Week 15 - Book & Final Portfolio Link

Inside My Mind Book Link
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/inside-my-mind/9737738

 

 

Final Portfolio Link

http://bsykes-finalportfolio.blogspot.com/

Week 14 - Series 11

The name of this poem is called "Soul Searching for Direction". If you look closely behind the type you will see the philosophical figure "The Thinker". The purpose of him being behind the type is to do just what his name says which is to think. The goal in this thinking is to discern the realities and fallacies of life. One would read the poem to ponder hard on the directions they have taken. Examining ourselves to make sure that we don't make the same foolish mistakes twice. Also digging deep to find the best qualities within us. Until we look at life for what it is we can never make decisions that will change us for the better. This calls for the phrase in the poem, "only to find comfort in a fictitious past time lapse". Essentially avoiding reality makes us run in circles. I wrote this poem to remind us that we constantly need to run a diagnostic test on ourselves like we do cars. Making sure that we remove the parts that serve no benefit,  find out what we truly need to run effeciently, and then repair the problems in our lives so that we live better lives. This peom was done in Adobe Illustrator. 

Week 13 - Series 10

This poem was created to basically summarize the series. It is called "Welcome to My World". In writing this poem I wanted to convey step by step what the man in the series was going through. Delivering a means of written travel to flesh out his journey from the enslavement of trials and tribulations, to the peak of salvation, and ending in his rebirth to a new being. It is also a proclamation of triumph, in which he is given his receipt for the time he paid in pain. That pain has not broken him, but that it has transformed him into possibly something much greater. Herein lies his testament to the escape from mental and physical perils of life.

Week 12 - Series 9

The picture shown is the capturing of his titled "Rebirth". When a person has gone throuh a change it can be compared to child pregnancy. Both beautiful situations where the shaping of a humans life is of the greatest importance, but at the same time both can be an agonizing process. In changing ones life, time mus be taken to reminisce over the current past events. There has to be an understanding that we have honestly learned from these situations in a positive way. If not, then the whole process has to begin again due to the lack of understanding or matured wisdom that is given with the responsibility of change. So he is seen in the stomach of a woman, who is portrayed to be life. The beautiful moment in life when it seems time stops; where you can catch your breath to think. In this piece, is where the use of the philosophical figure "The Thinker" comes into play. In this moment in life, the greatest ability man has is used to decide what sort of man he shall be. Change is not solely based on what we go through, but in the end what do we ultimately decide to become. Do we choose to be a greater being fashioned from the fires of life or do we seek to be stagnant allowing the fire to destroy our will of any hope for the better? This piece was done in Adobe Illustrator.

Week 11 - Series 8

This piece was a drawing of my friend when we went to Osaka Gardens. Its called "Thinking at Osaka Gardens". I went to this park to find some peace and this was the outcome. For me it represents through the line work that everything has a flow. Not a flow of disruption ,but a natural peaceful order to things. Everything moving in its own specific timing, without disturbance from the "outside" (troubled) world. I believe that everyone has that specific place that they go to that reaches far beyond the sometimes stressful restraints of life. for me this was that place. I didn’t want to use color because I wanted to see how much of the picture could be fleshed out with just the Micron pen.The end result was a detailed capturing of that peaceful moment in time. THis was done in pencil and Micron Pen. 

Week 10 - Series 7

  This art piece on the right was inspired by a drawing in Picasso's sketchbook (left). It is currently untitled, but the concept was to have a man sitting on a throne portrayed in an abstract way. The idea for this piece was to use similar color or similar line strokes to create my own version of the piece. This art work was done in color pencil and micron pens.

Special Edition Blog: Tour of Hyde Park Murals

Me in front of a mural painted by William Walker called "Childhood is Without Prejudice"



Tour Guide Jon Pounds



People at the tour with me

 

For my second trip I went on a tour to see the murals of Hyde Park. It was a very interesting trip with discoveries about the artist that I never knew. I chose this in particular because I have been through Hyde Park many times, but never took the time out to enjoy the murals in the viaducts. We had a very kind guide by the name of Jon Pounds (Executive Director of the Chicago Public Art Group), who took us through and answered our questions about the amazing artwork. Here are some pictures that inspired me along the way.



