Process Photos
Final Product
IDEA PROCESS
IDEA 1
Alex’s project dealt with the life of her grandfather. She turned a bunch of photos into nonlinear, collage of photos and events. I was thinking I’d make it more linear, to make it more obvious who the focus of the piece is. I was thinking of illustrating Alex’s grandfather at different phases of his life. At first he’d be with his family, mother, father and sister. Alex had included photos of his parents in her collage. This would give the sense of where he came from, and where her family stems from. Then the tragic events of the Holocaust occured and he was on his own. I’d show him growing. Then when he got into the phases where he was in the Olympics and weightlifting. Later when he met the Queen. I’d end with two illustrations, one of him with Alex as a child, and the last with her as she is now, in order to make clear who this is. Alex told a story through her pictures, I think I can translate that story into storybook-like characters.
Materials: paper, pencil, pen, micron pen, copic marker.
IDEA 2
A video collage of different clips and images relating back to the origins of Alex’s family. Steering away from the specifics of her grandfather and more into a general family history. Merge together clips of Poland in the early 1900’s, then get into Holocaust imagery, then airplanes and immigrations to England. Then Windermere, England where her grandfather immigrated to, them to London and get some family fragments and more modern scenes. The video can be playing on a loop kinda. The first time the videos play they play on a full screen. Then two at a time on a split screen. The four at a time on a screen divided into fours, and so on. Hopefully Alex will be willing to let me project the video onto her so that you get the sense that these are the events that made her family’s creation and her creation.
IDEA 3
As I started planning my video, I realized I didn’t want to do a video at all. Once we were assigned to create three mockup drawings, I kept the video idea as one mockup, but continued brain storming. I started drawing in my sketchbook and made kind of a timeline of clothing. I drew with a micron pen detailed line drawings of clothing items that would have been significant to Alex’s family history. This included traditional polish clothing, a striped shirt synonymous with the holocaust, English fashion, and things Alex might where in the modern day. I liked this idea, but it wasn’t strong enough.
IDEA 4: FINAL DECISION
Outline of my partner’s project:
Alex’s project was a very torn apart, intentionally messy collage of old photos of her family members. The central figure was her grandfather, who had a very interesting life. He is a holocaust survivor, an olympic weight lifter, and a knight of the Queen of England. Talking to Alex at the beginning of the project, it sounded like her project was going to be all about her grandfather, but it evolved into a kind of family history. It showed photos of her great grandparents, and other family members all layered on top of each other. She had torn it apart and pasted it back together to show how things happen and change the course of the family, as the tearing happened and changed the look of her project. Her project was also double sided and could be folded and turned and had different layers, like the layers of a family. Talking to Alex, I learned how hearing stories of her Grandfather’s life really effected her and how she was brought up. She also has a great respect for him and her family. The main thing she wanted to convey with her piece was how past generations affect future generations, and that everyone’s story/history is worth telling.
My idea for translating it:
When I was drawing my third mockup in my sketchbook, I started playing around with the idea of silhouettes. I started with a large female silhouette meant to represent Alex, and planned on putting images of her family inside of her. Then I thought, why not make every figure a silhouette. I could individually cut them out in paper and overlap them like a collage, like Alex’s original project. I liked the idea of overlapping and collageing because it felt like a buildup of family history all adding up to create Alex. Her project was very much about her family and how paste generations impact the future ones. I feel like the past generations literally filling up her body, the potential future generation, was a good representation of that. Alex also said all the layering was her favorite part of her project, so I very much tied it into mine. I also included Big Ben, the Empire state Building, a small Polish home in the mountains, and airplanes so symbolize her family’s journey and her journey. Her family moved from Poland to England, and now Alex has moved from England, specifically London to New York. Big Ben also worked out rather well because her grandfather’s name is Ben.
Reflection Questions
– What was the most challenging aspect of collaborating with your partner?
Everyone always puts a very personal aspect into their artwork, and sometimes its hard to talk about. I noticed with Alex, she doesn’t like to share too many details. So talking to her and really understanding what she was trying to do with her work, then figuring out how I could translate it accurately and respectfully was definitely a challenge.
– Did you find anything surprising throughout the translating process?
I found it surprising that through developing your own ideas and going deeper into your own project, you learn more and understand more about what your partner was trying to get at from the beginning.
– What was ‘lost’ in translation? What was gained?
I think the photo aspect was lost. Her project was very photo based, and I chose to use silhouettes, so those personal photos were lost. But I do think what was gained in my project was the clear idea of how our families make us who we are and how past generations effect us.
– What were some things you will take away from the feedback you received in crit?
I was happy with the feedback I got in the crit, most everyone understood all the meaning and symbolism. I think the figures at the bottom kind of got lost and were less noticeable because people didn’t really comment on them. But the really important figures like the great grandparents, the weightlifting, strong, grandfather, and the buildings were all understood really well. I will definitely take the feedback I got from Alex very seriously. It was after all the interpretation of her work. She was very happy with the result of my project, which made me very happy. She liked how well it represented her and what her project meant. However, she did say how the Holocaust imagery wasn’t very gruesome, which makes sense. I tried to get the sadness and loss by making those figures dark colors, but in the end they are just silhouettes. They didn’t really convey the trauma of the Holocaust.
– What do you think was successful about your piece?
I think I successfully conveyed the importance of family and how Alex’s family makes her who she is and that she carries them and their stories with her on her journey through life.
– What do you think was unsuccessful about your piece?
Showing the exact history of the family. I know during the crit, Alex had commented on how the Holocaust imagery wasn’t very violent. So I could have been a bit more specific in my imagery.
– Would you change anything about the piece?
I think the thing I would change about my piece was the size. While making it and having it so close to me, I could clearly see every detail and I thought it was sized appropriately. But when I put it up on the wall, it seemed pretty small and skimpy. So if I were to change anything, I would definitely make it bigger.
