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Week 5: Point of View

Day 1: Can you wear every piece of clothing you own all at one time?

Introducing the fit (feat. my amazing dog who now hates me)…….

My everyday activity is the quiet contemplation right after I wake up. During this important time I ask myself the important questions.

” Why am I here?” “When can I go back to sleep?” “Why am I an art student?”

“What’s for breakfast?”

The result of wrestling off the layers of clothes…..

Day 2: Build a fort that would impress your childhood self.

  • Quiet fort
  • Chill fort
  • Rave fort

Day 3: Make your own mask.

Day 4: Researching your favorite article of clothing.

My favorite article of clothing is sweatpants. I probable wear them like 5 out of the 7 days in a week. They’re comfy and great.

Sweatpants was first introduced in the 1920’s by Emile Camuset, the founder of Le Coq Sportif. They first pair was knitted jersey pant where athletes could run and stretch comfortably in. Once these practical pants were only worn for sporting events and at home. Now, they are available in many fashionable styles and are worn in a variety of public situations. Because of their comfort and fashion, they have become a popular choice of clothing.

They were popularized as ideas of health and an athletic body became more fashionable. Sweatpants quickly began appearing at the Olympics, and it was normal to see athletes wearing them there by 1936. Seeing athletes in sweats would help to popularize them but for the next few decades they would remain strictly workout attire. It won’t be until the 80’s when sweatpants break outside of athletic wear. ( Rocky, the movie, had a huge influence in the fashion of sweatpants and help give it a push into liesure wear. Jane Fonda’s workout videos also helped contriube.)

Sweatpants are usually made from cotton or polyester, often of a heavy knit. They often have elastic in the waistband, drawstrings, and may or may not have pockets. Some sweatpants can also feature elasticized cuffs at the hem of the leg. Sweatpants are traditionally ash gray in color but are now available in most colors. Traditionally quite “baggy” and loose, sweatpants are now also available in more form-fitting shapes; moreover, they have flexibility and comfort. The design of sweat pants lead to different variations of it such as track pants, tare-away pants, and fashion pants.

Day 5: Portrait Day.

I had a lot of fun doing this! When I asked my family to help I was surprised by how enthusiastic they were. I found a few photos and couldn’t pick one so I did them all 🙂

  • Maria Callas
  • Doris Humphrey
  • Cornelia Otis Skinner
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CoLab: Inside/Outside

Exquisite CoLab

This is Ryan. He is my weirdo little brother who eats mac and cheese all the time and likes to draw. He’s the only one who would work with me for my project but super glad he was excited to participate with me 🙂

We did a few drawings where we folded on piece of paper into four sections and passed it back and forth but without seeing what the other drew by flipping that part over. have to say this was my favorite prompt for this weeks assignment. We had a great time and giggled a lot.

Eventually my sister saw HoW MucH FuN We weRe HaVInG and then decided to join us. She decided to use red pen :/

We changed the set up for the drawing by having a the first person draw a scene and then pass it on to another to write one sentence describing the drawing.

Letter to Myself

Pandemic Aesthetic

Below is the wild Alexis in her natural habitat…

So my beautiful soft pink coat made of comforter material (since I lay in bed all day when I don’t work). Insomnia, stress, and “eating because i’m bored ” feelings make up the coat’s amazing and comfortable puffiness. The coat is recomended to be paired with your pajamas that you’ve been wearing all week because let’s be real we don’t know what day it is anymore. This coat will highlight what it is like to be a college student working from home. But be aware this coat is sooooo comfy that you may fall asleep from time to time and lose your paper work in it.

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Sheila Hicks

Portrait of Sheila Hicks with her installation from “Foray into Chromatic Zones,” London, 2015. Courtesy of PA Images / Alamy Stock Photo.

Sheila Hick is an American Artis from Nabraska. She currently works and resides in Paris, France. Her work is known for its experimental weavings and structural textile art. Her work ranges from small wall hangings to monumental installations. Hicks trained as a painter at Yale, and recieved her BFA and MFA. She translates elements of abstraction, color theory, and painterly gesture into thread, where they perhaps originated.  Hicks incorporates vibrant, unrestrained blues, oranges, and reds in her work. Her works reflect the experience of curious and consent engagement with the material world.

Artist Sheila Hicks Is Still Making Defiant, Beautiful Woven Art ...
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Installation view of “Sheila Hicks: Campo Abierto (Open Field),” at The Bass, 2019. Photo by Zachary Balber. Courtesy of The Bass, Miami Beach.
Sheila Hicks: Free threads. Textile and its Pre-Columbian Roots ...
SHEILA HICKS — Sikkema Jenkins & Co.
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Alizarin Crimson