Albert Zeno



  

 

                                    

                                                                          

This oil paint was done by a man named Albert Zeno, called "Alewives and Mercury Fish" (1972). This mural was about the pollution of the Great Lakes by factorys and the invasion of Alewives fish into fresh water. He linked mans enslavement of nature to the enslavement of black people, which going through the mural they both become free. The thing that really drew me to this piece was the fact that little is known about Mr. Zeno. He is not famous like the other painters and as a matter of fact he was a poor man who lived in his car, while he did volunteer work painting murals. According to our tour guide, he was helping paint another mural , when he asked for some paint for himself. He then went across the viaduct and painted his own mural. The little people know about him is that he had no formal training, he just painted. He then after a while could not be found and a search was sent out for him. Later, Mr. Pound told us that he had died. What inspired me was here is a ordinary man that was not known to the public as a great anything, but painted a mural that has had a impact on the Hyde Park viaducts for more than 35 years. Since he had no voice in the "popular artistic circle", his work (a lasting legacy) speaks volumes in the viaducts of Hyde Park. 

  The name of this painting is "Maskamorphosis" by Calvin Jones. It was done with acrylic paint on canvas. his one of a number of paintings that are of African influence. The mask point to the duality of good and evil. Since it is a metamorphisis he uses the vibrant color and line-work to capture the transition between the two sides. You can really tell the sides apart due to the calm expression on the mask's face to the left opposed to the one on the right. You can almost feel the change between the two sides from the color directly in the middle of the picture. Another very interesting fact about Mr. Jones is that while he created paintings he was declared legally blind. He had like a sort of tunnel vision to where he could only see a few inches in front of him. He would compose his art on napkins or anything he could find to construct these paintings. In my opinion with the state of his vision this was an amazing feat. To be able to create art in spite of his setback and also for it to come out as good as it did in his collection. This painting reminds me also of the ultimate roles we can choose in life. Which do we choose to rise above the trials of life or be morphed into a monster created by them?

 

                                        

  The third piece that inspired me was created by Olivia Gude, the wife of our tour guide Mr. Pounds. The title of this mural is "Where We Come From....Where We're We Going". It was created using acrylic paint on the walls of the viaduct. The inspiration for this piece was the racial tension between people in Chicago. So she started to create this mural asking people of different races the question, where are you going? The question became one that could be answered in many ways. The end result was the answers ranged from spiritual, physical, and mental. She got the name from the philosopher Plato when he asked, "Where are you coming from and where are you going." The people in the mural are the actual people she met to answer her question. This was a not only an art piece for social change between races, but it started a conversation of the introspective. I like how she conveys the busy expressions on some of their faces that catch them in transition.  It inspired me because how all races are depicted on the same level of finding some type of destination. When we think about it, some of our answers are not that different at all. We have more in common than we all realize regardless of race. This piece made me ask myself the same question of where do I want to go in the future? What exactly do I want to be regarding art and how do I get there? To me there is no greater experience than the spark of thought that can ignite the passion for creating art that comes from the soul.  

Special Edition Blog: Trip to the Art Institute








Professor Peck



  The name of this piece is called "Composition in Blue" (1921-1927) and it was done by Fernand Le'ger. It was created with oil on canvas and it was painted during his "mechanical period". In this period, he created paintings that had tubular machine like structures to them. This piece inspired me because of these mechanical parts and the shapes that are formed from them. It is funny when you think of any type of mechanics you think of a designed "order" to things. The painting is shaped in an abstract form seemingly unorganized, but all somehow related like the chaos theory. In the painting it seems like a robot (upperleft) is climbing a rocket or building. As the rest of the city shaped in circles and squares lay in the background. Also I notice like little eyesin he piece as if to be onlookers watching the robot scale the rocket.

