2D Final

For 2D we had to create an accordian book based on a short story or short narrative. I chose a section of Tolkein's book The Silmarillion. It's the story about the Two Trees of Valinor, which the gods created to give light to their country. One of their own, Melkor, had slowly outcasted himself through his terrible actions and deceptions (he had destroyed two lamps that once gave all the light to Valinor, jealous that he couldn't have this light for himself) sought to destroy them. If these trees were destroyed, Valinor would be thrust into darkness. He convinced a great monster, Ungoliant, to help him ruin the trees. Ungoliant takes the form of a giant spider who eats light, and since she had eaten all the light around her cave home, she was starving. She hid Melkor in a cloud of unlight, a light that wasn't darkness or light, but a void. They snuck up on the trees; Melkor stabbed them and Ungoliant sucked the sap out of them. Melkor used this void darkness to steal two jewels that captured the light of the Trees, now the only remains of the Trees and light in the world. His jealousy and desire to own something that wasn't his resulted in his permanent banishment, but he was the only one with the Silmarils and felt that he had "won" over the other gods. Two goddesses tried to bring the trees back to life, but could only draw a single flower from one and a single fruit from the other, which became the sun and moon.

I choose this story because it's one of the shorter tales in the book, but also because I want to communicate the fall of Melkor and how his desire twisted him and ruined others permanently. I've decided to do a mixed media project, using Photoshop, stills from the Lord of the Rings movies, pen and ink drawings, text in Tolkein's languages, and some watercolor or colored pencil drawings, all collaged together onto the accordion.

door/window final part II

The top photo was taken in Old Lyon District, Lyon, France. These buildings were all Renaissance and back, stopping around the Middle Ages. They were fascinating old buildings. This tower houses a staircase, and in life is a much brighter red.
The bottom photo was taken last winter about ten minutes from my house in Hopewell, NJ, in the middle of the Sourland Mountain Preserve. The remains of this house stands on the front part of someone's property. I took it from my car window because a sign in the driveway I was parked in had a rather frightening "No Trespassing" sign on it and I wanted to be able to get away quickly. This area is pretty sparsely populated, full of unkempt dirt roads and fallen farmhouses. The people here are protective of their property, which is unfortunate because I find the abandoned buildings on the mountain really quite beautiful.

door/window final

What I like about these is that they were all taken while I was moving. I was in a tour group in Marseilles, France during a foreign exchange trip in 2008, and I had to keep up. So I didn't really have a lot of time to set up and take multiple shots. I think each of these photos has only one to three shots of the same spot total.

Drawing Final

My drawing final was pretty vague, basically to draw a chart of something you're really interested in. So I decided to do Doors of Middle Earth, two of my passions.

Whenever I go abroad, I take as many pictures of doors as possible. I find doors really fascinating, especially in older cities like Dublin and Dresden. Recently I've moved on to windows, but I have dozens and dozens of door pictures, which I'll post in a slideshow after this post. The symbolism of doors and windows isn't too complicated (entrances, exits, the unknown if the door is closed, seeing in or others seeing out/spying) but it draws me in anyway.

Middle Earth and Tolkien's legendarium also fascinates me. He created a world with various cultures, languages, customs, places, a full history and lineages two thousand years long. He literately constructed an entire world and its history. So, I figured I could do a chart of doors from different cultures (Hobbit, Gondorian, Elven) based on his descriptions and Peter Jackson's movie's interpretations. He hired two artists, John Howe and Alan Lee, who have spent most of their careers illustrating Tolkien's books. Alan Lee does these brilliant watercolors, which inspired me to do watercolors with colored pencil details. I can't wait to get started on this.

3D Final

My 3D final is the alter ego project that Nichola does at the end of each semester. It's her version of the Foundation pattern project. We had to answer a series of questions, design and backstory three characters, choose one and design a final costume for it. It's a lot of time consuming work, especially because craft is so important. If something's sewn incorrectly and doesn't fit or the seams aren't neat, it stands out. I spent about five to seven hours just trying to get the leggings on my costume to fit; I still have to make a cape and shirt.

My alter ego idea is the last in a few projects I did on anxiety and panic attacks. Originally, she was going to rescue people from panic attacks by gathering them into a pod/womb structure. But now, it's about the idea that alter egos are a part of the original person, and how that part doesn't have to become a separate individual. Instead, you can use your alter ego to teach yourself how to fix the shortcoming or problem that the alter ego fixes. Instead of saving me from a panic attack, my alter ego teaches me how to deal with it on my own, how to get strong enough and confident enough to tackle an attack before it becomes a problem.

photoshop environment

this was the photoshop environment project... i definitely feel as though i could have done more with this, but i got really stuck with my concept early on. i wish i had a solid idea to start with; then my final product would be more cohesive. i like individual elements in this image, but not all of them together.