Being productive.

1. When I was making my mask I was thinking about the idea of offense/defense, because I was feeling very me vs. the world at the time, and I saw the mask as somewhat of a defense against what was going on outside because it expressed what I was feeling inside. In the photos, however, I see my mask as relating to the idea of the mask/image with no substance behind, especially the first picture. In this picture the mask is something that I put on to sort of numb myself and my mind so that I am able to produce out my right hand what I am taking in through my left. In this picture there really isn't anyone behind the mask, the mask has temporarily taken over the real me.

2. My mask and pictures have a strong connection to the idea of real/ideal. Within the picture, I am struggling between enjoying the beauty I am taking in (the book I am holding) and the beauty i want to take in (the books on the floor) against the pressure to produce something out of that beauty. My real self just wants to enjoy it, the ideal is able to produce without really taking it in. Then there is the contrast of real and ideal between the two pictures. In the first one, I have it all together and everything is in place. In the second, I am struggling to keep my mask on and to mindlessly crank out a response to beauty. I would consider that to be a true representation of my real self.

Real and Ideal

I think the biggest contrast between the real and ideal pictures in both of these sets is the amount of editing that went into the ideal picture versus the real picture. I did a lot of touch-ups to Erin's ideal picture, such as making her teeth whiter and adding highlights to her hair. I didn't do any editing to enhance her in the real image. Josh also touched-up my photo, as cued by my very white teeth! Also, in both of the real photos, neither Erin or I are posing. I snapped her real picture when she was actually smiling about something we were saying, and obviously the wind is blowing her hair in her face. Josh took my real picture when Erin and I were joking about something and I made a silly face.

When I was retouching Erin's ideal picture I was thinking about this movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

I like their last line- "No wonder our perception of beauty is distorted". It's distorted because people see all these beautiful images in magazines, on billboards, etc. and think "Why don't I look like that?" And the truth is, NO one actually looks like that. Computing editing has completely changed what we see as ideal, and now it's not even truly attainable. Only in photos.

Landscape and Earthworks.

This picture was taken in Puerto Rico, in a cave called "Cueva Ventana," or Cave Window. This picture is of the end of the cave, where it literally opens up like a window in the side of a mountain, looking out over the landscape. It was an ab

solutely incredible view. I spent about 45 minutes there just taking pictures and reveling in the glory of God's creation.

This is one of the pictures from our Earthworks project. We were toying with the concept of being "wired" in nature and also the idea about preferring the tree or a picture of the tree. In this picture Mitchell is sitting up against a tree, but is basically ignoring it because he is so engrossed in his technology and the picture of the tree that he is looking at.

The difference for me between working on the landscape and Earthworks projects was that when taking my landscape picture I was focused on capturing the earth, whereas during the Earthworks project I felt we were using the earth as just another prop, like the laptop or the shirts in some of our other pictures. In the landscape photo I was trying to take in all the natural beauty and take a photo that appreciates nature. For the Earthworks pictures I felt like I was trying to manipulate the earth, not appreciate it. I think that the landscape picture is much more representative of my relationship with nature/creation. My preferred relationship with nature is when I can just be in it and take it in and appreciate it. I like to think when I'm nature, but I don't like to try and understand. I love the feeling of knowing that I am in something that is way too big for me to comprehend, and so I don't try. I just let it be this monumental mass in my mind, and I respect its complexity by remaining relatively on the outside, like I did when I took this landscape photo. It was me observing this space and trying to fit as much beauty into the frame as I could, knowing that there was so much that I couldn't fit in my predetermined number of pixels. In the Earthworks pictures I was really trying hard to make something out of nature or to use it for a specific purpose, which is just not how I relate to creation.

This is the picture we had in mind when we were coming up with our concept for Earthworks. It's a great example of the contrast between preferring the scene or a picture of it. If I were in this frame, I would be on my way outside to walk around in it instead of sitting there painting.