Listening Exercise

For this assignment I sat in my kitchen in my tiny apartment. Before I started listening, I started the kettle on my stove so that noise was sort of inevitable. All the other noises were just normal everyday noises.
During the ten minutes I noticed how loud our furnace is. It was possibly the loudest thing I heard. I'm not sure if it's because I was sitting right next to it or if it seemed loud because there was no other sounds happening. I realized that usually I would consider the kitchen silent, even with it on. But when I really listened it became overwhelmingly noisy.
 My kettle got increasingly louder and I noticed that I forgot to turn off my TV. I could hear my roommate start up a shower and her moving things in the bathroom. I could hear the fridge make that weird out of  nowhere knocking noise that in my experience fridges always make.
My kettle was heating up the entire time I listened and I began to feel anxious. The sound of the kettle just became so apparent to me. It makes a weird cracking noise, like the heat is cracking it. Then it grew to a full boil and it sounded like rain falling on a tin roof. I guess the welling tension of the kettle boiling sort of resonated the feeling of an anxiety attack with me. I know it was going to start whistling soon so I actually had to get up and turn it off.
The sound of the shower going off is sort of exciting to me. I really enjoy showering and getting clean so that sound is like an alert to my brain like "it's shower time oh boy!". But when it's someone else showering it's a weird feeling like I'm listening in on something personal.

-Avery Violet

Assignment 1: Stop motion animation

For this animation I decided to use watercolor paint. Watercolors can be very temperamental and sometimes not do what you want at all, so I was a little nervous about doing something that requires concise perfection, like a stop motion. (Water drips in ways I don't want to, mixes with the wrong colors, comes off more or less pigmented than desired, etc.) I chose it because I think it's beautiful and possibly my favorite medium. I noticed that when I began to paint I was gravitating towards images of nature and fluid movement. Water and rain are represented by the blue droplets that pile up. Sun and light represented in the globe of yellow light my hands "put out". I think I have a thing for painting evergreen trees with watercolors because I do it almost every time I "doodle" paint.

It was very hard to do this without a plan because I was constantly second guessing myself. It's hard to go back and change things if the paint has already dried or its in a tricky position. I would've preferred to go off of a plan, just so I know where it's going. I had trouble concluding it because I had started over a few times. Next time I think I'd make a plan or shot list.

I think the overall mood of the piece is optimistic and happy. One of my favorite things with watercolor illustration is that you can be very minimal and still make an impact. So with this animation everything stays simple and bright. A big aspect to this piece is "breaking the forth wall" in a way, when you see my hands moving the paper or the paint brush interacting with the images. It's a take on how I interact with my art. I like it's homemade, "sloppy" look.
Also I have very tiny hands.

Avery Violet

Mess

Show Review: Capital Yes - Derek Larson

January 20, 2015

Derek Larson's show titled "Capital Yes" presents a new kind of art with displays of light and technology integrated with paint and sculpture.
The show features light and animations projected on cut-outs of strange organic shapes. Larson's choice in color palette makes a poppy atmosphere, using bright "cosmic" colors. He suggests that this was to mimic advertisement's attempts to catch viewers eyes. The shape of the surface the animation is being projected on is crucial to piece because it gives the light a physical presence. The sculptures are cut-out in a way that the projections fit perfectly on them with a bit of over hang to give them even more depth. They're eye-catching and very large, consuming the space as viewers give way for the projection to reach the sculpture.
Larson's work reminds me of street art. It's very poppy and "weird", like modern graffiti. In contrast, it looks sleek and modern when presented with technology as it's media. The largest piece in the show titled, "Double blind", is shaped almost like a billboard thats dripping and melting. This relates back to his theme of advertisements, but the melting suggests a decay in modern ads. The melting and dripping parts of his pieces reiterates a sense of decay and possible morbid undertones. This especially in the smiley face instillation because it is odd to see a recognizable happy symbol "dying" and melting.
For me, it didn't change the way I perceived the artwork. It's always nice to see the artist, but sometimes my questions go unanswered or I like my interpretation better. In retrospect I wish I would've asked about the painted panels of light, because I'm still a little fuzzy on their significance. However, getting some insight into how he uses animation and sculpture together was inspiring.

-Avery McGrail

Time Map

So for this project I drew a cat every time I thought about going back to bed and being "warm and cozy" during a very cold and dreary day. I recorded the time too so I knew when it was that I got tired and possibly where. 

I've realized I think about cats a lot and there are many different ways to draw cats. 

-Avery Violet

hello.