Social Commentary/Critique Assignment

For this assignment I wanted to comment on an issue that is really important to me, which is animal skin being used for shoes, more specifically. I used the UGG brand because I really really really dislike UGG boots, not because every single teenage girl has a pair, but because they don't even think about the fact that they're actually wearing dead sheep on their feet. The people who wear UGG boots usually just buy them because they've become really popular over the last few years, and they just want to fit in. But seriously, when did it become okay to wear dead animals on your feet to look cool? My sister has a pair of UGGs, and she loves animals, but it's like when animals are in the shape of shoes or coats and whatnot, people don't even think that they're real animals. I think the way the woman is laying down and has her eyes closed gives off a feeling of dreaming, and with the dead sheep all around her it's like she's ignorant to whats going on right in front of her.

I just used different selecting tools to cut out the image of the woman, and the dead sheep that are the background, and also the UGG logo.

I don't think I violated any copyright laws, the sheep are from public domain, and the parts I took from the UGG advertisement, I transformed them and gave it a whole new meaning.

From Here On Out...

Before Chris's show had officially been opened I would walk by the gallery and just stare at that giant red parachute covering the entire entryway. When I finally got to go inside I was really unsure of how to get around the parachute, I didn't want to touch it because it almost reminded me of a jellyfish and I just didn't want to disturb it. But after getting around it, I was confronted with yet another giant jellyfish parachute and giant canvases of stamped tanks and planes that led me around the corner and into an animation of little bunnies and kitties shooting guns and bombing each other, and participating in other war-like activities. There was an animal sitting at a desk with his little "music box" of war figurines spinning in circles, and around the corner from that was a giant tank & little animals in tiny tanks surrounding it, all brightly colored. There was a scene of the same animals shooting each other made of felt, with very bright, vibrant colors, almost like something you'd see in a children's book or movie. There were little creatures flying jet planes and homeless "people" with signs saying they needed money or jobs, there were giant prints of scans of the little felt creatures wearing gas masks. There were also sounds of war, people speaking through intercoms and whatnot.

I really liked listening to Chris talk about he's reasons behind his art. He talked about how this body of work was really a critique of war, not just American wars but war in general. And how it's really very grim and depressing, but he uses bright colors and animals in a way that makes war seem almost approachable. But you still get the scary aspects of it as well. Chris actually graduated from the same high school as I did, so I got to talk to him about any art classes he took as a high schooler, he said he never really thought about art as a career in high school, at least not seriously. I also thought it was cool that he's traveled to so many places, so his artwork really does represent all types of war from different countries.

My interpretation was very much the same as what Chris was trying to say through his art. I really liked that he took a very serious, and grim topic and turned it into something that people can talk about without feeling uncomfortable. But, like he said, it's also kind of what toy industries do with toys. Little kids can play with toy soldiers and tanks and "play war" and think that it's fun, but when they actually participate in combat they wouldn't really think that its too much fun anymore. I think that the way Chris displays his work is really awesome, because he uses different mediums from 2D to 3D to video and sound, it's exciting to be put into this "environment" of his art.

Social Critique/Commentary Proposal

I'm really not sure what idea I want to convey through this project, but one of the very first thoughts I had was doing something with photographs of American soldiers at war and inserting cute pictures of animals, or maybe taking old photographs from World War I & II and inserting modern technology or people in modern office settings.

I 'm not really sure what these ideas mean yet, I think I'll probably just find all the materials first so I can mess around with collaging different pictures together.

Fair Use?

In my opinion, I believe that Shepard Fairy did NOT violate Copyright laws.

I think his appropriation falls under "fair use", if you look at the first of "The Four Factors" of measuring fair use, The Transformative Factor,  it states that if the original work has been transformed by adding new expression or meaning, or if value was added to the original by creating new information, new aesthetics, new insights, and understandings than it has not violated Copyright law.

First of all, Shepard Fairy transformed the picture by Associated Press by adding a posterizing effect to President Obama's face, he added text, giving the work a new meaning and expression. He created a totally new piece of work, the original picture is more documentary style, it doesn't convey a certain meaning or idea, it's just a close up picture of Obama's face. Whereas, Fairy gave the original picture a new meaning, because after you look at Fairy's artwork, and look back at the original photograph, it has a completely new meaning. Also, it is stated in the Copyright law that as long as you borrow a small portion of a piece of work and that it is not the "heart" of the work then it is in fair use. Fairy only used the position Obama was in, he changed a few features on his face, he even changed a bit of the proportion of Obama's head in comparison to his torso. Fairy added text, symbols, and patriotic colors. The original photograph is no where in his work.

Self Portrait

It was really hard for me to even come up with an idea of what I wanted to do for this project, I tried a lot of different things, with a lot of different pictures. But nothing felt right. Until I had the idea of creating my self portrait around a picture of my grandma that I had scanned last week. Once I stuck to that idea, it led me to this.

I used 6 different pictures, and they each have a separate meaning.

-The scan of the book is one of my favorite series ever, it's called A Series Of Unfortunate Events, and it's about 3 children who are orphaned at a young age, and wherever they go they are always followed by evil and unfortunate events. But the moral of the story is that no matter what happens to them, they have each other, and together they can make it through any series of unfortunate events. And I think that in my life there have been a lot of negative things, but a lot more happy moments. And without my friends and family I wouldn't have made it through those moments.

-There's a picture of candles, symbolizing growth, hope, and happiness.

-The picture of the bleeding fingers represents all the pain, and disappointments I've had in my life. And that nothing is perfect.

-The picture of my mother represents the love, and support I have in my life. My mom is my best friend. And I would be a very very different person without her. I tell her everything, and she supports me in whatever I do, she's my voice of reason, and I look up to her more than anyone else in my life. She's strong, hardworking, and puts her children first before anything else. I could never be half the person she is today.

-The picture of my sister represents the child in myself. Most people would say that my sister and I are two very different people. She's a social butterfly, and I'm the shy artsy one. But when we're together it's like we're the same goofy person. We've been through hard times, and good times and we tell each other everything we can't tell my mom.

-The picture of my grandmother is the most important. She was my best friend, and she taught me a lot of things without even meaning to. She taught me not to be afraid of who I am, and that you should always try your hardest. Even though she passed away 2 years ago, I still feel like I could walk to her house and find her reading on the porch. Even though I'm not religious, I like to think that my grandparents are together and that they're looking down at me laughing at all the crazy things I'm doing.

My mom, sister, and grandma are the three most important people in my life, they've helped mold me into the person I am today, and a self portrait without them isn't really a self portrait.

HAHAHAHAHA

Optimism/Pessimism

Optimism

Pessimism