In-Class Assignments
Week of 5/8/17
Final Project: Writing a Project Statement
You will write a short statement describing your project for a grade. See below for examples of successful project statements.
Your project statement must be 1 paragraph (2 paragraphs max).
In your project, you must describe:
**Create a blank Google doc to write in. When you are finished, move the document to your Project 8: Final Project folder in Google Drive and label is lastname_firstname_project_statement. Deadline is Thursday, 5/11/17 at midnight.
Final Project: Writing a Project Statement
You will write a short statement describing your project for a grade. See below for examples of successful project statements.
Your project statement must be 1 paragraph (2 paragraphs max).
In your project, you must describe:
- what your project consists of (My project is a series of images/illustrations/ or a stop motion video
- what your project is about
- how your projects relates to the theme you were assigned
- what you hope your audience will take away upon viewing your project
**Create a blank Google doc to write in. When you are finished, move the document to your Project 8: Final Project folder in Google Drive and label is lastname_firstname_project_statement. Deadline is Thursday, 5/11/17 at midnight.
What is a project statement?
In the Art World, artists are expected to know and write about their work. There are 2 kinds of statements that artists typically write: artist statement and project statement. An artist statement is a short, concise written statement about who you are as an artist, as well as your artistic ideals (what you believe to be true about artmaking.) It speaks to your overall practice (I am a photographer working in color slide film because I believe in the purity of the process).
A project statement is more specific: it is a concise, in-depth explanation for a specific project or body of work you have created. They do not need to be long; 1-2 paragraphs are sufficient, as long as you can effectively communicate what your project is about. In your project statement, you should be covering these topics:
-what the project is made up of. Is it photographs? Paintings? Sculpture? Etc.
- the meaning behind the project. Why are you pursuing your project? What does it mean for you?
- how you got to the idea behind the project
- what your expected goal or outcome is for the project
- what you want the audience to take away from the project
- how you went about making the project (What process is it? What materials are you using? Are you
working collaboratively with models or other people? Include any information about the installation
of the work if that is important to how it is viewed/experienced.)
When writing, It is good to ask yourself What, How, Why, and When.
Here are some tips:
In the Art World, artists are expected to know and write about their work. There are 2 kinds of statements that artists typically write: artist statement and project statement. An artist statement is a short, concise written statement about who you are as an artist, as well as your artistic ideals (what you believe to be true about artmaking.) It speaks to your overall practice (I am a photographer working in color slide film because I believe in the purity of the process).
A project statement is more specific: it is a concise, in-depth explanation for a specific project or body of work you have created. They do not need to be long; 1-2 paragraphs are sufficient, as long as you can effectively communicate what your project is about. In your project statement, you should be covering these topics:
-what the project is made up of. Is it photographs? Paintings? Sculpture? Etc.
- the meaning behind the project. Why are you pursuing your project? What does it mean for you?
- how you got to the idea behind the project
- what your expected goal or outcome is for the project
- what you want the audience to take away from the project
- how you went about making the project (What process is it? What materials are you using? Are you
working collaboratively with models or other people? Include any information about the installation
of the work if that is important to how it is viewed/experienced.)
When writing, It is good to ask yourself What, How, Why, and When.
Here are some tips:
- Keep it simple. Don’t use complicated language.
- Consider your audience. In most cases, you want your work and the meaning behind it to be accessibleto everyone.
- Think in terms of this: Could your grandma understand this?
Examples of Successful Project Statements:
The Hereditary Estate - Daniel Coburn
http://danielwcoburn.com/the-hereditary-estate-2
My family history is haunted by instances of suicide, severe domestic violence, and substance abuse.
Frustrated by the lack of images in my own family archive to document this series of tragedies, I set out
to create a more potent and accurate supplement to the family album assembled by my parents. The
people and landscapes that appear in these photographs become metaphors and symbols for a family
that exists at the intersection of domestic duress and spirituality.
The City - Lori Nix
www.lorinix.com
I consider myself a faux-landscape photographer. I build meticulously detailed model environments and then photograph the results. Through the photographic process, the fictional scene is transformed into a surreal space, where scale, perspective, and the document of the photograph create a tension between the material reality of the scene and the impossibility of the depicted narrative. In this space, between evidence and plot, the imagination of the viewer is unlocked, engaged, and provoked. I want my scenes to convey rich, complex, detailed, and, ultimately, open-ended narratives.
Several common themes prevail throughout my work: the constructed photograph, the landscape in turmoil, and danger married to humor. I present these elements as the raw materials of stories with messages, but without conclusions.
