*Final Project*

Ana Mendieta's “Silueta Series” was the inspiration for my final project. Ana created her silhouettes to show awareness of the female body. Some of the pieces were performative and she showed her own body merging with the earth. Some of the other pieces presented an hour glass silhouette of a woman. Not all woman have that shape, especially those that suffer from cancer. Women who have have lost their breast and  hair may feel as if they lost a piece of their femininity. These woman are still amazing and they possess a radiant external beauty.

The first silhouette is of a woman who has lost her breast to cancer. At the top of the silhouette is my grandmother's scarf. She passed away from uterine cancer in 2004. I also have another grandmother who is a two time breast cancer survivor. I suspended this silhouette from fishing line wrapped around trees. The fabric is woven between the lines. 

 This second silhouette is a woman who has her breast but does not have the classic hour glass figure. This silhouette represents a woman who may have lost her uterus. Uterine cancer is an agressive cancer. Only 10% of women diagnosed with this cancer survive. My grandmother lived a year following her diagnosis.

This last silhouette is a combination of the two silhouettes. It is more of a classic hour glass shape silhouette. It is wavy around the edges to represent the potential change in a women's body. I decided to lay this one on the ground to symbolize the sacrifice that women with cancer women make to save their lives. 

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Final Project

I have completed my final project. Here are some pictures of the process! I will post the actual completed project tomorrow. I did the project right before the bridge by the water. I was on Dominion Power property but luckily I did not get arrested (haha).

I did two other silhouettes. The one that I am constructing is a silhouette with no breast. I said in class I did not want to put it on the ground and make it dirty. So I came up with the idea of using fishing line and wrapping it tightly around two trees so I could weave the fabic between the lines into a silhouette. The only two trees that did not involve me standing on rocks ( dangerous!!) were on Dominion Power property. My final project with the other two silhouettes will be posted tomorrow!

Ideas for Final Project

I definitely appreciate the ideas that were given to me on Tuesday. I am waiting for it to rain duringthe early part of next week to go do my project by the James River. I think I have come to the conclusion to use sand ( which was suggested by someone in the class. Thanks!) to do somewhat of a silhouette of a woman but not so similar to Ana Mendieta. I think I will distort the shape to depict the damages from cancer. I will also be using my grandmother's scarf and possibly some of her jewelery. I enjoyed hearing every one's ideas and I can't wait to see them!

New Orleans

The picture above is New Orleans. I took this from my hotel window over spring break. I was staying a few blocks from Bourbon Street in the French Quarter. I remember when I took this picture, I thought of how destroyed the city was after Katrina. We did ride pass the super dome which is where many New Orleans residents were cramped. During my trip, I saw a lot of livelihood and joy in New Orleans. Unfortunately I also saw mass graveyards and a large homeless population. This picture depicts those two views of New Orleans. The sun is very radiant but the city itself is so dark.

Observatory

I took this picture last week. I decided to post it after we talked about Nancy Holt. Most of her artwork that we observed revolved around the sun, stars and Earth. The observatory in this picture was created for the same purpose. It follows the patterns of the stars and sun and it also resided in this magnificent location on the water.

Leaves

I found this great video of Earth Art that involved leaves. I think it is very unique. I believe the photographs of these art pieces are very important because the lighting in some of the photos really makes the image beautiful.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7SBJu7KMCI

Down by the Water

I went home this weekend and went down to to this body of water where people frequently fish in Portsmouth. I took some pictures of what I thought was Earth Art!

I liked this picture because it reminded me of one of the topics in class. I recalled that Robert Smithson and Ana Mendieta made Earth works or Land art with the intention that the art would not last forever. They wanted their art to mature and grow with nature. I the wooden structures above and below both that show that 'aged with time' quality.

I love the contrast of color between the rocks closet to the water, the in between layer and then the larger rocks furthest away from the water. This image was made by nature and made without the help of man( with the exception of the graffiti on one of the rocks). The other pictures have man made structures that have deteriorated with time. 

Maya Lin Art

I became very interested in Maya Lin after class on Thursday. I loved her background story and the simplicity of the Vietnam Memorial. I decided to look up some of her other Earth Art pieces and found some of them to very intriguing. She does a lot of work that looks like hills and waves. I picked a couple of the pieces I found.

 What I enjoy about this piece is that Maya Lin stayed to true to her beliefs as an environmentalist. I read that she used what was present on the site at the park and the used environmentally friendly soils to complete her project. She also studied waves in order to create this. This piece is called Storm King Wavefield.

                                 

This is called Blue Lake Pass. When I saw this piece it reminded me of graphing systems or some kind of technology that can measure elevation. It appears as though earth art has met technology in this piece. Both parts of this piece ( I am referring to what is on the ground and the wiring above it) could very well be the same piece of land but in different scale.


I hope for my next blog, I will have some pictures of my own!!!!


Brandy E