Assignment 2 by Blair

By Blair Strong

First of all- you guys are all AMAZING! I was so blown away by everything this week and so inspired! 

I guess I need to apologize because 3 of my 4 pieces were picked as people's "least favorites" on Tuesday. I can't blame you guys either- my designs do not represent the caliber of FA-102

 or of my own work. I've literally been sick, staying in my bed for two weeks, so I wasn't able to work as much as when I'm healthy. So, yes, I know these are quite dull compared to many of your fabulous works!

The artist I chose to pull inspiration from is Karl Benjamin. You will see many similarities in my works and his- I wasn't totally sure about how much inspiration we were supposed to reflect in our work...

 

This is my first piece {MOVEMENT}. I liked the shapes Benjamin used in the piece below mine. I think they lend themselves to motion and are very "fast" shapes (hence my diagonal shape). This one came out looking sort of futuristic, which I like, but with more time I certainly would h

ave added a lot more detail and character to give the piece more emotion.

I

 like the chaotic motion of Benjamin's work here, but I wanted to create a greater sense of urgency than he did, that's why I made my shapes move along the diagonal.

This is my second piece {REPETITION}. I think I captured the essence of pitfall of repetition; my piece is boring and predictable. I am repeating the shape, this worn down rectangle, and adjusting its spacing to create a sense of movement. I want

ed to vaguely communicate pebbles worn by water, but ironically place them in very strategic locations (unlike the way pebbles actually would flow and roll).

I like these weird, oblong shapes Benjamin uses in several of his pieces. I wanted to capture the shapes and stress repetition of them, rather than miscellaneousness as he shows.

I made the shapes a little more round, more stone- or pebble-like than did Mr. Benjamin.

This is my third piece {EMPHASIS}. I want to draw the viewer to the top left corner with a dramatic play on positive space. I tend to overuse my negative (black) space, so I wanted to do something different with this assignment and something very dramatic with this particular piece.

Benjamin, with his piece here, had the opportunity to play with color and use bold colors to direct the eye. Since I was limited to black and white, I created a small shape in the top left and allowed my frame lines to curve, while his shapes build a straight frame line.

Here is my final piece {BALANCE}. I sought to balance the weight of the subjects (and thus space) by weighing the bottom left corner somewhat proportional to the top right. I additionally sought to balance straight lines and harsh shapes by overlapping and by creating a fan effect. I wanted my subjects to look like minerals growing from the ground up for from the ceiling.

Again, Benjamin uses shapes that I appreciate aesthetically. When I first saw this piece of his, I was attracted to the appearance of growth of the shapes. I sought to communicate that growth through my own work.

So those are my four pieces and the background stories behind them. I can't wait to work on A3 and show what I can really do! You all blew me away this week- seriously, I am so inspired!