Tuesday, April 26, 2011

When other things come up...

Sorry I haven't blogged lately. I've been busy with other things like senior show stuff, work, and other classes. Which I suppose is appropriate for this project because lots of things have just come up.



I make to do lists every day so that I know what needs to be done and it also tends to make you feel better when everything is crossed off. Therefore, for this project I took all my recent to do lists and clustered them together but there are things being done on them and things that aren't crossed off. I've been working very hard to get them all done but then I got a call just before my presentation saying "You're grandfather fell and broke his hip. He's in the ICU now... I didn't want to tell you before your presentation..."

So for a week he was in the ICU and all I could think about is him and going home. Asking people for their prayers. Asking people to pray even if they didn't pray. Just hope. It's murder when you feel like you can't do anything about something.  This project I decided to have all my to do lists on a board and project pictures of my grandfather on them. Sometimes at a few seconds at a time, then others at 30 seconds at a time. Sometimes you can see the to do lists and read them but mostly they are covered by the pictures. I hope to give people the confusion I had. Do you look at the pictures of the to do lists?

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

When it's time to say something...



Governor Scott Walker has been in office for about four months now and has already started an uproar in politics in Wisconsin that I have never seen before.  I don’t necessarily like politics or pay attention to them very much because I figure it is just a bunch of rich men who get to decide what the rest of the state, nation, world gets to do and no matter what there is always someone who is upset. I just can’t stand to think about how much he has such an effect on the state I was born and raised in. Therefore, because there are so many sides to this story I wanted to convey how I feel about this issue.
When this repair bill came out there were heavy hitters that were immediately shown by the media – Fox, MSNBC, etc… bargaining rights were being taken away from the public workers and we were cutting budgets from education which is where America has failed in comparison to the rest of the world for years. There have been pieces in the media already that show how much America as a whole fails as an education leader. As a daughter of two teachers, I couldn’t stand to watch my parents be hurt by this bill because of how much they put into their time at the school district they work at and how passionate my mother is in particular about education (this should explain why I am now finishing my seventh year of school even though I’ve considered dropping out multiple times). The hardworking ethic instilled in me is directly from my parents and they put just as much passion into each child they work with. What kills me though to watch happen is this idea that Walker wants to cut $550 from each student from each public school. I did some research on this. I went to school with a student body of about 1000 kids. That alone is just below $550,000. That is also the high school alone. My home town also has four elementary schools and a middle school. The total student body of all six schools combined is 2600 kids under the age of 18. 2600 students multiplied by $550 has a grand total of $1,430,000! What is the Wisconsin Debt again?
Based on all this information, I started to form my idea for my piece. Then I started to watch the news, the facebook updates, and reading online stories. There are so many different sides to the story that no one actually goes to read the bill to see what it really says. Even the senators don’t take the time to read most of the bills because they are so long and laborious. So people read parts of this bill here and there and take what they want hear into mind and do not read what is really there on paper in black and white. Words are skipped. Whole paragraphs are skipped as if to say “oh no nevermind.” That also became a defining moment of my piece. The protests also started to affect my choices. One in particular was the word “forward” spelled backwards with “Wisconsin’s new motto” scrawled above it. How right was this guy?
I began to research in class different people in class and was inspired by Andrea Bowers and Sam Durant. Both of them are using words to convey their thoughts of protests and world events around the world. I think that I took both of them in to consideration but I didn’t do exactly what either one of them does. I used a tag board type of medium and markers to symbolize the protesters and took a quote from Scott Walker’s speech about this bill and twisted his words a bit. I wanted to find something that said “forward” in it and twist it and turn it like the media does or how I feel about how Walker is pushing us backwards when we should be on the cusp of education but we aren’t. I think that my work is more closely related to Sam Durant’s than anyone else’s. I took ideas from the posters than the protesters have made but I didn’t write them out exactly. I wanted to have my own twist on it and show what I really thought of the of current events.
I suppose that my work could be closely related to Jen Holzer as well. She used words instead of drawing pictures of how she felt. I think that the written word has so much power behind them especially when chosen correctly. I find it very interesting to be on the cutting edge of this sort of “protest.” I wanted to find something that took our motto in Wisconsin and turned it on itself. In this case, Scott Walker says “This is why we need to move this process forward and get this state working again.” Great point, Walker but you’re going about it all wrong. So I highlighted other ways to look at it and in the end you can read through the word forward and know what it says and then you look back because it’s not the first thing you see and say “hey, that wasn’t right.” Hopefully people have that moment with this in congress more so than they are now.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

When you just want to use this for more than Drawing III

Can we just talk about a few of my favorite things beyond the obvious (Design, sign language, IKEA, The Packers...etc...)

