Sunday, January 30, 2011

Sketch Problem-Week 4


Sketch Problem- Week 4
Angie Odom
Translucent Layers.
My sketch problem for the week was going to be creating something similar to the Alexander Cozen landscape box; however, my visit to the Mobile Museum of Art this week gave me an idea to continue the pursuit of form through the layer effects of glass.  By taking each plane of motion apart and painting it on glass, I created a 3-dimensional piece that explains the depth of Anna Pavlova in motion.  

Process:
First, I went to Dollar Tree and purchased 10 5x8 frames.  I removed the glass from the frames and beginning one at a time, laid them over a black and white photo of Anna Pavlova dancing the “Rondino.” My first result was unsuccessful because I did not understand exactly what needed to be drawn in the foreground, middle ground or background.  After several attempts, I was able to pull-out each layer.  I drew pieces of each layer on the glass.  Once the glass was lined up, it created an image with depth.


PEOPLE THAT HAVE INTERESTING/CREATIVE PROCESSES:

Alexander Cozens: Painted shadows with a sponge tied to the end of a stick to increase spontaneity and looseness in his work. (http://www.handprint.com)

Hans Burgkmair: Chiaroscuro Woodcut was a processes developed by Burgkmair where one color of ink was painted on one woodcut; another color on another woodcut, etc. and then stamped in sequence.  This created a layering and diverse color scheme. (http://www.britishmuseum.org)

Lord Alfred Tennyson: For Tennyson, a walk began his creative process.  He would talk out loud and listen to his own words and try different rhythms and words. (http://personal.ashland.edu)

Robert Bellamy:  The artistic director of Azzizz Theater develops his productions from a base understanding that “we are all afraid of the unknown or death and we all want to be loved or accepted.” His story lines all develop around this base. (http://w3.gorge.net)

T.S. Eliot: The poet believed that a form of detachment enhances the poem. His creative process started with a feeling related to images and “emotions” related to situations. A poem is created by a process of “fusion” which occurs under intense pressure…” by the need to express. (http://www.jstor.org/pss/460816)

Ray Bradbury: The author of    Fahrenheit 451 wrote daily and if he had an idea for a short story, he wrote until the story was complete without taking any breaks (see Letter on left). "Do what you love and love what you do.."



 





















 






Thursday, January 27, 2011

January 28, 2011 Intensive Overview


Overview of thesis development during the intensive
Angie Odom

I entered Thesis studio as a blank slate.  I abandoned all my preconceived ideas, all my methods of processing information (which is very direction oriented – begin at point A, get to point B), and all my anxieties about time and due dates.  I was an empty shell.

My first assignment was very challenging.  It was to find something that inspires me and study it.  I began reminiscing about a time when I was able to enjoy my artistic side. I began my first degree (I didn’t complete!) at Viterbo in LaCrosse, Wisconsin in Music Performance (Opera).  I still love to sing. Sometimes a melody can stir and inspire me. The thought of music of course lead me to think about poetry. My second degree (which I completed!) was in English and Art History.  Poetry inspires me. I found one of my favorite poems that still moves me too tears - Petrarch’s Sonnet #292 "The Eyes That Drew from Me."

The eyes that drew from me such fervent praise,
The arms and hands and feet and countenance
Which make me a stranger in my own romance
And set me apart from the well-trodden ways;
The gleaming golden curly hair, the rays
Flashing from a smiling angel's glance
Which moved the world in paradisal dance,
Are grains of dust, insensibility
And I live on, but in grief and self-contempt,
Left here without the light I loved so much,
In a great tempest and with shrouds unkempt.
No more love songs, then, I have done with such;
My old skill now runs thin at each attempt,
And tears are heard within the harp I touch.

From thinking of Petrarch, I began to feel the old tug of some distant movement that used to inspire my art work.  It was the movement of ballet. Many of my works were inspired by ballet (such as The Sarcophagus below). 



 I used to study and study the movement of ballet.  How could one movement create a sense of softness, quiet, stillness that seemed to hover in the air one could almost grasp it just enough to understand something more monumental than a word could express?!  How could one movement, jagged, short, and rigid – speak of death and dying in such an eloquent whisper?  And then, I made the leap to Anna Pavlova whose body language inspired many pieces of my art.

I had found my inspiration.

What next?

I found old videos of Anna Pavlova on “YouTube” which were great!  I watched many of them; one in particular, stirred up my sense of wonder and awe.  It was Anna doing the “Rondino” for Douglas Fairbanks in 1916.  The setting seemed to be a drive-way area in front of a home.  Trees spread across the background and Anna took center stage – dancing as if no one was there – lost in the grand moment of the dance and its meaning.  What is it, in this video that I could draw from in my work as an architect?  What is in ballet that could become an attribute of structure?

