Monday, September 27, 2010

Class Flickr Page




Now we have a class Flickr page, here

Check your email for login information.

Kelli Connell


Kelli Connell's pictures deal with issues of gender roles and identity by using a single model to portray different characters set in various domestic situations. She uses Photoshop layer masking techniques to make these simple but often lovely scenes.

From her statement: 
These images were created from scanning and manipulating two or more negatives in Adobe Photoshop.  Using the computer as a tool to create a “believable” situation is not that different from accepting any photograph as an object of truth, or by creating a story about two people seen laughing, making-out, or quarreling in a restaurant. These photographs reconstruct the private relationships that I have experienced personally, witnessed in public, or watched on television.  The events portrayed in these photographs look believable, yet have never occurred.  By digitally creating a photograph that is a composite of multiple negatives of the same model in one setting, the self is exposed as not a solidified being in reality, but as a representation of social and interior investigations that happen within the mind.

This work represents an autobiographical questioning of sexuality and gender roles that shape the identity of  the self in intimate relationships. Polarities of identity such as the masculine and feminine psyche, the irrational and rational self, the exterior and interior self, the motivated and resigned self are portrayed.  By combining multiple photographic negatives of the same model in each image, the dualities of the self are defined by body language and clothing worn. This work is an honest representation of the duality or multiplicity of the self in regards to decisions about intimate relationships, family, belief systems and lifestyle options.

The importance of these images lies in the representation of interior dilemmas portrayed as an external object - a photograph.  Through these images the audience is presented with “constructed realities”.  I am interested in not only what the subject matter says about myself, but also what the viewers response to these images says about their own identities and social constructs.

- Kelli Connell










Sunday, September 26, 2010

Photoshopping Beauty

Along the lines of Pascal's work... check out this video!

Air Sculpture!



San Francisco born artist Tim Hawkinson created this amazing installation known as the Überorgan. In a nutshell, it is a stadium sized fully operating bagpipe with a light-sensitive keyboard/decoder and a 250-foot long scroll that plays various pop songs, traditional hymns and improvisational tunes. Listen to this incredible instrument here!

Friday, September 24, 2010

Miranda Lichtenstein


In her Danbury Road series, Miranda Lichtenstein looks at suburban Connecticut houses, shot at night. The  pictures have a luminous beauty, and often evoke a sense of spooky discomfort. Many series of her work can be seen at her site, as well as some additional work here.

Saturday, September 18, 2010

The Power of Photoshop


"...Al-Ahram! Egypt's state-run and largest newspaper, whose editors weren't happy to see their Big Boss—President Hosni Mubarak—in the last place of this photo at the White House. Thankfully, Photoshop made him win the race, even beating President Obama."


Story from Gizmodo.

Bill McDowell



Bill McDowell's photographs have a quiet poignancy and humor.

Friday, September 17, 2010

Jonathan Harris at Firehouse Gallery



Johnathan Harris is an artist who blurs the lines between anthropology, software development, complex systems analysis and Storytelling.

He is showing right now at the Firehouse Gallery, downtown Burlington.

Here is the talk he gave at the TED Conference:

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Jason Salavon



Jason Salavon is a conceptual artist currently living and working in Chicago. He often uses an "averaging" technique to present an image made of many similar images. His work is involved with "...working around art, information technology and daily life."

Here is the link for Class of 1988 Men, seen above.

Takashi Murakami at the Palace of Versailles


Takashi Murakami has mounted an exhibition of his works at Versailles. Here is the story from the Guardian. 

The show seems to have been fairly well received, although there has been some controversy.

Murakami uses the flattened imagery of Manga and other graphic works to critique the shallowness of Japanese culture in a style he calls Superflat

Monday, September 13, 2010

Matt Siber


Matt Siber is a conceptual artist who uses photography and Photoshop to do his work, among other things. Two series of his pictures, featuring floating logos can be found here and here


From the artist's statement:



Inspired by the proliferation of very tall signs in the American Mid-West, Floating Logos seeks to draw attention to this often overlooked form of advertising.  Perched atop very tall poles or stanchions, these corporate beacons emit their message by looming over us in their glowing, plastic perfection.  Elimination of the support structure in the photographs allows the signs to literally float above the earth.
Making the signs appear to float not only draws attention to this type of signage but also gives them, and the companies that put them there, an otherworldly quality.  References can be drawn to religious iconography, the supernatural, popular notions of extraterrestrials, or science fiction films such as Blade Runner.  Each of these references refer to something that can profoundly affect our lives yet is just beyond our control and comprehension.

Photoshop Keyboard Shortcuts

Someone named Trevor Morris has compiled a list of Photoshop Keyboard shortcuts for you to download here.

University Declares A Week Without Social Media



Harrisburg University of Science and Technology has banned all social media sites this week.





Self-Portraits in 576 Pixels

Reply to All Project: Second Proof