Summer N. Langford

Secondary art account meant for school purposes. If you wish to see works not meant for my coursework, please check out @snlangford

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Post Critique Response - Time

While a portion of this work was successful, the largest weakness was linking the measurement sheet to the doll made from the pieces of yarn I used to measure my body. Many people were not able to link them together due to too little information/data provided.

For suggestions given for this, there was suggestion of a diagram of a body with the text next to each portion and in the color of its designated yarn. Also indicating what the measurements are would also help to connect the chart to the doll.

For me, I learned how much of a fight I really have with my body. This project mainly taught me of what my body does as my numbers constantly got bigger and smaller in the process of recording information.

I think it’s possible to continue with this work, but I am not entirely motivated to do it due to my mental state when it comes to my body and how small it is.

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Time: Weeks 7-9

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Post Critique Response - Place

There were both strengths and weaknesses pointed out for this project by my peers. For strengths that it had was the usage of animation to help tell partial of a story, along with the strength of displaying the different homes in the different styles and animating them to go away and appear. Although the work did hold weaknesses as well. For the first weakness, it was hard to follow for many of my peers to follow what exactly was going on due to many weak areas. Some said the lack of audio made the narration fall apart while others said there was not enough within the animation to give information about the story.

There was feedback for the animation as well. One of the tips given was to add more visual information for telling the story of moving from location to location. Another suggestion was to add the dates to each home to give an idea about the time period. Another idea given for narrating the animation was to actually do a voiceover and talk about my family during the animation.

With choosing to make this an animation, I learned a lot of new tricks with both Adobe Illustrator and Adobe After Effects. I also learned more about the speed of working with these programs and also understanding how time-consuming it can be.

But overall, I could see myself doing something like this again in my own free time. It would be more spaced out and more thought out as I feel the limited time to create this was a major factor in many of the flaws that it had. I would use the same software again, but possibly try adding in some other ways of animating, like using the gif system in photoshop or making a page by page animations in Open Toonz. Next time I try this, I will definitely also make sure to not overload myself with work to do as well.

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Place Proposal

For my intent for this project, I aim to have an animation that depicts different homes and transportation throughout generations of my parental family bloodline, the family crest present in each home location and transports shown. It will be in standard widescreen format for digital devices and be presented by being projected onto a blank surface. The work will show visuals from all areas my family has recognized as home for them over our many generations: an English farm, a ship to the New World, a large plot of land in Virginia with a farmhouse, a farmhouse in North Carolina, a farmhouse in Tennessee, a 1920s car, an attic, a home in Michigan Center, Michigan, my home in Jackson, Michigan, and then my current location, Ypsilanti, Michigan. All these locations will be animated with simple up and down movements and left to right movements.

The process of creating this piece starts with looking at my Langford genealogy and finding the records of where my family lived and where. After gaining the necessary information from the ancestral records, I will go in pursuit of finding homes from the region they lived, being careful to match it with the produce and livestock on the farms. With help from my father and also looking at some old photographs, I will also be able to depict the attic my great grandfather and his family lived in and the home my grandfather owned. After this period, I will be able to easily create images of the homes I have lived in. Once all the imagery is done, they will be taken into Adobe Illustrator, turned into a cartoonized style and rigged properly for animation in the next process, which is animating in Adobe After Effects. Once all of this work is complete, I can then think about if sound effects or music will be added along to give more depth to the changing over time before finalizing everything in Sony Vegas.

My intended meaning with this piece is that no matter how long ago it was, a home is your family’s home. I’ve gone to locations my family has been in history, whether it was where my grandfather worked, where my great grandfather moved to in the Great Depression or even the home my father grew up in. Every time I’ve been there, I feel a connection thanks to knowing my family before I was here, knowing there is physical memory of them in the soil, floorboards, on old items, even in the paint on the walls. To me, it’s a place I have been, but as DNA, so there is a moment of feeling an experience even if it is from someone who I never met but am blood-related to. I choose to do animation to show the journey my family took through time as it’s a way to remember where they have been quick. The movement is to signify change as well, saying no location is permanent to a family or person. But overall, this work is to give meaning that these locations are in our blood, of where our family has been. We have indirectly experienced these places at different points of time but now extend into our future lives by adding more locations to ourselves and our family.

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Identity: Post-Critique Response

For Identity, I did receive mainly a lot of positive feedback on the work I created, but suggestions and some areas of improvement did come up.

