Studio Journal #9

This week I want to focus on my thesis proposal and what I need to be doing. As it should be, I don't have a definite final product of what I am going to show in May, but I do have some ideas that I have been thinking about. Looking back at the past year, I had a difficult time finding something that I was passionate about. I aimlessly hopped from one topic to another. Even this semester when I finally found an interesting topic, I felt that I was still trying things around without a clear "to do list," which I should've been doing since the start. But then again, I don't think I would've known where I wanted to go anyway. Wanting to do a design project as well for the thesis show, I decided to work on an interactive book or books. It would be interesting if one could open a book and as he/she is flipping through the pages some images would appear. Because of my constant search for an interesting topic, I thought about making a book or rather a journal of my process. But it isn't just about a process of what I've done but more of a discovery process. The world knows that art is powerful; it has the strength to change and challenge ideas, promote inventions, and even keep history alive. I want to discover how a two or three dimensional object is able to make these extraordinary events happen. After all, artists are just putting parts together to make a single object. For example, how does a painting get reactions for the viewers? Through this process I know now that I need to read a lot of books on other people's experiences with art focusing not only on their intentions in making art but also their reactions from seeing art.

Part of the reason why I am leaning towards process is because I believe that it is important to include one's experience in the field that they're pursuing. What have you learned the past three years and even this year at Mason Gross? What new ideas did you develop that you never thought of before? What experiences did you gain from teachers, peers, and/or the environment? What is the meaning of becoming an artist? Is it to make change in our communities or about the process or both? I always thought that art schools focused on techniques and praised those that had extreme talent. But it wasn't until my teachers started asking me more open-ended and abstract questions about what artwork could mean or how can it be influential that I began to wonder why I was even in art school in the first place. What do I want to use my artwork for? Why do I paint or make designs? Why is art important? What is the value of art?

I plan to concentrate harder in reading more resources and applying them to my paintings. I realized that hopping around from one topic to another serves no purpose in developing and showing the real power of art.

To do List:

-write a coherent thesis proposal

-stretch canvases

-Read the book, "Complete Mondrian" by Marty Bax: It has a short written text on Mondrian's biography in the beginning of the book, but includes the influences and the intentions/explanation of some paintings that Mondrian portrayed. Also, the rest of the book contains pictures of most of Mondrian's works.

-Read the book, "A Decade of Thinking" by Mira Schor

Book Description from Amazon:

"A Decade of Negative Thinking brings together writings on contemporary art and culture by the painter and feminist art theorist Mira Schor. Mixing theory and practice, the personal and the political, she tackles questions about the place of feminism in art and political discourse, the aesthetics and values of contemporary painting, and the influence of the market on the creation of art. Schor writes across disciplines and is committed to the fluid interrelationship between a formalist aesthetic, a literary sensibility, and a strongly political viewpoint. Her critical views are expressed with poetry and humor in the accessible language that has been her hallmark, and her perspective is informed by her dual practice as a painter and writer and by her experience as a teacher of art."

-Start a painting that is similar to the print out sketches I've been making.

Studio Journal #8

Paper Towel and Mac (Color). Christine Huang. November 2011.

Last week I worked on another version of the "Paper Towel and Mac" but this time with color. I decided that I needed to overcome the challenge of dealing with infinite color possibilities and just paint. This is the beginning of the color version. The drip on the right side is interesting and I've been thinking about using that aspect to create lines. So far, the colors aren't really working for me, but I will work on it more.

Hook. Christine Huang. November 2011.

During my critique with Catherine Murphy, she pointed out the interesting part that was in "Dresser," which was the part on the right that is angled similar to a hook. The line comes from the left with a horizontal placement but then when it reaches the right edge, it comes around into a diagonal line ending at the left side again. I reproduced the "hook" again in "Hook," which is only 6"x6". In this painting, I thought it was interesting how the hook lines come and intercept the space. In addition, it creates another plane (as if a piece of paper) that would enter from the left side towards the middle. I experimented by shading in limited shapes to see if two planes can be depicted. When I shaded in the darker tone for the "paper" plane, it turned out flat rather than on an angle. So I decided to use my palette knife and paint in the direction the "paper" plane would go. I don't think it quite works yet. Perhaps I will need to fill in all the shapes, but I thought the cleanliness of just the lines was very strong.