The photographs I create do not reflect the tradition of the grand idyllic landscape. Rather than showing the beautiful or heroic vista, I look to the darker corners of life. I am interested in the forces of entropy, in the ruins left in the wake of human pretense of grandeur. My scenes are usually devoid of people, and this emptiness becomes an important element. In this way, the impact of civilization is shown by what remains in the absence of humans. Evidence of humans may still be visible, but the cause for their absence is left unclear, allowing the viewer to complete the narrative.
In my current series The City, I focus on the ruins of urban landscapes. I have chosen the spaces that celebrate modern culture, knowledge, and innovation: the theater, the museum, and the library. Here the monuments of civilization and material culture are abandoned, in a state of decay and ruin, with natural elements such as plants, insects, and animals beginning to repopulate the spaces. This idea of paradise lost, or the natural world reclaiming itself, becomes more forceful as we face greater environmental challenges in the world around us.
Missionary - Marcus Journey
www.marcusjourney.com
When I moved to Louisiana in 2014, I crossed paths with Mormon missionaries who live in my
apartment complex. Having been raised in the Mormon Church, I expressed interest in documenting
their ministry in an effort to show a private dimension of their lives that is unknown to many. Over time
the work has evolved into a self portrait of sorts, that has helped me explore my identity as a Mormon
artist.
At eighteen years old, Mormon Elders are still developing physically and spiritually while working to
share their gospel in a culture far from home. Most of the missionaries I have photographed have been
from the Utah Valley—places like Provo or West Jordan; Also Southern California (Temecula, San
Diego); Eastern Oregon; and Boise, Idaho. Notably, Elder Nabulivula came from a small village in Fiji,
where Polynesian culture is rich with Mormon history. Serving for a period of two years, these young
men postpone activities that others their age experience, such as college, dating, television, social
media, and time with family. And they encounter the same growing pains as other young people
traveling far from home to attend college or serve in the military.
CORRECTIONS - Zora J. Murff
http://www.zora-murff.com/
From 2012 to 2015, I worked as a Tracker for Linn County Juvenile Detention and Diversion Services in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As a Tracker, I provided services to youths who were convicted of crimes,
adjudicated, and subsequently ordered to complete probation. Juveniles in my charge were asked to
comply with services which may include: electronic monitoring, therapies, drug screening, and
community service; it was my responsibility to have continual contact with them to ensure these
expectations are met.
Tracking and other similar community-based services are being increasingly used as an alternative to
detention facilities. These services, which allow juveniles to stay in their homes, show a higher rate of
success than strict incarceration. Although community-based services are built to foster a collaborative
relationship between juveniles and service providers, attaining the actualization of teamwork becomes
problematic when juveniles feel that they have done nothing wrong, are victims of circumstance, or do
not fully understand why they have committed a crime. The system has been put in place to provide
rehabilitation, but it is far from being a straightforward process. Many influences outside of the youths'
control such as education, socioeconomic status, and race all play a role in whether or not a youth
reoffends - all of these factors possessing the propensity to lead them to extended periods of
incarceration in the juvenile system or to involvement with the criminal justice system as an adult.
By reconsidering the role that I played in the lives of the kids I worked with, I began to acknowledge
the burden that comes with tasking young men and women with continued complicity. My stance as a
consequence kept our relationships in a state of flux ranging from stable to tenuous – a constant
motion mirroring the discord that develops between the system's intentions and outcomes. Through
employing ideas of anonymity, voyeurism, and introspection, Corrections is an examination of youth
experience in the system, the role images play in defining someone who is deemed a criminal, and
how the concepts of privacy and control may affect their future.
Confessions For A Son - Mcnair Evans
http://mcnairevans.com/projects/confessions-son/
There was no man that my father admired more than his father, and no one his father admired more than the man who raised him. With tenderness of heart and warm humor my father met everyone as his equal.
Upon his death in November 2000, I was exposed to our family businesses insolvency. Dad faced a series of devastating fires, bad crops, perpetual over-extension and high-interest loans. Five generations of familial and financial stability fractured. While the economic effects were immediately obvious, the emotional implications lingered beneath the surface for nine years.
In 2010 I returned home to photograph the lasting psychological landscape of Dad’s legacy. Retracing my father’s life, I used photography to comprehend its events. Visiting the farms where we hunted, his college dorm rooms, and his oldest friends, I photographed his family members and businesses while researching his character and actions. I could not equate these.
