Miami Book Fair 2017

 

I attended the 12:00 p.m. panel, Fantasy: Youth’s Portal to Reality

The panel discussion focused on getting an insight to the surreal tales where children grow up to be robots, toys come alive, and a surfboard carries friends into a supernatural mystery, and gods struggle with real desires. These top creators shared insight about why fantasy can be the best tool to teach kids about reality, with Janet Lee and Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men), Liniers (Good Night, Planet), George O’Connor (Olympians) and Kim Dwinell (Surfside Girls). Moderated by Martin Pierro.

I chose this panel because when I was looking at the Book fair panel schedule I thought it would be interesting to attend this panel, and because I was going to the Book fair early to avoid the crowds of people attending, I wanted to attend an early panel that I know I would learn from and gain insight on a topic that I find engaging.

The panel participants were Janet Lee and Jim McCann (Return of the Dapper Men), Liniers (Good Night, Planet), George O’Connor (Olympians) and Kim Dwinell (Surfside Girls). The panel was moderated by Martin Pierro. I had never hear of any of them before or seen their work before.

I was impressed how one of Janet Lee’s book’s got picked up quickly by a publishing company on the first time and how “Return of the Dapper Men” was created based on the artwork she had originally made and then Jim McCann created a story based on the artwork. I was also impressed how Liniers has been creating comic strips based on his daily life with his wife and three daughters and family for fifteen years. His daily comic strips are posted on the daily newspaper in Argentina.

What I was most impressed me about the panel discussion is how each artist went into brief detail about how their career launched and how they got to where they are today. They discussed their struggle, their concepts, how they started off within their field, publication companies publishing their books, conferences with their editor, and studying illustration, amination.

I visited the Inner Traditions Bear Company book stand where I was able to explore more books about dreams, healing, medicinal/holistic approaches, acupressure. I really enjoyed this book stand the most because I find that reading books about health and wellness with a natural approach is beneficial to me because I like learning new ways to improve my overall health. I visited the MDC magazine stand, had the magazines of the different campuses with artwork from various artists, and the comic books section. 

The Miami Book Fair altered my experience of Downtown Miami, because it felt a bit different from when I am driving to school I would usually just pass by the building, focus on my route to school and find parking. This time around I was able to familiarize myself with buildings and places I had never been to before and was able to walk around Wolfson campus for the first time and get to know where certain things are located at. I didn’t feel like the usual downtown that I am familiar with, going to the book fair helped me  explore and familiarize myself with my surroundings in downtown.

In class exercise: Object presentation

This in class assignment required us to go outside and find objects within the surrounding area of NWSA and create a sculpture, representation of a narrative to describe and explain to the class a s a group. Based on the objects we brought in class, as a group we were to also set up and stage the materials and object to visually convey our concept that we discussed with the class. Our options for presenting were: Narrative (Story), Explanation/ Description, or Performance.

This assignment reminded me that working with a group can have its challenges but when you work together you accomplish many things.

Topics discussed:
Taking over/overgrowth

parental control

this piece is taking from the garden of eden

the oppression of child memories

As we leave our childhood, the overgrowth of nostalgia takes over and leaves us in a decayed state. Repression of childhood memories forces us to put on a façade. Society pushes us to give up on being a kid.

In class exercise: Book

With this in class assignment, we started by having a discussion about stories in general. "What are stories and what makes a story?"  Shared context, time and proximity, audience, tone/attitude/mood and volume.  Stories are shared in the news, told by others, personal stories that shape our perception, life story, depicted through artifacts and photographs, memories tell stories, chronological narrative, fiction generated stories (exaggerated), superstitions/legends/myths/folklores/dances (expressive narrative), art, food, music, architecture, clothing, jewelry, and based on observation. 

Stories can have different outlooks upon them depending on the context and what the story is about. They usually cause a reaction or send a message to inform, entertain, show change, or to share an experience. 

After the discussion we watched a youtube video based on book editor's in the position of the actual children's book maker this time to understand the actual process and time it takes to actually create a children's book. They only had a limited amount of time and materials to make the book of 8 pages or panels. 