Untitled. Christine Huang. November 2011.

It's been a while when I last worked on this painting. I added in some more mid tones, cool and warm tones, to see what kind of relationships they can create on the same canvas.

Studio Journal #7: The Journey and Infinite Lines ~ Questions

This week I began my exploration on circular edges. Over the weekend, I finished a small painting (6"x6") that focuses on circular shapes.

Paper Towel and Mac. 2011. Christine Huang.

The mid tones turned out pretty interesting. I wanted to fragment the canvas by "chunking" shapes together with similar tones. Here, I tried to split the canvas into three parts, with the diagonal sections running from top left to bottom right. I also intended to emphasize the section of the paper towel. This way, the two middle sections will run into and through each other, while sharing the same mid tones that lie in the middle of the intersection. I also experimented with the darker mid tones in the areas where they were surrounded by lighter mid tones. I wanted to see if those areas would read as a light area even though there are some darker tones in the area.

Yesterday I had a critique with artist Catherine Murphy. The critique went well and in my opinion, she gave constructive criticisms that were worth thinking about. At the end of the meeting, there were several questions that came to mind, which I thought about the whole day. Some topics I thought about were: relating the traditional school of thought to the time of the artist, having evidence of journey (with tension, intentions, discovery) and time in the painting, and finally, challenging oneself by putting something in the way. From what I got after hearing Catherine's thoughts on painting was that when she looks at paintings, she thinks about how she can change certain areas, making them better or different. I suppose this was something she was trying to question me with my infinite line paintings. How do they differ from Mondrian's paintings? Or what meaning/significance do they have. Because I was consumed by these questions, I decided to ask Professor Hanneline for her opinion in my meeting with her today. I asked her if artists today or in any time period have to follow the trend of artistic style during their particular time. For example, would I need to follow post modernism? Is it boring to paint realistic still lives? She told me that that wasn't so. I could follow Mondrian if I wanted to, but going further and beyond where he left off. I thought this was interesting. Perhaps right now I am at a point where he ended. What if there is more to basic lines and shapes? The second question was hard for me to grasp. How does one show time and discovery visually? (or at least, all in one painting?) After talking with Hanneline, I realized that discovery and experimentation in a painting isn't just about a painting that was finished in a one-time sitting; rather, showing experimentation perhaps would be to go back to that same painting numerous times, changing things (i.e. lines and colors) which will unfold new discoveries. This reminds me of all those times when I am afraid to make more marks on the canvas, afraid that the new marks will somehow make the paintings worse. Catherine told me that we will always have fear in our lives. We will never overcome those fears unless we take the initiative. The last question I had intrigued me. One thing that Catherine questioned was the placement of the lines in my paintings. At first, I blamed the positions of the lines on the object that I was looking at. But now, I realized that I can adjust it, just how one would crop the things they saw to make a more interesting composition. I feel as if I somehow went back to the basics of just looking at something plainly. Today when I talked with Hanneline, she posed some questions that could be brought up in my paintings: for example, if the paintings were fragmented among the shapes, how much of the shapes are still coherent? OR is it unreasonable at first glance at the rigorously painted shapes and tones, but when looked upon closely there is a different sort of experience? Perhaps there are contradictions in the paintings? At first, I felt that I didn't get the feedback I wanted to hear from yesterday's critique, but as of now, I believe those constructive criticisms were actually beneficial in enabling me to think further and deeper about what my paintings mean to me. Furthermore, getting a second opinion from Professor Hanneline was also beneficial in reassurance in some points and openings to new ideas. These two days have been a new revelation for me in terms of thinking about painting as a theoretical topic rather than a technical topic.

Studio Journal #6: The Journey and Infinite Lines

Doorway. Christine Huang. Finished 2011.

I finally finished this painting, which was frustrating since it wasn't what I originally thought it would turn out. My sketch had much fewer mid tones. But because the lack of mid tones didn't seem complete in this painting, which can be seen in earlier photos, I decided to fill in as many shapes as I could while making the painting look balance. In my critique last Wednesday, I was told to mix a much wider range of mid tones. After the critique, I mixed more mid tones and began to apply them to the painting. I think the results look more finished; although, I feel that it was not entirely successful.

