Change of Address

I am switching my blog to www.laurenno.tumblr.com

Please continue to follow me there.

Cityscapes

Cityscapes are images that flood the internet, backgrounds, iphone apps etc. We have all seen them and personally, I have become more than a little numb to them. It means nothing to you when you live in a small town and don't have the means to travel to a big city. This particular photo is ordinary. It isn't fabulous and I know that. As my first cityscape, it has meaning. I look at it and feel the magnificence of being in a real place and not inside of my head; of feeling hope and that dreaming has a purpose. I'm a planner, not a doer because doing is scary, and costs money which makes it out of reach for me. But doing recharged me to continue dreaming.

Inspiration Reset Button

Being from mid-Michigan, inspiration can be difficult to find especially during the winter months. Everything is flat and gray from the ground to the sky, light is limited, and people stay inside or look unhappy when out. I aspire to relocate to southern California where year round there is activity, landscape, and a better quality of light. This is why I was very thankful to be recently invited to visit Los Angeles, Hollywood, and surrounding cities. It was a needed vacation both physically and emotionally. I had a wonderful time and am convinced that my quality of life would be better after relocating. Michigan does not hold the opportunities that I am seeking. When visiting a new city for the first time it is difficult to not act like a giddy tourist, but being excited about things or life in general is of course a good thing so I'm ok with a little dorkiness. I didn't take a lot of images, but I will post some. Being young and inexperienced is exciting, but scary because there's potentially huge mistakes that could be made. Well then, bring on the mistakes I suppose... because I don't give up.

By the way

EVERYTHING i tried to work on yesterday got fucked up. every line i cut was crooked, every photoshop manipulation looked like shit etc. So everything i touched yesterday has to be redone. it was a waste of time. i guess i was just having an "off" day.

today is a new day. wish me luck :)

Getting Nervous

What i did: I made a group of new photo transfers which i brought in for the second small group crit. In the last crit we talked about lighting- source, color, diffusion and also construction/materials. In this crit it made sense to talk about image content, show more images, and discuss combinations or grouping options. I also brought in a black and a white frame so i could get feedback on which works best. This week I also bought and cut new wood and replaced the plywood with masonite which was suggested to me in the last crit. I found that it looks better, and is much easier to cut.

what i discovered: that black is the way to go for the boxes. i discovered this week that mixing black and white with color digitally gives me the same satisfaction as using colored light and i got a much more positive response with this technique. the trick to my project seems to keep producing in a way that still leaves the groupings flexible in the end. this is why i decided to make all the images the same size and orientation so that i can make groupings last without having to remake anything. Mark would like me to seek help in getting them to be all wired together and a decision about groupings would have to be made before then.

What's next: i am doing my best to get a few of the boxes completely constructed this weekend so that i can have conversations about whether they are fire safe and how to wire them together safely this week. this week is going to be very difficult in the realm of time running out. i'm scared.

here are some images i showed: