Jo Mora Map Images

Week Ten

Sorry for the post-noon post. I wasn't sure if we were supposed to post today. That said, I will keep this post short and sweet, as I am in vacation mode!

This week I went back to making buildings because I felt I was starting to fizzle out with people and needed a break from them for a while. I completed Kino Babylon and redid Konditorei Krautzig. I did, however, make some more people.

(The background of the new bakery is less washed-out in person. It has a textured pattern that's not overly visible in the scan.)
(She will be serving a slice of Danish apple cake and a cappuccino.)

I have been thinking a lot about my support surface and it is causing me a lot of grief. I did my practice 1-foot sample but that was primarily helpful with figuring out which glues worked. It really did not help with deciding upon my surface material because my actual piece is going to be profoundly larger than my sample. The final will therefore be much heavier (I went with my mom to Home Depot today and she and I lifted a 4' x 8' piece of birch ply and and it was HEAVY), and there's no telling if it will warp or not.

A couple ideas that are percolating in my brain right now are as follows:

1. Gluing my pieces to a large sheet of Rives BFK paper and letting it hang how it may (be it slightly warped/puckery) from a wall.

2. Gluing my pieces to a large sheet of 1/4" wood and gluing that wood to a wooden support frame with crossbars.

3. Gluing my pieces to a realy heavy piece of 3/4" particle board or birch ply.

4. Somehow attaching my pieces to a wall, directly.

*Option 4 really intrigues me because I would be able to spread out the contents without being confined to a frame but I don't know how I would take down the work at the end.

Utilization of Time:
Collaging: 10 hours
Library Research (looking at Jo Mora maps): 1.5 hours
Scanning, Photoshopping and printing book images of Folk Art: 45 minutes
"Sketching" possible layouts in Photoshop: 3 hours (see below)

Week Nine

This week I experimented with glue and possible surface materials for my final piece. I used unprimed birch ply and a combination of PVA and Yes Paste (thanks, Amanda!). The Yes Paste was really great for large areas because it goes on really smoothly, doesn't dry by the time I am done applying it and allows me to sort of nudge the paper around a bit if I don't place it down in the exact location. I like, too, that when it is dry I can wash away the excess paste. The thing I have to keep in mind when "cleaning" the surface is that certain papers might get ruined if I try to wipe it away. Another thing I encountered with the Yes paste is that while it is great for large areas--and holds!--the edges of the support surface need extra reinforcement of PVA glue, as the Yes paste doesn't quite hold as well at the edges. I still think that for the smaller pieces PVA will be my best option, though.

Sorry for that excruciatingly boring paragraph about paste. I included it more for my own purposes so that I can refer to my "notes" to see what worked/didn't work when it comes time to work with my final surface.

Below is my pictorially-irrelevant experiment. The wood I used for this was the birch ply. I did also purchase a one-foot square of particle board and will experiment with that, too.

I was pretty swamped this past weekend and the beginning of the week with my painting (see previous post) so I didn't make as many people as I would have liked. I did, however, give the woman who no one--including myself--liked a makeover. I think she looks much better now. I also made another building because I was kind of going stir-crazy with the little itty-bittyness of the people's paper components and needed a diversion. The building I made was Kino Babylon.

I think I am going to go back and remake Konditorei Krautzig. I just don't like it. It's too small, bland, and there's nothing visually interesting about it. I posted it several weeks ago but here it is again:

That said, if any of you have time to sort of skim over my previous buildings and let me know if there are glaring (or subtle) things that aren't working/that you don't like, I am open to making amendments!

Utilization of Time:

Collaging: 10 hours

Material-buying: 30 minutes

Library Research: 2 hours

*Note: The library trip was REALLY worthwhile. I checked out a fantastic folk art book and have another one on reserve, which I am going to pick up tomorrow. Additionally, there is a room in the graduate library that contains maps by Jo Mora. I am very excited about the recommendation made to me to look at his work because I find his maps utterly delightful. I had never heard of this artist before and it's always exciting to find new inspiration! His work has me really reconsidering the format of my piece. I am now asking myself if I want a character key to describe the individuals present in my painting (think Where's Waldo). I really like the idea of a frame/border, too, which is something I've been considering all along but I don't know yet if that is to constraining for a city I find to be so grandiose...

