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I really enjoyed the activity we did on Monday. I was trying to deal with themes of body image and the narrative that American fashion places on people of all genders. I know the idea has probably been done before by collage artists, and I am sure it has been tackled by artists that work in other mediums, but it was a new area for me to tackle. I wanted to show the absurdity and specificity of the American standard for “what looks good”. I was also interested in how that is portrayed. I felt that the catalog portrayed a strong sense of male and female archetypes in order to sell the images. The men and women wore typically straight cis-gendered clothing that appealed to the typical traits of masculinity and professionalism, and femininity and style, respectively. I wanted to play around with these images to see what implications arose when I mixed and matched the traits of the different traits the models seemed to portray. So, I cut out some of the heads of the models and placed them on the bodies of different models. I also replaced some of the men’s legs with women’s legs.

I was inspired by how the catalog creators chose the images and the models they thought would appeal to a general audience. They had men’s bargain suits, blazers, and pants. They also had women’s blouses, pants, purses, and hats. These are pieces of clothing that everyone needs at some point in their life (women’s accessories and the men’s clothing are not everyday essentials, however). In other words, the catalog, based on the items it featured and the models it featured, is meant to appeal to everyone between the ages of 18 and 55. The catalog creators do not necessarily want to discriminate a certain demographic from buying their material. On the contrary, they want everyone to buy their products – they want the most business possible, after all. However, I did find it interesting that the models they showed wearing their products were mostly young or youthful-looking, attractive white men and women. This, of course, is nothing new – catalogs and magazines have always used these kinds of models because that is what looks best and that is what sells their product.

The problem for me arises when companies expect people who do not look like their models to buy their products. Again, this is nothing new and I am sure most people have recognized this by now, however it exposes a problematic presumption that companies have about the American consumer: it is that the American consumer will buy anything in a catalog that looks appealing in order to make themselves become more appealing. Why do we automatically default to young, white attractive people when considering if we should buy something to make ourselves look better? The obvious answer is that the majority of people who look at these catalogs will likely be white. But what about the people who are not white? Are they to buy the items from the catalog too? There is an unintended arrogance embedded in the composition of these catalogs that non-white consumers should buy these products even they are not considered or minimally considered. That said, there were a few black male and female models. To be clear, it’s not that having predominantly white male and female models is inherently wrong – on the contrary, it makes sense to have so many of these kinds of models. But, in an America headed by the Trump administration (and all the social implications that that title entails), and in a time when Americans seemingly or split on key societal issues, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at images we so often take for granted and deconstruct why we believe in them or why we agree with them. The same arrogance (or ignorance, or apathy) that catalog creators have when catering to its audience, is the same arrogance that Donald Trump has as he sets the tone for his presidency in a post-Obama America. In turn, this arrogance will inevitably be “bought” by those who choose to support him and so lives on the cyclical nature of arrogance. It is not that Donald Trump is necessarily a bad person, just like the catalog creators did not set out to marginalize minorities, it is that when these images and ideas are consumed by the masses, we are buying into ideologies that may end up hurting us.

Having not created a collage since I was in elementary school, our exercise Monday morning was quite the throwback for me. To reiterate a point that Professor Serrano stated during our class, it was a very relaxing experience. Bringing together images and scraps from numerous magazines and creating something on a blank piece of paper was quite rewarding. I found that I lost track of the time and was completely focused on thinking about the direction of my collage. Personally, I am very un-artistic. However, I found that making a collage was more about creativity and vision. Because of this, I felt more confident in the process and wasn’t self-conscious that my final product was going to be terrible.

While I am excited for our digital workshop on Wednesday, I know that for my final project I will be making a collage. The relaxing nature of creating a collage combined with the fact that strategic/creative planning are the key elements in being successful really appealed to me. I look forward to starting my final project!

The Monday’s Collage workshop was so much fun. Because of the Julia Jacquette’s exhibition on meat and salads, my eyes were  immediately to the supermarket promotion pages and found the bowl of eggs in the image above. The eggs then reminded me of the past Easter and bunnies, so I looked through another magazine called ‘Easter Ideal’. The green bunny on one of the pages was really catchy. At the moment I saw it, I started to wonder if I could not only create a picture, but imposed a story about the green bunny stealing eggs from the ducks’ houses like those stories in children’s books. Also, I am always wondering about the origin of Easter and its relationship to eggs and bunnies, so it will be great to have another story to tell kids about Easter just like Santa Claus to Christmas. Thus, I found two ducks in the same magazine and the only thing left would be the background.

I should have done the background first before I glued any of the figures. I started to realize how hard it was for Max Ernst to build the structure in his minds and finish the whole book in three weeks. He must have had a nature of talent and a passionate soul to work days and nights on it. Since our class will cover another children’s book on bunnies next week, I figure it would be a good idea to include this collage into the final illustration project.

Yesterday’s collage workshop gave me much more of an appreciation for all of the work that went into Max Ernst’s book. He cut out all of the images he used so well that they almost seamlessly blend together, which it turns out is pretty hard to do. The workshop also made me wonder about Ernst’s creative process. How much of each section or page did he have planned out ahead of time and how much did he allow the images he had on hand to influence him? I went into the workshop with a couple ideas about scenes that I might like to use for my final illustration and then let the images available influence which of those ideas I chose.

Collage is an interesting medium because it seems like the images you have available will always influence the art you produce, at least to some extent. The images you use can inspire you, but it seems like they could also be potentially limiting. It at least forces you to get more creative with your materials if you go in with a specific image in mind that you want to create, for example with the Nancy Goodman Lawrence image that was in our collage powerpoint in class.

