Finally after a week of considerations, my nursery rhyme was set to be ONE TWO THREE FOUR FIVE. I don’t need to explain that this IS a rhyme since almost everyone who was born before the millennium knows it. A progress is a progress, so I shall place the full rhyme below.

One, two, three, four, five,
Once I caught a fish alive,
Six, seven, eight, nine, ten,
Then I let it go again.
Why did you let it go?
Because it bit my finger so.
Which finger did it bite?
This little finger on the right.

I felt nostalgic when I saw this rhyme during my research as it was one of the English nursery rhymes I first encountered in the language. So I figured, it has a perfect flow of story and able to be visualized with real objects, suitable for my choice of nursery rhyme.

The first challenge I faced was the concept. Then I remembered that DADA artists uses things we can immediately recognize to convey their intentions in a unconventional way. In other words, try to be indirect with iconic symbols, in this case, dingbats. So my orientation will describe the words indirectly even for “one”. Thus the following visual journal sketches were created.

20151012_223013 20151012_223018 20151012_223024 20151012_223032The arrangements were made by copying the selected dingbats on my computer screen. I figured this way of planning can shorten my processing time. Also, I always have a clearer mind with it comes to hand-drawn sketches. After a few modifications, I am happy with my sketches and thus moved on to the software.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the main character of the rhyme is the fish. It got caught and bit its catcher for its own escape. I can’t just find a fish dingbat to fill this badass place. To be honest, I just can’t find any fishes in the dingbats collection considering it is a basic creature. Thus I thought of being ‘resourceful’ in my own way and built a fish from the remaining dingbats. As you can see, this fish was made out of a bee, a pair of woman lips, leaves, flower petals, SBS double decked bus, and an umbrella.

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I had fun composing the fish. Suddenly, I thought, why not substitute it with the luxurious items I found among the dingbats? The fish in the rhyme can be interpreted as the material needs that we occasionally obtain. Sometimes these needs cost a certain price, therefore “bit” us in the finger. We can’t keep what wasn’t ours.

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Therefore, a fish composed from a bracelet, an unknown branded handbag, a sport car, a high heels, a Mac, an ancient coin, and another set of lips just to make it lifelike.

12345 once i caught a fish alive - Copy

A bear holding up a high five. Four well dressed lads. Three Trees. A balance scale which require two sides like the justice it represents. The one ring to rule them all.

678910 then i let it go again2 - Copy

Ten fingers. A howling caNINE. Eight spiders. Seven saxophones (Saxophone is the closest thing I can get to shape like the number). 3 Satans’ mask, for the sake of satan’s phone number.

Why Hitler? Hitler was one of the victim of the needs — power. Also, his gesture looked like he was releasing a fish.

wdylig bibmfs wfdib - Copy

“Why did you let it go?” Captain Picard says to the strutting Leo as the questioned tweedle dum/dee looks at him. Leo might think he’s an angel in heart for releasing the fish who secretly celebrates its victory. But Leo reveals the truth with diamonds.

Diamonds may not shape like fish teeth, but they certainly have the shape to form a vicious set.

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The little finger on my right, represented with a can of pills, signifies it’s the one in pain at the time.

Thanks for reading my whole process. I really had great fun doing the pictures. It’d be a good experience if it wasn’t constantly interrupted by my laptop’s faulty back-light. Hope you find my exploration interesting. See you soon in my next project!

Due to the fact that it would be pretty much a blur after zoom for the photo. Here’s the video that goes through each and every lines in my final work! (Unframed.)

I’d say this project is a satisfied work for me. Yet there’s definitely some flaws in my final work, such as the aesthetic of the work. It’s a pity that I didn’t choose to try more methods of creating the patterns. Compared to my classmates works, my work lacks variety of materials and techniques. I believe some of the lines can be improved through different types of approach. This project has taught a lot to me and I hope that I can jump out of my own restrictions in my next project.

