Project 4
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Julia Lubarsky
Allison Mendoza
Starting this project was really difficult for me. I was really distracted and having a difficult time processing such an abrupt end to my college career. Whenever I tried to work, ideas came up blank and rather than pressuring myself to come up with something sophisticated and complicated, I went with the trend of my time these days: simple. I went back to my Intro to Studio exercise and just started writing things down in a big word cloud and then used multiple elements of that to help me create an image.
The first part of this that came to mind was the ram’s skull. I was born in late March and therefore an Aries and the sign is a ram. I was also born in the year of the ram. So in a lot of ways, the figure represents myself.
I left campus the same day I got back from spring break. The next night was the last time I would be able to go out in public, but I didn’t know it. My boyfriend and I went out for a drink to “celebrate” the end of senior year since classes had been cancelled, and I got my first martini. I jokingly called it a quarantini, and it has become both the title and an element of the piece.
The antique chair represents time passed and passing, also denoted by the tally marks that prisoners or castaways use to keep track of time passed.
Lastly, the desert just represents how the world feels right now. It is still beautiful, but it is also barren and there’s not much to do. We still long for it— simply because we cannot have it and there may be great things awaiting that we just haven’t discovered.
Although simple, this piece was semi therapeutic and I hope it made you smile a bit.
Harrison Thomas - Drowning
This piece, which I titled "Drowning," is an exploration of my current feelings during the coronavirus pandemic. It has been really difficult to process the abrupt end to my undergrad time at Vanderbilt and the subsequent postponement of graduation. This series is based on a self-portrait with my hands covering my face. It represents my desire to block out what's going on around me, as well as an attempt to hide my emotions from others. After the first image, blue paint splatters begin to cover the subject and the subject begins to fade. By the final image, the subject is no longer visible and the splatters have overwhelmed the frame. This progression of fading away as the chaos increases is very indicative of how I've felt the past several weeks during quarantine. This notion of being quarantined, or trapped in a sense, is also portrayed by the box that surrounds the subject, which does not fade away as the images progress.
Sydney Kaemmerlen - In The Clouds
In the Clouds is a digital drawing of my favorite childhood photo of my siblings and I.
Sydney Kaemmerlen - In The Clouds (2020)
Gaslight (2020) is a political piece paralleling the 1944 film Gaslight with Trump's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The image is a still from the movie's production, where the character Gregory peers over his wife Paula's shoulder in a mirror. In the movie, Paula begins to hear weird noises in the attic and the gaslights begin to flicker. Gregory manipulates (aka gaslights) his wife into believing that nothing is going on and that she is imagining it, when in reality he knows exactly what was going on - he was the one rummaging in her attic to look for lost gems. I placed Trump's face over Gregory's face to parallel the response Trump has had to the COVID-19 situation.
Andrew Engel - The New Plague
I tried to convey some of the panic by people in public when it comes to COVID-19, especially in places like grocery stores.
Malia Latimer - Toxic
It is based on an image from my favorite photographer where the two women are already in a pose that already has strong connotations and feelings attached. The pose makes the viewer wonder what is their story, what is their relationship. I felt like two were at odds, and that there was some sort of toxic behavior/dynamic. So my idea was to try and emphasize the power dynamic between the two, and maybe even change how the dynamic is viewed.
Shay Kiker - Trio
I created this image while thinking through how people are experiencing both expected and unexpected stress responses during this unusual time. Though the female depicted is not meant to be a self-portrait, I find myself tending towards responding in two particular ways in stress. I often become chameleon-like changing to meet the stress and demands of those around me, or tending towards an invisibility complex where I would rather spend time alone, do yoga, and cut myself off from the news, chaos, and constant discussion around the epidemic. I wondered how much a change in color/atmosphere behind and in a face would evoke different emotions/portray different feelings.
Kalen Scott
The image is one that I found while going through my grandmother's belongings and it's not dated, but I believe it's from the mid 60's or early 70's. I thought it was really awkward to see my grandma when she was around my age and before she had kids, so I kind of played with the idea of strange vs. mundane. When I looked at the image the first thing that came to mind was how calm she seemed, so I decided that getting rid of the sidewalks and dead grass in the background was key. I replaced it with a background I made on illustrator and then I thought it wasn't enough, so I created a ufo and made it appear as if she were calmly being abducted.
John Mark Goeke
For this project, I was inspired by all of the food delivery options available in Nashville right now. So many small restaurants in the area are struggling to stay afloat, so I've been trying to help by ordering more carry-out from my favorite places. I've gotten a bunch of takeout bags with cool designs in the process, so I thought that I'd design one of my own for a fake sandwich company that I named "Perfect Ten" (haha get it?). I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I think that the design could realistically be printed for a restaurant due to its limited colors.
John Mark Goeke