SMPs

Tom Conkwright focused on pairs of photographs that created relationships. He explained his various shooting methods and presented his contact sheets. Tom showed the difference between shooting through the lense of the camera and hip-shooting, which is not looking through the lense. It wasn't until his was finished shooting that he looked at the photographs and paired them together. I enjoyed the pairs oh photographs that looked like they were a continuation of eachother, like the pair with the concentric circles. The black and white photography really makes the formal relationships of the two images stand out. I think he captured his motive of celebrating life within photography, especially demonstrating how life can be made up of coincidences that fit together. From seeing his half-way smp presentation, Tom really developed the kind of diptych relationships and focused on several that worked strongly together.

Amy McIntosh created a childrens book entitled "Wheres the bear?" I enjoyed seeing who her illustrations and language were inspired by. There are few words within her book, but Amy explains that she chose them carefully and wanted to increase the value of each word. I like how she says she wanted this book to be fun for kids, but not as "cutesy" and some childrens books. The page that i enjoyed the most was the "hose, nose, rose" combination. The shape of the roses and the hose work really well and are just the right amount of playfulness for a childrens book. I think this book has the right amount of visual cues and language for a beginner reader. The final product was very professional and impressive.

The Mandrake

There was never a dull moment in The Mandrake. This performance was overall very entertaining. I thoroughly enjoyed the exaggerated use of humor in the commedia dell’arte style. Each actor totally encompassed what his or her character was about and did so with enthusiasm. I was so impressed by their acting ability- the script was wordy and complicated at times. It was simply fun watching Callimaco take the audience throughout his complicated path towards lust. From the opening to closing scene, I felt as though I was almost at a circus.
Throughout the performance of The Mandrake, the morals of each character are tested. Whether their morals changed from the beginning to the end, the characters were put into a situation where they had to make a decision that was going to affect others. Callimaco, the main character in the play, was the person who caused these morals to be tested. Due to his degraded value of women, Callimaco brings several outsiders into his own situation. Callimaco does not rest until he uses everyone around him to acquire Lucrezia. Each character can make their own decision, to follow the plan made up by Callimico and Ligurio, or to question their morals and decide not to continue. Even Siro’s morals are tested. Though he is Callimaco’s servant and must obey him, Siro could potentially offer a more moral answer to the goal. However, he enjoys watching this indecent act unravel. Lucrezia’s morals are most concerned with her religion. She believes that her religion is the only thing she can trust and continues to stay with Callimaco. She realizes the crudeness that her husband has willingly put her through. Essentially, she thinks her moral are telling her that this could not have happened without the act of God.
This theme seemed to be emphasized within the performance. The characters were making their morals and values more obvious through their use of language and movement. For instance, Callimaco’s movement throughout the play suggested him immature and dramatic- maybe incapable of making responsible decisions? Also, the Zanni, sort of represented the motive behind each character. The movements of these Zanni emphasized the actions of the characters.

Lance Wynn

Lance Wynn’s main goal is to talk about art as an activity. He is more concerned with the process of art making, rather than specifics concerning the composition of the final product. Wynn uses unique phrases to describe how he believes his art to function, such as paint as an “ectoplasm” and art as the “inner being chewing out of your arm.” The “ectoplasm” refers to the way Wynn views paint or another medium. His inspirations include Jasper Johns. He likes his American Flag piece in which he uses an already established symbol in a different visual language. He says he used Johns as a starting point, and followed a path to something new. Jasper Johns used as object that worked within his time period, but Wynn said he struggles to find an image that can still be successful in our digital age.
Wynn discussed his Vietnam sculpture, in which he turned the infamous photograph into a toy army figure. I thought this was a really interesting idea. Transforming a powerful image like the Vietnam photograph into a product that is mass produced and considered a toy for children is a dramatic choice.
Wynn frequently uses font within his pieces. His “Just a thought” piece, in which he traces the phrase over and over until the piece become something that he never planned out. This font, he says, becomes a material in itself. I enjoyed his comment about how he generates pieces out of nervousness and error. I can relate to this happening. Frequently, in my artwork, I can find beauty within my mistakes.

Melissa Dean's show "Consumed"

The idea behind Melissa’s work is appealing because it surrounds our American culture. She is interested in the amount of material goods manufactured and purchased. When visually put into a different language, the amount to which people are surrounded by mostly useless material goods is emphasized. I don’t think Melissa is criticizing the amount to which useless things are manufactured and consumed. In fact, she herself said she was most interested in this topic because she is an avid shopper herself. Upon further explanation of her work, it seems that she is simply commenting on fact that the amount of man-made goods is overwhelming. I was a little disappointed that she wasn’t too worried about showing serious issues that some of these manufactured products might cause. Although, I did like the idea of a having a “portrait” made up of products that the person circled from a Target advertisement. In this process, the composition sort of evolves on its own. The outlines of the objects are overlapped on top of one another and form density of the shape based on the consumerism of the person. The arrangements of these portraits resemble a silhouette style portrait. The pale, quaint yellow and small framing also suggests an old-fashioned portrait. This quality combined with the subject that is actually made up of makes for an unusual comparison. It seems that people are actually defined by the products they purchase.

Teatro Luna's Sex-Oh

The uncensored skits and monologues covered several different ways sex is viewed and discussed, especially within the Latina culture. Though the play was centered on the Latina women, I still think it was easily accessible to other cultures of both women and men. The five women did not hold back on any of the sexual dialogue used in the skits or address to the viewers. I thought this was refreshing and served as a way to relate more to the actresses. It felt as though these women were already the viewers close friends, telling us their most intimate details. The beauty of theatre is that it is not censored. Unlike television or most movies, where this raw and uncut content would probably not be allowed, theatre provides artist expression that is live and real.

Throughout Sex-Oh!, the actresses of Teatro Luna either directly or indirectly performed skits based on their own sexual experiences. I think one of the main themes within Sex-Oh was that sex is part of everyone’s daily life. Some maybe different than others, but in most cases everyone around them has to acknowledge that they are prevalent. I think these actresses felt controlled and inhibited by the Latina and Catholic household in which they were raised. So, they are trying to say that it is not realistic to ignore these various sexual occurrences. For instance, telling the audience about their losing their virginity or the intimate details within the frustrations of pregnancy. While some cannot relate to the Latina-Catholic culture, most people cannot relate to someone who is not candid or vocal about their sexual experiences. This play serves to let this inhibitions break free. Women can relate to every experience in some way, whether they know another women or friend or themselves in the same situations. The scene in which each of the four women describe what they think is “hot” is an example of how the actresses tell their own opinion, and then the viewer is then inclined to think of their own experience. These experiences are probably discussed after the show. I think this is the intent of Teatro Luna- to tell their own sexual experiences and persuade others to share their own.

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word association terms: city, wild, cage, exotic, walking, children, crime, trash, air, sun, water, land, field trip