-END-

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The first thing I did was reviewing every lines I chose for the first inked draft. The review was performed with conversation between me and myself. Sounds depressing, but I found this quite useful in terms of concentrating. So I wrote out every verbal description of my lines. (The good thing about describable work is I can know what am I doing. haha.) Next, I commented on each of the description and determined whether they should leave or stay. Feels like the judges on any reality shows.

What’s next? Back to the thinking chair. In this case, the visual journal.

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Anxious: Missing stuff might cause anxiousness yet not serious and obvious enough. Embarrassed: Finalized.

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Nonsensical: First I thought of politicians but this concept is more of a picture than a line. The arrow with messy vectors signifies the messy side-plots in nonsense movie and yet again not in favor.

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Ambiguous: The dragon body was finalized with a room of improvement. The flames and clouds can be the hint of direction but it did not function like I expected.

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Fragile: It got its new inspiration from Exhausted’s spider web, with some little details added in the finalization.

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Systematic: The original line didn’t worked out as I hoped. So the line was revised and got a new symbolic answer.

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Turbulent: The new version is tricky to think because not much of fresh representation came into mind. These designs also lack subtleties.

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Distracted: What if someone got distracted when drawing crosses? Exaggerated and reluctant.

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Sensual: This is a finalized idea but it would only work if the branches are completed in full size.

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Sloven: The idea is tough as its definition can only be seen in a larger picture. Yet I don’t want it to be too simplified.

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Sloven: This was done by pencil sometimes later.

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Spontaneous: Finalized idea.

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Indecisive: I’m indecisive about this as well. The main inspiration comes from the theory of multi-verse and story plot possibilities.

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Aggressive: The emotion can be easily defined with lacking of depth. So the phrase was discontinued although it’s expressive for me.

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Turbulent: It was revised again at this point.

After listing out the ideas, I recalled one of the suggestion Ms.Joy gave. Since the depth of the lines are not equal, viewers might found it not interesting as it contains sudden drops of subtlety. Therefore, I can make a spectrum of subtleties to give out an ascending impressions of my work, hence the rearrangement in the last photo. This is also one of the reasons that I chose the A1 format. Moreover, the my concept doesn’t not consist of pairing and comparisons. I intended to show the whole picture in one so viewers can read the lines one by one.

[To be continued]

A visual journal to me is a compilation of my ideas, outcome of inspirations and observations. It can be a record of my creative progress for different assignments which can influence each and other. It can also be a room for conversation with myself, in terms of discovering what the heck I am thinking. There are a few challenges for my visual journal. One, whether or not I can keep up the habit. Two, I will possibly be limited by my own definition of image creating. Three, the uncertainty I have on the direction of my recording style. — Me in NTU Blackboard.

.It’s been a long journey from scratch till the presentation. In the beginning, I intend to let my hand do all the work, which is imagine myself into that certain emotions and let the pen creates the pattern instinctively.

 

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Anxious. Impatiently drawn with no consistency, including the straight lines.

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Bizarre. Trying to be as random as possible, but with regulations.

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Embarrassed. The line is drawn by a shy person. Constantly covers the line he drew.

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Fragile. Visualized with cracks, thin lines, glass panels, splitting string, muscle tissue, heartbeat, and loose sand.

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Exhausted. Visualizing the perception of exhaustion.

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Turbulent. My first thought was the flowing elements like liquids and air movement. But it could be projected as insecurity.

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Nonsensical. Do not make sense, do not need to. So I went without any rules.

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Psychotic. Can be portrayed by the results of splatting or the gooey feeling that needs to be released. OR, just use the words of sound made by a psychotic man who ran wild.

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Ambiguous. Supposedly drawn to avoid comprehension and conclusion of the shape. Like where do they face? what are they?

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Distracted. Intended to let the viewers to get distracted by something.

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Sensual. This one went on by instant flow of the pen.

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Sloven. Nothing is regulated by any sort. I attempted to produce something messy.

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Spontaneous. Inspired by fireworks, cell division, smoke and jumping dots.

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Aggressive. My pen was highly abused at this point. “I do give a shit” is the phrase I always shout in mind when I’m (and by the time WAS) angry.