Dresser. Christine Huang. Finished 2011.

This painting is also finished and submitted into the BFA Annual. Because I was unsure how thickness of the lines should play in my Infinite Lines Series and the shapes that are created, I decided for this painting, to make the lines more pronounced than the almost-non-existent-lines in "Doorway." To make the lines straighter, I used the edge of a palette knife to help with that problem. I also didn't care to clean up the places where more blotches of paint accidentally touched the canvas when creating the lines. I feel that they go with the idea of "chance."

Dresser #2. Christine Huang. Finished 2011.

Dresser #2 was interesting because during the critique, the idea of illusions was mentioned. The "illusion" of circles that are located in the intersections of the thick lines begin to appear when your eyes look around the lines. I thought that was an interesting idea; playing around with illusions. I suppose my original idea was sort of an illusion in that the lines depict an actual representation; however, the blocks of colors flatten out the surface plane and only in some areas where the lines of the representational object are traced out can the three dimensional space pop out. I think one can see more of the tension in this painting. When only looking at the lines, the diagonal lines seem to draw out two planes that seem to intersect with each other. However, when only looking at the mid tones, the whole canvas surface seems to be flattened out.

Rectangle. Christine Huang. Finished 2011.

I felt that this painting is really successful. My initial motivation to this piece was that I wanted to just paint a canvas black. At first, I thought that painting the surface of a canvas the same way as one would paint a wall, but then realized how boring that would be. Then, as I added globs of black paint onto the canvas, I began to move the paint around and try to depict a waterfall scene. But, it wasn't going to well in the sense of space and texture of the water plus rocks. Taking the idea of texture and representation, I decided to depict water waves in the ocean. I was able to apply even more globs of paint while using the surfaces and points of the palette knife to create various textures. My thoughts after painting this were: what if I were to paint a series of mid toned canvases with various textures. Although, I'm not quite sure what that would mean except that it would look "cool" and be fun to do. My other thought was what if I had various sized one mid tone for each squares and rectangles, and put them together and created a representational infinite lines collaboration artwork out of these shapes. Rather than drawing the lines, the lines would be defined by the edges of the canvases and rather than creating the shapes, the shapes would be already created. So I suppose this process/idea would be considered as an opposite of what I am doing now.

Studio Journal #5: The Journey and Infinite Lines

Friday, October 14, 2011

On Friday, my thesis critique group B had another critique session. I showed all the sketches and paintings, except "Bag", that are in my last blog entry. I explained that I came up with this idea of extending corners and lines infinitely. There are some sketches that include circles. I was trying to see if there was any way to make circles infinite; it seems impossible since they're closed shapes. While sketching, I could see some kind of relation with Piet Mondrian's Neo-classicism paintings with the lines and shapes. However, rather than simplifying the canvas down into the basics of just lines and the primary colors, I'm more interested in the infinite lines coming together to make new shapes and the balance of the mid tones. Although the addition of lines and blocks of mid tones may flatten out the image perhaps to the point of abstraction, but I see them as representational artworks.

Sunday's Work

I went to the studio on Sunday to transfer my sketches onto canvas. Perhaps because the canvas sizes are different than the size of the frames I drew in my sketchbook that made the paintings look unbalanced. While I was painting, I had some issues of whether to make the lines thin or thick.

Doorway. Christine Huang. October 2011.

If the lines are too thin, like in this one, I feel that the blocks of grays seem lost in this painting. Unlike the sketch, this painting so far seems far from finished and lacks filled in shapes.

Dresser #2. Christine Huang. October 2011.

I painted these lines quickly without bothering if they were straight or not. Then I painted in the mid tones. You can see that two triangles were painted in. I was trying to also show repetition among similar shapes created by the lines and more defined by the mid tones.

Dresser. Christine Huang. October 2011.

In this painting, I tried a little bit of using thin black lines. I'm not quite sure if I want to leave the pencil markings or continue the darker lines.

Untitled. Christine Huang. October 2011.

I touched up on this painting a little bit. It'll still need some more work.