Making book:

 -Image/text

-How hard is it to make a children's book

-editor's (making the book)

*rhyming

*pop-ups

*personification

*finger puppets

*journey

*order/structure

*protagonist

*moral

*antagonist

Afterwards, were asked to create small phrases and then choose them at random when we went up together.  After, we got into pairs and were to create a children's book based on the two phrases we chose at random. Me and my group partner got "Be careful for what you wish for" and "a squid" as our phrases to work with.

From there we came up with several ideas for the concept of the story. We had 15 to create the booklet, 15 minutes to storyboard, and 15 minutes to translate the concept onto the zine, and another 15 minutes to finish and finalize any details for the narrative children's book.  

We came up with a story inspired by the ocean and the "Finding Nemo" film to create our zine/ children's book to share with the class. We worked with materials that we had on us at the time to create this in class assignment. 

In Depth project: Landscape

With this In Depth project I wanted to expand a bit more with material exploration and the continuation of the city Saphronia from the Calvino reading. 

Based on the phrases from the reading, "Great rollercoaster with its steep humps" "Carousel with its chain spokes" "Ferris wheel of spinning cages" "Death ride" I depicted what these phrases held in common. I found that these things were: Metal, Electricity, oil, and danger. 

I experimented with beading wire at first but it was a bit more difficult to manipulated the way I wanted, needed a malleable metal that covered more surface area. I chose chicken wire instead, conveyed my concept more fitting than the beading wire. I started by cutting the chicken wire and forming small and large portions, then connecting them together to form the entire structure itself.

After, I began to weave in the red electrical wire, during this process I was planning and thinking about how much wire I wanted woven in or exposed on the frame of the sculpture. I used 12 gauge red and black electrical wire to illustrate how the machines operate, powered by. I wove the electrical wire through the entire sculpture with the intention of depicting the dynamic movement of a roller coaster. I wanted to portray a hazardous and perilous roller coaster with sharp turns, curves, twists, and loops that would be in the one half of the city of Saphronia.

In addition, I spilled India ink on the sculpture to help illustrate the (oil and petroleum) that helps run the engine of these machines.   

Even though I might be difficult to see in the photographs, I added food coloring (red, blue, green, yellow). I dripped the various colors on the piece to experiment with this material that I have never used before. The coloring from the India ink and food coloring stayed on the piece but it took several days to dry because of the metal did not absorb the liquid medium thoroughly.

Reading Response: What is Comics Poetry

             

              
              


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Discuss one work from the examples in the Rothman essay, describe what you think it's about, why you like it, and what you think is the most intriguing or best aspect of the work.


Above is the comic created by Marion Fayolle "The Mirror" and "Fragments", I think its about discovering and understanding yourself suggesting conceptions of self, based on the visual choices it convey gender reconstruction, and possibilities of expression. I like this piece because of the various subjects and messages that are being conveyed to the audience.

I feel like I can relate to this artwork the most because I have experienced taking time for myself to find and understand myself as a person. I took time to understand what it important to me, what I like and dislike, what I can handle or what triggers me, how I see myself, what makes me feel uncomfortable, hurts me and makes me happy, and what I want to focus on and strive to achieve in my life.

What I find the most intriguing is the how the artist chose the male, female characters and the main subject of the mirror which successfully conveys various subjects and messages that are being presented to the audience. It is interesting how the artist depicts a male figure approaching the frame of a mirror. He and his reflection approach each other, bend toward each other, touch. A female figure joins the dance, bends to lift a stone, shatters the mirror and the first figure in one throw. Other female figures join her; they pick up the pieces and reassemble them as collages, reframed in a setting suggesting a type of gallery.

The visual language used helps suggest time, and movement by the colors, characters, and movement of the characters within the comic. Another aspect I found interesting was the fact that the artist did not used words to help narrate what the scene was about, only used titles to name the piece. 






