Author: Ethan

This triptych details the evolution of one’s relationship with food over time – and the social commentaries that come along with it. I tried to add patterned and contrasting narratives within all three panels – the table of food gets progressively smaller as the protagonist gets larger. The text too details a stark change – the character once loved food, now hates it. I made these choice deliberately in an attempt to show as much contrast and dramatic changes as possible in a three panel comic – I think instead of the third panel serving as the main punchline, all three panels and their relationship to each other has meaning on its own. The challenge in this assignment was to compose a meaningful story, and having to keep in mind the overall backbone of change in time. This was how this assignment proved different to other assignments past: there is a much faster progression in a comic strip than simply words or short stories entail, as beginning, middle and end explicitly interact immediately.

The main challenges I faced were getting striking enough objects that I could make an interesting image out of, and lining it up in a way with the lighting where it looked realistic. I think my final image conveys a semi alternate reality where food and practicality are one, as the necessity for food is so universal that it creeps into everyday objects. This is a reality I would love to be in, as I am always hungry to eat whatever is in my field of vision. I chose these two objects because they were of a similar size, and shape, but unique enough that their breeding would be striking.

I enjoyed this process of turning my notes into visual notes. As I see myself as a visual learner, I often find a desire to do as much of this anyway when I am in the process of taking notes, depending on the class. For example, in an Art History course last semester, drawing small sketches of what was going on in the class proved helpful, in addition to drawing any key visuals on any slideshow into my notebook for other classes. I recognized that this way of thinking takes a little longer, and has points where it feels unnecessarily artistic just to be visual to be visual, but that was may favorite part. I loved drawing little aspects in more creative essays, and being able to practically doodle what I wanted.

For this object, I took the original idea of trying to use an object to capture the object it is related to in its entirety. In this instance, I tried multiple times to turn the capo for a guitar into the framework of a drawing of an actual guitar. However, due to this item’s unique shape, this proved more difficult than I thought. So then I looked carefully at the image, and saw the Eye of Ra as clear as day. Once I knew the overall shape, the difficulty lied in lining things up correctly. It proved to be more strikingly accurate than I thought, acting as if the item was made to copy the actual Egyptian symbol, or as if I used no object at all.

I created this image for my avatar because it represents me in a variety of ways. Overall, my main objective with this piece was to try to establish a sense of happiness every time I see it. The pink in the background showcases my favorite color, evoking calm and bright feelings like the sunset or a strawberry milkshake. The letters and my pixelated face evokes a sense of pleasing nostalgia for me: my face reminding me of retro video games and the lettering reminds me of music posters in the 1970s. Additionally, the style of the letters and colors is indicative of what I find appealing in art, such as vibrant colors and an active jazzy nature, reminiscent of works such as Stuart Davis and Keith Haring. Lastly, I chose the large letters and colors for a practical reason so even in a small icon on my website, it would be vibrant enough to be legible at a small size.