These photographs narrate my journey between isolation and acceptance. Initially confused and angry, I grew to know him as a teenager, college student, co-worker, life-long friend, and father who lovingly withheld business realities. I witnessed shortcomings and successes and found empathy with a man who faced so much in his life. His sacrifices cost the ultimate price, and accepting that some questions may never be answered, I grew to love him again.
These works share my emotions after his death, my search to learn more abut him in recent years, and a journey of acceptance and forgiveness. These pictures are my way of saying its OK. Everything that happened is done and it’s OK. They are my way of taking ownership of everything that I felt, and all the anger and all the shame, and saying, “Yes, I felt that, and it’s OK to feel that, and I still love you.”
The Hereditary Estate - Daniel Coburn
http://danielwcoburn.com/the-hereditary-estate-2
My family history is haunted by instances of suicide, severe domestic violence, and substance abuse.
Frustrated by the lack of images in my own family archive to document this series of tragedies, I set out
to create a more potent and accurate supplement to the family album assembled by my parents. The
people and landscapes that appear in these photographs become metaphors and symbols for a family
that exists at the intersection of domestic duress and spirituality.
The City - Lori Nix
www.lorinix.com
I consider myself a faux-landscape photographer. I build meticulously detailed model environments and then photograph the results. Through the photographic process, the fictional scene is transformed into a surreal space, where scale, perspective, and the document of the photograph create a tension between the material reality of the scene and the impossibility of the depicted narrative. In this space, between evidence and plot, the imagination of the viewer is unlocked, engaged, and provoked. I want my scenes to convey rich, complex, detailed, and, ultimately, open-ended narratives.
Several common themes prevail throughout my work: the constructed photograph, the landscape in turmoil, and danger married to humor. I present these elements as the raw materials of stories with messages, but without conclusions.
The photographs I create do not reflect the tradition of the grand idyllic landscape. Rather than showing the beautiful or heroic vista, I look to the darker corners of life. I am interested in the forces of entropy, in the ruins left in the wake of human pretense of grandeur. My scenes are usually devoid of people, and this emptiness becomes an important element. In this way, the impact of civilization is shown by what remains in the absence of humans. Evidence of humans may still be visible, but the cause for their absence is left unclear, allowing the viewer to complete the narrative.
In my current series The City, I focus on the ruins of urban landscapes. I have chosen the spaces that celebrate modern culture, knowledge, and innovation: the theater, the museum, and the library. Here the monuments of civilization and material culture are abandoned, in a state of decay and ruin, with natural elements such as plants, insects, and animals beginning to repopulate the spaces. This idea of paradise lost, or the natural world reclaiming itself, becomes more forceful as we face greater environmental challenges in the world around us.
Missionary - Marcus Journey
www.marcusjourney.com
When I moved to Louisiana in 2014, I crossed paths with Mormon missionaries who live in my
apartment complex. Having been raised in the Mormon Church, I expressed interest in documenting
their ministry in an effort to show a private dimension of their lives that is unknown to many. Over time
the work has evolved into a self portrait of sorts, that has helped me explore my identity as a Mormon
artist.
At eighteen years old, Mormon Elders are still developing physically and spiritually while working to
share their gospel in a culture far from home. Most of the missionaries I have photographed have been
from the Utah Valley—places like Provo or West Jordan; Also Southern California (Temecula, San
Diego); Eastern Oregon; and Boise, Idaho. Notably, Elder Nabulivula came from a small village in Fiji,
where Polynesian culture is rich with Mormon history. Serving for a period of two years, these young
men postpone activities that others their age experience, such as college, dating, television, social
media, and time with family. And they encounter the same growing pains as other young people
traveling far from home to attend college or serve in the military.
CORRECTIONS - Zora J. Murff
http://www.zora-murff.com/
From 2012 to 2015, I worked as a Tracker for Linn County Juvenile Detention and Diversion Services in
Cedar Rapids, Iowa. As a Tracker, I provided services to youths who were convicted of crimes,
adjudicated, and subsequently ordered to complete probation. Juveniles in my charge were asked to
comply with services which may include: electronic monitoring, therapies, drug screening, and
community service; it was my responsibility to have continual contact with them to ensure these
expectations are met.
Tracking and other similar community-based services are being increasingly used as an alternative to
detention facilities. These services, which allow juveniles to stay in their homes, show a higher rate of
success than strict incarceration. Although community-based services are built to foster a collaborative
relationship between juveniles and service providers, attaining the actualization of teamwork becomes
problematic when juveniles feel that they have done nothing wrong, are victims of circumstance, or do
not fully understand why they have committed a crime. The system has been put in place to provide
rehabilitation, but it is far from being a straightforward process. Many influences outside of the youths'
control such as education, socioeconomic status, and race all play a role in whether or not a youth
reoffends - all of these factors possessing the propensity to lead them to extended periods of
incarceration in the juvenile system or to involvement with the criminal justice system as an adult.