             

              
              

Outside class exercise: Miami History Museum

Based on the question from the reading response, "Green Dreams; Gardens'' from the book "Eccentric Spaces" by Robert Harbison we were asked to discuss the issues with the surrounding area of our school and how could we change and improve them. In class we separated in three groups to cover three categories of issues/problems within the community around the school. 

I joined the group involving adding/improving the green, environmental spaces around NWSA, "Tree huggers". In class as a group, we discussed some strategies to lead to potential goals to help remedy the issues in the area involving a lack or need or improvement of green spaces. This includes: constructing a small nearby park, add a naturalistic features on the buildings nearby such as a green house on the roof, vine colony on the side of the building, create a nature area in an area that is not being occupied (public/private venue, profit will go towards the upkeep/improvements).

As a class we walked to the Miami History Museum, with our groups we were to find issues and problems with the outside area of the museum and come up with solutions to resolve the issues involving the green spaces within the museum grounds.

Some issues/problems that we noticed:  

Issue/problem: empty wall space not being used  Solution: wall garden (Mural), using a vine colony or planter with small plants 

Issue/problem: upkeep/maintenance of grounds   Solution: volunteers( ex. students, homeless - in exchange for a hot meal and a place to sleep) 

Issue/problem:  arrangement of plants  Solution: central oasis of foliage (native to Florida -including sun/shade plants) 

Issue/problem:   type of plants, trees, and flowers planted  Solution:  planted indigenous foliage to Florida, fruit trees/plants (absorb CO^2, aid pollination by bees, medicinal uses). Teach museum visitors about Florida's environment/ecosystem

Issue/problem: trash         Solution: incorporate recycling bins in sections of the museum grounds 

Issue/problem:  energy sources   Solution: use solar power to run the water fountain, create water collection system to use to water the foliage 

            

In Depth Portrait/Propaganda

This is a two-part assignment.  Work may be created in any medium, but each work should be no smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

Part A) students will create a portrait of an individual and must choose whether to depict the subject as admirable or ignoble.  This choice will be realized through specific formal choices—composition, color, line weight, energy, texture, scale, contrast, etc.—in the medium of their choice.  The portrait should also be a good representational likeness of the individual, and not an abstraction or substitution (e.g.: a person must be represented by a person, and not by a bottle, or a cow, for example).  No smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

Part B) Students will next create a form of propaganda—some combination of text/speech and image that will promote a message opposite that of the portrait about the same subject.  For example, if you depicted one of your professors as destitute, intimidating, and horrible in a portrait, then your propaganda should promote them as rich, welcoming and wonderful.  No smaller than 12” in the smallest dimension.

In the propaganda you may feel free to use a personified representation of your subject—you may depict a bottle or cow, which has the characteristics of your subject in place of your subject, for example.  The propaganda may be created using the medium of your choice, though the requirement to use text may make some of you feel limited—consider that there are many ways to use text; it doesn’t simply have to be a digital insertion.  Formal choices will also be important in the propaganda.  

Invisible city- Calvino: four different materials

Invisible City- this assignment required us to identify four different materials that convey something about the mood or tone of the Calvino City you chose. Make an exploratory work with each of those four materials in which you attempt to use and emphasize the material qualities to present that mood or tone to a viewer. If 2-D, these explorations need to be 8" X 10"minimum. If 3-D, these explorations must be no smaller than a 6" cubic volume.

Twin Cities: Sophronia

"The city of Sophronia is made up of two half-cities. In one there is the great roller coaster with its steep humps, the carousel with its chain spokes, the Ferris wheel of spinning cages, the death-ride with crouching motorcyclists, the big top with the clump of trapezes hanging in the middle. The other half-city is of stone and marble and cement, with the bank, the factories, the palaces, the slaughterhouse, the school, and all the rest. One of the half-cities is permanent, the other is temporary, and when the period of its sojourn is over, they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city.

