Greatness

For the Mini-Project 1 assignment, I opted to construct an image based on what I know best: film. After making it in to AP Images, I searched many terms related to film, like "cinema," "Hollywood," "motion picture" and "movies." For one, there wasn't a diverse range of images. Instead, there was a collection of random film events or people in the film industry. There wasn't a pattern of sorts that I could piece together in my collage as a representation of film as a whole. After striking out, I almost abandoned the film theme for the project. Though before I did, I typed in "filmmaker" to see what would show up. It was then that I came across multiple images of well known and widely recognized film directors. These are individuals that I have great respect for--not only for their films, but for their contribution to the art of cinema along the years. 

With that said, the above collage includes images of Ava DuVernay (Selma), Robert Redford (Sundance Film Festival), JJ Abrams (Lost), George Lucas (Star Wars), Steven Spielberg (Jaws), and Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive). I arranged the images in a manner that is simple, yet unique. To make the collage appear uniform, I applied a black and white filter. Each of the images has a drop shadow to separate it from the background. The images are also positioned over and under one another to illustrate their interconnectedness. Other features such as the size and orientation of the images are largely unchanged from the original downloads.

More than anything, this collage serves as a collection and representation of greatness. It is my hope for my own image to be included in a depiction of cinema greats in the future. 

The Stairwell

The above sketch immediately drew my interest as I scrolled down the Google images. When I think of “abstract” images, I often conjure up images of colorful artwork with no recognizable pattern or structure. My Google search confirmed this for the most part. For instance, many images had bright vibrant colors or an arrangement of various shapes.

On the other hand, this image is different. In contrast, it is black and white and seems to be sketched, rather than painted or computer-generated. There are no geometric shapes that I can discern, but instead an array of lines converging in the same direction. The image, perhaps more than some of the others, appears three-dimensional. As opposed to a random pattern of sorts, the image is a reconstruction of a familiar structure: a stairwell. Only this stairwell is unfamiliar. It is uneven or unbalanced in that it stretches up yet down at the same time. And on that note, this image more than anything provokes thought. 
Why did the artist make this image? What is it supposed to convey? Is the stairwell going up or down? Is that a person scaling the stairs? Is the stairwell a metaphor for life?
These questions and more drive my curiosity with this image. There are no words, yet there is meaning and a message hidden in the lines of the sketch.