National Portfolio Day Reaction

The feedback that the representatives gave me was useful.

While most of the advice was about ony going to community college for a short time if I would like to go to an art school, the rest consisted of:

asking myself why I take photographs
the angles in my photos are good, but would be better if pushed further
that there should be a vocal point that links all my photos together
more put together photos
the portfolio should illustrate me
the strongest images should go in the back
the weaker of the strong should go in front





there's more that they said but currently I need to sleep on it and refresh the experience in my head.

"What Remains"

The first time I ever saw "What Remains" Sally Mann freaked me out BIG time, although the second time around I noticed things I hadn't before. Things like the horse with a mask on and when she was talking to her daughter about doing another show of the children her daughter seemed a little uncomfortable.

This time around I also found it interesting that because the escapee died on her property her whole theme of taking photos and view on life/death itself changed. She got so interested in death that she contacted a local testing area of decomposing bodies and recieved permission to take photos...(that's dedicated right there).

Sally Mann is just different, she is a different thinker and therefore unique.
and oddly enough if not for her the images she has taken would be non existent and not be there to provoke the questions that they have.

Learn how to screenprint your own t-shirts

I remember when we painted both sides of the screen, it didn't work out well. This looks super simple and easy to do. Those boys with their howling red eyed wolf shirts are super cute. It'd be neat if we could do something like that. The actual screening process though looks do able and I am super excited to do it in class.

Short Letterpress Documentary (Wonderful)

That letter press is scary, he almost got his hand cut off when putting that paper in there.

It's interesting how there are examples of text that is multicolored, I wonder how they did that, cause they put all the ink on thatt big circle then it gets spread around by that roller so how do you differ which letters get one color and which letters get another.

Fall of Autumn Filmstrip: Letterpress Printing

wow, guide pins, coppers and brasses, inking and printing, chase and furniture, quads, leading, and job cases sounds like fun. Can't wait!!

Design by the Book - Episode 2

I like how the librarian was able to pull interesting books for everyone who came in. I could imagine spending a whole day looking at those books, they all looked so interesting.

Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?

"Children are not afraid to be wrong", now that I have heard this I can agree and how he says we aree educating people out og their creativity. The only time I have seen a child afraid to be wrong is in school.

I agree with him on the whole we have to change the way kids learn. Why is it that every child is expected to learn in the exact same fashion. Several teachers even go through this on the first day with their class, they hand you a survey that tells you whether you learn through sound, or through vision, or through kinesthetics. If it is proven that people learn better in different ways then why is everyone expected to learn the same? and excel in the same areas like math, english, or sciences?

Elizabeth Gilbert: A new way to think about creativity

memo to ms. martin: you showed us this video in class last year.

The point she makes about "genuises" or muses and how in the renaissance there were no more "genuises" and how that is too much for one person is interesting, how she said that it was like a protective wall, if you made something that sucked "everyone knew your genuis was lame".

The first time I saw this video I loved the thunder barreling poem, and how the woman would run into her house to grab her pen and paper to write. I thought that it was such a amusing way to think of your creative process. And the guy in his car hearing a song and trying to remember it and yells at the sky "excuse me do you not see that I am driving?!?! If you come back later I can nuture you, otherwise go bother someone else".

and when she applies the yelling to the sky theory to her own work,
"listen you thing, you and I both know that if this book isn't brillant it is not entirely my fault. If you want this book to be better then you have to show up and do your part of the deal. I would like the record to reflect today that I did my part of the job." Haha.

I think she is such a great puble speaker, her words flow and the stories flow together so nicely. I love the story of the dancer and how at point he jumps through fire and is a "glimpse of god", then wakes up in the morning an realizes what if I never reach this climax in my life again?

by far she is my favorite speaker on our video list and that I have probably seen overall, the thing is I don't know why I like her so much.

Either way OLE! to her.

Scott McCloud: Understanding comics

This guy is a lot more interesting than I thought he would be. His thought process of how comics link to this and that and what not is mind boggeling.

I like how he thinks of himself as an inventor also, and how there are "three types of faith: the unseen, seen, and the possible". That art/comics can appeal to all 5 senses, 6 I guess if you can count imagination? haha, but as the artist you can make the viewer imagine how things feel, smell, or sound.

Art:21 | Kara Walker

I think the silhouettes that she uses in her images works well for her theme because you ae unable to see the expression of the people and there is still an air of mystery.

Art:21 | Gabriel Orozco | On Photography

I like that he says "not everything has to be a photograph" that he doesn't ALWAYS have his camera with him.

Also, that his photos aren't always just photos, that sometimes they are part sculpture or painting.

The Genius of Photography ep1 pt6

"anyone who took a picture not in focus should be court marshalled". I agree in some aspects such as those idiots with their stupid myspace photos that are blurry as h-e-double hockey sticks and the caption reads "aren't I cute?" and you can't even see them. What total IDIOTS.

The Genius of Photography ep1 pt4

When I first saw that iron clamp thing I figured it was to keep your head still, but I still had doubts, that's crazy that it is though. It makes sense though cause those cameras have long shutter speeds so it is crucial to keep still otherwise the picture would turn out blurry.

I like how they started shooting through the old camera too and the guy is upside down and there is a slight vingette.


I like how "Nadar" took pictures of artists "authentically" without columns, without dressing them up, just plain and simple portraits. How he portrays what profession the artist is by pure personality that conveys themselves.

"You see the world as fragments, not as perfect wholes". To me photography is like an extension of your eye, you can't see the whole world at once, you see bits and pieces and any given time. Depending on the way you turn your head alters what is and is not in your line of vision anymore, much like a viewfinder of a camera.

click! photography changes who we are

"Isn't it a shame that people can live their lives, die and all it says is unidenified", this quote in some form or another has crossed my mind. Like in pictures from war when there are dead soliders, it's such a shame that those soliders go to war to protect our rights and all it says is unidentified. I agree with the man talking in the video that it makes me wonder more about the people in the photo.

click! photography changes what we do

I really like Eleanor Antin's pictures, the ones with all the boots everywhere, because with the title a series of 51 postcards mailed to hundreds of recipients around the world the shots make me think that she may have sent the pictures out as the postcards to display places that people don't normally send pictures/postcards back from. For example the one that looks like it is just outside of a movie theater with a couple of people walking outside.

click! photography changes everything introduction

"photography gets used by different people, at different time for different reasons", I like this quote cause whether you are using photography for a career or as a hobby everyone can use it. Household moms may use it to document their children's and family's lives, where as an archeaologist may use it to document his findings.