For starters, many people made comments my work would be a lot easier to take in if I were to give at lease one-fourth inch margins in between each canvas. Not only would this make the work breathable, but it does not come off as overbearing to the viewer. There was also feedback that this piece may work better if it consisted of more panels so it would take up more room on a museum wall and hold a larger presence.

For tips on what could also be possible for this piece that I found to be fun and definitely areas to explore is making a larger series of this that is interactive. One of the suggestions for this idea was to set up a large square box with only one frame missing and a working system where each panel can slide and move within this wooden frame. It seems like a great idea and something I do hope to try at some point. Another tip I was given is trying to make it more three dimensional with some panels sticking out more than others. It is a possibility to try, but am still tentative on.

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Place Ideas

Idea 1

My first idea is based around a specific location on the property I have grown up on, the back corner where my swingset stands. The swingset holds a lot of meaning to me due to how it was and still is majorly used by me in life. For the first idea, I would be delving into animation and not only depicting this swingset in motion, but different variations of me throughout my time growing up, showing how a specific spot to this child (me) is a place to escape to have fun or come down from negative emotions. It will be a video in the end, all of it animated.

Idea 2

Another location of significance to me is a mini-golf course, mainly one hole in particular. It is one my father and I customized for the park as he and I were artists who attend the campsite a lot and also used their mini-golf course a lot, especially when my grandparents came. This work would be a 3D miniature model of when this hole was originally painted and recrafted by my father and me but with a few touches of my own. It will be made to be interactive despite how tiny it will be.

Idea 3

My final idea is a combination of locations, localized in the medium of animation. It would consist of everywhere I know my paternal family has lived over the generations. Starting out with a farm field in England, a ship crossing the Atlantic, farm fields in Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, a ruined farm from the Great Depression, then have moved to Michigan (possibly show a car from this time period in between), following these cities: Pontiac, Michigan Center, Concord, Jackson, and my current location, Ypsilanti. These will be pop up animatics and may also show some economical and political tones as they affected the Langford bloodline throughout time.

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Place Research Journal

Artist: Edward Hopper

Artwork: Queensborough Bridge

Link: https://www.edwardhopper.net/queensborough-bridge.jsp 

Form: The artwork is a painting of the Queensborough Bridge in New York City with it fading into the background, all painted onto a canvas.

Content: After reading about a bit of Hooper’s opinion on engineering, I can get the idea this painting is only to portray the size of items made from engineering. Or, for a better way to perceive it, that modern engineering is extremely overexaggerated for what it is worth.

Process: For this work, I believe Hooper had to have had a portable easel to set his canvas on and find a suitable place to sit and observe his subject for the painting. I also feel if it wasn’t an artistic choice for the fading into the background, then Hooper also waited for a day where there was enough fog in New York City to help set a mood for this painting.

Artist: Bedrich Fritta

Artwork: A Transport Leaves the Ghetto

Link: https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/media/5641130/fritta-20180117204941104_web.jpg?width=1000 

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2018/26-january/features/features/the-art-of-remembering

Form: The imagery depicted is a drawing of a propagandized location, meant to be the “ghettos” where Jews were being taken away from. There is a long line of people within the drawing along with one figure dressed as a nazi soldier.

Content: From reading a bit of the article this artwork comes from, I find this piece is depicting two sides. The first is the view the nazis desire to show: driving people out of “poor housing” into a “better” location, these being the concentration camps. While that is the appeal Fritta is forced to draw, I believe he put in his own meaning since he is a Jew himself. The way the atmosphere is painted is much of a feeling of anxiety and dread, not a “hopeful” piece as the nazis would have desired.

Process: For this piece, I believe Fritta started off with a simple piece of paper and first did a sketch with pen before coming back in with a wash before finalizing the work with ink and a brush.

Artist: Philipp Schmitt

Artwork: Location-Based Light Painting

Link: https://i0.wp.com/geoawesomeness.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/lightpainting-dot04.jpg?resize=640%2C426&ssl=1 

Form:  The artwork is based on geolocations with programming into specific apps to take photos at specific locations and set off a flash as well while all being caught in a long exposure photo.

Content: These areas where there was a flash are to indicate when people take photos and upload them online, as all photos, even when a location is turned off, have a geolocation on them.

