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.