This Week's Progress

I have now began work on the second piece in my series, which I am going to call "Judgement". At the moment I am piecing together the different figures that will appear in the piece, of which there will be six total. A politician at his "pulpit", 3 "x-wives", and a gay couple. The politician will be preaching down to the couple from his pulpit while his wives snicker in the background. I should have at least a rough version done by next week, but it is all coming together nicely.

Updated Artist Statement

My work is realism, steeped in current culture and politics, embodied by a fresh approach to the subject matter, often viewed through the prism of an urban perspective. At many times I serve as much to capture as I do to create, grasping a moment in time so that we may all hold it forever. Whether by graphic representation, filming, photographing, recording, or writing, I strive to search out new outlets to express my artistry, and my done works are the results. 

Progress

Well, things have changed a bit in the last couple of weeks, unfortunately. It appears as if "Keeping Up With The Joneses" is, at least for the moment, on the back burner. We have just hit a brick wall. There was a huge flood in Mississippi back in the '40's that apparently wiped out all of their records, so at this point we have learned that Curtis's grandfather was born in Virginia but we have been unable to figure out and confirm where exactly, which leaves us with not a lot of options. I don't plan on just trashing the movie, I still very much want to finish it, but unfortunately doing it in four months appears to be much too ambitious. We are continuing to dig and I do plan on finishing this project at some point, but it won't be for this class. Perhaps giving ourselves more time is better anyways, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't sad about it.

As a result of canning that project, I've had to come up with some other projects. The first is a website that I designed. My original plan was to go to Detroit to do a photo shoot with the DJ that I mentioned in my earlier post. Then, the first weekend of spring break my wife's grandmother died and that went out the window. So, same idea, new subject. I instead built a site for Komain, the same artist I shot the earlier video for. It's a five page site right now and is close to being finished. I did the photography, design and coding myself. Here's a look at the cover page:

I've also began work on a series of posters I am designing. I am an avid follower of politics, mostly national, but I always feel like there is no candidate or party that truly represents my beliefs. I am definitely a moderate, as I am more conservative fiscally and militarily but I am more liberal in my social beliefs. A lot of people fall only on one side or the other, and I always found that interesting, because some of the beliefs that each side holds contradict each other, so I have decided to create some graphical representations of those contradictions. The first one, which you will see below, is called "Pro-Life?". I just don't understand how someone can be pro-life/pro-death penalty or pro-choice/anti-death penalty. It seems logical that one would fall on the side of Life or Death, period. At any rate, here is the piece I am working on for that:

I have another idea for this series that I will discuss with Prof. Souther, presumably today in class. Thanks for reading.

Keeping Up

I will be showing some of my progress today in class, and it is probably better viewed than explained, but there has been progress. I have the intro put together, there may be a few changes but it's close, and I also have Curtis Sr.'s interview cut together. All in all I think they look decent. However, I am for the first time a bit worried about completing this project on the timetable given. To be on schedule we have to be traveling somewhere down south next week over spring break. As of this writing we don't have the kind of information we would need to go. That could definitely change, and hopefully it does, but we shall see. I have also locked in my next project, which will be a website for DJ No Sleep, a radio DJ in Detroit. He used to be a DJ here in the South Bend area on 95.7FM. It will be a 3-5 page site for which I will do everything, from the photography and graphics to the coding.

This Week In My Life

This week has been a good week! We filmed and edited the new intro for Komain’s video, then finished off the video. I didn’t change much, a small lighting change here or there, some changes to the text. Then, last night we put it out at about 7pm and since then it’s had about 350 views and the reviews and comments have been great. Komain is very, very happy with the finished product, as am I. I may still tweak a thing or two before turning it in as a final piece but I’d say it’s 99% done. Here is the link:

As for “Keeping Up With The Joneses”, we got another round of interviews done yesterday, but with all the music video stuff going on yesterday I didn’t have time to do anything with it, which is fine. I’ll be tackling that this week. We are also waiting to hear back from Curtis’ aunt to see if this weekend will be good for her to talk with us. If not, then we have his father scheduled as a back up plan, so I’m confortable with where we are at. I’m hoping to have about half the movie done in the next couple of weeks, along with making contact with some of the local (to the plantation) officials that may be able to help us. Stay tuned!

"Keeping Up With The Joneses" Artist Statement

“Keeping Up With The Joneses”

This is a documentary film focused on one Curtis Jones, a mixed-race man from South Bend, IN. The film depicts Curtis searching for his roots, specifically on his African-American side. He is intent on finding his ancestory dating back to the days of slavery. Upon locating the plantation that his forefathers were enslaved on Curtis will travel and visit that place, with camera in tow. It is intended to be a spiritual discovery, a story of one man’s journey through history to find himself.

"My Guitar Gently Weeps" Artist Statement

“My Guitar Gently Weeps”

“My Guitar Gently Weeps” is a music video for an artist by the name of Komain. The song is an ode to what hip-hop used to be, could be, should be, or maybe some combination of all three.  The basic concept is that we’re stepping inside Komain’s head as he hears the music and the scenes reflect the song’s feeling. He walks through an empty door to nowhere, seeking something, finding only the beat. In the auditorium, he is alone, a student of the music and rhymes, alone in his research. As the words flow from his pen the guitar gently weeps in the distance. Outside, he is in the cold, vulnerable, fighting through it. In the studio he is in his element, his comfort zone, oblivious to the outside world and he is one with the music.