By reconsidering the role that I played in the lives of the kids I worked with, I began to acknowledge
the burden that comes with tasking young men and women with continued complicity. My stance as a
consequence kept our relationships in a state of flux ranging from stable to tenuous – a constant
motion mirroring the discord that develops between the system's intentions and outcomes. Through
employing ideas of anonymity, voyeurism, and introspection, Corrections is an examination of youth
experience in the system, the role images play in defining someone who is deemed a criminal, and
how the concepts of privacy and control may affect their future.
Confessions For A Son - Mcnair Evans
http://mcnairevans.com/projects/confessions-son/
There was no man that my father admired more than his father, and no one his father admired more than the man who raised him. With tenderness of heart and warm humor my father met everyone as his equal.
Upon his death in November 2000, I was exposed to our family businesses insolvency. Dad faced a series of devastating fires, bad crops, perpetual over-extension and high-interest loans. Five generations of familial and financial stability fractured. While the economic effects were immediately obvious, the emotional implications lingered beneath the surface for nine years.
In 2010 I returned home to photograph the lasting psychological landscape of Dad’s legacy. Retracing my father’s life, I used photography to comprehend its events. Visiting the farms where we hunted, his college dorm rooms, and his oldest friends, I photographed his family members and businesses while researching his character and actions. I could not equate these.
These photographs narrate my journey between isolation and acceptance. Initially confused and angry, I grew to know him as a teenager, college student, co-worker, life-long friend, and father who lovingly withheld business realities. I witnessed shortcomings and successes and found empathy with a man who faced so much in his life. His sacrifices cost the ultimate price, and accepting that some questions may never be answered, I grew to love him again.
These works share my emotions after his death, my search to learn more abut him in recent years, and a journey of acceptance and forgiveness. These pictures are my way of saying its OK. Everything that happened is done and it’s OK. They are my way of taking ownership of everything that I felt, and all the anger and all the shame, and saying, “Yes, I felt that, and it’s OK to feel that, and I still love you.”
Week of 5/2/17
Final Project: 3rd Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: Create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_3, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Final Project: 3rd Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: Create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_3, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Week of 4/24/17
Final Project: 2nd Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: Create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_2, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Final Project: 2nd Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: Create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_2, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Week of 4/18/17
Final Project: 1st Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: shoot a minimum of 75 photographs (in RAW) towards your project. When you return from Easter break, you will create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_1, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Final Project: 1st Graded Check In
I will do a check in with each student to make sure that you completed your assigned homework towards your final project.
If you are working in PHOTOSHOP, you must create a CONTACT SHEET: shoot a minimum of 75 photographs (in RAW) towards your project. When you return from Easter break, you will create a contact sheet of your images, label it lastname_firstname_fp_cs_1, and turn it into your Project 8: Final Project folder on Google Drive.
Week of 4/5/17
For your final project, you will be required to submit 2 proposals for what you would like to do. Your proposal should be 1 paragraph minimum, and include what you want to do for your project, why and how you want to pursue your idea, where you will be creating your project, as well as any other pertinent information.
You will spend time in class today researching and writing your proposals. We will go over them next week in class, and I will approve your best idea, at which point you may begin working towards your project.
Proposals should be labeled lastname_firstname_digart_final_project_proposal
-create a blank Google Doc
-in your TMI Digital Art Google Drive folder, create a folder for Project 8: Final project. Place your proposals here FOR A GRADE!
You should turn these in by the end of class. If you need more time, you can finish them for homework.
Your proposals are DUE in your Google Drive Project 8 folder by FRIDAY 4/7/17 by midnight FOR A GRADE!
For your final project, you will be required to submit 2 proposals for what you would like to do. Your proposal should be 1 paragraph minimum, and include what you want to do for your project, why and how you want to pursue your idea, where you will be creating your project, as well as any other pertinent information.
You will spend time in class today researching and writing your proposals. We will go over them next week in class, and I will approve your best idea, at which point you may begin working towards your project.
Proposals should be labeled lastname_firstname_digart_final_project_proposal
-create a blank Google Doc
-in your TMI Digital Art Google Drive folder, create a folder for Project 8: Final project. Place your proposals here FOR A GRADE!
You should turn these in by the end of class. If you need more time, you can finish them for homework.