 

The first cat isn't my cat Ella (the one on the right is when she was 10 weeks old) but I love those few minutes just after you turn your alarm off (or hit snooze) and Ella knows I'm awake so comes up on the down comforter and lays right on my chest. So I lay there for a few moments and pet her before getting up for the morning. (Same thing happens before I fall asleep at night.) She's perfect with me and I love her (sorry to the rest of you, she's a momma's girl.)


Widmer Brick Cheese. This is me being a snobby deli girl. I love this cheese. It is so good! They sell it at The Marketplace if you want some. It melts fantastically and makes the most beautiful grilled cheese sandwich.




Wisps. Enough said. These are in my purse all the time. You can use them in the car, or before a date, after dinner... They brush better than the dentist.

There is more but... time for class..
Molly

Thursday, March 3, 2011

When you have something to say...

This whole deal in Madison has me somewhat torn to be completely honest about how I am feeling about this. I haven't taken sides when typically I am more liberal than I am republican ( F Y I). I didn't vote for Bush and did for Obama. I didn't vote for Walker either. However, there are arguments on both sides of the fence that I do agree with. That's just me. I don't really talk politics much just because it's like religion or money. Somethings you just don't bring up on a first date or with people you just met or even if you have known them for a while. It will come up eventually. I just don't come up to people and say "Hi, I'm Molly and I believe that abortion is wrong but it's the woman's choice." (Personally, I could never do it and I don't endorse it but I can't and won't control the world. It's not my style.)



As for Walker (and Ohio since it's happening there too), I don't think it's right to take away public workers' bargaining rights or cut a BILLION dollars from the budget of Education. Has he done the research on how low America is as a country when it comes to education and how well-read we are as a country in comparison to others? Now we are going to dip ourselves even lower. Brilliant, Walker. I could go for the jugular and say something about Walker's grades and so on in his past ( which aren't good from what I read) but that's not right or nice (Midwesters are just nice people.) Is the education of the children that one day will run our states and country so low on  Walker's totem pole? Apparently. Education is becoming something that is for the wealthy and not something that we can all attain. I thought I heard something about how educated people tend to have less children than the people who didn't go to a higher education level out of high school which makes no sense to me at all. Why would you have more children if you can't even support yourself? (It's my number one reason for birth control.) Education is key. Period. There has to be something else we can cut from.



On the other hand, I'm not happy with the schools being closed for three days in a row at the beginning of this fiasco nor am I happy with the democrats leaving the state. Teachers, you say that your children are so important to you and then you leave them to protest? I know cutting teachers' jobs and budgets are outrageous but there should be no reason why we should be shutting a school district (one that never closes regardless of weather etc.) because of protesting. There should be enough teachers there to support our children as well.  If I were a mother, I would be outraged with the Madison school district. I would assume that I would have to then find some sort of day care for my children since I don't plan on being a stay at home mom and then pay more for that. Thanks, teachers. My parents are both teachers. My mother didn't go because she cared about her children too much and for that matter my dad hasn't done the teaching thing since I was maybe in 6th grade since he switched into the technology guy as of late but even he had to teach the math that he hadn't taught since then. There weren't enough teachers so they brought him in (btw... he is an awesome math teacher and there is a benefit from having parents that are teachers as much as they will piss you off when it comes to your education.) I don't get it. I really really don't. If I left the state I'd lose my job. Period. So get back here democrats and face it and get the republicans on your side. You need to show them why this is a HUGE mistake.