Here is my updated composite, by the way. It doesn't have Kino Babylon yet but it will by next week!

P.S. To answer Amanda and Erica's questions, I have been doing these faces from memory. In a couple exceptional instances I will have a really specific facial emotion in mind that I need a visual source to which I can refer. This is when I will type a phrase into Google Image, where I will then scroll through image results to get an overall idea as to how I should represent the eyebrow shapes and placement relative to eyes as well as the eyes, themselves. These are the most crucial (I think) to conveying my intended emotion because even a subtle shift in placement or in how I cut them can ruin the look I am going for. I make up the mouths, for the most part.

Week Eight and a Half

Okay, so this has nothing to do with I.P. but I thought I would post the painting I finished yesterday to show work of mine other than I.P. This was due today so now it's back to focusing on I.P.!!

Week Eight

For next Thursday I am going to experiment with surfaces. I'm going to go to Fingerle to get some scraps of birch ply and particle board. I'm going to see how different thicknesses of papers work and what type[s] of glue works best. I'm going to take Amanda's suggestion, too, and try Yes! paste to see how I like it.

Below is my round of people for this week. Nosferatu is on a movie screen, which I am going to put in a park. Additionally, I don't know if I like the last two people. I think I'm going to go back and fix them.

*Quick Thought*

I am continuing to make people but am getting to the point where I don't want to continue making without some feedback. There are a couple avenues I can go down--people like the ones I have been making, people with my heads and magazine bodies, people with my bodies and found heads, or a combination of all three. Additionally, I don't know if I should exaggerate these bodies more or if I should try and keep them pretty realistic--or, again, both. And FURTHERMORE, I don't know if I should include black and white bodies or just stick with color.

This all comes back to...why? I guess it kind of stems from the fact that I remember certain individuals and others I forget. I want to dedicate more time towards those I remember by recreating them paperly and those who were merely passers by, I kind of want to just get over with. I do, however, still want them to be interesting to look at (and some I will make from head to toe) but if I feel this visual interest can be accomplished by placing one of my heads on a body I find in a magazine, then I think it's something I should consider. If this is not going to look good, though, I will take the time to make EEEEEEVVVVVVVEEEERRRRRYYYYYYYYTTTTHHHHHHIIIIINNNNNNGGGG. Just what, exactly, I am talking about will become more apparent when I post my people this week.

Also, I would like to note here that I have not received a post from ANYONE (excluding my mom and dad but that doesn't really count because they have just been giving me compliments and saying how wonderful my project is looking--not that I don't like this, but...) and I would really appreciate some feedback.

Week Eight

I took a break from making buildings this week to make some people, per Seth's suggestion. The people are, in some instances, turning out to be more work than the buildings because the pieces I am working with are so much smaller and also because I want to really capture my envisioned facial expressions. A lot of this subtlety can come down to a little tilt of an eyebrow or a slightly thicker eyelid, etc.

Here are my people:

I want to start working with my surface but don't know yet how I should approach it. I am considering plywood or particle board but don't know if I should do it on a series of panels with hinges or a large, solid sheet of wood. Suggestions would be appreciated :)

Additionally, I have also been looking into roll paper, like the seamless background paper used for photo backdrops but I don't know if this will be strong enough. The tentative dimensions of my map are 6 x 7 feet.

Utilization of time:

Collaging: 19 hours

Looking at my Berlin photo book/kind of reading: 1/2 hour

The streets/grass are just tentative. They're meant to give me an idea of where I could possibly put buildings and people on the final map. This is to-scale. Right now I'm looking at a "map" that measures 5.75 x 6.75 feet. While I still have more stuff to add (obviously), do you guys think it is too cramped and needs to be wider or taller or both?