Process: I believe Schmitt first started with developing the flash system he would use with the phone, then after this made an app that would work with an image-based app to set off a photo taking sequence that also activated a flash. Once this system was set up, Schmitt would set up his desired locations, test to make sure they work, and then set up a camera for a long-exposure photograph. Once the camera is set up and going, Schmitt would walk around in front of the camera and set off the flash in the areas where he had it programmed to go off.

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Time Project: Week 6

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Time Project: Week 5

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Time Project: Week 4

Progress on project 1.

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Identity Proposal

The artwork being made for this project will be about twelve by twelve inches in total, made up of nine four by four inch panel canvases in a square shape. All of the canvases will be painted with acrylic paint and each canvas will be a fragment of my own personal selfie photos to construct a mosaic in nine different art styles and nine different selfies to create a disfigured face from the fragments. Some will have unique color choices as well, so they will not be accurate colors to the selfies they are based off of. It will be displayed on a wall. It’s still being determined if all the canvas panels will touch or all have a small gap between each.

For the start of this work, I start off with a 3x3 grid in a sketchbook and figure out nine different painting styles to do. With what could work in the frames, the nine painting styles selected are cubism, surrealism, expressionism, abstract, impressionism, figuratism, Chinese painting, Japanese painting, and tanjore painting from India. I will then photoshop the selected nine images by altering their colors and selecting one area after creating a 3x3 grid over the photo. Once all nine are selected, they will be printed at four by four inches to be real size before transparent vellum paper will be used to trace the images and then transferred on the canvases for guidelines. Once this is complete, I will select desired colors for the altered image and start painting the canvases.

This work is to bring a message about how society calls selfies “vain” and counter it with each unique fragment of the collection of canvases. The option of using small canvases is a choice for constructing a larger image, much like a tiling system while acrylics are used to mimic the painting styles used for this project as a majority are western styles. The different painting styles are to bring in the message of a style, much like how one would style oneself for a selfie. The change in color to some of the images is to represent the filters one would put over a selfie. Having only a portion of each selfie to construct a distorted face is to bring in how not all selfies look alike, that they are unique and different. Overall, the message is to say capturing one’s face in a photograph isn’t vain, but a way to show uniqueness and change in their individuality.

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Language: Post Critique Response

The critique for this project was informative and helpful, letting me know my strong points and weak points. People stated that simplicity and text bring a simple but strong message across. Placement of specific texts also helped to show off how there are degrading phrases for all body types due to the words’ contrast. Another strength that was noted is how the body isn’t exactly female but can also be interpreted as a male due to a lack of breasts. For weaknesses, one mentioned a bit was that the figure could’ve been larger in areas so it didn’t look so thin. Another weakness pointed out was how some text was neatly stacked and didn’t work with the messy stacking of text in other areas of the figure. Another weakness is the size of the piece as it is too small to feel as if it is an actual body.

There were suggestions given to the work as well. One was that instead of a painting, I should project the artwork from a projector onto a white wall. Not only would it then be cleaner and adjustable in size but interactive as well as people could stand in projector light and see the words on their own body to make it a more inclusive piece for those who are affected by body shaming daily. Another suggestion was to create a cut out of words that is lifesize, making it a sculpture. A third suggestion was to actually turn the image into a series, creating more artworks following the same concept of bodyshaming words creating them. For all of these, I feel all are great to implement and do as all can be combined when in a series.

From this project, I learned the use of a new medium and also got a lot of insight into more I could do with my initial idea. I gained the knowledge of properly using rubber cement and ways to use it without damaging paintbrushes. Also, with critique from my classmates, I learned more ways I can help to spread my message about body shaming issues in different ways.

I believe with this project, it would definitely be something I would continue doing and creating. With how I would continue it, I would gather research on social media, following body tags and also viewing pages about body positivity and body shaming to find more areas on how people shame men and women for their body types. With the suggestions above, I would work in different mediums and techniques while continuing this series as well.