The whole game fires me up and there is so much to play on from an artist's stand. This is going to be interesting...



btw you can be upset with me for any of this but I'm just throwing it out there.

and furthermore, if you want some signs from the protest here is the 100 best...
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-best-protest-signs-at-the-wisconsin-capitol

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

When your heart races

I really love looking at all the various works of the other students in this class. I tried my damnedest not to do anything having to do with interiors but I guess my heart just loves my job/career/passion too much. I still used a window and I am really proud of myself for it. I don't think that my concept would have come out on its own as much without the window or some sort of glass.



But I always get really nervous before critiques and I just didn't know if it could stand up to what others were doing with their projects. Seems like everyone liked it. But the conversation about everyone's various projects is really interesting. I think it's good to think about more than just the art at hand but the subjects that we can make people think about when we make our work.

While we are still are mapping, I'm jacking this one from my sister's blog. She a photographer so this was more up her alley but I thought it was still funny. This artist takes little model size figures and sets them up in streets and lets them go... just leaves them there and society can decide their fate. I giggled when I saw this one and thought it was appropriate.
For more of his work,(it's pretty cool), look at this website. http://slinkachu.com/

Looks like I will be making more maps now as I continue with senior project (which is a high school for the deaf)... back to placing things where they need to be... The next project I promise to get away from anything interiors based.

I hope you are having a great life!

All the best,

Molly

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

When you're lost



For this assignment, I decided to combine road maps... or zoning maps and trees. Lately there has been such a problem with sustainability and I'm running with the idea that you can't see the trees through the forest but now you can't see the tree through the city. As much as I love new construction, I think I love forests and nature more. Between over population and pollution the world is getting too much. But even I forget about it and it fades in and out of my thought process. So I'm layering overhead projection sheets and using black and gray markers then I think I will take tracing paper and layer it between the zoning maps and the tree to fog out the tree. The idea is to mimic a window and blowing your breath on a fogged window. You can draw in it and it fades but you can re fog the window and bring it back again. But eventually it fades away.

It has been interesting drawing on the transparencies because I'm using Prismacolor markers which I love for rendering interiors, however, they render even lighter on this medium. It's really perfect because it ends up looking like the gray of where you have written in the fog but I wanted to make it look 3D in the end but maybe that would read kind of wrong.  I really hope to finish the tree today and then trace the maps like the artist we studied in class (I can't remember her name right now.) There should be three sheets all together of drawings. I had half the thought to draw in a bit of color but you would never see that on the window.

The next thing I need to consider is if I want to present it in a frame or not... how does the wood read? I just used the wood from the trees I'm trying to protect? Or do I use reclaimed wood? Where do I find reclaimed wood? Or better yet, do I use 2 x 4s? or 1 x 2's?

Friday, February 4, 2011

When you are here...

Getting around

The child in me (not that I'm proud of this fact) thinks of Dora every time I hear the word "map." The dork in me thinks of Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter...and the world traveler in me thinks "You really should book that trip to Ireland for September."

I started to think of all the different things I could map and how I could make the medium I use look older or look like a map. Also, being an interiors major I wanted to somehow avoid interiors kinds of things. Such as a blueprint or a floor plan is basically a map of a building. No "to scale," no wall lines...sections of walls none of that. That being said I thought of latitude lines and longitude lines, north arrows, and topography maps, folding of a map and burring the paper.

But then the idea of morphing, adapting, and changing came into my head. Maps do this sort of thing all the time... same as people do. My mind is constantly changing as to what I am thinking about and an idea can stick with me for a years until it is accomplished or it can be in my head at one second and fleeting the next. Mapping doesn't have to be about the world or your home state but could be about mapping out your feelings, thoughts, and actions.

That's when you are here. You are in a moment, in a time, thought processes and the present is what counts and what is in the future is still blurry but still there. I am pretty sure my project will revolve around this idea. What my thoughts are now and in the future. But I need to carefully choose the subjects of those thoughts and what is in the forefront. I know that school is in the front of my head now, graduating and moving is quickly after however, I want to abstract those and show them in a way that isn't a graduation cap and a moving box. Duh. Anyone can do that. But how to abstract those.... It's difficult. The idea of how I want to present them is clear in my head but not what to specifically draw.

So the thoughts in my head now...

School, Work, Love life - broken heart, Graduation, moving, next book I write? Children? Ireland? Sign Language - learn more?-- how sign gestures so well and you can set up a whole world in sign....

Help?