And so every year the day comes when the workmen remove the marble pediments, lower the stone walls, the cement pylons, take down the Ministry, the monument, the docks, the petroleum refinery, the hospital, load them on trailers, to follow from stand to stand their annual itinerary. Here remains the half-Sophronia of the shooting-galleries and the carousels, the shout suspended from the cart of the headlong roller coaster, and it begins to count the months, the days it must wait before the caravan returns and a complete li~ can begin again."

For this small works assignment I took materials that I had at home and through experimentation (how each one work with one another) I was able to create to small shown below. I experiment with pastel tissue paper (paper mache), India ink, bleach and salt, repurposed canvas with woven colored string, coffee wash, and wax drippings, and pastel with India ink and bleach drippings on Mulberry paper.

The two pieces I enjoyed the most was creating the one with India ink, bleach drippings and adding salt to it and the pastel tissue paper mache. This one was my favorite because of the chemical reaction that occurred as I was when I added salt to the beach, gave my pieces a visually interesting affect which gave texture to it. I had no idea  no idea using the combination of these three materials could create something so aesthetically visually appealing. I appreciated using chemistry to create this artwork. 

In addition, the paper mache piece I created using pastel colored tissue paper was pleasing to create because it brought back memories of creating collage's when I was younger. Using the paper mache technique I squished the tissue paper to give it texture and began layering them on top of each other over and over again. As the piece began to dry, I noticed that not only was the tissue paper drying with the texture I created but so was the paper because of the mache ( glue and water). Also, because it might be hard to notice I did embed recycled laundry cleaners plastic (used to protect clothing) within the piece but it got covered during the layering process. 

With this piece I wanted to illustrate how one of the half cities is temporary when its period of sojourn is over they uproot it, dismantle it, and take it off, transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city.

1. Rapid Fire Material Analysis

• What is your work made of?

Pastel tissue paper (paper mache), India ink, bleach and salt, repurposed canvas with woven colored string, coffee wash, and wax drippings, and pastel with India ink and bleach drippings on Mulberry paper.

2. Rapid Fire Formal Analysis

• Discuss the formal qualities of your work: i.e. principals of art and design

-Experimental mark making with India ink, bleach and salt

- Abstraction of line use using various colors of thread

- Rubbings/Stamping with pastel with India ink and bleach drippings on Mulberry paper

-Paper mache technique using pastel colored tissue paper (layering process) 

3. Interpretation of Contextual Referent 

• What context do the materials and form bring to your piece?

The context that the materials and form brings to my work discusses the two halves of the city Saphronia using: India ink, bleach and salt ( petroleum refinery that is removed), Pastel tissue paper (paper mache) (carousel, rollercoaster, carnival), repurposed canvas with woven colored string, coffee wash, and wax drippings ( illustrate how one of the half cities is temporary/uproot it, and transplanting it to the vacant lots of another half-city), pastel with India ink and bleach drippings on Mulberry paper (permanent portion if the city,peril, death, and danger). 

4. An Understanding of Place Through Conveyance of Mood

• What mood and sense of place does the work convey through your use of form and materials? 

The mood and sense of place that the work conveys through the use of form and materials depicts one part of the city Saphronia which is split between peril, death, and danger. The other half of Saphronia is made up of temporary lots. The part of the city that is permanent is made up of "Great rollercoaster with its steep humps" "Carousel with its chain spokes" "Ferris wheel of spinning cages" "Death ride". The temporary half of Saphronia is composed of stone, marble and cement, bank, factories, palaces, hospitals. This part of the city expresses removal, dismantlement, and uprooting.

In class exercise: Depiction from observation at park or garden

Based on the Small Work: Street or Garden assignment, I recorded all the sensory information that I took in: Sights, sounds,  scents, tastes, and textures in my  sketchbook for 30 minutes.
 From that part of the assignment we were to pair up with a partner in class and create a scene based on the chosen written text from our observations at the Park or Garden of our choice.

We chose one piece of text from each of our recorded sensory information in our sketchbooks, created sentences that describes the scene. I chose to add the Banana spiders and created the sentence  that follows it. My partner for this assignment chose the sentence above mine and drew the lake with foliage surrounding it.