Istanbul Public Art

I composed a 30"x30" board of public art in Istanbul, Turkey. I have depictions of 2D, 3D, and 4D art. (I also have depictions of henna tattoos for the boarder as this is a form of art that is popular to the culture of Istanbul). In order for me to understand the public art in Istanbul, I had to understand what is going on politically wise in this city. I think that public art is an artists form of public speech and a lot of times what the people have to speak about is government and other civil issues. I even came across a graffiti message on a wall somewhere that said "read walls, not books". I thought that was a very profound statement because if you want to know what the people really think, just look at the public art in and around any given city. I found that in 2000 street art increased in Europe and eventually made its way to Istanbul. Streets then became a mechanism for communication. Some current issues in Istanbul are secularism, the civil war in Syria, and the clash with religion as the government increases with islamist and authoritarian rule. This later issue increase the strength of islamic education in public primary schools. Istanbul has three major religions within it, Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. The disagreements between these religions can be seen through history with changing of the Hagia Sophia from a christian church to a mosque and currently a museum. There have also been many protest about freedom of press, expression, and assembly. Based upon these findings is how I decided to focus my search for public art in Istanbul.

My 2D art selections are "Raised Fists" by Krioe, "INTI" artist unknown, and a wall painting by Franco Fasoli of two soldiers on horses. My 3D art selections are of "Stars of Istanbul" by Aziz Sariyer, "Aslan" by Salcuk Yilmaz, "1550 Chairs Stacked Between Two Buildings" by Doris Salcedo, and a pieces by Sarkis Zabunyan that is of lights situated on the side of a building to resemble a rainbow. My 4D selections were of the Hagia Sophia and the "Painted Steps of Istanbul" by Huseyin Cetinel.

Greensboro Public Art

These are some of the public art pieces that I found in Greensboro. The first image is one of four of the Gateway Cornerstones titled "Motion". I thought this piece was very interesting. It represents the importance of education and the historic railroad and highway system. The second picture is of the "News and Records Bench". Although you cannot see it in the photo, there is an actual depiction of the  NASA Challenger crash newspaper report and the Twin Towers newspaper report as well. The third picture is a part of a project that consisted of installing iron gates over pre existing doorways along the greenway underpass. LED lights were added for an interactive affect. The last picture is of the Millennium Gate that sits on the Governmental Plaza and has many depictions of important iconic events in NC history. Some of the events include the Lost Colony, a chair that represents the furniture industry of Greensboro, The Battle of Guilford Courthouse, a drinking gourd that represents the Underground Railroad, and the Statue of Liberty that represents immigration. These are only few examples of the many public arts in Greensboro. These are a couple of the ones that I found the most interesting.

Greensboro Map of Public Art

The above images are maps that we created in class that show a few of the many public art pieces located in and around Greensboro, NC. While researching for this assignment I found that a lot of the public art focused on the same couple of messages. All the art pieces reflected either education or history. There were also abstract pieces that did appear to have anything to do with those themes, but were opportunities for artists from all over to contribute to the public art movement with in the city.

Deducing The Relationship Between Analytical and Intuitive Thinking

When I think about the relationship between analytical and intuitive thinking I tend to focus on the differences first. I have found that I am more of an analytical thinker, but I also feel that over the years through life and education I have been trained to think that way. As children we tend to lean towards our intuition and what feels right. We are molded by society, our peers, parents and other authority figures to think a certain way. We are taught absolutes and that we shouldn't rely on our feelings, but what facts and figures tell us what is right. This is not to say that analytical people cannot be intuitive and vice versa. The reality is that at some point analytical thinkers use some form of intuition when making decisions. The same goes for intuitive thinkers using analytical approaches at times to arrive to a solution. This very statement for me shows the relationship between these two forms. Each frame of thinking is only enhanced by the other. Because of this I think any good designer; any wise designer learns early on how to navigate between both ways of thinking to boost their creativity and make an idea become reality.

Exhibit Piece

For our final and conclusion to the semester and project we put together an exhibit to display all of our work and the many iterations that came from a song.

How did I arrive to this point? After completing my dance and the first wooden draft to interpret my dance we were asked create a structure out of wood using at least one type of joinery. The vertical plane with the green string wrapped around it was what I decided to focus on. Not only was it inspired by my favorite part of the dance, I also liked the way I placed the sticks and the space that they actually took up.

Because I am such a planner and an analytical thinker I kept sketching and making different blue prints to try and figure out what I wanted to do and how to execute it. I finally came up with an idea that involved cutting the wood into these saw tooth planks and some how joining them together and staining them to get this dramatic chevron pattern. Well, after much editing and playing around with other ideas of inlaying the wood, making dowels to connect the wood, and even staining the individual pieces black and white, I finally came up with following end result.

As you can see some of the design choices that I talked about above did not make it in to the final creation, but I am very pleased with my results. After speaking with Prof. Mendoza and another student I decided to take their advice and just stain the wood so as to only enhance the grain. I think this was a smart decision. Because of all the movement and shapes that the saw tooth planks create I believe adding color would have taken away from the visual aesthetic of this piece. From the side your eye puts together a chevron pattern on its own. I find it interesting that I did not have to be so literal and forcing the viewer to see a chevron pattern and that due to the way I placed the wood a chevron pattern is suggested, but the viewers eye and mind make the idea an absolute. The other view I like in the piece is the areal view. The way that the wood ends point to the center and direct your eye to that focal point is a dynamic that I hadn't originally planned for, but am glad that it came to life. I thought it was fortuitous that in the previous post "Turning a Song into 3D Space" I talked about how in the song I enjoyed the tribal-like beats the percussions made in the song. When looking at this piece from an areal view it reminds me of something tribal, even Aztecan. The type of joinery that I ended up using was dado that I created by cutting the grooves into the base for the planks to slide into.

The last iteration of the song I danced to was to create a pattern and have it printed on fabric.

The design I created above was filled with a lot of skepticism at first, but I decided to go on intuition and once again, I am very pleased with how well the pattern printed on the fabric. The one thing I would have like to have seen was maybe making the print itself darker. After much editing I just couldn't figure out how to get my brush strokes darker using Adobe Illustrator, so I settled for  this. I think choosing a more limber fabric helped with making the pattern stand out even the more. To present this fabric for my exhibit I thought draping it on a body form would be the most appropriate considering the song, dance, pattern design, and texture of the fabric itself.

Journey Through Campus

The following is my journey not only through campus, but just my day in general. Enjoy!

All Work...And No Play

Bell Tower and Page 101

The above is my 2nd drawing of the Bell Tower. This time I tried to approach it differently by focusing more on one area that includes the tower. I started by drawing my horizon line. After that I pretty much just started drawing lines, but that was proving to take a long while yielding nothing but errors. Finally I took a long hard look at the "roof" of the tower and realized that it was actually making a triangle and if i could draw that triangle correctly, I would be able to draw the roof. I tried it and it worked! That was how I decided to approach the rest of the drawing. That along with paying attention to where most of the lines would meet my horizon I think I did a nice job. It's a long cry from where I started (picture coming soon). Once I got the hang of it I, and figured out how make the translation between my eyes, brain, and hand the lines the images were creating, it actually became enjoyable drawing this scene. Hopefully I can carry that on to other drawings in the future.

This was an in class drawing exercise. I liked this because it helped me to understand a bit better about guidelines. I think my drawing came close to what was in the book. I was off with centering and some picture details. The one thing I didn't like about this exercise was having to keep starting over with each square. I think I would've done better had I been able to continue the drawing in one sitting as opposed to having to keep starting from the beginning with each drawing. I think doing that increased the possibility of me making mistakes or missing details.