Artist Statement

       Coming into this class, I was very uncertain of what to expect.  To be totally honest, in order to graduate this semester I needed three more upper division studio art classes and this one fit into my schedule.  From my experience with the intro to digital media class I knew that this class was going to take massive amounts of time and mixed with my painting and drawing classes I was going to be swamped.

            The first project was the first test to my patients because I had no clue what I was doing with the software.  As I started watching tutorials it became easier but the angles and judging depth on a 3D screen was incredibly frustrating.  Eventually I was satisfied with the product I produced especially once they were printed and we got to paint them.  The next project we did was also very frustrating but I really loved the final product of the printed busts.  These first two projects were the most difficult for me this semester.  This was mostly due to the glitches in the newer software and my ignorance in how to use them.  While this is the case I do feel I took the most from these projects and realized that I want to learn more on the subject of 3D printing because it is such a mind-blowing technology.                          The last two projects were the most fun for me because I felt the products I produced were much stronger than the first two.  The Pepakura copyright project that we did was possibly my favorite in concept.  While we were technically just copying a product it was so interesting that we had to replicate as much as possible only using paper. The golden Desert Eagle pistol I made was one of my stronger pieces from the class.                                     

         All in all, I took more from this class than I did my other two studio art classes combined.  I learned so much about a new technology that is going to be so important in the future and was pushed to finding new ways of utilizing it in an artistic and creative manner.  I cannot wait to see what else I can do with this newfound knowledge and find ways of applying it to my usual focus of painting and drawing.

Art Show Review 1

This year’s annual student art show really blew me away.  The works for the most part were so beautiful and well made. The first piece that of course grabbed my attention was the mannequin draped in a gown made entirely from pages of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 made by Colby Stephens.  The gown alone was stunning, in the structure of the bodice and the flow of the incredible train that followed it. The dress alone could have held its own in the space, but there were also many other amazing works.  The other works that really caught my eye were the photopolymer etchings on mulberry by Andy Gallian.  The works titled “you Cant Keep the Devil from the Media” and “Their Voice Goes to Ones and Zeros” were especially strong.  The details that he was able to make on the etchings were so clean and produced an incredibly crisp image that made for two really visually strong images. The content of the works was also really strong without there needing to be a lot of stuff going on in the piece.  I really admire the way that he was able to capture the emotions in the two faces depicted.

  While I did enjoy the other works that were display, there was only one that I found less than average.  The photographs by David Schooley from the Monterey Bay Aquarium were just very “meh” to say the least. I’ve taken nearly the exact same ones on my phone and have seen numerous others do the same. Not just that, but I also felt that they quality of the picture wasn’t even that great either.  This was the only work that I really had an issue with and it was mostly due to its unoriginality and blandness. As for the rest of the show, I was completely blown away with what the students produced.

Art Lecture Review

          Artist Joseph Delappe spoke at the University of Nevada, Reno on April 17, 2013 about his work spanning from 1997 to present day. The focuses of the pieces he discussed were protest, memory, and reenactment. Usually I tend to find many of the artist lectures that I attend are not that interesting.  It may be that my art also focuses on political and social issues, but I found his to be very intriguing.  Coming from a background in drawing and painting, I really enjoyed seeing a different way of dealing with the issues that were at stake.  While the earlier projects were unique it was the World Trade Center Memorial Competition works and those that were influenced by it that really caught my attention.  The work “America’s Army: Dead in Iraq” was the most eye-opening of all.  The idea that the government funded a first person shooter game that they used as a recruiting tool for the Iraq War was baffling in itself. Delappe used the game as a forum to try to show the other gamers the reality of what they perceived as amusement. In typing the names and dates of death of fallen soldiers, Delappe tried to bring awareness that people do not just regenerate, but in fact it is a real issue where people have and are dying. To my astonishment Delappe said that his work was received with so much dislike that the gamers eventually voted to have him booted from their games and would even kill his unarmed character in order to get him to stop “interrupting” them. 

            The way that Delappe has used new technology in his work is very admirable in my opinion.  He found a way to reach more than just the art community and involved those that were most effected by the hypocrisies even when they themselves did not realize it. It is really interesting to see another artist utilize other medias and be successful in their works both visually and conceptually. All in all I really enjoyed hearing this lecture.

Pepakura Copyright

For this project we had to make a replica of a copyrighted object using the software Pepakura, which maps out a plan of paper that is then folded into a 3D model.  This was one of the most successful projects for me this semester. Pepakura was also one of the easier softwares that we learned, and I am excited to try using it with other materials such as metal work or found objects.

123D Catch

This project was done using the 123D Catch software.  It was the first time either my classmate Lacey and I had ever used it. We had numerous problems in getting the program to make complete and full models of each other.  Once we figured out that the phone app worked the best and what lighting worked most effectively we played around with patterns and ways of wearing our hair since that seemed to be most problematic for the software to read. Eventually we got the most filled busts we could use and then optimized and edited them using 123D Catch and MeshLab.

Printed 3D model.

123D Catch Models

After multiple attempts, with various light sources and times of day, the best model came out when we used morning indoor lighting that was diffused by curtains. A problem that I ran into on various attempts too was when the subjects hair was down because it created a solid block that did not have much variation in contrasts. I also tried an inanimate abject to see if that would work better. From this attempt I found that it worked best when the most pictures possible were taken but the app on the phone limits that, which resulted in the from being the most accurate part of the model.