< PreviousJOURNAL 100 101 JOURNAL PDM This painting depicts a hidden corner of the Boboli Gardens, where I spent a lovely day roaming around, observing the greenery, and enjoying the panoramic views of Florence. Painting this scene reminded me of that wonderful time. I will always cherish my experience of taking an oil painting class in Florence, as well as getting to see the beauties of the city and its surrounding nature. Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media | Prof. Rossana Pinero PDM 140 Foundation of Oil Painting MARY REIDJOURNAL 102 Video: https://youtu.be/ncQmSNnl07E 103 JOURNAL For my work, All Grown Up, I used the technique of stop motion film to capture my story. The film features my stuffed animal teddy bear who lives the life of someone who has distanced themselves greatly from the time of their childhood playfulness. I created multiple sets for each scene the teddy bear was featured in, each involving an activity that only an adult would partake in. The film opens with a scene of him waking up from a hangover due to his life of consuming drugs and alcohol. These characteristics are ironic and contain darker humor that is masked behind the veil of an innocent teddy bear. I believe it is so much easier to address a topic of concern when a separate character is playing it out. By separating the acts of a character from reality, the viewer can step back and question their own lives and their own actions. At what point do we lose our childhood innocence? Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media | Prof. Federico Gori PDM 150 Expanding Creativity All Grown Up PDM ELIZABETH KATHLEEN ACIERNOJOURNAL 104 105 JOURNAL Over the semester and the many changes that took place suddenly in the world, the question that I spent the most time with is whether or not there is anything permanent, or if the idea of constancy is more of an illusion. When things change abruptly, and life feels out of control, all I want is something set and reliable to give me comfort and stability again. I think it’s ironic that when I finally get so used to one familiar way, I can still feel disoriented. That illusion that some systems will always be the way they are gets broken when a new system comes and overpowers it, and I think that’s the most natural thing in the world. With this piece, I am fascinated that the single shape of a tessellation represents a full blueprint of the larger pattern. It reminds me of the format of DNA, containing all the information needed for a living system to grow. Even though there are endless possibilities for that starting block, there are natural rules that must apply. It was fun for me as a creator to play with these rules and consider the different possibilities. It gave me a feeling of control during unpredictable times. The decision to disrupt a steady pattern reflects my reaction to the indefinite duration of the current social shutdown. The longer I have to stay inside in this one daily pattern, the more I look for disruptions to break it up. At some point, my ideal flipped, and change is now more appealing than constancy – that’s what I have noticed and understand best through this project. The process of this piece involved a lot of reflection and divergent thinking about ways to put thoughts into symbols. I started paying attention to these complex tessellating patterns, so I researched them. I looked into the work of artist M.C. Escher and Giuseppe Capogrossi. I collected more than a dozen tessellation samples, analyzed them to understand their geometric rules, and with many attempts, created my own tessellations following those rules. Then I tried to define themes to communicate. I decided on the final design, traced and painted it on the canvas, and reflected until I landed on this usage of the woodpeckers perching holes that were bored into the design’s surface, where ants emerged chaotically. For me, it’s an alternative environment that contains familiar nature. Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media | Prof. Federico Gori PDM 150 Expanding Creativity Disruption PDM NATALIE NICOLE BREADYJOURNAL 106 107 JOURNAL Creating “Anxiety” was a touching project. It opened many emotional doorways, from seeing that anxiety is within me, to understand that it’s something human worth talking about; many people try to bury the disorder because they fear rejection from others, thinking that we are less capable and worthy, but throughout the years that I have suffered this emotional disorder I’ve concluded that it’s a global problem that can be spoken about without the four walls that surround us. Although my piece was inspired in my daily anxiety, I know for sure that many people can relate through it because of the rawness and messy emotions. Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media | Prof. Federico Gori PDM 150 Expanding Creativity “Anxiety”, red thread, 140x180cm PDM ANA PAULA CONTRERAS ARCEJOURNAL 108 Video: https://youtu.be/x3A_3M_f8S8 109 JOURNAL My final project takes a video format, in a series of shots of me, sitting still indoors in silence, spliced between short nature scenes, culminating in a final shot of me walking towards a mountain peak at sunrise, the sound of wind ripping through the speakers. Throughout the video are short excerpts from a journal entry on the topics of isolation and sound, the text animated onto the screen in a cursive writing style. The theme came when a snowstorm caused a power outage in my neighborhood. Our generator kicked on and revived the electricity, but the cable and wifiprovider was down, leaving me without internet connection and a reliable cell phone signal, alone at my family’s lakeside cabin up Maine. It was then that I realized what had been keeping me sane in isolation, even more so than a virtual connection to my friends and family. I realized that I always had music, a podcast or a youtube video playing, or the TV on, at nearly all times. Having another voice in the room made me feel less alone and provided a distraction from my own thoughts. Without internet or cable, I was forced to confront this silence, and at times it felt unbearable. It became clear that I needed to give sound and stillness a central role in the video, and make it uncomfortable (which was easy, given the low sound quality of my video footage). PDM Painting, Drawing and Mixed Media | Prof. Federico Gori PDM 150 Expanding Creativity Sounds of Solitude ELANA FORTINNext >