My project is based on the concept of vulnerability. Just by going through my belongings I was able to notice that I felt most comfortable with my planner, headphones, phone, train schedule, and Metrocard. The things I need to get to the places I need to be and maximize efficiency, not only leave me with a sense of fulfillment, but a sense of strength. I often try to limit my exposure to pleasures because of the vulnerability it gives me. There is strength in difficulty, there is strength in isolation, there is beauty in “The Escape.” The “One and Three Still-Lifes” project is based on the idea that differences in presentation of the same scene can convey different messages. The project questions which form is the most accurate representation of the objects/theme being presented. In my piece, I chose to question the definition of objects associated to the concept of escape: eyeglass case, phone, headphones, and metro north railroad schedule. As isolated images they each demonstrate different things: physical objects, a child’s crayon masterpiece, and a deep poem. However, together they convey the various representations of the term escape. The idea of physical escape is represented in the objects selected for the simple technical sketch. There’s a mental escape in the creation of an abstraction, which also forces my critiquer to experience a mental escape,“think-outside-the-box”, in order to make sense of the unexplainable, like a psychologist trying to deconstruct the crayon sketches of a child. The text-based element of the project incorporates all of the above. The letters of escape, are literally exiting the giant printed “E,” the “E” is used as a literal divider for the poem, and the different font, color, sizing, and placement of the terms in the work resemble an escape of the soul.
Eyeglass case, phone, headphones, and Metro-North railroad schedule.
All objects associated with physical and mental escape. The eyeglass case offers an object that acts as an escape for the eyes. The train schedule offers the knowledge needed for an escape of the body, as well as a literal escape of the mind through the act of planning. The headphones are an escape for the ears. Lastly, the phone is an escape of the mind and fingers. These are the objects that I use in my daily life to function productively. To me, being a “functioning” human being means isolating myself from the world and being independent. These objects offer me the space I need to be my best self: ambitious, hardworking, and creative.
In the process of the creation of my abstraction, my Illustrator and Photoshop skills were quite minimal. Even after watching the videos, my experience with the software only consisted of topics mentioned in the videos; however, I used this to my advantage. I randomly drew on different layers in Photoshop, over the different shadows of my original drawing. These random sketches in various softness and sizes created a lighthearted design, similar to a child drawing with crayon on an open surface. Once I completed a quick abstraction, I took a break and reevaluated my work. I noticed that my piece had faint, resembling elements of a beach, pipe, hangman, raspberry, sun, and much more. The piece offers many different perspectives, an aspect of the work I desired to highlight; so I went back into Illustrator and embellished each element of the piece. For example, in previous layers I had made a section of intertwining circles and ovals that resembled the body of a fish–a tailless fish–which I then increased the stroke of and added an abstract “tail,” using the lasso tool to select a unique form in space. Next, for my text-based piece, I made a series of layers. First of these, an off-centered collage on Photoshop of wooden, grey doors, was created on Photoshop, which I then dragged into Illustrator as a new layer. My other photoshopped layer consisted of 2 flattened layers: a red background layer and a brick overlay, taken from the internet. I dragged this second Photoshop image into Illustrator and lowered the opacity to 60%, so the doors underneath would be visible. Finally, I added text on top of the piece, which I built on a separate Illustrator document. The text included a previously written poem, in which I merely manipulated the orientation, font, typeface, color, and boldness of each word. In addition, I incorporated the title of the poem in my piece, because I wanted the title to be a literal and figurative representation of my work. Therefore, the printed title, “Escape,” in itself describes its meaning. The “E” in a giant, boldface type on its side orientation, resembles a box, with the letters, creating the word, literally diffusing into the rest of the piece.
