My partner and I chose the artists Hans Holbein and Robert Lazzarini for our "exhibit". Holbein is a 16th century oil painter, most famous for his painting "The Ambassadors". Lazzarini is a modern artist who uses technology to create his sculptures. Holbein's "The Ambassadors" and Lazzarini's skull sculpture were the two pieces that brought our attention to the commonalities between these artists. In Holbein's painting, there is a skewed skull placed at the feet of two men. One must approach the painting from a certain angle in order for this skull to appear in correct perspective. Lazzarini used modern technology to create a 3-Dimensional skull that appears to be falling from a 3-D form to a 2-D form. When looking at Lazzarini's and Holbein's works next to eachother, there is an undeniable similarity. In fact, they are almost identical, the only difference being the method in which each was made: one done in a very traditional style of oil painting, and one done using modern technologies. However, they both seem to convey the same message of momento mori , a Latin phrase meaning "reminder of death". Therefore, the works of these artists prove that some themes can carry through many centuries.

For my final project,the artist book, I decided to make a series of postcards using my own images (drawings, photographs, and digital images). The finished product is like a postcard collection, able to be flipped through like a book, but bound with a single keyring.

I chose ten images and edited each one differently in Photoshop. I used various filters, image adjustments, text, and cropping. I printed the images and mounted them to look like real postcards. Then, I punched a small hole in the top left corner of each postcard and attached them all to a keyring so that they could be easily flipped through, and also because it gave the overall piece some aspect of being a book.

I like the idea of artworks that are a collection of things, such as my postcards. Viewers are invited to examine each part of the piece individually in order to take it all in. This type of art has a more interactive quality with its audience. Also, I like the communicative potential of postcards. People often connect the image on the front to the message they are sending, usually to their family, friends, etc. If I was to continue with this project, I would like to give the postcards to my friends and have them right me a message on the back, then collect them again and keep them as a sort of postcard scrapbook.

The 2 images below are my double self-portrait project. The eye image was done in Photoshop using the smudge tool, blur tool, paint brush, and various tools under image adjustments. I would consider this to be an abstract self portrait because, while I did use a picture of my own eye, the image is more about expressive color. The second image was also done in photoshop except for the skeleton, which was traced in Illustrator. I wanted to use text in one of my two self-portraits because I enjoy incorporating words into my art in a way that makes them more of an aesthetic as opposed to readable text.

Second of the two midterm images, finally got it to upload.

Rolling Stones logo traced in Illustrator and re-colored.

The class trip last Wednesday was my first time going to the Whitney. It was a different experience for me because I've never been to such a large exhibition of modern art. I am used to seeing more pre-modern, classical pieces in museums. However, I definitely enjoyed the variety of works at the Whitney, and I found a few artists I particularly liked, including: Roland Flexner, Trenton Doyle Hancock, and Charles Ray. Flexner's "Thirty Sumi Ink on Paper" were absolutely my favorite pieces in the whole museum. From what I understand, he uses a Japanese technique of placing paper on top on ink floating on water or gelatin, but then he adds his own twist by blowing, blotting, and tilting the ink. From afar, his ink pieces look like photographs of some odd, dark landscape or caves; but upon closer examination, you can see there are no definitive, recognizable forms in the image at all. I think they are mysterious and beautiful.