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Indecisive. The regulations of the line keep on changing. They just can’t make up their minds.

All the premature lines are made in the moment, so their starting point are just as naive as I was. And so the end result of the first inked draft was presented with different intention.

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Our instructor, Ms. Joy found subtleties in some of the lines, especially those which ended up in the final work. She encouraged me to work on the new discovered strength of mine in the project. Therefore, a new orientation has appeared.

[To be continued]

First and foremost, I would like to admit I do not possess the knowledge and experience to appreciate abstract art. I agree most of the paintings are visually stunning, and I do feel the impacts conveyed from the components on the canvas, such as its shapes, lines, compositions and colours, instead of its hidden emotions. At least, it made me realise its own beauty and brilliance, which is what art is supposed to be able to do.

Among the artists that have been shown in the last session, I found interest in the following artworks, or furthermore, impressed. These artworks are Cai Guo Qiang’s gunpowder drawings, Andy Warhol’s Oxidations, and Yves Klein Anthropometries.

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Let’s start from Cai’s drawings. Gunpowder is known as one of the four great inventions of China which symbolised wars and chaos throughout the histories of any parts of the world. Yet Cai used it as his painting material. However, Cai managed to create fine arts without just burning up his canvas but using different types of (mostly traditionally made) gunpowder to produce various textures and colours. Some of the patterns created were peaceful, still and sometimes dynamic, which create a conflict with their material. Gunpowder finally has a new function besides destruction in the hands of Cai Guo Qiang.
Andy-Warhol---cropped

Next, we have Andy Warhol, the pop artist who won’t stop redefining the popular art culture of his time. When I first saw Warhol’s oxidation painting, I thought the series were his attempts to move on to other types of painting. After reading the fact that these oxidised stains on the metallic paint were created by his and his friends’ urine, I was shocked. A lot of thoughts ran through my mind at the moment. Was he trying to imitate the motion of liquid but he couldn’t thus the method was thought? Were there buyers who wanted to buy the series solely because they have urine on it or they have Andy Warhol’s urine on it? One thing for sure is that he did managed to create a unique pattern that can’t be done by merely paint brushes. It may not impressed me for its artistry, but it certainly made itself unforgettable.

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Similarly, Yves Klein created art in his own non-traditional way. By directing models to paint with their body, he created a unique series of art that acted as performing art as well, the Anthropometries, with the blue he used so much that people named the blue after him.

Through the artworks mentioned above, I realised that the methods to express have absolutely no limitations in art. Not only the outcome on the canvas can be an art, but the process of making it as well. These act of creativity inspired me to think out of the box and be willing to express my ideas and emotions, regardless the methods of painting. However, one thing for sure, urination is not on the list.

Comparing to my fellow classmates, I might be slow in terms of conceptualizing. The sudden change of the final rhyme had me undone the thinking process I’ve gotten so far. Frankly I kind of lost in concept too.

I haven’t decide on the final nursery rhyme I am going to use yet, possibly due to my fading memory of the rhymes I grew up with. None of the nursery rhymes was ever been my favorite because every time I looked into any books of nursery rhymes, I was immediately attracted by the illustrations beside them. True story.

Most of the dingbats I created were based on the key words on each paragraph of “The road not taken”, and followed by an intense (not really) image searching in Google. Several internet memes came across my head and my screen which I found a bit of humor in them. Even some of them are the symbolic icons we all know like the David statue and the evolution of human graph. As I mentioned in the last post, what I comprehended about the referenced artist is that they used things that familiar to us to create something that are meaningful to them. So, why not try some of these icon to create the dingbats? We knew what they so we won’t be worrying about how we’re going to use them.

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I will never run out of materials thanks to the wide range of dingbats’ variety provided by my fellow classmates. Seriously, can you imagine how much space it would take up if I need to download them all?

Thanks to Mr. Lawrence’s crash course on Photoshop, I managed to create a picture by playing around my dingbats. But it will take me a longer time to adapt the style of modern abstraction like dadaism by walking out of the familiar picture compositing. Also, I need to be able to express my rhymes as well.