I began my analysis by creating still shots of the “Rondino.”  Every 2 seconds, I recorded an image. From this string of images, I chose and printed the first fifteen segments.  From these segments, I created charcoal images using a transparent overlay.  The charcoal images were bold.  The dark black charcoal brought out other aspects of the dance.  The relationship of figure and ground (not to be confused with Nolli…) became apparent.  A shadow below her feet became apparent.  The direction of hands and feet and placement in the air became apparent.  What was not apparent to me was the abstract qualities of the drawing itself.  I wanted to see and study the actual occurrence and understand what the reality of the dancer in the photo meant. But, it was pointed out to me that there were other relationships and aspects to draw upon as well. 

In the charcoal sketches, between the black lines and blank spaces, are shapes.  

In the charcoal sketches, between the black lines and blank spaces, are relationships.  

In the charcoal sketches, between the black lines and blank spaces, are connections.  





Can the study of the apparent be realized through abstraction?  Perhaps it can. By taking a photo and sketching over it, I created a method of expressing the photograph.  By taking a sketch and organizing it into shapes, relationships and connections, I have created a method of expressing the sketch. Some grain of truth has to be found within this process of studying, sketching and overlaying!

Further study produced a layout of proportion and distances between hands, feet and body.  Another study revealed the connection of movements in a 2-dimensional manner.  A 3-dimensional study tackled form and enclosure of a space created by the movements of the hands and feet.  

In this way, I began to look at each result differently.  It was no longer about the actual but what the actual could be.  A “tutu” could become a pattern in concrete, or a structure, or create a path.  The location of the foot upon the ground could become a study of movement, an indication of weight and lightness, a study of void and mass.  But, there is a sense in this selection, in this search for the next study that some paths are correct and others are not.  Some studies produced a result not worth pursuing further.  They were not in this “truth” that I sense from the dancer.  As I continue my endeavors, I take with me from my intensive experience, the awareness of various methods of analysis – both real and abstract, and many playful methods of discovery.

There is a small pearl forming in the shell.

January 27, 2011

The Diagonal Rule

I have just formulated a new concept called the "Diagonal Rule."  No, it doesn't have anything to do with building codes!  It does have to do with balance.  Look closely at this artwork.


The artist has based his design on a balance between light and dark as well as the components of the composition.  All of which fall on either side of this imaginary diagonal line.  Even though there is a great glow of light which should take precedence and create imbalance, the picture is balanced by flowers and vines in the opposite corner.

In Lord Leighton's piece (from the Fine Arts Museum, Boston) the diagonal is more apparent in the body gesture of the couple.


Next?  How can the diagonal rule be applied to architecture?  This topic is for another day!

January 25, 2011

SOME SPACES FEEL SMALL

Our house seems large until its filled with kids, then suddenly each room seems like its not big enough.  There doesn't seem to be enough room for everything.  Its interesting when we first purchased the house.  It was empty and seemed so big.  We could put a lot of stuff in this house - I thought.  Now as the kids are getting older and more slumber parties occur, the noise and children seem to fill the space.  It is interesting that the house appears even bigger to our children.  From their view, it is a spacious house.  I wonder if they will see it that way ten years from now.

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Sunday, January 16, 2011

January 16, 2011

During the plane ride from Mobile to Boston, I was concerned that I know too  many rules of performance.  These concepts seem to constantly get in the way of my ability to free think and be open to new ways of perceiving the world. My intent is to let myself be and absorb the "intensive."  For me, security lies in the knowing of the end result.  Knowing point "A" & point "B" helps me to create a path toward the end result.  In my profession, this ideal has helped me greatly.  In school, it seems to be a tripping hazard.  How to design from the beginning not knowing what the end result should be is "uncomfortable."  Not holding and "ideal" out in front of me, makes the path uneasy to maneuver through.  For me, this week will be a challenge to my core understanding of process.
 play item #1
 
Process: taking a photo of a cloud, drawing a portion of it, then interlacing it with my sketchbook paper.  I like the folding but did like the end result with the drawing.




Play Item #2


Process: taking trash paper, scribbling with blue pens on some of the paper, cutting it into strips, curling and tapping to paper.  I liked where this was going.  I liked the transparency and the natural tendency of the tissue to fall one way or another.

Notes from my Journal

Thursday, January 13, 2011

My first reaction is "No."  I am wondering if the reference point needs to be in the "present."  When I have been reading these essays on criticism and architecture, modernism seems to be in the equation.  It is almost like the reference point to the birth of Jesus; before was BC, after was AD.  It seems to be a hinge on many things I read.  It is almost to say, that it sparked an "awakening."

