Mask Video

Can you say anything about the relationship of your film to the story of the Bronze Serpent?

In a way I think my video does relate to the story of the bronze serpent. The whole idea behind the serpent was that it was ironic for God to be healing them through a serpent because they were being killed by serpents. In a way I see this in my video as well. Typically, masks are seen as bad things, objects that hide who we are from the rest of the world. However, in my video, I am trying to connect the mask to the past and a more traditional use of it and want this to be seen as a good thing. So in a way I'm trying to show something that is typically thought of as bad, as good, similar to what God did with the bronze serpent. 

I would like to add my intention behind the video because it was portraying a different idea than my picture. In my video I am again trying to show contras between modern life and a more traditional life. I attempted to do so through the use of Tae Kwon Do, a traditional Korean martial art, and the use of traditional music. I was trying to show how sometimes in modern life we are lost and confused, like I was at the beginning of the movie, because we don't have any traditions that we believe in to guide us. However, tradition can create a sense of strength and comfort, because you have guidelines by which to judge life, and in the second half of the movie this is seen through my confidence in performing Tae Kwon Do. 

My "True Self" (Extra Credit)

This is a picture with one of my friends at graduation. I think it shows my "true self" or at least a part of my true self because in it I'm acting silly and having fun with a friend, two things that are very definitive of me as a person. The being silly part has a lot to do with my personality and my friends are incredibly important to me.

Earthwork

My half of the Earth work pictures

Difference between Landscape and Earth work in experience creating them and in the images themselves?

For me, my landscape picture and my earth work pictures are very different from each other, both in how they were made and what they say. The landscape picture was taken by myself at night and it was a very solitary experience. On the other hand, the earth works was a group project and we collaborated a lot on the ideas and the actual products of the project, also it was a day and just in general more of a social experience. 

With the landscape picture I was trying to communicate the loss of the respect for nature. I was trying to show how nature had been taken over by society and been made to conform or destroyed if it did not. It was a very sobering picture. However, to me the earthwork pictures had a sense of the beauty and wonder of nature that is still present if we go and look for it. It was about discovering how nature is beautiful and how we can show our appreciation for it. Overall it had a much more hopeful perspective. 

What does the picture reveal about my relationship with Nature/Creation? 

I think these pictures reveal the fact that despite the fact that more often than not I consume the products of nature, I do truly find it beautiful and wonderful. It reminded me how amazing and beautiful God's creation can be and how much I should enjoy living in it. I think often times I forget that fact because I spend most of my time inside, locked away from nature, but it was good to rediscover the wonder of it all. 

This is a painting by Claude Monet entitled "Nympheas". It reminds me of my picture because it shows a beautiful scene from nature. The picture, although vague, has a very real aspect to it and makes me want to be there. I think it this way it encourages wonder and respect for the beauty of nature, much the same way as I hope my pictures do too. 

Mask

1) Does your mask bear any relationship to the images and/or issues below? Does it relate to pre-modern or post-modern traditions (see below).

My mask has a relationship with the theater aspect of the pre-modern tradition. It also relates to the festival of renewal. The mask is based on a traditional mask that appears at the Carnival of Venice, a celebration that let's the people relax and be a little silly. These masks are based upon the tradition of comedia dell'arte, an Italian form of theater in the renaissance world. Both of these traditions allow people to become those that they are not and allow them for once to be equal with those around them.


2) Does it bear any relationship to your real/ideal portrait? Or to the concept of True Self/False Self?

I think it does have some relationship to my real/ideal portrait. In the portrait of myself I was trying to show the contrast between loving myself and hating myself. In this picture I am attempting to show the contrast between having confidence, with the mask, and being afraid, without the mask. The mask is allowing me to become something I am not, or maybe it is allowing me to become what I truly am.

Landscape

Difference between Landscape and Earth work in experience creating them and in the images themselves?

For me, my landscape picture and my earth work pictures are very different from each other, both in how they were made and what they say. The landscape picture was taken by myself at night and it was a very solitary experience. On the other hand, the earth works was a group project and we collaborated a lot on the ideas and the actual products of the project, also it was a day and just in general more of a social experience. 

With the landscape picture I was trying to communicate the loss of the respect for nature. I was trying to show how nature had been taken over by society and been made to conform or destroyed if it did not. It was a very sobering picture. However, to me the earthwork pictures had a sense of the beauty and wonder of nature that is still present if we go and look for it. It was about discovering how nature is beautiful and how we can show our appreciation for it. Overall it had a much more hopeful perspective. 

What does the picture reveal about your relationship to Nature/Creation? 

I think this picture reveals the destructive aspect of  not just my relationship but society's relationship to nature. We use nature to meet our own needs without thinking about how it affects it and how we might be able to be better stewards of the resources God has given us. Instead we just consume, not value it as a gift from God. I think this picture helped me to realize that I should look at nature with more respect and try to find ways to show that through how I live. 

This painting by Caspar David Friedrich entitled "Wanderer above the Sea of Fog" reminds me of my picture because it is trying to show dominance over nature. The man is standing on the rocks as if he owns them and everything he can sea. The ironic part about the picture is that he is so much smaller than the sea that he is claiming and it could wash him away with ease. 

Real Vs. Ideal

Pictures of Emma (by me)

Pictures of me (by Emma)

Mass Media At Large: 

I think my picture of Emma holding a Starbuck's coffee cup speaks a lot to the current state of the advertising world. Everything in our lives has some kind of advertisement in it, whether it be while we're listening to the radio on the way to work or looking through a magazine in our spare time. Everything has an ad that is trying to persuade you to buy this product or that product that will supposedly make your life so much better than it is now. But in the end, these things don't make us happy and I think this picture shows that, because of Emma only looking superficially happy, not truly happy. 

This painting is "Venus of Urbino" by Titan. I think it demonstrates the opposite point of Emma's first picture of me, the one where I'm hiding behind my hands. In this picture the woman is open and showing herself fully and she seems to be pleased with how she appears. It goes back to the Renisance ideal of the body as the measure of all things (Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man). Emma's picture, however, is the opposite. It shows a woman who does not want to be seen, who does not think her body deserves to be praised and admired and who, in general, does not like her appearance. 

Getting Lost Slideshow