Final Art Reflection

Identify two works from this school year that you find to be the most successful examples of your creative development. Include images, title, and project for each. 


I thought my work with the future tense book was the most successful this year. I also thought as an individual photograph, the transforming materials film photograph of the splattered drop was very successful.

Drop of Metal, Transforming Materials

Antiquity, Future Tense Book

Explain, using art vocabulary relevant to the project, why these works stand out to you. Also, articulate the development each work illustrates. 

The book really stood out to me because I think the pictures went very well together as a series of nature pictures. They all had a similar dark, macabre contrast and I thought it was very intriguing. I also think the book as an art form was very aesthetically pleasing with the leather cover. It really fit my intentions for the project of creating a piece that seemed aged and conveyed a sense of antiquity. I think I really gained a lot in this project from my work with the rule of thirds and used that as inspiration for the composition of the images. 

My photograph, Drop of Metal, really stood out as one of the best dark room photographs in my photography career. I thought the composition of the picture was very intriguing and handsome with its shallow depth of field. I really liked the focus on the droplet and how it collected the light. I also think I really mastered the work in the dark room for this photograph. 

Identify your least successful work. What did you learn from the experience of making the work? What would you do differently knowing what you know now?

My least favorite and successful work was the stop motion movie. We were a little too ambitious in our plans for the superhero movie and it was hard to fulfill them. I also realized that taking a stop motion movie was a lot harder than an individual photograph so it was difficult to compose each individual photograph well. In retrospect, I wouldn't have been as ambitious and would have been a bit more realistic in the scope of the project. I would also put more emphasis on the framing of the photographs instead of just the whole movie. 

What skills do you consider to be your greatest strengths?

I think that my greatest strengths as a photographer as when I work with nature. My attention to detail and ability to compose interesting photographs really help me with my art. I really developed my photography while zooming in and taking really close up pictures of natural elements and that was one of my greatest strengths. 

Evaluate your overall effort in the class.

I put a lot of effort into my photographs. When I engaged with projects I was most successful because I really gave it everything I could. This engagement was emphasized most in my book this year. That being said, I could have given more effort to some projects but overall I put a solid amount of effort in all my work. 

How might skills you've developed in this class impact your learning and process beyond the art studio?

I really developed my attention to detail in photography class and I think that this skill could really impact the way I see things outside of class. 

Defy Ms. Seal Project Reflection

For this project, I was very excited to attempt to defy Ms. Seal. I decided to take both cat pictures and flower/nature pictures because she doesn't like either of them. I really found that I was successful in both instances when I took pictures that were really close up. That being said, I think Ms. Seal is correct in some cases especially with flowers but some cat pictures are just too awesome.

Defy Ms. Seal

Future Tense Reflection

What are your intentions behind the series of photographs in the book? What kind of experience are you looking to evoke from the "reader"?

My intentions behind the photographs were to have a common element of nature throughout all of them. I wanted to have the whole book to have a somewhat old feel to it so I used film to take the pictures. To achieve this feeling of antiquity, I made the cover out of leather and used black and while images. 

What are formal commonalities that the images share (be specific. Explain how the composition or light or texture is repeated or evoked in multiple images)?

All the images were of different aspects of nature. I wanted to have a variety in the natural world so I took a lot of different types of nature pictures. That being said, most of the photographs shared a sort of darkness. 

What advice do you have for someone who plans to embark on this project?

I would tell them to really develop their intentions for the book before taking pictures. I started off with the leather book cover and developed the project around that so I had a solid idea of what would go well together. 

Future Tense Photographs

Future Tense Book

Kill Your Darlings, Fibonacci

Kill Your Darlings, Fibonacci Reflection

1. How did you develop your craft with this assignment?
1. I developed my photographic craft pretty well with the assignment. With the two roles of film I really used the first to get a sense of what worked as printed photographs and narrowed down on the mood I wanted to portray with the series. I thought the use of the Fibonacci view finders were really useful in helping to set up the frame of each image. 
2. What problems emerged? How did you solve these problems?
1. I had some problems at first in deciding what my overall mood or feeling would be. I wasn't really sure with the first roll of film and had pretty much three different sets of pictures with different moods. With the second roll I really chose one of the previous three sets and focused in on a more ominous and dark mood. I had some problems at first trying to find stuff to take pictures of that fit in the Fibonacci view but eventually I focused more on the mood and only used the view finders as a frame for the pictures. 
3. What ideas, feelings or meanings did you want your work to express? How did you go about expressing it?
1. At first I tried pretty much three feelings in the first roll of film. These were the pictures of the tea cup, the skull, and the teddy bear. The cup was meant to express warmth but it didn't really achieve that because they were pretty dark pictures. The teddy bear was meant to show a sense of abandonment or lonesomeness but I didn't like the pictures so I went with the skull pictures. They were meant so express a sort of dark and scary mood and I think they did a nice job with it. I went on with that mood in the second roll and expanded it to pictures that didn't include just the skull but also had other pretty dark objects. 
4. Write about one of the photos that you "killed". Was it a darling? What is intriguing about it? 
1. I really liked one picture of the skull that was on cement platform with ivy hanging around it. I thought it was a really amazing picture because it was so dark but the skull really stood out as a clear white. The setting also really contributed to the mood I was going for and it was a darling. I decided to kill it because there were some strange dots on the film that I had unsuccessfully tried to wash off but it was still a very intriguing print. 
5. Write about the photograph you chose for display in the library foyer. What makes it the right photograph for group display?
1. I chose a close up picture of the deer skull as my library foyer photograph. I thought the composition of the picture was really great with the focus on the front of the skull and the black background. I chose this picture as the one for the group display because I felt like it really fit with the general sense and composition of the other prints. A lot of the photographs are really dark and this fit in that category. 
6. You peers gave you feedback on your photographs. Did their preferences mirror yours? 
1. My peers chose pretty much the same pictures as the ones that were my favorites. Many of them were particularly drawn to the intriguing picture of my cat but that picture was vetoed for obvious reasons. 

Stop Motion Reflection

What is the narrative of your project? When is the moment of crisis?

The narrative of our project began with a guy reading a comic. A superhero and a villain come out of the comic and then fight and the superhero wins. Then it goes back to the guy reading the comic so it's like it happened in the comic and not in real life. The moment of crisis is the fight scene. 

How does the combination of imagery and music shape the mood and experience of the short film?

The imagery and music shape the mood to reflect either the intensity of the fight scene or the beginning of the movie where the guy is reading the comic. I could have chosen a bit more intense music to increase the tension of the fight but I think the mood was still reflected. 

What are the strengths of your project?

I think the strengths of the stop motion were the picture quality of the comic reading. There were also a few good photographic parts in the fight scene.

If you were to do another one, what would you do differently?

I would make the fight scene a lot longer and more intricate than it was and pick better music to reflect its intensity. I would also maybe cut down on the introduction like all the coffee drinking. 

Stop Motion

quinton from Ms. Seal's Art History on Vimeo.