Tuesday's Work

Today, I went in to work on my infinite lines series, especially since I want to submit them to the BFA Annual. I'm curious at the shapes that are being created when the lines are extended infinitely. While painting, I decided to scrap my sketches and continue painting based on the paintings themselves. In an image with so many lines, so many shapes can be created. I wanted the filled in shapes to "talk" with one another not only in tone, but also in placement and the shapes they create together. In the shapes, such as the long vertical rectangles or even the horizontal line at the bottom, I also wanted to create a sort of movement. I'm also leaving in all the error lines I've made while I was working out the lines. I feel that everything I do should stay on the canvas and leave it up to chance to make something.

Doorway. Christine Huang. October 2011.

Dresser #2. Christine Huang. 2011.

Dresser. Christine Huang. 2011.

Untitled Broken Up. Christine Huang. October 2011.

I added the darker shade of gray in the middle area, which is working with the bottom half of the painting. However, the top still needs to be resolved.

Studio Journal #4: The Journey on Its Way Part 2

Sketches. Christine Huang. 2011.10.12.

Untitled. Christine Huang. 2011

I worked more on this painting because I felt that more layers of paint was needed. Also, I had premixed the mid-tones and wanted to smooth out the edges using the mid-tones. I will continue to work on this painting.

Untitled. Christine Huang. 2011.10.12

In this painting, I continued with my study of windows in correspondence with the canvas shape. This one isn't finished yet and will need additional layers of paint. But I like the idea of a rectangle within a rectangle.

Untitled Broken Up. Christine Huang. 2011.10.12.

For this painting, I wondered what if the edges of things could go on forever. What will happen? I decided to take the doorway painting and extend all the lines. Another aspect I wanted to portray was using geometric shapes. While the window and doorway are all in the painting, they are hidden within in the lines. When color is added, the representation of both objects are lost even further. In a sense, I wanted to somehow divide the canvas into three sections and have the middle section be pushed back into space. However, this painting didn't really turn out the way I wanted, like the one in my sketches. The colors didn't seem to be in a balanced position on the canvas. I will try another painting like this one this coming week.

Bag. Christine Huang. 2011.10.12.

I feel that like with the lack of color, the lack of painting a still life, and only constantly painting architecture, will drive me a little crazy. For this unfinished painting, I decided to start off with painting a still life using the mid-tone colors I already mixed. Like the other paintings from this week, I will continue to work on this one as well.

Studio Journal #3: The Journey on Its Way

This past weekend I went to work in my studio. I realized that working with just black and white tones the second half of last Spring semester and continuing to do so now hinders my continuing experience painting with colors. So I decided that I should, on the side of my black and white paintings, continue to paint with colors.

Untitled. Christine Huang. 2011.

As can be seen in this first painting the lacking usage in the mixture and variety of colors. I noticed that there were times I had difficulties choosing the specific colors for the canvas. There are unless possibilities of mixtures that I hesitated when painting the colors, which should not be the case. I believe it is up most important to continue with other, on the side, colored paintings.

Untitled. Christine Huang. 2011.

This is just an experimental piece still in its beginnings. I wanted to see if I could use lines to make some sort of grid, but not so apparent, and have the lines be positioned in a certain way that they create a sense of balance even if they are not all symmetrical. The colors added were a way to experiment with representation without really being obvious as well. I will need to work more on this idea.

Untitled. Christine Huang. 2011.

This is my latest black and white painting concerning with windows and doorways. It is still not complete; I would like to add thicker layers of the mid-tones. I found the drastic contrast between the lightest gray and black to be very appealing. After looking at this painting, even though its still not done, I'm thinking about whether to paint with a texture-feeling or smooth out the colors. In this painting, I used both the palette knife and brush and found the juxtaposition of both tool application makes the painting interesting to look at.

Sketches. Christine Huang. 2011.

Sketches. Christine Huang. 2011.

The two pictures above are two pages from my sketchbooks. I began to look into how the geometric shapes of windows, buildings, doorways, etc. relate in comparison with the shape of the canvas itself. In the second left sketch of the first picture and the first sketch of the second picture I played around with the idea of framing the canvas with the various identities of the building, which in this case is mostly the window. The other sketches, in particular, the second sketch of the second picture, I began to think about the idea of how fast I want to reveal what I'm depicting to the viewer. While sketching, I've been thinking about using the light, dark and mid-tones to help slowly reveal what is being depicted, which sounds like an interactive puzzle needing a lot of attention in order to get the answer.

