Assignment 6: Winter

I can't believe the semester is over. 

For this series I was influenced by the work of Maggie Taylor. Her art work is created out of scans of antique photos and other things she's found. she creates these surreal, fantasy-like scenes that leave the narrative up to the viewer. She said she wants to make it so the viewer feels they can walk into each piece. I really enjoyed her work and I think me and her have a similar aesthetic.  I like her way of making an illustration in a different way, besides drawing or painting. 

To create my pieces I made scans of pipe-cleaner trees, granny squares, and a few other crocheted things. I took pictures of the trail leading to campus, and a few images from internet sources. I cut things out and tried out different looks for each pieces. I really didn't have a blue-print for any of them, so I flew by the seat of my pants and experimented with photoshops tools. 

 I used certain motifs repeatedly, the cardinal and the tiny trees, so that all three pieces go together. Nature is a pretty dominant factor in Maggie's work, so I incorporated trees and landscape to match that. I wanted to convey the feeling of winter and magic without being too obvious or referring to christmas. So I used the knitting, snowflake-like sparkles, pine trees; things that feel like winter. I wanted to make sure that there was enough in the picture to give the viewer tools to make a narrative, but no actual imposed story from me. I also put in some personal touches; the red cardinal is my favorite bird, and all of the knitted stuff is made by me. Overall I was going for a handmade but believable look. 

The pictures I used that I didn't take came from internet archives of old photos (top image) and mogue-file.com (bottom two). I made sure to alter the photos used enough so that they don't resemble how they looked before. 

I decided to print each piece on semigloss photo paper at a medium size. This is because there's three of them and I wanted them all to fit grouped together on the wall as if they're a framed photo cluster in a house. 

-Avery Violet

Self portrait

I made this with photoshop's mixer brush on top of a photo so it looks like a painting. 

Now I am the woodland animal I really am inside. 

-Avery Violet

Not your 'bae' series

This is a series I made about feminism and women's right to say no to anything they are uncomfortable with (dates, catcalling, creepy men at bars, etc.). "No" is a complete sentence. 

There will be more to this series when I make more.

-Avery Violet

Work in Progress: Assignment 6

Hello! So what you see above is my work in progress for my final assignment of the semester. These pieces are inspired by the awesome Maggie Taylor and her body of work.
I like her use of old photos and odd elements to create surreal scenes. However in my work I adapted feminist undertones in the message of each one, and arrange my images more like a scrapbook.
I hope to clean up the rough edges and solidify the images. I want them all to be more like the last picture when I'm finished.

-Avery Violet