 
  This piece was created by Lee Bontecou in 1960, the piece is "Untitled". The untitled piece was composed of old canvas discarded from an old laundry. The canvas was stretched and attached by copper wire to an armature and welded framework. From reading the description in the museum, it compares the opening (hole) to a geographical or biological reference. Like maybe a volcano, a black hole, or a hole in the human body. It inspired me because seeing the hole led me to the question of what is inside? The layered canvas provides endless possibilities or answers to the question. If one thought on the biological level you would look into a body to see bones and organs. If another looked through the hole on a geographical level, you would expect to see the earths crust or its molten hot center. If I looked at the hole on an spiritual level, I would expect to see a soul or a lack of it. Therefore, begging an introspective question, asking is my soul still intact according to my actions or has it become polluted/lost due to them. I wonder what someone else would see inside.

 
  This oil painting was created by the surrealist painter Yves Tanguy, called "The Rapidity of Sleep" in 1945. This painting inspired me because of the ripple affects the brush strokes make you seem to travel at a great speed. Even with the cluods they give the same affect causing a blur because when moving at a slower pace the clouds would be more defined. The object in the landscape looks to me like a wasteland of broken bones. The bones represent to me a sign of aging, that these bones or the structure of what the dream was is starting to end. As if the framework for the dream state of sleep is decaying at a fast pace, waiting for the dreamer to awake.
 

Week 8 - Series 6

  This piece is called "From the World's Cage to Glory". It is basically, a recreation of Series 3.

Week 7 - Series 5

  The name of this piece is called "War of the Fragile Heart". It was inspired by the last piece, from which I am dealing with the time that transpired between series one and two. I wanted to look into not only his mind state, but also his heart or his will to live due to the circumstances that transpired. In the picture, we see inside of the man's body being entered by a black hand. The black hand would belong to one of the reapers that was shown in series one. The difference in this hand is the light spots which are made to be boils, demonstrating that the hand is an infection to the body. The hand seeks to destroy the last remaining life that he has. The man that is within the body is a representation of his soul, which is fighting for the heart that is being taken out of his chest. The soul's color is gray and he has black marks over his body to show the strain the hand is putting him through. He is also gray to show in a since that he is dying; the soul has no vibrancy therefore his will to sustain his own life is dwindling. He struggles to fight for the heart that he has left. I find personally in life, that sometimes trials & tribulations seek to destroy your will, when it has stripped you of everything else. The only options left are to either give in/die or to fight with what you have left to survive the destroying of ones soul. The drawing was done in pencil and was outlined in Illustrator. The coloring of the heart and boils were done in Illustrator. The soul, hand, and background were done with prisma-color pencils.

Week 6 - Series 4

  This piece of the series is called "The Conflict of Emotions". In creating this picture, I wanted to take a look at what mind state the man in the series would be in between the first and second pieces of the series. Being afflicted by these different "situations" in the first piece, the question would be how has this affected him? The answer would be his brain is over taken by a host of emotions that control him. The following emotions are (from left to right) confusion, sorrow, anger, greed, anguish and depression. He is no longer in control of his life, but a slave to his own mind. Being in a place of torment which is depicted in the first series, he loses himself. All goals and visions of a better future are lost in a brain of negative emotions. The white eye he has alludes to the control that he is under. So he is in a self induced limbo waiting fo some type of salvation to come. This piece was created through the medium of Adobe Illustrator.   