Your proposals are DUE in your Google Drive Project 8 folder by FRIDAY 4/7/17 by midnight FOR A GRADE!
Fifth Period MiniZine Drop
Third Period MiniZine Drop
Week of 3/21/17
Mini Zine Demo
Mini Zine Demo
- On your flashdrive, under TMI Digital Art, make a new project folder titled Project 7: Zines
- Make a folder within that folder titled Mini Zine Assignment
- Repeat steps 1-2 in your TMI Digital Art Google Drive folder.
- Download the Mini Zine PSD Template below. Open it in Adobe Photoshop.
- Using Google Image search, pull images off the web and arrange them in your template to make your own practice zine. The PSD file is in grayscale so your zine will be printed in black and white.
- Each image that you place in the zine template must be its own layer. You may also add text to your zine.
- When you are ready to turn in your file, save it as lastname_firstname_minizine and drop it in the shared Google Drive folder above AS WELL AS your Google Drive folder under Projects>Project 7: Zines>Mini Zine Assignment.
- We will print your mini zines this week in class.
2/17/17
3rd Period:
3rd Period:
- On your flash drive, you will create a new folder for PROJECT 6: ILLUSTRATOR
- Within that folder, you will create 3 more folders:
PART A
PART B
PRACTICE - Navigate to Google Drive. Repeat steps 1-2 here.
- Create a 6 x 6" art board in Adobe Illustrator. Label it lastname_firstname_composition_practice. After the class demo, create a composition using graphic shapes, line, and color inside of a circle using the draw inside function. Save this file as an ai file and upload to Google Drive under Project 6>Practice. This is for a grade, so be sure to turn in your file!
2/16/17
5th Period:
Create a 6 x 6" art board in Adobe Illustrator. Label it lastname_firstname_composition_practice. After the class demo, create a composition using graphic shapes, line, and color inside of a circle using the draw inside function. Save this file as an ai file and upload to Google Drive under Project 6>Practice. This is for a grade, so be sure to turn in your file!
5th Period:
Create a 6 x 6" art board in Adobe Illustrator. Label it lastname_firstname_composition_practice. After the class demo, create a composition using graphic shapes, line, and color inside of a circle using the draw inside function. Save this file as an ai file and upload to Google Drive under Project 6>Practice. This is for a grade, so be sure to turn in your file!
2/15/17
1st Period:
Create a 6 x 6" art board in Adobe Illustrator. Label it lastname_firstname_composition_practice. After the class demo, create a composition using graphic shapes, line, and color inside of a circle. Save this file as an ai file and upload to Google Drive under Project 6>Practice.
1st Period:
Create a 6 x 6" art board in Adobe Illustrator. Label it lastname_firstname_composition_practice. After the class demo, create a composition using graphic shapes, line, and color inside of a circle. Save this file as an ai file and upload to Google Drive under Project 6>Practice.
Week of October 31
Retouching: Remove all blemishes from the pear in this practice image.
Retouching: Remove all blemishes from the pear in this practice image.
- In your external drive, navigate to your In Class Assignments folder. Within this, create a folder titled Retouching.
- You must download the DNG file from the Digital Art Students folder I've shared with you in Google Drive. Navigate to the In Class Assignments folder. Click on the folder called Retouching. Right click on the image and choose Download.
- Locate the file in your Downloads folder using Finder. Drag this file into your Retouching folder on your external drive. Open the file in Camera RAW (command+R).
- Open the image in Camera Raw and use the spot removal brush to "heal" all of the blemishes on the pear. Click Done when you are finished to save your changes in RAW. Rename your file lastname_firstname_retouch_raw. Place this file within your Google Drive folder that you shared with me (lastname_firstname_digital_art). Create a folder for In Class Assignments. Create a folder titled Retouching. Place your completed DNG file in this folder.
Week of September 19
Digital Workflow
Digital Workflow
- Introduction to Adobe Bridge
- Introduction to Adobe Camera RAW
- Introduction to Adobe Photoshop
Week of September 12
Digital Workflow
- Batch Rename
- Creating a Contact Sheet
First Critical Analysis
Week of September 5
Digital Workflow
Digital Workflow
- Intro
- Get Photos
- Creating a Metadata Template
- Using the Adobe DNG Converter
Week of August 30
Practice Critique -- What is to be critical? What is to analyze?
Practice posting on Class Blog
Bracketing, Shutter Speed, and Aperture Assignment
Practice Critique -- What is to be critical? What is to analyze?
Practice posting on Class Blog
Bracketing, Shutter Speed, and Aperture Assignment