Studio Journal #2: The Journey Continues...

Last Wednesday, I had my critique in my Advanced Painting class and there were some artists suggested for me to look at: Troy Brauntuch, Kathe Kollwitz, Matvey Levenstein and Catherine Murphy. Many of my classmates also liked the window painting and suggested the idea of looking at architecture space within the frame and structure of the canvas itself. Thus, perhaps looking at doorways and frames, etc. Furthermore, with the black and white paint, there comes the question of how fast or slow the image should be revealed to the audience. Lastly, rather than stains, which I have been doing with taking away paint with cloth or paper, I should try to mix the midtones and paint them in.

Below are some of the works by the two artists I mentioned in my last journal entry:

Vincent Desiderio. Laughing Woman. 2010.

Vincent Desiderio. Sink. 2010.

Vincent Desiderio. Bride. 2011.

Vincent Desiderio. Mourning and Fecundity II. 2011.

Anne Neely. Kettle Hole. 2010-2011.

Anne Neely. Pond Park. 2009-2011.

Anne Neely. Aglow. 2011

Studio Journal #1: The Beginning of Another Mysterious Journey

Last Friday was the first small group critique. At first I thought it would be a long, four and half hours, boring, and quiet critique. But it turned out to be very useful and fun, especially learning more about fellow classmates' artworks and their ideas. When it was my turn to talk about my artwork, I showed the class the latest work that I had worked on towards the end of the spring semester in my painting III-b class. Because I was unsure about the direction I wanted to focus my painting on, I had decided to start from the basics, stripping my canvases from color and using limited amount of paint. Through these limitations, along with just using the black color I made from mixing blue and brown as well as the use of mineral spirits to thin out my paint to limit the paint quantity, I found that I began to paint in a way similar to watercolor as well as drawing. I first laid down the dark color to stain the canvas and then use the mineral spirits to begin moving the paint around, darkening certain places, as well as dabbing at the paint with a cloth to produce lighter areas. I found this process to be analogous to the rubber eraser taking charcoal or graphite from the paper to produce the sense of light.

"Bottle". Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

Furthermore, just how in drawing one would use a lot of charcoal or graphite for the dark shaded areas to give a more drastic contrast of light and dark, I added in a thicker application of paint to the darkest areas. Although much detail and meticulous handiwork was needed in each one, which took quite some time to finish one small painting, I found the experience and process, being able to push paint around to create light and shadows, to be calm, peaceful, relaxing, and fun.

"Window." Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

I feel that this technique also allows me to interact physically with my artwork. Other than applying paint with my paintbrushes, I also use my cloth and fingers to push around/take away the paint. One of the issues I wanted to have working in my artworks is interaction; during the critique we talked a little bit about the ways the audience could interact with the artworks. An example I showed in class were my interactive design books:

"Book on the 'Three Short Essays on Technology' by Virginia Hefferman". Spring 2010. Christine Huang. Pictures taken by Stephen Bondio.

"Radiation". Spring 2011. Christine Huang. Pictures taken by Stephen Bondio.

I always found pop-up books fascinating because rather than just reading the

story, the reader got to visualize the scenery better as well as interact with the scenery and perhaps characters and other things of the story as well. For the "Radiation" book, my design II-b class and I had to pick an event and create a book. I decided to pick the Japanese radiation event because it was current (and still is) at the time and provided me with abundant amount of information. I began to focus my book towards a journal-like feel. I believed that when a crisis occurs, it is hard to stay calm, especially with the media spitting out news here and there like wildfire.

In addition, some news may be misleading or false, which would scare readers, those especially in the crisis, even further. So I began to work my book into a two-idea format; the first, with the journal, including articles posted during the first few days of the radiation leakage. The second format is with the tiny booklets, posters, pictures, newspaper articles, and small postcards that all contain information and research on what is radiation. I wanted to portray the idea that while the media may be throwing out what could sound like so many scary news, one needs to know the knowledge and function of the object being mediated in order to make calm decisions and sort out false information. In my book, I include a radiation definition at the bottom of each page to help further the learning of radiation.