Week 5 - Series 3

  To continue from the second piece, this peace is the "Beginning of Salvation" of the three. I find that when we are realeased from the situations that binds us, there some key things must change. This is the mans release from the negative emotions and struggles that he once suffered. To become free, the poisoned altered perceptions of the world must change. There must be a new way of thinking, this can only be achieved when the individual chooses to "wake up". The great philosopher Socrates said, "the unexamined life is not worth living," to be free their has to be a realization that these situations have caused your living to be unproductive /faulty. Until we have examined ourselves and allowed ourselves to be free their is no change. Thus, in this change, the man ascends above the corrupted, cracking world of false perception and anguish. Allowing himself to let go because the only way that world survives is that he stay their in bondage and sustain it through pain.  The medium that was used for this piece was prisma color pencils, black micron pens, and pencil.

Week 4 - Series 2

 

  This piece is part two in the series. The name that I came up with for this one is "Saving Grace from the Troubles of  the World". I call it this because once people have gone through a number of tramatic events (one after another) they begin to, in a since, become submissive to these life struggles. The submission is shown in the bowing position the man is currently in. In this submission, people begin to form their own since of reality, viewing the world through the perspective of their pain. They shape their own world through the ill perspectives of the events that have transpired. The "Saving Grace" would be the angel coming to take away the spears that afflict him. This series for me is personal because I find my own "Saving Grace" through Christ. This "Saving Grace" can also be found in family, friends, or strangers that help to pull us out of the depressive/secluded world that is built from the victims own construction. The medium that was used for this piece was prisma color pencils, black micron pens, and pencil.

Week 3 - Series 1

  This piece was inspired by the "Plundering of Creativity" Adobe Illustartor drawing that was done at my previous college. The concept of this drawing is when difficult situations in life happen to where they seem like they are inescapeable. Just when you try to escape one situation another atacks you. This is shown by the chain that is being held around his neck from one of the reapers. As the man tries to get away he is attacked by more of them representing the extreme circumstances of life that seem to combine to become a conglomerate of stressful opposition. The medium that was used for this piece was prisma color pencils, black micron pens, and pencil.

Week 2 - Portfolio Spread

Week 3 - Portfolio Images

Illustrator Reproduction
of
The Creation of Adam

Plundering of Creativity (Invitation)
Drawn in Pencil and Colored in Illustrator

Plundering of Creativity (Poster)
Drawn and Colored in Illustrator

Mock Business Card
Drawn in Pencil and Colored in Illustrator

Reproduction of a Photographed Flower
Drawn and Colored in Photoshop

Clothes Design
Gel Pen Pattern layed in Photoshop

Mock Logo for a Group
Created in Photoshop

Kratos
Drawn from a standing figure in Pencil

Ryu
Drawn with Pencil

Crown
Made from Colored Tissue Paper as a Collage

Week1 - Intro

I chose to SXU because one they offered me a scholarship and also my professor highly recommended the school. I feel it would be a great experience to be at such a big school with a larger artistic resource. Just from walking around the school and meeting with the faculty I feel there is a promising future for me here. Only time can tell what all will transpire while I am here, but I look to enjoy every minute of it. To better understand why I've enrolled at SXU, I have to discuss the road of how I got here.


In all honesty, I was not sure about going back to school after I received my Associates Degree in Art last May. During my time at Olive-Harvey many of my loved ones died from either sickness or gun violence. On top of that, my mother was very ill, so there were many hospital visits that became mentally draining. My mind was basically in whirlwind of confusion and artistically I felt drained. The pencil began to feel foreign to me, Illustrator and Photoshop was about as easy to understand as an Egyptian Hieroglyph. Even though art is my passion, I felt I no longer had a place within it. Instead of art being my comfort zone it began to be just work I had to do to graduate. Art went from my personal sanctuary to just assembly line work. Through all that I was able to graduate with honors, a feat I couldn't believe I could achieve due to the extreme circumstances that occurred. I have only God and my family to thank for this accomplishment.

I look forward to my time at SXU to help re-ignite the flame and desire that I once had for art. I also take responsibility in knowing that it is up to me to maintain the burning of that flame/passion, so that I may reach my potential. I look not to be an over-night success, but a work in progress striving to achieve excellence. In loving God I know my life is not my own; I hope to be an inspiration to others as much as they will be to me.