The Choir

I went to see the UNH Concert Choir, Wednesday in the art museum. The choir was very talented and seemed unfazed at the thought of singing in front of an audience. But I did feel as though some of them needed to work on their stage presence. My dad was in a barbershop chorus and quartet for most of my life so I learned a lot about the art of performance when it comes to singing. Many of the members of the choir were flawless, beautiful voices that sung different languages accompanied by perfect presentation, but there were a few that were unable to keep up.

            It was difficult watching some of the singers because they couldn’t keep a normal face while they sung. Their eyes went into the backs of their heads or they were mercilessly gazinging at one of their peers. It made it so it was hard to focus on the performance as a whole. Otherwise, I found it amazing to see a group of people sing together so harmoniously in languages that I can’t understand. It was pretty cool.

Colage

This was actually pretty fun. I took some images that were taken around the same time and put them all into one scene. I think this is one of my better photoshopping projects.

Mike, myself, and some little kid at Bear Creek

Artist Lecture

Today, fifteen others and I attended a lecture on the work of Carol Aronson – Shore. The museum was filled with multiple pieces she has done within the last few years. This series was on Strawberry Banke in Portsmouth—not far from where she has lived for 25 years. She has asked herself many times why it is just now she has decided to take on this project. She told us of a time she was driving through and a big blue building caught her eye. There were trees in foliage around this building that were bright hues of yellow and red. She said the primary colors captured her and as she investigated the scene more, she discovered other features she loved about it.

            Color is a major theme in Carol’s art.  All of her works have a presence of over saturation to them. I think this gives a cartoonish vibe to them. She also says that she composes her paintings with a sense of motion through space. She does this by incorporating many pathways, walls, and leading lines into her work. I did not personally care for Carol’s work. She is undoubtedly a very good artist, however, I don’t feel as though she gives good texture to her images. Her buildings and skies are often one flat color and it causes me to get stuck. I feel like this type of painting may be common among artists who like to paint New England style landscapes; I feel as though I have seen them before… Perhaps it is that I have seen her work previously.

Journalism Piece

For this assignment we could shoot whatever we liked but it must have a strong narrative. I chose to photograph the homeless. It turned out to be a pretty emotional challenge for myself especially when I was photographing the man in the wheel chair because I see him every day I am in Portland. Aside from that, I enjoyed this assignment. It was challenging and I like how my images (most of them) came out.

Shadows

We made a shadow for this shepherd today. First we copy/pasted him into the background then we duplicated him and turned him into a silhouette. We then manipulated the copy to turn it into his shadow.

Morphing

We had to take class portraits then morph them together using photoshop. It was definitely a challenge trying to make everything look smooth and I don't really think I was succesfull with it. It was fun to do though! And I'm glad I know enough about photoshop now that I have the ability to do this.

Memory of 9/11

It was my twelfth birthday. I was at home (I was home schooled at that time) when I walked into my TV room to start off my day. But instead of the morning weather, I walked in to see a plane had just crashed into a building that was unimportant to me. I yelled to my mother who was in the kitchen "mom, a plane just crashed into some building."I thought it was nothing but the atmosphere of my quiet morning quickly changed when my mom ran into the room and saw the TV. Her jaw dropped. She wouldn't really say anything to me because she was so shocked. I knew what was happening was bad but I hadn't even known what the twin towers were until know. As my mom frantically made calls to family I left the room and found out the true devastation hours later.