I know that for my thesis, I would like to incorporate interaction in some way for both my painting and design projects. As of now, my ideas for both painting and design are separate, as in, I have not yet figured out if I wanted to combine both mediums to make one project for thesis or not. An idea that came from class, mentioned by Tom, was the projection of a fake wall, installed into the gallery. From what I heard, I got that it would be an interesting idea if people were able to go up to the wall and pull out things (perhaps artworks or books) from this wall. I think it's a radical move, especially away from the tradition of hanging paintings on the wall; instead of being flat against the wall, an interactive painting, perhaps, would be vertical in the wall. More thinking is definitely needed to develop this creative idea; for example, the process that people would be touching the artwork and whether or not that is the intention of interaction~to let the artworks get messed up. Perhaps the way for interaction can be restricted to the visual senses only. Just how in Tim's artwork, one needed to go up close to see all the various sizes of blotches creating a whole imagery when seen from further away, or Ryan's outdoor paintings with multiple brushstrokes, quantity and application of paint, which two paintings were painted on thick cardboard that stuck way out from the wall. Going back to the idea of stripping my colors and starting from the basics, I began to paint self-portraits because I wanted something tangible that I could paint and see from. In other words, I stayed away from abstraction, surrealism, etc. What's more convenient than self portraits when one has a mirror?

"Self-Portraits". Spring 2011. Christine Huang.

Although they do not look the same, they are part of my process in finding what I want to paint and further understanding what I enjoy about this thin-application-of-paint technique.

Over the summer, I thought of what I wanted to paint and came up with trying to portray this idea that although I'm not an adult, I still think like a child most of the time. However, Gerry pointed out that it isn't so much of a child in an adult body, but more of being scared of transitions, which I think is a powerful word ~ "transition." My classmates talked about the window painting and how that may signify the fear of transitions, the fear of going out of the comfort zone and into the world of the unknown.

Over the weekend, I went to NYC to visit the galleries in Chelsea. I mainly tried to visit painting shows to see the various applications of paint that other artists use in their paintings. (I will post pictures in my next post ~ it's always very inconvenient posting pictures on blogger...) Anyway, one of the galleries I visited was the Lohin Geduld Gallery, where it is presenting works by Anne Neely. Neely uses an overwhelming thick application of paint along with extreme gloss added to make the paintings look smooth and wet. I find that the application of thick paint is very satisfying and would like to incorporate it along with the application of thin paint in a painting together. Another set of artworks that intrigued me are those of Vincent Desiderio, whose works are currently being shown at the Marlborough Gallery. Painted on gigantic canvases, the dramatic and overwhelming depictions of people seem realistic with smooth-like features of the body and setting. There are some paintings, such as the "Laughing Women" that have a more distinctive depiction of brushstrokes, which livens up the painting.

Since Saturday, I've worked on two paintings, based off of pictures I took while I was in NYC. I found that during the process, when I didn't have cloth, but used paper instead to pull away the paint, the paper was an interesting "tool" to create texture and patterns on the canvas. Despite the small canvas size, I find that it is good practice and idea flowing processing to paint more on the smaller canvases. I plan to paint on bigger canvases to see what feelings viewers get as opposed to the intimate and calm the smaller canvases produce.

"The Window Ledge". September 2011. Christine Huang.

"The Door". September 2011. Christine Huang.

The Interview Project

Stephen Bondio is a student at Mason Gross School of the Arts majoring in graphic design but is also interested in print and photo. The following interview relates his ideas about his works.

Christine: What is your concentration?

Stephen: I’m going for graphic design and on the side of that I’m taking print and photo classes.

Christine: What made you decide to concentrate in design?

Stephen: Growing up I’ve been around a lot of and worked at a skate park, it’s been my job since 10^th grade. I’ve just been around bunch of deck designs for snowboards, skateboards, etc. just all that in all. I’ve always been around since I started skateboarding and flipped through magazines and always wanted to do art for companies that dealt with extreme sports.

Christine: So did the advertising part appeal to you most or was it mostly the set up of the skate park?

Stephen: I just like the culture of it all, how everyone comes together and has fun with what they’re doing. I feel that every company all the graphic designers and artists are all one happy family and it would be cool to be a part of that family. Along with skating there’s so much video and photography and that’s how I started getting into photography too.

