Launching the imagination!
Okay; something about the readings: As I worked through the read ins I thought about what is imagination? More importantly what is imagination mean in art?

For me I put into a perspective that I could relate to.  To me it means not only pleasing people; but giving a visual that stimulates thought and understanding.  To illustrate what I mean; Consider the artist Tom Lea. Lea was an American artist during the Second World War and the periods before and after. Lived in the southwestern US. So much of his work dealt with that focal point. But during the war he is said to have painted his way through the war.

A recent showing of his work featuring his most know work: "Th thousand yard stare". Painted it based on an actual event in the Pacific theatre. It resonates with me in that I understand and feel it.

 This is called "The Price". The Marine depicted landed and without ever seeing the enemy was caught in a fatal explosion. He staggered back to the beach in shock and died.

Lea also did other work. He called the portrait of his wife Sarah; his favorite work.  It is easy to see the love he felt in it

Learned a few things about web pages today. Have a question about them. Why would webpages only have a single page?  It seems like more of a journal or personal site.

Today's picture:

Not a great picture; went to an on-line auction and bought a single lot. Eight figures and one cannon. The figure on the far right is a Polish Lancer circa 1805.  Will try and redo this picture and perhaps  split the group into two groups.

Technology; isn't it great?
Having been accused of being technology challenged I thought that Bill Maudlin could help me explain it a bit better.

meanwhile having fun; i will continue on with my project.

In the lab today to work on my website; need some help.
My question is do I write the accompanying narratives for each page of the website and then pull them and paste them into the webpages?


Rejected photos:

Cutting one picture because I feel it is too stark/obvious and would pose a visual overstatement.

it is an incredible visual but too much of a statement.

Project update:

This is an update on my final project which I am so looking forward to!

What I've done to date is finish my research, find photos, and now am pushing them into photoshop. The next step Monday afternoon in the lab with Emily's help is to build the website using dreamweaver. This weekend at home I will see what I can find on line to understand dreamweaver.

My concept for my product is a development (land) company called "Every Minute" which is selling land at Pripyat in the Ukraine. The colour scheme of the site will be magenta and yellow.

I found a public listed (NYSE) development company and using open source materials ground some of their annual statements from the 1980s. Using those a guide for what their themes and messages of the period looked like.

Thought about using a picture of W.C.Fields as the "founder" but that might be a bit much

The final moments!

Thought that having only one final out of the four classes I am taking this semester would be great.

Wrong! That pushes the work load to a shorter time span. I have three major end of course activities now due at the same time/date. Oh well; just got to drive on.
I am fortunate in that two of the projects are using the same research criteria/focus/area.

Meanwhile for today's picture:

Okay I lied a bit. The first is the exterior wall of a mosque at Jalabad in eastern Afghanistan, the second of sunset from our compound (am big on celestial stuff), and the third from Kandahar. The officer is LCol Saijan holding the Vancouver Police Department flag at the Canadian memorial to the fallen. He is now a member of parliament and the Canadian Minister of Defence. And yes he is a Sikh.

Managed to set up my webspace today. Now to develop a plan for projects. Did some research but haven't figured out my proposal for a product.

What I have found is that the 80s seems to be the bridge between the past and the present. It is almost as if the Reagan era (referring to the President) is the connection. The culminating event would have been the end of the Cold War.

Meanwhile I do have a job offer with a local company developing training for their clients at Hanford. so yesterday I went to the Career Development Center's workshop/seminar on  salary to try and figure out what salary/benefits package I should ask for. It wasn't much help so I've got some research to do.

Knowing that pictures are encouraged I brought the camera to the lab and picked two pictures from a trip last month to Camp Murray (HDQS WA Army National Guard). The event was an open house at their museum celebrating the 160th anniversary of the State's National Guard. The first picture is something from my unit; the terrain relief map of our piece of heaven (Afghanistan) and the second is a late production model of a Sherman tank from the 1944-45 era. The green things in the back are what they tell me are trees.

The first December Bog!

Picking up the pace!

Thanksgiving break is over; had my elbow surgery Tuesday. The drugs would good but my mind was befuddled. Couldn't use my hand so when I could i read. Got bored or was over striving so read the textbook too.

Therefore the next few blog entries will focus on the textbook as a narrative; with pictures from whatever strikes my fancy

Project complete. Added the material to the End Title and credits. Then got cute and added an out take.  The outtake in my initial concept was a key element but in the end I felt that it would have potentially been seen as humorous and as a result distracting.

 very few people realize that European Armies did have camel borne units. In this case the British Indian Army. Camels were even tried by our Army before the Civil War in the American Southwest at the direction of the Secretary of War; Jefferson Davis.

Ironically the first group of Soldiers depicted in my film are from the Regiment he commanded in the War with Mexico (1848). Have I just combined history with art?

Remembrance Day/Veterans Day/Armistice Day

What I do with my spare time. 11 November 2015; the memorial at the Beatty Street Drill Hall in Vancouver BC. The home of the British Columbia Regiment. On the table is a World War 1 helmet surrounded by the poppies that the Regiment wore on Parade in the morning.

Finished my photos for the project this weekend. Adjusted my storyboard to reflect the time that is spent doing anything but fighting in the Armed Forces. Added artillery and mounted Soldiers to give amore balances perspective trying to reflect the proverbial combined arms approach.

