Lecture 2 : Su Friedrich

It may just be that I have a strict taste in film but I have to be honest and say that I was not excited by much of what I saw yesterday. For me there were too many rough edges to each film such as the music cutting off suddenly in Rules of the Road. Although I didn't dislike everything about her work. I did appreciate the creativity of the scratching process into the emulsion of the film. I did find that to be a bit rough though and didn't think she needed to use it all the time. It didn't really grab my attention like I thought it would. My favorite film of hers was The Ties That Bind. Maybe it was the documentary style of it I liked so much. Since I am taking a documentary film class I have a greater appreciation for them. Again with the scratching though, didn't feel it was necessary. I might have preferred regular type. I did like the fact that she made it all about her mother and omitted her own voice. Even though it was personally connected to her she still made it all about the subject of the film which was her mother. The best aspect of all the films she showed was the beginning of Rules of the Road. The use of the music and the cards to show her name and title of the film were just genius.

Burton Humor

Tim Burton was one of the artists I used last semester to explain where my line of humor was coming from. I have always admired Burton's works. It probably started with Nightmare Before Christmas or maybe it was Edward Scissorhands. Anyway, I really got into his work after I read The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy. It seemed just my type of humor. It was sick yet you couldn't help but laugh at it. This is how I wanted my work to function. I know it's not going to be read as sick which is fine but I believe I chose a sensitive enough topic that some people may not find appealing. What I love most about Burton's works are his drawings. Some of them are good enough by themselves, but are ultimately enhanced by the text. I don't think I have the courage to add text just yet to my work and I don't know if it actually needs it but it is something to think about I guess. The Boy with Nails in his Eyes is my favorite out of the entire book. The fact that he has nails in his eyes does actually gross me out. I have this thing about eyes and stuff touching them, but with the tree upside down and him holding the star I can't not laugh. The entire book is like this which is fabulous.

The other artist that I mentioned in my artist statement last semester was Edward Gorey. He is actually my main inspiration for this series. All of his works have that odd, quirky feel to them but one book always stood out to me more than the others. The Gashlycrumb Tinies was one of the funniest things I had ever read. It reads like a children's book which goes through the alphabet. The catch is that each letter stands for a different child that has died in some horrible and some not horrible way. The illustrations also are quite child like but there is an overwhelming sense of morbidity throughout the whole book. My favorite of course is Neville who dies of ennui. His little face peering out of the gigantic window just kills me every time. To me Gorey really pushes humor to the edge and that is why I love him so.

Busy Day

Please bear with me I was planning on posting quite a bit throughout the day . . . .

Lecure 1

This is a bit late but . . still.

I'm sure everyone else has said this so far but I will say it again. Kate Gilmore's lecture was the best I have been to so far. I found it very inspiring and almost creepy as to how much I could relate it to my own work. Every bit of her work that she examined was right on par with my own except she uses film and sculpture and her characters actually succeed in their tasks where mine don't. Her dark humor was astounding. She completely humiliates her characters by the end of each video and I this is what I hope to achieve with my own images. Each attempt at suicide should show how determined yet unintelligent my character really is. Gilmore also spoke about how she had aesthetic concerns with her work, such as wardrobe and color and I can understand how important those elements are. Each detail counts for something and says something about your piece. The biggest connection that I think our work had was how we both use ourselves as characters and not other people. She said each work was personal and about her life and that is how I feel about mine as well. Each piece doesn't have a specific meaning but the series as a whole has personal meaning. With her work she says she is very competitive and has to win. This is why her characters probably always reach their goal. With my work, I have had personal experiences with close friends and suicide. I never really knew how to deal with those sort of things so I always resulted to humor. I also just have this weird, morbid sense of humor that resides in me naturally. The best thing about Gilmore's work, I thought, was the use of sculpture. I found it quite amazing and I hope to one day get to this point with my own work. To have that added element that she has and that Bill Thomas also has would be satisfying.

Eye Candy

Her name is Daniela Edburg and she has this series called Drop Dead Gorgeous. They are images that explore both glamor and death. Each image depicts the consequences of our personal indulgences but in a beautifully morbid way. There is something so enticing about her images with her color palette and yet so disturbing with the facial expression of her models. Her work stems from her favorite paintings such as Death of Marat but also branches out into film with scenes from The Birds, The Wizard of Oz, and various monster movies. Edburg's photos are sheer eye candy.

A Miniature Fascination

I don't know what it is about things that come in miniature but I find it just so freaking cool. Not many people physically make things to add to their photos like I do myself and that's probably why I admire Kristen's work most of all. It takes me forever just to make one wire flower so I definitely understand the time she puts in to all those pieces. Plus you can tell she loves what she does just by the way she speaks about each piece. There's just something about physically making an object that brings about such pride. What I love most is the fact that she puts so much detail into these landscapes that it fools your eye into thinking it's real. . . aside from the cars of course. I would love to see her work with water in her mini sets, I think it would be a cool challenge.
I also love the horse series she's done. There is such a dreamy, childlike quality about them that just makes me feel nostalgic.
I'm sure that like me she enjoys making the sets more than shooting them.

Bad Influence

My neighbors were playing football behind me and I could not keep a straight face. Meanwhile my fiance is telling me where I might attach the cables and my younger brother is laughing at me. I might be a bad influence on him. Overall I know I'll have to re shoot and it freaks me out. I think it was worth it. Those cables are heavy though. They might need to be repositioned.

The Details

This is the idea I have so far, as you can see. I like the idea of licking the spoon of the "Drano" filled batter. It keeps with the humor of my project. It's playful. I also burnt the muffins, which was quite funny but I would think the spoon thing fits better. I would like to add an apron to the ensemble but I need to find one with just the right pattern on it.

