all these insecurities man, what do I do with them?
Reflection Post
My name is Andrew Chen and I major in illustration. My artwork takes on a share of illustration and imagination that represent cultural and personal views. In my work, I create stories of fictional or nonfictional journeys of others. It is a way to represent people who cannot have their voices heard or expressed. Whether it be in many colors or just in black or white, every single piece and process represents a meaning. These meanings come from the inspiration of others who maybe want their messages to be heard. My works are simple. I don’t want people to look hard into it but to get the messages, passions, and experience through to the view as that is what I believe what the purpose of my artwork is: interests, passions and communication.
My experiences in Studio and Seminar help expand my way of thinking and my skills of illustrating and imagining. It changed my way of perspective at everything around me, to take on challenge that not only view on myself but on other people as well. I took on skills and courses that I did not even know I was capable of doing like making movie posters and making radio pitches.
I think the favorable project was the radio pitch when I had to research and record myself into making a small documentary about an issue. My topic was on the LGBT community discussing about choices, sexuality, and sexual orientation.
Another project was the final visual essay paper. In the beginning there had been some obstacles for me trying to find a visual topic but after a lot of research and discussions, my topic is about LGBT portrayed in films. My studio part is creating film posters and a trailer that feature LGBT characters in response to the lack of diversity within the American film industry.The trailer will be my own original characters, and will display a storyline that associates issues with sexual orientation, sexuality, relationship issues, loneliness, mental issues, and identity. I believe the film industry discriminates against the LGBT community. In many cases, the community is used as props, comedy reliefs, and stereotypes. There is also an issue of hiring actors and actresses who are in the LGBT community. There’s a small percentage of the LGBT community and their roles are only served as a small punchline. When they are casted, they are stereotyped in a way that brings a bad reputation to the community, such as gay men as shown super effeminate, or lesbians are very masculine and macho. I want to create art that speaks to people about how stereotypes restrict reality and pushes away the perfect world that we all look for.
In the future I wish to create more animations and short films that are based on topics of society and people and how they impact the world.
Bridge 3 Pt. 2 – Radio Pitch + Documentation
In this bridge, the goal is to create a radio pitch with an analysis. The topic for my bridge is the concern of whether sexual orientation and sexuality is a choice.
Research and sources included a Radio Lab episode, “Choice,” and a documentary “Sexual Orientation Explained”.
I wanted to relate how sexual orientation/sexuality is not like choosing either an apple or orange and how people shouldn’t be labelled by their preferences. Sexual Orientation and Sexuality are not choices, or “lifestyles” that can be changed. People should be able to be attracted to anyone regardless of orientation, gender, race, or sexuality.
Dynamic Drawings: Subway Image Therapy
In this project, the goal is to create therapeutic images for the subway with watercolor paint.
Research:
Practice:
Final:
Dynamic Drawings: The News
In this project, I researched the use of typography and compositions in newspapers to develop a news piece or headline paper that imports an information on a topic.
I formatted my project as a dance competition flyer instead of a newspaper/headline and used bright, eye catching colors/fonts to represent the mood of the topic.
Studio 2 Visual Culture Bridge 2 Pt. 3: Mapping the Field
In this bridge, I chose Washington Square Park as my field and map it in a way of people’s experiences and connections with the park.
Washington Square Park is a great environment and place to go to if anyone wants to hang out with friends or needs a time for themselves to be alone with their thoughts. It’s a peaceful area to escape from the loud and chaotic streets of New York. Many people come to the park to take morning walks, meetings, take their pets out for fresh air, or just taking pictures.
Before the Park was made, it was first a graveyard. In the center of the square, about where the fountain is now, stood the gallows. The guilty were executed here until 1820. After their death, they were put in the ground with the others and helped fill the field to capacity with over 20,000 deceased.
In 1889, Stanford White build the Arch out of wood and plaster to commemorate the 100th celebration of George Washington’s inauguration. The park then installed the central fountain in mid-1870’s.
Personal wise, Washington Square Park is a special place for me because it’s the place where the city life started for me.
Growing up in Queens, you’d think I’d be used to Manhattan but on the contrary, Manhattan is a foreign place to me just as much as the next person. I’m from Queens and stayed in Queens for most of my life, usually only going to the city for short moments but not enough to truly experience it.
Now that I’m in The New School, I get to travel to the city every single day and experience an entire new lifestyle starting from Washington Square Park where I enjoy my place there, usually hanging out with friends, or staying alone with nothing but my sketchbook and my thoughts.
Through this project I get to experience not only my part of the story, but others as well.
Infographic
I made my Infographic similar to a tourist map of the best places to visit in South Korea.
Research/ inspiration for infographic
Photos of topic research, information you used- could be a screen shot or your hand written notes
Symbols- sketch and pen tool version
color palette
Experimental Type Composition
Final Infographic
Spatial Abstraction
Photos of research/ inspiration
-I decided to put together the first random things/objects/places that came into my mind and those were Manhattan, glass cup of water, wings, and a rubix cube.
initially I wanted to create places that incorporated into tiger stripes but it didn’t work out because the whole element did not seem to match or work out.
- Composition Diagrams of “Classical Symmetrical’ and Asymmetrical”
- Photoshop collage with grid
- Process and finish photos of the final drawing
I wanted to go for a lonely type of expression. Roses and wings can sometimes be seen as loneliness, or feelings like “beauty that cannot be touched”. I pictured a person sitting alone in a bar on a lonely night in Manhattan where they have a drink to themselves, detached from others, and tried to put it together into a piece that appeals to people’s eyes and aesthetics.
Overall I enjoyed this project and am proud of the final drawing, although, I do wish to have spent more time on it and think about adding vines or thorns that correspond to the roses and “loneliness.”