When I was younger, I used to love collecting buttons, sparkly jewels, pretty pieces of paper, newspaper clippings, and receipts to collage together using Elmer’s glue and colored poster board. It was a pastime I had picked up from my older sister, and it provided me an opportunity to dump glitter all over my kitchen counter. What’s interesting looking back on this hobby of mine is that I never incorporated rhyme or reason into the illustrations… I solely crafted together things I liked into an abstract image (with no real underlying message).

What was so different about my experience in the collage workshop today was that for the first time I began to understand that collage can create realistic images… It doesn’t all have to be abstract and structured. Thinking back to Max Ernst’s graphic novel, I realized that one can create his/her own image by means of multiple other images mixed together. Thus, with this new understanding in mind, I used today as a practice run for our final project. I attempted to use various clippings I had selected to create a “realistic” or harmonious image. While the result was not the finest, I think this practice round definitely benefitted my collage skills in the long run. The final project should be very fun…

Going into today’s workshop, I had no vision of what I wanted my final DIY illustration to look like. I ended up using this time to play around with different images through collage, with no end goal besides just having some fun and spurring the creative process of thinking of an idea for my final illustration. I ended up making this:

My first thought after re-examining my collage was that there is tons of white space on the page, which is mostly a product of not “finishing” (although I didn’t really have a plan of what to put in the white space). It was fun to look through the older magazines (I think they were called “ideas”?). Most of the images I cut out are from those magazines–I really liked the older more pop-art style of them, but I also added some random images from various advertisements. I think I had the most fun with the image of the people staring (to the right). The image came from an Easter Church scene, and I though it was pretty funny/creepy how they were all just staring in the same direction. I found some flowers that matched the coloring from the following page, and I decided to cover some of the faces in the crowd with flowers. This wasn’t really for a specific reason/meaning but I just thought it looked cool. I think overall I had a fun experience with collage, although I probably won’t use this in my final project,  because it wasn’t really inspired by a story about play.

I really enjoyed the collage workshop today and instantly picked out the two L.L.Bean magazines I wanted to use. When I think of play, my mind moves to exploring the beach with my younger sisters, playing in the sand and water, then at night sitting by a fire just off the porch of the house. A book that illustrates just this is Anne & Harlow Rockwell’s At the Beach, which depicts a little girl’s first time at the beach. 

My goal during the workshop was to illustrate a passage from this children’s book. I think that my collage works well in the context of the book because it is both realistic of what a little girl will find at the beach but is also playful. For example, my final DIY illustration accurately depicts the setting of the beach yet adds a playful touch with a hat on the whale and a clock as the sun. The illustration also provides a teachable moment for very young children who are just learning how to read because “sky,” “grass,” “beach,” and “sea” are all spelled out. I look forward to the digital workshop on Wednesday!

I really enjoyed working on my collage today during the workshop. I found that, in accordance with our definition of collage, I combined the pictures and fragments I collected to create an entirely new whole with a distinctly separate meaning from their originals. At first, when looking at all of the magazines and materials, I wasn’t sure if I was going to be able to create the image I already had in my head. But I found that something that helped was collecting similar images – things with the same color and theme that could begin to form cohesive patterns. Sometimes, in order to do this, I had to keep my eyes peeled for even the most minimal images such as a small illustration of tree tops or a little boy’s face peeking from behind a curtain. I also found that the degree to which I cut an image had a significant effect on how it would appear in the new illustration. These delineations affected their new place in the dissimilar context of my project. I feel that I have laid down good base work, but I know I need to add more layers of images and meaning to fully convey the passage that I am working with.

     The idea of play was discussed numerous times during our class with Julia Jacquette. What I thought was incredibly interesting is the way play has fundamentally changed over the ages. Certainly the digital age has shifted what it means to play – it might not necessarily mean going outside always, for example. However, I felt that Jacquette’s drawings of playgrounds could still be useful in todays world. Even if the use of media and video games is more than the past, playgrounds still become a central place for many kids – and her interpretations of playgrounds allows them to fit not only in her context of Manhattan, but most any park or playground.

     Her explanation of how children are very perceptive to architecture was also intriguing. We don’t often think too much of how different buildings make us feel – but even our own Hamilton campus portrays a wide variety of structures. Milbank, with  its large windows and imposing concrete blocks looks nothing like the classical feel of Root Hall’s white columns out front. I thought Julia’s murals engaged in a juxtaposition between the abstract and the making of social commentary on the power of magazines and media in general. To just look at the murals without any background, one might presume it is simply a ver cool abstract mural. With added context, the murals take on a whole new meaning and allow the viewer to see multiple levels of context in the mural.

When we were walking through Julia Jacquette’s exhibition, the piece that struck me the most was the painting of the couple’s resort, which shows the reflections of two people and a tree in the water of a pool. When I first looked at the piece, it was not quite clear to me that the colors in the water were supposed to be reflections. In fact, I did not realize that people were represented in the painting at all until we took a tour of the gallery on Monday and the painting was explained to the class.

The painting became even more interesting to me when Jacquette started to describe the scene that it was created from. In the original picture, a seemingly perfect man and woman are standing by the side of the pool at a couple’s resort. Jacquette described the scene as looking so perfect that you instantly wanted to go to the resort as well. This speaks to the power that advertisements can have over people. By setting up the “picture perfect” scene, one advertisement can draw people to something that they were not interested in before seeing the advertisement.

Touring the exhibition with Jacquette added to the enjoyment of her artwork. Many of her pieces addressed different social issues, but without her explanations, I may not have picked up on that on my own, especially for the more abstract pieces. Jacquette spoke about trying to make her art interesting enough to get people to look at it, but I think the allure of her work comes from the specific ways in which she represents different social issues.