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My attempt based on the elements appeared in “The road not taken”. Yet the dingbats lack interactions between one and other.

However, the concept and style of my project will be clarified within this recess (clear throat) week and eventually be able to represent the nursery rhymes the dingbats will soon be depicting.

blue masksI have a habit of saving 9gag (and other interesting site’s) quotes on my phone so I can scroll the favourite part of my favourite site offline in hopes of using them the future. It’s a wonderful news that this project enables me to use my saves since it doesn’t specified the types of poems and rhymes. That means I can use modern poems which seems to be more relevant to our lives today.

 

I like the three poems on the sides as they are interesting enough to stand out equally with the modern song which are rhymes that is widely appreciated nowadays. Among all the choices, I’ll be using The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost. It’s beautiful and inspiring, but long enough for me to have the other two as just-in-case.

the road not taken<Click picture for full size.>The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, illustrated by ZEN PENCILS.

 

Opinions aside, back to the topic– my searching on the reference artists and styles recommended by the notes given. The first impression I got from the styles I searched — Surrealism and Dadaism is visually impact and attract. In my opinion, The two styles sort of work in similar ways. They capture your curiosity with the images, collages, dingbats, forms, and photos we can resemble to, then the art hold them all together regardless of their habitat (where they supposed to belong.) forming something that what we (in the absence of knowledge of art) called abstraction. Similar to how impressionism is to renaissance art, surrealism and dadaism stood out of the crowd of expressive art.(Non-depicting and recording art.) To me, surrealism is more in the expressive side, but dadaism is more in a form of mockery. (what the artists said.)

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I don’t think Salvador Dalí wanted to mock Johannes Vermeer but probably to express his admiration to the artist in The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table.

Surrealism usually was explained as expressing the artists’ dream or non-reality on the canvas or just to express a purpose in an unconventional but still showing their skills in making art. (Modern art probably ditched the latter.)

Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978 Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands). 1919-1920 Photomontage and collage with watercolor, 44 7/8 x 35 7/16” (114 x 90 cm) Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie © 2006 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin, © 2006 Hannah Höch / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin

Hannah Höch. German, 1889-1978
Cut with the Kitchen Knife through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany (Schnitt mit dem Küchenmesser durch die letzte Weimarer Bierbauchkulturepoche Deutschlands). 1919-1920
Photomontage and collage with watercolor, 44 7/8 x 35 7/16” (114 x 90 cm)
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie
© 2006 Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin,
© 2006 Hannah Höch / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, photo: Jörg P. Anders, Berlin

Hannah Hoch, on the other hand, created her art with collage of images from paper publications. Seemingly this style of art appears to be closer to what we’re going to do in this project. Her art, instead of being symbolic in the components, portraits her ideas and criticize in the whole picture, like Cut with a Kitchen Knife Dada through the Last Weimar Beer Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany (1919). (A really long name though.)

This artwork is said to be referring to the decadence of pre-war German culture, metaphorically criticizing humankind’s lack of humanity. (theartstory.org) The mockery component of dadaism and Hannah Hoch can be seen by reproducing art with produced images.

russian constructismLater came Russian Constructivism. Which style was depicted by the google image results above.

First word popped into my head, communism. The soviet union used this style for so long that people from other parts of the world used as a style of art/ poster. Russian Constructivism attracts my eyes with sharp colors and lines, simple figures and dingbats, as well as the standardized font. The attraction is a success and can be continued with presenting their message. (Whether indirect or not.) Probably it is what sparks the idea of this poster.the-interview-movie-poster

In conclusion, what the reference artist helped in my creation:

  1. The images I construct don’t have to be direct or literal. The presentation in the structure don’t have to be conventional. (As shown in the student’s work.) It doesn’t  have to be like Dr. Seuss illustrations. My orientation is yet to be decided and attempted.
  2. Any dingbats from anyone can be used as long as it’s coherent to what I need to express the lines of my poem.
  3. Since it’s in black and white, so color of Constructivism can’t be imitated. However, its striking image structure is impressive.