In the meantime, the second idea brewing involves several books of matches and a gas stove. The failure to light the match and the pile on the floor is where the humor seeps in. . . . unless I can think of something better. I must find the perfect tee-shirt for this image.

It's these details that are killing me. Everything in these images has to fit in somehow or else they are just distractions. I also can't have too many little things or they will become too cluttered. The little details are sometimes the best things in these images though.

A Breakthrough

It's about damn time I came up with a solid idea; a couple in fact. The first, which is in the making, I took from a movie I had recently watched for the first time. You would think I would have thought of The Virgin Suicides sooner but I guess I'm just slow. There is a part in the movie where this girl is telling a story about how she had planned to kill herself by baking some sort of toxic liquid into a pie and then eating it. I thought that was hilarious so I decided to do my own rendition of it. Instead of pie I am trying muffins . . . . lemon poppyseed muffins. I had thought of bread but the round muffin pan seemed more appealing to me. My toxic liquid is Draino, courtesy of my roommate. I am unsure of what shot would look best but I am trying a couple of me baking the muffins(pouring the milk in), licking the spoon, and eating the muffins when they are done. All of these have the Draino bottle in the front of the shot with the cap off.
I am feeding these to my roommates . . . . just don't tell them I licked the spoon!

Sound Lecture

Oops forgot to post!

Anyways about the lecture; I thought it was somewhat interesting. It could have been better if there had been more time for her to go into more detail about her work. It felt like there was so much she wanted to touch on but couldn't because of time restraints. I wish I could have heard more about what she contributed to each movie, especially the David Lynch films. She talked a bit about Dune but definitely not enough.
It was interesting to hear how she got into the business of sound. I guess most people figure out what they love to do kind of haphazardly. It's the same way with how she finds her sounds I guess. She didn't talk much about how she finds all these sounds that end up in these Hollywood blockbusters and that was a bit disappointing. Star Wars wasn't talked about at all, neither was LOTR. Overall the lecture came up short in many places. It's an interesting field and I would have liked to have heard a lot more about it but. . . . .
She mentioned the fact that sound can save a bad film and I disagree; heartily. The sounds that came out of the last Star Wars film blew my mind, such as with the creature that Obi Wan rode, but the movie itself (i.e. the writing) was utter trash. I believe that sound came improve a bad film to to say that it can save it is going a bit too far.
Other than all this it was a good lecture.

I haven't been able to be very funny for the past six days. Being around the whole family is exhausting. Every time they talked to me they had tears in their eyes. I just got back into town and didn't have time to shoot much of anything but some pictures around my grandpa's house and at the funeral. Why anyone would want a picture with their dead mother is beyond me but I swear I took plenty.
I've been racking my brain to come up with a great idea for a photo but I have come up short so far. Perhaps I am thinking too hard. It's been known to happen. I guess I might be afraid that I can't follow up the last series with even better images. It might just take me a little while to get into the swing of things.
I know I can shake this; I just need something to knock me in the right direction.

Home Sweet Mar

It's the night before my grandmother's funeral. Didn't think I'd have to say that until after my wedding. Ever since I've been back it's been a weird experience; feeling sad only when I see my grandfather. She went in her sleep, which was best but my mother tells me that she was found without her oxygen in. It's assumed that she knocked it loose in her sleep but my mum suspects that she might have pulled it out on purpose. I can see why she might have but it's still hard to believe. After hearing this it's all I can think of when I see her; and I've seen her a lot today. I want to use this in my work but it's hard when I can't really shoot in my grandpa's house. I'd love to take pictures in her bedroom but I don't want to upset anyone. My family isn't bound to understand why I do what I do, especially with this series. It's a shame because this is a great way for me to deal with this loss. I keep getting a picture of my head beneath her mattress but I'm not sure how I can swing that one.

Death By . . .

I've been looking at Bill Thomas's Suicide photos and I'm beginning to really enjoy them. His Rube Goldberg way of killing himself is genius. I found one where he used a snorkel and I about died. Although I would love to create scenarios that resemble these I don't believe I could put myself in harms way the way he does. Or maybe I could if I had someone else there with me to dial 911 if something went wrong, we'll see. Thomas is also more spread out with his ideas, using different settings. I would still like to stay in my home setting even though it limits me on resources. There are still places I have yet to use such as the kitchen, living room . . etc. Using my home gives me a more controlled space.

I'm a bit wary about using other people still. Maybe it's because I'm so used to using myself. It's just that when I use myself I get the results I want when it comes to expression and posing. I also have a connection to the subject matter like Bill Thomas where others may not and I don't want to use more of my time to find those people who do.

The Bunny Suicides, though funny, are a bit too unrealistic for me.

My list of possible ways to off myself . . .

Death By: Electrocution
Cut Wrists
Gas / Helium ( past idea, not sure if it would work)

I could reshoot the pill overdose image but I don't want to touch those things again. I might actually gag on the sugar the second time around. All for now, more later.

Scattered Thoughts

Naturally you aspire to be like those who influence you. The real question then is who influences you. Personally as of now those who influence my work have been writers. Writers such as Edward Gorey and Tim Burton have peaked my interest more than others. Their way with dark humor is refreshing and I think necessary. Humor can be found in almost everything and both writers show that. Both writers produce their own illustrations and I suppose that is where my work stems from. The images would be lost without the writings but even so there is a subtle humor in the illustrations that you cannot get past. It is that humor that I wish to convey in my own work. With my images I feel the need to push the boundaries of what can be funny as I believe Burton and Gorey do.