You have everything you need if you just believe.

When we were first told about the project, I freaked out a little bit. We had to create not one, but three unique images and I was running out of ideas as is. I couldn't really think of anything that I knew well enough to make three images out of. So I decided to make my big idea home. I've had a lot of issues with my concept of home over the past three years, so it seemed fitting that those three years could correspond to three separate images.

I set out with a vague idea of how I wanted my images to turn out, but no concrete plan. Originally, I had a picture of my house, taken from realtor.com with transparent images of things that remind me of the places I've lived (Edgewater Park and Moorestown, NJ and Boston, MA) on top of it. Then, after a bit of discussion, I decided that having the transparent images form my house would be a much more interesting concept. I erased the form of my house from the picture and layered the individual images within the void. I began with things that reminded me of Edgewater Park, then added to that things that remind me of Moorestown, then finally added images that remind me of living in Boston. After sizing, and rearranging a few things, it actually looked like it was forming the house. This was the hardest part, along with making the images spaced out over the void as to not lump too many location's pictures in one region of the void.
Overall, I like my piece. I really wanted it to be something that the viewer could understand without my explanation, which I think is possible, if not certain. I really wanted it to tell a story (even if that story is implied) rather than be three separate, loosely bound works, like in some of the videos of artists we saw in class (I am 100% looking at you crazy chocolate/soap head lady).  It's personal, which made inspiration and execution easy, if not mildly depressing. In all honesty, it was almost therapeutic for me to do this.The only complaint I have is the amount of white space left in the house because of the configuration of some of the logos and whatnot, but overlapping the images looked very VERY chaotic.  I hope the viewer can appreciate the story these images tell, or at least the story that they create for themselves using these images.

Home is where you make it.

I've decided that I want home to be my big idea. I have lived in the same house for my entire remembered life. Over the past three years, I've lived in three additional places: An apartment in a town near by, Boston for freshman year, and now Columbus. Over these same three years, our house as been on the market. This has caused me to continually try to figure out where or what is home. The idea of home was present in my first micro project, and I'd like to continue it into my final project.
I'd like to visually show the mixture of my past experiences and how they now form what I think of as home. I think I'd like objects and ideas to form one larger object, maybe the shape of a house or me. There will probably be a lot of layering and some things may be more distinct and larger than others. The project will likely be manipulated digital images, mostly ones that I have taken myself. It may be a physical collage of images, depending on how well the images will print out. I really don't know what rules I will set for myself other than the fact that it must be clear that there is a lot of influence and that it has to fit into a small amount of space. But it must do this effectively. Just looking busy isn't enough if people don't see the detail. Denotations will be obvious and everyday objects (at least for that particular locale). The connotations should seem fairly obvious after people view the image, whether or not they know my back story. I find that people confuse the images that I create because they don't know the story behind that  and I would like to avoid that for this project. Overall, my project should be able to explain myself through visuals, not through explanation.

Más Ovaltine Por Favor

My words were mix and entropy. I was not feeling brave enough to artfully display principles of thermodynamics nor explore the possibility of the universe becoming a constant temperature and everything exploding. So I chose mix. So then I thought about things in my house that are mixed. My laundry, my salted nuts, Kroger brand Kool Aide, Dip mix, etc. Then after rummaging through my mixed items, I remembered the ultimate mix that keeps my heart beating on a daily basis: my beloved Ovaltine. Ovaltine and I go waaaaay back to days where I would pretend it was Sanka coffee and sit on the couch with my grandmother watching Oprah. Those were good times. That's how I settled on the act of mixing my all time favorite beverage. Be still, my heart.
The final image is a collection of individual images from progressive states in the mixing process, from powder, through the various stages of lumpiness, to finally sweet smooth chocolaty perfection.
I am currently drinking this marvelous concoction and I must say, the gods can keep their nectar and ambrosia, because I've got Ovaltine.

Sweet justices

If I were a superhero, I would be the Queen of Denial. As Queen of Denial, I'd be able to control people's thoughts in order to make them tell people "no". I'd like this power because sometimes people just have to be told that they're wrong or that they can't get what they want. I, unfortunately, do not always have this ability, so I think it would be awesome to have as a super power. "Do these Uggs look good with my tank top and denim miniskirt?" "Hey man, could you loan me $5" "OMG, do you think Jeremy likes me?" All things that should probably be answered with "no" but doormats all over the world answer "yes". I would end this cycle of white lies one slightly-too-nice person at a time. Think Yes Man, but with "no", and only in situations where a "no" is deserved. I got this idea from being Cleopatra for Halloween and the pun that goes along with that whole river thing. However, I wouldn't be one of those deus ex machina superheroes in a shiny bodysuit that swoops down from the sky with glitter and trumpets. I'd be a plainclothes superhero. The gods did their best work in plainclothes, so if it worked for them, it should work for me. The only sign I'd give that I had any involvement in the situation would be a very approving, congratulatory thumbs up. Otherwise, it might make that conversation a bit more awkward that it was already going to be.

I like that I pop up in the corner and for the most part I am to scale with the rest of the people in the picture. I also like that it's in comic book form,. Every good superhero has a comic book. However, I am upset that I had to use a stock photo as my setting. It is actually unnaturally difficult to find a group of people talking in a position that would be conducive to thought bubbling, while not seeming like a total creep. Trick or treating is awesome.