Rubia tinctorum 002.JPG
Madder plant or Rubia tinctorum.
  • Alizarin crimson is a shade of red that is biased slightly more towards purple than towards orange on the color wheel and has a blue undertone.
  • It is named after the organic dye alizarin, found in the madder plant, and the related synthetic lake pigment alizarin crimson.
  • The dye was prominently used for dying clothes and traces were found in Ancient Egypt, Persia and the ruins of Pompeii. 
  • In 1826, two French chemists, Jean Jacques Colin and Pierre Jean Robiquet, made further developments and isolated two separate dyes in madder: Alizarin and Purpurin.
  • German chemists Carl Gräbe and Carl Liebermann distilled Alizarin with zinc leading them to discover Anthraquinone in 1869. They were then able to synthesise the pigment from coal tar, making Alizarin Crimson the first natural dye to be synthesised. 
  • The synthesis caused the rapid decline and almost total disappearance of the madder-growing industry.
  • Although alizarin crimson had superior permanence over the madder lake because of the absence of purpurin, both madder lakes were used in oil and watercolor painting. 
  • Alizarin crimson paint was frequently used on Bob Ross’ TV show, The Joy of Painting.
Spotlight on Alizarin Crimson
Ground pigment of alizarin crimson
Oil Paint, Permanent Alizarin Crimson, 37 ml. by Winsor & Newton ...
Johannes Vermeer, Christ in the House of Martha and Mary, 1654-56. The red blouse of Mary is painted in madder lake.
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Field Guide- Location, Location, Location

For the rest of the semester I’ll be working from home due to Covid-19. It doesn’t bother me to be working from home. It’s a more comfortable and recognizable environment for me to be working in. my studio is my room. Although it’s a little cramped, things (so far) have always worked out working in this space.

From the five artist we viewed I resonated with Louis Despont and Lucas Blalock. Despont’s routine is most similar to mine where I slowly transition from waking up into working and living in her studio space. Look at the material she uses and how scale of work can relate to the size of studio sometimes.

With Blalock, I relate to working on art while working, and With the recent Covid-19 crisis, it has flipped my daily routine on its head. My family and I are considered essential workers as we run a farm stand. The change in community dynamic, working hours, etc. has made my tranition back home from Alfred tricky, and both physically and mentally draining. I find myself squeezing in hours of work between shifts and doing some late nights. ( But its all good rn 🙂 I’m used to the late nights, but only at Alfred. At home, for some reason it’s a bit freaky….haha.)

Due to the recent circumstances of the virus, it made me value my own personal space even more than before. For this assignment I chose to focus on the environment of my bedroom. It is probably the one place (besides raiding the fridge) I spend most of my time in. I decided to chose to document the object on top of my dresser because it’s a mix of objects that I kept home, and what I think makes up the enviornment of my room.

Field Guide

Details

Description of the Objects

  1. Weird Cat Key Chain and Sad Bob Ross
    • lost it for about a year but I found it while unpacking my stuff.
    • slightly suffers from bite marks….. my dog got a hold of it.
    • Bob Ross just looks like he has dead eyes
  2. Melty Candle
    • my favorite candle ever (I get too many of them)
    • slowly melting and dying because i burn it too much 😦
  3. Candlestock Matches
    • crappy matches that it got for free at Candlestock in Woodstock, NY
    • came with the melty candle
  4. Timothy the Sad Plant
    • got him at the farmer’s market in Alfred
    • i have no idea how he’s still alive but good for him
    • my dog doesn’t like him because she tried to eat it
  5. Random Pink Pen
    • one of the various pink pens that i have
    • pink is my favorite color
    • its dried out but i haven’t bothered to throw it away
  6. Jade Necklace
    • very special to me
    • my dad gave it to me when i was 10 and i never take it off
    • i feel like if i take it off somethign bad will happen ( my dad and i are suppertitious like that….)
  7. Dried Lavender
    • my favorite thing that i have
    • my sister gave it to me as a present for my 19th birthday
    • it smells really good
  8. Dried Up Paint Tube
    • been there since the dawn of time
    • originally was in a old shoe box but i appeared here (idk GHostS?)
  9. Cute Pine Cone
    • got it from a park in North Carolina when i was 7
    • dont know why i still have it, probably kept bc i thought i would use it for some thing but never did
  10. Banana Sticker
    • for get about the lavender…. this is my favorite thing ever
    • i found a stray banana sticker from the farm stand
    • it repicates the Girl with a Pearl Earring but the girl is a banana
  11. Bubby’s Key Charm
    • my little brother gave this to me when i came home for spring break
    • suuuuuper squishy and cute
    • havent figured out where to put it so it lives on my dresser
  12. Boylan’s Bottle Cap
    • from a cream soda bottle that i had a few days ago
    • i broke the bottle but kept the bottle cap?
    • cream soda was a 6/10
  13. Purple Candle
    • my second favorite candle
    • smells nice
    • rationing the burn time( i have learned from the melty candle) bc i can’t find another anywhere
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CoLab: Week #6

This week I turned in my final project and when through a critique. the process creating the video was somewhat frustrating because I am still not used to performing in public. I am a very quiet and anxious person by nature so it was challenging. But by going through this course as well as studio research last semester, I find it very helpful to film with a friend. Laughing takes away some of the awkward ness and nerves (Although I had to film longer because I had to reshoot many scenes because I was laughing too much…).

After our critiques, l we did screen printing and had to make a design for homework. I partner up with my friend, Margaret, and and we went back and referenced our group logo project for some inspiration. We decided to make something that represented something we had in common which was our star sign, Sagittarius.

The images above were our early designs for screen printing.

Here is our final design.