Christine: I see you have a lot of photos. Would you be able to talk about them?

Stephen: I like portraits. The thing about my art is trying to see how the world affects people. Every portrait is different. Every person is different and going from portrait to portrait you can tell they’re completely different people, you don’t know their background, or the facts about them, but it’s cool to have them standing there and think about what they have gone through in their life.

You become shaped when you’re younger to become who you are [now]. So it’s cool to see everyone’s lives layout. That’s why a lot of the photos are portraits for that reason. I also like repetition. Some of the photos you’ll see repetition, like the coke bottles, the idea of the meat, and in these the bananas, the fence.

Christine: I have a question [statement] about the portraits. You know how people sit or stand for a portrait, they’re not in their natural state, so in a way it seems they’re posing.

Stephen: Some of the portraits are random.

Christine: Did you just take the photograph at the moment?

Stephen: This was when this guy was walking down the street and I [asked] if I could get a portrait for an environmental project. [He was taking a picture?] He’s a surveyor and he came doing his work. It was kind of cool because we were dealing with large form cameras and this kind of look like a large form camera.

Christine: You’re interested in the mysterious-ness?

Stephen: I also did prints on conspiracy, how people interact with their surroundings and how everyone’s so unique in their own individual. These photos [have] the line where how if you’re in these areas, there’s that fine line, like do you feel comfortable or uncomfortable.

These are just basic shots around New Brunswick, at times it might look safe but the change of day makes it an equally different scenario. This picture is the hub and it’s perfectly fine but at night when you go out there there’s a bunch of homeless sitting outside and there’s people running in and out there, shady. But you would never think that, it looks normal.

Christine: What I don’t see is people.

Stephen: Yeah, kind of just awkward situations. Like this one, the steps just lead to nowhere.

Christine: There’s a mystery out there.

Stephen: There’s a security in the back door. Like the two red hand prints.

Christine: What inspires you for both photography and design?

Stephen: I like a lot of skate photography like Atida Ferguson. He does skate stuff but he does big projects too. His portfolio can be like Lebron James or Aircast. He’s all over the place. I like Terry Richardson too because he’s got a real real raw, obnoxious [pictures]. You got to just look at his pictures to understand.

His pictures are real dirty, but they’re interesting because he gets a lot of famous people, like he shot President Obama but also everyone from Jackass. He’s got famous pictures and he does one of these white walls and flashes; it’s a really high flash, literally pictures of people on this white wall, which is where I got the idea for this one. So that’s the two photographers that I like, but they’re definitely different. I would want to pull a little away from them and have my own [style]. Because of Mason Gross since it’s so rush I feel I’ve been pulling from different areas. I haven’t really put all together and pick a one way or style.

Christine: Why photography and design and not another medium?

Stephen: I feel that graphic design deals with a lot of pictures and I used to do a lot of print too. So I feel like taking print and photography and getting the general idea that they all come together as one. Painting…I didn’t take many art classes. When I started doing art it was more outside of high school. So the two years I’ve spent before I transferred here I messed around with stuff. I did a little bit [of art] in high school but not as much as most kids would. I only had two classes actually in high school, that’s why I feel like silk-screening that’s print and on all the decks. All the decks are silk screened. A lot of shirts are silk-screened, and going through magazines you see a lot of photos. There’s a person that puts it all together and designs.

Christine: So it’s a quick process, something you can duplicate or mass produce?

Stephen: It’s one of those things that I want to know a little bit of everything so I thought those two would be the perfect fit for my electives.

Christine: What are your ideas about photo manipulation? What are your thoughts about people who change photos using Photoshop?

Stephen: I think it’s really cool if you do the right away. [What do you mean by right way?] Some things are overly Photoshop-ed but are good if they’re comical but if they’re real serious it’s dumb because you’re just using the computer way too much, and it drowns everything. [So it’s subtle] It’s got to be really obnoxious for me to point that it’s comical or that it’s got to be real subtle so it doesn't ruin the actual photograph.

Christine: But then it’s not what it really is.

Stephen: I feel that you just need to use Photoshop the right way. [To make something else, another art.] I feel that it’s a whole different ball game because there are photographers that’s real studio and others that do a lot of Photoshop.

