is detrimental to the environment and must be addressed, It starts with awareness. I photographed my interpretation of the trail of trash. 

[aspenstivers]

Project Statement

I decided to go with my “Feet Series” proposal. At first yes you will get very grossed out and question why I did this, and that is exactly my point. What also supports my point is the fact that it was very hard to find people who would let me take pictures of their feet. No one likes feet, not even their own. It disgusts them and above all makes them very uncomfortable. I wanted to do a series of feet pictures because yes people are supposed to be in awe of art, but art is also meant to test you. It is meant to challenge everything from your critiques and opinions to even your emotions. This is what I wanted to portray with my Feet Series. 

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These are my three Project 1 proposals for my Gaze photography class :)

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Watercolor from highschool with crappy watercolor paints

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Designed a friend’s tattoo!

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Pointillism 

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I had dabbled in some acrylic pouring back in high school :)

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Progress 

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I am FINALLY getting the hang of using a camera. These pictures are examples of subjects in shadows, subjects in light, and subjects in focus while the background is blurred. There were many more assignments we did for practice, but these are a few of my favorites. As you can see I love cars lol