Shawn's AIB blog

American Sabor @ the Latino Cultural

Shawn — Sun, 20 May 2012 04:53:58 +0000

I have been wanting to visit the Latino Cultural Center for quite some time now. Recently in the Arts + Culture publication, it promoted an exhibition at the LCC for a traveling exhibition, American Sabor: Latinos in U.S. Popular Music. I don't get to frequent this venue, as amazing as the work is that they typically show. However, this past Tuesday, I left work earlier than usual and stopped by. This exhibition was not what is typically expected as a contemporary art exhibition, even it traveling. This exhibition read more like a small-town historical museum. The exhibition was complete with graphical stands with image and text about specific geographical and time-related influences that specific Latino countries had on the course of music in the United States. Parts of the exhibit had time-based media, such as audio and video to support the graphical partitions. In one gallery, there was even an interactive dance floor!

randomness

Shawn — Mon, 07 May 2012 03:30:37 +0000

I went out shooting today for more imagery for my worlds. While I was out, I shot these random photographs...

Ken Gonzales-Day: Dysmorphologies

Shawn — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 20:39:37 +0000

While doing research for my last paper, I came across this photographic artist, Ken Gonzales-Day. His series Dysmorphologies has some similarities to the project that I've put on hiatus, Figure. It also has some resemblances to my past body of work, Partly Human.

in the studio

Shawn — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:54:43 +0000

Here I am this past weekend, in the studio, trying to perfect a world before I tear it down and build a new one. After some thought, patience, and speaking to Marilyn Waligore, I decided to try to make most of the composition through the lens of the camera from the same perspective. The goal is to make compositional adjustments just as I would if I was working with my view camera. This way, there is less room for surprises in the middle of a shoot or when I'm in post production.

3 failures

Shawn — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 16:46:54 +0000

So, I have photographed the one world that I've been working on, four times now. So far, I am not satisfied with any of them for particular reasons. Here's the three most recent failures and issues...

For the world below, I used a wide angle lens. When I stitched this, everything was distorted and stretched out. The file was over 10gb and measured over 120" at full res. I had to do a lot of distortion post production just to make it look somewhat believable. In the end, I'm still not happy with the distortion and proportions.

For the world below, I shot it with a shallow depth of field. This did add more dimension but took a lot of detail out of the image itself. The sky, especially, has so much detail and so much went into the production of making it as defined and dramatic as possible. I may end up playing a little more with depth of field, but for now, I am going to stick to more detail.

For the third world, below, I am finding myself much closer to what I'm going for. The exposure isn't perfect and there's a few micro blown-out highlights in the rock and small white tree leaves. I also don't like some of the composition where some of the floral and fauna stems overlap and the placement. I'm getting closer though.

Maggie Preston

Shawn — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 03:16:52 +0000

After my last mentor meeting with Marilyn Waligore, last week, she mentioned an artist whose work she saw while in San Francisco for the national SPE...Maggie Preston. Preston does amazing photography work that has many aesthetic and philosophical qualities of my work, including my current A Ply series.

From her current show at SF Camerawork, the write:

"San Francisco-based Maggie Preston's practice represents an exploration of the basic concepts of the photographic medium and engages the complexities of its representational value. The technical strategies and critical approaches employed by Preston at once explore the process and materiality (or aesthetic translation) of photographic objects, as well as their presentation and social reception."

read more here: http://www.sfcamerawork.org/exhibitions/exhibitions_Preston.php

DADA Gallery Walk and Panel

Shawn — Sun, 22 Apr 2012 03:09:08 +0000

I ended up making it to the DADA Gallery Walk and Panel Discussion. The panel discussion was enriching and it was nice to see people like John Pomara, Kenneth Craighead, and Lisa Taylor, as well as meet people like Scott Hilton.

After the panel discussion, I was able to make it to many galleries and see too much work to mention individually. Among some of the galleries that I was able to visit were R02 Gallery, Craighead Green, 500x, and the Dallas Contemporary.

Google features Eadweard J. Muybridge

Shawn — Sat, 14 Apr 2012 14:01:01 +0000

I couldn't help but to notice the other day when I went to have my daily visit with Google, the Muybridge was featured on the homepage. Upon reading more about Edward (birth spelling) Muybridge, I learned that he was also a killer, whose crime was justified. Apparently, his wife had an affair with a drama critic. It was a photograph of all things that revealed this secret and filled Muybridge with murderous rage.

More can be read in the LA Times, here: http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-eadweard-j-muybridges-google-doodle-20120409,0,1447038.story

DADA Spring Gallery Walk & Panels

Shawn — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:10:53 +0000

On Saturday, April 21st, the Dallas Art Dealers Association (DADA) will host their annual Spring Gallery Walk, "featuring 40 of DADA's leading member galleries, museums, and nonprofit art spaces."

I'm very interested in DADA Panel Discussion...Topic: How do I get in and do I want to? Juried Shows. This panel is composed of Serri Ayers of Cottonwood Art Festival, Kenneth Craighead of New Texas Talent, Scott Hilton of 500x Expo Show, Marci Inman of Texas & Neighbors Regional Art Exhibition, Shea Little of Texas Biennial, and Bart Weiss of VideoFest's Texas Show. Moderated by John Pomara of University of Texas at Dallas.

download brochure here: http://www.dallasartdealers.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/DADA-flyr-0312-web.pdf

format for the World(s)

Shawn — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 02:45:42 +0000

I am trying to figure out the format for my Hyperreality series. I have two conceptual ideas for the format of the prints. One is to bring back the golden ratio for the golden rectangle: 1 : 1.618. Going off my my printer's maximum printing size (42" x ...), this means that each piece would measure 42" x 67.956".

The golden rectangle is what I'm already using for my A Ply (12" x 19.416") series and Linear Darkness (10" x 16.18"). My other idea is to go by the standard aspect ratio of cinema, 16:9. Since I take a theatrical approach to the work by creating a stage, backdrop, props, and compositions, I think it may work in a theatrical format (42" x 74.667").

Another option is to completely rid the constraint of a ratio and just choose whatever format and size that I feel works best for each composition. This could work against me in terms of consistency but it could let each composition be it's own world, however, in different formats it may appear that I'm using a different tool of capture or seem as though it is not of the same world.