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

January 11, 2011

Essays in Architectural Criticism. Alan Colquhoun

When I watch my son Luther build with Legos, he always starts with a basic structure - a rectangle. To me, a rectangle is a type of a shape that is balanced.  It makes a good base to build upon.  Sure, from this comes some extraordinary forms, buildings and Star Wars fighting ships, but under it all was a rectangle.  I think in a way this is what Colquhoun is saying that though Typology may not be the best method to invoke criticism, it yet provides an accurate description of a part of - say a Lego structure.

January 10, 2010

NURTURING DREAMS. Fuhimiko Maki

Modernist philosophy continues to thrive due to its criticism - I believe.  It seems to be an idea that came at a point in architectural history where someone thought architecture needed to be analyzed and recorded.  From that point forward, one finds the term modernism used quite often  It has become a point of comparison.  In Maki's introduction, it seems that the idea of the "present" is a means to describe Modernism.   Modernism expresses the human part of architecture; people view architecture through their "present" human condition; therefore it is ever changing with each new birth into society.
54 St. Emmanuel Street 1945
 In the forties the building on the left of the photo was a drycleaner. How did people see and or understand the building at that time?  At the turn-of-the-century, it was a retail building.

54 St. Emmanuel Street 2011
 Today, with a facade modification, the building will be remodeled for business use. The renovation kept the key architectural features of the facade while adding more windows into the design. 

These photos represent the history of a building/architecture.  The critiques of the past may have discerned the original building by its ornamentation and materials.  Today, we may critique this building by its usability and its relation with the urban fabric.






Saturday, January 8, 2011

January 6, 2011

(I have changed this submission from the original....of course, no one would know this (except Michael and Denise) because I just figured out how to put this information on Blogger today).

I had too Google "Paper Buildings" just to see if there were any real building envelopes constructed of real paper (....construction paper....interesting term...).  Did not find anything, and really didn't expect too knowing the product wouldn't hold up in rain; however, recycled paper is used in many construction materials.  Did find some interesting things on recycled paper (http://www.neo.ne.gov/home_const/factsheets/recycled_const_mat.htm):

Paper
The American Forest & Paper Association standardized guidelines for using the recycling symbol to specify the content of recycled paper within a product.

  • The symbol of three white arrows within a black circle is used only to designate products made solely of recovered paper fiber.
  • Less than 100 percent content is designated by three black arrows within a white circle and must state the percentage of content next to or below the symbol.
Most paper can be recycled unless it has been tainted with food or coated with wax.

Building and construction materials that utilize recycled paper products include cellulose for insulation, cellulose fiberboard and gypsum board sheeting material.

The package we created in our studio class is out of paper.  Unlike a formal paper building model, it can be used to create a form or shape that could be used in construction.  I really thought the "wrap something with this paper" was silly....until I did it.  Once I looked at it from a far (not an intricate, well-thought out creation) it became something interesting.  It became a composition of its own.  I didn't strategically pinch a fold here and crease a fold there....it just became what it was through my actions of "wrapping."
 

January 5, 2011

Cloud Callout: First manufactured paper doll: Little Fanny, produced by S&J Fuller, London, in 1810. First American manufactured paper doll: The History and Adventures of Little Henry, published by J. Belcher of Boston in 1812. In the 1820s, boxed paper doll sets were popularly produced in Europe and exported to America for lucky children.  

 I am still on the paperdoll concept…..they can be both 2 dimensional objects and 3 dimensional.  
 
First manufactured paper doll: Little Fanny, produced by S&J Fuller, London, in 1810. First American manufactured paper doll: The History and Adventures of Little Henry, published by J. Belcher of Boston in 1812. In the 1820s, boxed paper doll sets were popularly produced in Europe and exported to America for lucky children.

INTERESTING TIDBIT OF INFORMATION!
http://www.opdag.com/history.html
 





PAPER BUILDING MODELS

When I researched other college students work, I realized that there are ways of thinking and designing that I am unfamiliar with.  When looking at Kristin Mueller's work, I was blown away with how her concepts developed.  There was one where she took the pattern of shoes and eventually it became a screen wall.  I would never have thought of that!  When looking back at my fascination with paperdolls in the past, I saw how there were repetitious patterns and shapes in the cut-out type of dolls.  This could become something.  There are shapes (voids and mass) that could be used....perhaps for a museum for antique paperdoll collections!  This really is a different way for me to think, and it offers up so many possibilities.