Tuesday, 27 October 2009
A Struggle for Clarity
Today I feel as if I have had a major breakthrough. The image that I have finally settled on not only expresses my grasp of the concepts taught during this chapter, but seems to be more refined and less cluttered than the images that lead up to its creation.
At the outset of this assignment I researched Digital Art images on the internet and was drawn to Shards by Annette Weintraub with her reflections of the cityscape (see previous entry). 
I was fascinated by the fragments of images she used to create an almost stained glass window effect out of images from a city at night – neon signs, billboards and street lights fracture the surface of her image. I desired to try to celebrate the urban cityscape in my own images. Initially, on moving to Almaty, I detested the high rise apartment blocks and found its sights repulsive. However, over the years I have learnt to see beauty in my surroundings and I wished to show my growing appreciation for urban life.
With this in mind I sought to depict images of the people and everyday images that frequent my life. As I relish the diversity of faces I am surrounded by in Central Asia, I decided to take my sketches of people as a starting point. I then chose images that I see every day in my kitchen as the textures and patterns to use in the various layers.
As I manipulate these images, however, I became increasingly boxed into a certain 
way of developing my ideas. In my effort to create a theme to my collage, I found that my composition was predominantly figurative and literal. The images appeared forced and contrived, and did not appear to reflect the topic “collage”. I found it hard to break out of the mode of wanting to illustrate my ideas of city life, as in a storybook style narrative. All of my attempts at arriving at an image resulted in cluttered and overworked images. Each layer I was using was highly complex and the resulting images conflicted with each other. In each case I tried to start with images that I was personally drawn to and which I felt could be thematically linked into a narrative. Interestingly, these images were already too well developed to be able to function as layers without becoming too labored and
chaotic.
After revisiting the works of fellow students, e.g. the work of “Vixart’s”, and after writing to my tutor, Ayssar Ghassan, I realized that my images were far too crowded to be effective. I needed to stretch myself further to develop a picture which crystallized its use of imagery. I also saw that the blending techniques used here, were applied with greater subtlety. On studying Vixart’s Assignment #3’s image was deceptively simple and yet used layering in a way which I had not yet explored completely. These reflections were to precipitate my “AA-HA” moment, which was to lead to an image which I feel has the clarity and quality I was striving for.
I was fascinated by the fragments of images she used to create an almost stained glass window effect out of images from a city at night – neon signs, billboards and street lights fracture the surface of her image. I desired to try to celebrate the urban cityscape in my own images. Initially, on moving to Almaty, I detested the high rise apartment blocks and found its sights repulsive. However, over the years I have learnt to see beauty in my surroundings and I wished to show my growing appreciation for urban life.
With this in mind I sought to depict images of the people and everyday images that frequent my life. As I relish the diversity of faces I am surrounded by in Central Asia, I decided to take my sketches of people as a starting point. I then chose images that I see every day in my kitchen as the textures and patterns to use in the various layers.
As I manipulate these images, however, I became increasingly boxed into a certain 
way of developing my ideas. In my effort to create a theme to my collage, I found that my composition was predominantly figurative and literal. The images appeared forced and contrived, and did not appear to reflect the topic “collage”. I found it hard to break out of the mode of wanting to illustrate my ideas of city life, as in a storybook style narrative. All of my attempts at arriving at an image resulted in cluttered and overworked images. Each layer I was using was highly complex and the resulting images conflicted with each other. In each case I tried to start with images that I was personally drawn to and which I felt could be thematically linked into a narrative. Interestingly, these images were already too well developed to be able to function as layers without becoming too labored and
chaotic.
After revisiting the works of fellow students, e.g. the work of “Vixart’s”, and after writing to my tutor, Ayssar Ghassan, I realized that my images were far too crowded to be effective. I needed to stretch myself further to develop a picture which crystallized its use of imagery. I also saw that the blending techniques used here, were applied with greater subtlety. On studying Vixart’s Assignment #3’s image was deceptively simple and yet used layering in a way which I had not yet explored completely. These reflections were to precipitate my “AA-HA” moment, which was to lead to an image which I feel has the clarity and quality I was striving for.
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