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Time Project: Week 3

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Identity: Ideas

The first idea is inspired by the work “Between mask and mirror” by Gillian Wearing by reminding me of the idea of beauty many women put themselves through with makeup. This work will be both 2D and 3D, one portion being a flat, 2D painting of a woman with no makeup. On top of her face with being a sculpture of her face, this one covered in makeup and a removable piece from the painting. The process will first be to sketch the woman’s face on sketch paper and then translate it to the canvas. I will also use the sketch as a reference to sculpting her face. The painting will be done in all paint while the sculpted part will be a combination of both painting and actual cosmetics. I am still thinking of how to attach the mask to the painting so it can stay with the work, possibly thread that’s been pierced and tied behind the canvas while the other ends are embedded into the sculpted mask. The concept for this piece is that people will have another face, whether it is to hide their true selves or to express themselves in an artistic way where their face is their canvas, another purpose as to why the bare face would be on the canvas and the mask be the makeup covered face.

My second idea comes from the vanity point that Harvey had in his work that I mention in my research journal. Most people focus on themselves in selfies and are classified as “vain” by both older and their own generation. In this idea, I plan to take fragments of my own selfies into either a 3x3 or 4x4 canvas set up (total being 9 or 14 small square canvases that are all 4”x4” in size). Each one will be painted as a fragment from only one selfie. The end total will then be collected and be put edge to edge to create a face from the segments painted, resulting in a broken and fragmented piece. The content is to portray a message of how each “you” is different and not the same and to give the idea that taking images of yourself is not bad as each one shows change.

The third idea stems from the nature observed in Harvey’s artwork. This piece will show a human face that starts at the nose and will descend to the figure’s collarbones. All rough this figure will be fragments of nature: leaves, flowers, sticks, and other elements. Some parts of nature will be integrated into the person’s skin to show how it is part of the figure. This piece will be done on canvas as a painting, texture being added to the painting as well by letting areas of the painting become thick to show off texture and a small 3D effect of making its own shadows. The concept of this piece is to be “one with nature” or one who likes to ground themselves with Earth. It is a piece to identify humans who connect with their true roots and Mother Nature.

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Identity: Research Journal

Artist: Gillian Wearing

Artwork:  Between mask and mirror

Link: https://ocula.com/art-galleries/maureen-paley/artworks/gillian-wearing/between-mask-and-mirror/

Form: The work is a combination of the artist wearing a sculpted mask and putting her head through the frame of a mirror before being photographed for the piece.

Content: I believe this artwork is to say we see a mask when we look into the mirror, like switching through the different masks we wear out into society and making sure we pick the right one for the day.

Process: Wearing most likely had a cast of her face done first before she went to sculpting the mask she wears. Once it is sculpted, she uses whatever procedure she does to dry it and then paints it. Once it is complete, she wears the mask and obtains a mirror where the glass and back has been removed before having someone photograph her.

Artist: Angus Fairhurst

Artwork: Viacom No. 1

Link: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/angus-fairhurst-viacom-no-1

Form: The work contains the silhouette of a woman and numerous photographs, some being other human figure portions within the female silhouette. Images are layered and placed in a way to compliment and balance the photo collage.

Content: I believe this artwork is to bring the message of mixed or hidden identity as there are different images of the human form within the main figure. 

Process: I believe Fairhurst’s process was to first take photographs of some models he hired for his work before taking photographs of other locations and subjects. Once all were taken, he proceeded to take the photos into a photo manipulation software to adjust and lay them down how he desired before getting it printed at the desired size.

Artist: Cig Harvey

Artwork: Sadie and the Moon, Lake Megunticook, Maine

Link: https://www.artsy.net/artwork/cig-harvey-sadie-and-the-moon-lake-megunticook-maine

Form: The work is a photograph of a woman, most likely taken at Lake Megunticook in Maine. The whole work is photographed with no changes to the environment, only the woman in the work is altered, her face removed and a white circle put in its place, hiding who she is.

Content: This work can be interpreted as meaning that nature is beautiful and that we do not see the people in a beautiful nature photo even if they’re the center focus, as the white circle draws our attention but hides the woman’s identity.

Process: I believe Harvey worked on this piece by first finding a model willing to go with him to this location. Over a certain period of time, Harvey probably took numerous photos that were picked through before he decided on the one he would alter the model. Upon selection, he either photoshopped the image and then printed it or got it printed first and then painted in the face with white paint.

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Time Project: Week 2

Week two of recording my time project.

This time the yarn has been set up for knowing direction of how the doll will be made.

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Time Project: Week 1

Week 1 has been recorded. I have color coded each body part with what yarn I have available.

Breasts are pink

Waist is black

Arms are yellow

Thighs are blue

Each week another measurement will be taken and put with this set.