Christine: Photographs are quick or finding the place to snap is harder?

Stephen: I think developing, finding the right colors. For the color prints, you got to mess around a lot, got to do a lot of test strips, and you finally get something that looks good. I don’t have a problem with finding places because I’m kind of curious, I don’t mind going on adventure to go find a cool place to take pictures of. [Developing] for me is more of a process because after you get your film you don’t want to mess up your film and then taking care of negatives. I have so many negatives all the time. Making sure they’re all in order and then when going to print them making sure everything is all right. I want to make sure there’s enough highlights, blacks and whites, and make sure nothing is too dark or too bright.

Christine: Is process also what you feel in graphic design?

Stephen: Yeah I feel I have enough ideas but then when I go about doing them I am really picky as to what I finally end up doing. I go through a lot of different ideas until I finally get to something I think is right.

Christine: Of all the projects you did so far, website, a book, advertisements, which one did you find the best?

Stephen: I like both final projects. I think the book came out really well and the bag project, I did a box and I thought that came out really well.

Since I worked at a skate park during Christmas and parents always want a box to put different parts in just so you can wrap it. So I made a box that will fit most things. [What kind of parts would you put in it?] Skateboard wheels, barring, trucks, because it was based on the company so I did the company I worked for a while. I designed the box and incorporated with textures I found, took pictures of the ramps, the top looks like a skateboard deck. In skateboard people sometimes have logos on their decks so I cut the logo of the actual company onto the box. Looking from above it looks like a skateboard. That and the book I feel are great.

Christine: Do you like commercial art? Working for someone?

Stephen: I would definitely want to work for someone but also do my own thing on the side. I would want to do something graphics for t-shirts. None of my works is really graphic in that sense, working like a clothing company. But I would want to start something on the side and since there’s a whole scene of a lot of people, independent lines and coming out with so much each season, it’s just interesting. I would do something, just a line with just three or four shirts, certain size run, and go from there and then wait until fall, spring, summer. [Just like limited edition?] Yes, limited edition. I would, like I said before, like to work with a big skateboard company where everyone comes together and does project and design stuff together.

Christine: What are some things that you think needs work on?

Stephen: I guess probably, now when I go back, the website, working on website, html. [Learning the codes or stylizing?] Stylizing, which stinks because I’m only in Design II and III now, and there’s a lot of information to take in. That’s why I focus on photography even though I know I want to do graphic design.

Christine: What do you think is working well for you now?

Stephen: I think my photographs are even though there’s a bunch of themes I feel like that photography helped me a lot.

Christine: Have you thought of a way to maybe combine the two?

Stephen: Like a mixed media? [Yeah] I was thinking about actually for my thesis taking ideas of printing on top of photographs, taking different areas. Say like a big open field and somehow silk-screening stuff over it [Like layers?] yes, layers on top of photographs, silkscreen layers on top of photographs with intransigent transparency so from a distant you can’t really see but doing these real city shots, and have things hidden inside. That or taking design, which is all about typography, since it’s so industrial, once a typeface is made, it’s all pumped out and everyone can use it. A typeface is very organic because they’re all different. Maybe taking cinderblock walls, the whole industrial part of it, because they’re very hard and solid. There’s not a lot of graffiti art, but I love to follow street art, I’m a big fan. Anytime I’m in the city, I constantly look at stuff, graffiti and stickers. There’s a way to paint with moss and take these big walls and write with the moss and then it grows into what you write. [Would it be everywhere? Like on the streets or at school?] I was thinking just building cinderblock walls and just be installations. They would be outside and when it’s time for the show [I would] go out, get them and have them sitting in different areas. [It would also be with process and mysterious] yes, you don’t how it got there, how did I cut the moss? That’s the two things I was thinking about doing. There’s just a mixed, taking something, like photography, and turning into something else. Or taking the idea of type and graffiti, transforming it into something no one has seen before or have an idea how it’s been done. I don’t want to put a poster on the wall. I feel that’s too boring, too literal, and too cliché. [What if you had the moss growing out of the poster?] If I were going to do the moss I can take pictures of it so even if I had one wall actually in the show, I can have other pictures of what I did around.