This weekend was over on the coast getting rained on attending a presentation at the National Guard's Museum for the 160th anniversary of the Washington National Guard.

The map is a 3D map of the area we worked in Afghanistan. It was one of three made. When we rotated out the unit was given it by the Commanding General of our Division (82nd Airborne) or at least that's our story and we're sticking to it.

Halloween is over!

the stop motion project is underway.

My concept is to make a statement on a child's fantasy of war and make a statement quoting Plato "Only the dead have seen the end of war.

My story board is forming up as a series of toy soldiers of different nations ending with a toy soldier dying followed by a image of a cemetery and Plato's quote then ending with a picture of a cemetery. 

My statement is that war is conceived of as glory but in reality it isn't

Working on my next project; a propaganda poster. My initial concept was that of a commentary on consumerism vs. recycling. My intent was to contrast a positive action (recycling) in contrast to consumerism in a big box store (such as Costco).  As I developed the concept I realized that a narrative statement (words in a short sentence) would be needed to tie the message of the poster to the message.

At that point I realized I am doing projects in two other classes this semester centered on Veterans and remembrance. So now /i am focused on Poppies and remembrance. We'll see where that goes.

Found something on Facebook; an image of a t-shirt. But I used to see this message as graffiti on bathroom stalls, blast walls, on grenades themselves even. Now it has reached the mainstream.

If propaganda is intended to influence people; this is an example isn't it?

Thursday 8 Oct 2015

Finished my presentation on a new age artist; CDR Dr Robert Ballard. Interesting subject using technology to further science.

Exercise #2

An experiment; no further work. Time to work on new media artist presentation. My first assessment is to focus on Remotely Piloted Vehicles and the images they take of things unseen. So am going to focus on Dr. Robert Ballard

What I started with were my initials, then progresses to colors and finally distorting the characters. As seen I did find the rectangle tool. If we do a project I would like to take a photo of "Thelma & Louise" and go from there.

I picked my initials because primarily I know them. I have used them frequently because they indicate my acknowledgement of completion of a function such as reviewing a document. To this day I still remember initialing off on Rules of Engagement down range.

6th Reading - pgs 81-98

Emphasis through contrast? Interesting concept. In a practical application it would be looking for what doesn't belong, what is in motion or not in motion, and listening for sounds.

Learned the hard way to look at the ground for areas that were a different colour or for wires leading away from the road.

Before, during, after1

Pictures?

For a reason yet to be determined (troubleshot) have not been able to load pictures so am trying it here in the lab. So here's my Sunday evening activity; watching the Blood Moon.

Fifth Reading:

On page 67  the text says that: "we face a new compositional challenge with each design we make". This is quite true. for the project "photo montage" I went through three unique designs; each with it's own compositional needs.

In the end there is unity among the general subject matter but variety in each element (photo). As I consider my final product I realize that I embrace the concrete; what can be clearly defined or proven.

The product has a grouping, a containment (the white border), some repetition, proximity, continuity, balance, a pattern, and fusion. Beyond that I also see symmetry, balance,

Early in my composition I tended towards am asymmetrical approach but found it unappealing.

Must be very gestaltic!

This weekend's mission is to complete my narrative to accompany Project 2. I also think I might go take another picture to add to the collage and do some reading in the text.

But this morning as I was outside I saw a balloon in the distant sky. It was beyond the extreme range of my camera but I took a picture anyway

Third (p38-54) & Fourth (p54-66)

Was on a roll here and didn't stop to reflect about the material. I think that symbolic colours are not understood here. The author  separates symbolic meanings from emotion and expression. From my experience the two concepts are interactive to the point depending on the message of the theme can not be uncoupled.

Meanwhile my photos for assignment two are complete. Although at some degree of diminished comfortableness. Too hot Saturday for a fire in the fireplace.

Second reading pgs 10-38

Trompe L-Oiel - fool the eye!  I would take this even further. the deception is based on the "eye". The eye being how the object is being seen. A deception that would fool a camera from above would not work if the camera were lowered to the horizon.

Am tempted on the second project to play with value distribution/darkening and contrasting that with lighter objects to see if I can suggest a progression.

Today is Patriot Day; 9-11. Fourteen years ago for many of us life changed. I had been an Army National Guardsman. In fact our monthly drill had been the previous weekend. In sixteen days I would be called to active duty and be gone for sixteen months. It would be the first of many long absences over the next years.

In 2009 I was in Afghanistan with my Battalion. On 9-11 our Division held a Remembrance Ceremony. Our colours (on the right) would be on a Divisional Parade for the first time since 1966.

Readings:  Although it took some time to get the book this past weekend I caught up on the readings. Encountered a problem as I discovered the illustrations. I found them so fascinating I went/read/skimmed the entire book. Seeing these it gave me quite a few ideas.
My new objective is to incorporate some of them as I learn Photoshop.

In the first reading (pgs. 2-10) what the concept of line useage (pg.9). Using the concept of "connect" my portrait should/could have used the lines of each to connect the objects much like a Korean totem.

Self Portrait

My self portrait. First time I have ever used photoshop. Through all my career I have never touched a photo. Runs to my credibility.

This portrait is based on our call sign in Afghanistan; as a unique organization in the 82nd Airborne Division we had a call sign: Mountain Raven.  Because we were from the northwest Rainier was my selection as a mountain. Carrying on the theme I included a modified Haida Raven.

The first entry in this blog and I really don't want to write anything. Low Energy level