Metaphor Proposal 1

Friend's Funeral Proposal:

Metaphor: 
The vision of her in the coffin turned into a cold unknown hand wrapped around my throat and mind stopping my breath and compressing my emotions inside me.

The trees on the road were turning into a tunnel choking me and disabling my vision so I couldn't see anything else and the black road was all I could focus on.

Story: 
It's funny and disturbing how life presents you with random psychic moment. It wasn't any sooner than the night before when I was discussing how i missed a friend from middle school with my best friend. I had planned on getting back in touch with her and catching up, so did my best friend. The next day I received a call with the horrible news of her tragic death at the age of 16. She had died in a car accident. She had run into a tree head on at night. After hearing the news I had decided that I wanted to go to the viewing because I couldn't go to the funeral. I remember the black roads that my father drove me down to get to the funeral home. The trees on the road were turning into a tunnel choking me and disabling my vision so I couldn't see anything else and the black road was all I could focus on. They reeked of death and depression. When I arrived at the destination I had tunnel vision. After passing by a few people I knew at some point I made my way to the chapel for the viewing. I couldn't recognize her. They had tried to reconstruct her face, but what was left vaguely resembled her. She appeared to be sleeping and I wanted her to wake up. I almost wish I hadn't gone to the viewing because the vision of her in the coffin turned into a cold unknown hand wrapped around my throat and mind stopping my breath and compressing my emotions inside me. The reality of life choked me.

 I was thinking about creating a bust out of sculpy clay or paper mache and creating molds of my arms out of silicone and then filling it with resin so they appear to be strangling the throat..

Critique of the Uncomfortable

I was very pleased with the way my video turned out. My goal was to make people or at least someone uncomfortable and I believe I achieved that goal. Even though I was pleased there were a few things I wish I had done a little differently. I think I should have perhaps chewed on the piece that I tore off my arm and then  spit it out rather than removing it from my mouth daintily. Also I think I should have ripped it off of my nose as well or made myself look more grotesque. Other people suggested that I should have ripped the whole thing off as well. Which I obviously agree with. Another thing they suggested that I agree with is that I wish my shirt wasn't showing in the bottom right corner. I think I could fix all of these if I did another take of it. Over all I feel I accomplished my goal with the video.

Different Item Compositions

Thread glued to paper

Ink with rubber spatula

Ink with paper towel

Ink stamped with plastic cup

Ink and shoe tracks

Ink with hair brush

I don't really like ink because it tends to stain hands and anything it gets on so it tends to be super messy. I was a little hesitant to use some of the things I used in ink. These are my favorites out of the twelve, but my favorites out of the six are the thread, the spatula, and the plastic cups. Although the plastic cups gave me some trouble I liked the way they turned out. I kind of didn't want to use that shoe because it's one of my favorites, but I found that the texture on the bottom to be more interesting than any other I had. I was going to sew the thread on the page, but the pack of pins I had wasn't cooperating and wouldn't open. I think the glue worked just fine though. The hair brush was just a cheap one from my purse, so I didn't mind dipping it in ink as much. I like the way the paper towel one turned out a lot it's one of my favorites too. I like the dark lines with the faded in the background.

Molting

Uncomfortable video take 1

here's the link to my first take of my uncomfortable video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQU9dJEnW14

Reverend Ethan Acres

Reverend Ethan Acres was born in 1970 in Ft. Payne, Alabama. He began preaching at the age of ten. He urged people to attend meetings conducted by his stepfather who was a preacher. At the same age his interest in art also began. He attended the University of Texas at Austin and received a BFA in painting in 1993. In 1996 he attended the University of Nevada in Las Vegas and received his MFA for multimedia. In 1996 he also got his Doctorate of Divinity from the World Christian Ministries and he currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California (In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244).

He is very passionate about art and most importantly about God. I believe that what he does is art. I may not enjoy his works, but I believe that it is art. Most people these days would say that anything can be art now, but that’s not true. Just because someone says something is art doesn’t mean it’s successful. I feel that art, if done right, makes you stop and think and causes a reaction. His art does that and he clearly puts thought in each and every detail of his pieces. For instance he was extremely detailed in his Pearls 2 Pigs piece in how he created them.

His work is different to me because he tries to create art in such a way that it teaches people about the Bible and he tries to push people in the direction of God rather than what most other artists do with religious related works where they are mocking religion and such. He wants people to laugh hoping that they will follow a better path because of his art. Being an artist and a preacher causes him to strattle a very delicate and uncomfortable line. Some people might see his work as mocking religion and be offended or even enjoy that, so if he doesn’t convey the message he wants to in the right way it may create problems for the goals of his work.

His work is like preaching because he takes stories from the Bible and recreates them in a way to try to get people to be interested. He says that it is his mission “to be a fool for God’s sake, a holy fool.”(In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244-245). I also think his work is like preaching because the fact that he is taking stories from the Bible and recreating them in satirical ways may help people to understand them better. People tend to understand things and become more interested in them when art is involved. Also they tend to pay attention more when they think they are going to get a chance to laugh.

He seems to be very serious about his work and God perhaps because he makes the two relate. If he wasn’t serious I don’t think he would continue doing what he does. He may not seem like it because of the way he dresses, acts, or anything else, but his passion for God and his art make it serious. “By combining the social roles of this grand triumvirate of professions, Acres uplifts the spirits of his world-weary congregants—including members of sophisticated art audiences.” (In the Making Creative Options for Contemporary Art, Linda Weintraub pp. 244-245).

100 Uncomfortable things

1. roaches
2. spiders
3. crickets
4. grasshoppers
5. cheese
6. milk
7. people
8. talking
9. public speaking
10. blood
11. vomit
12. sweat
13. smelly people
14. gentitles
15. the word vagina
16. drunk people
17. dog drool
18. feet
19. smelly feet
20. cigarette smoke
21. smokers
22. drinking
23. the dark
24. mirrors in the dark
25. thunder
26. lightening
27. thunderstorms
28. bad weather
29. wet clothes
30. when people talk and I can't understand their accent
31. itches I can't scratch
32. acrylic nails
33. crying children
34. children
35. really big dogs
36. really small dogs
37. sick animals
38. broken nails
39. hang nails
40. ripped cuticles
41. being in front of a computer all day
42. smelly cat litter
43. smelly garbage
44. garbage
45. dirty dishes
46. cold showers
47. lots of homework
48. WASH
49. drawing with ink
50. drawing with oil pastels
51. greasy things
52. sticky things
53. nail files
54. cops
55. rats
56. mice
57. dead cellphones
58. not having a cell phone
59. being late for class
60. people smoking weed around me
61. incense
62. very smelly candles
63. fat women in leggings or spandex
64. cat litter
65. stagnant water
66. algae
67. slimy things
68. greek food
69. mexican food
70. throwing up
71. stomachaches
72. headaches
73. high pitched noises
74. tv static
75. dirty bathrooms
76. standing in a long line
77. extremely hot weather
78. extremely cold weather
79. extremely hot water
80. finding random hairs that don't belong to me
81. power outages
82. people staring at me
83. creepy people
84. babies
85. green nail polish
86. dirty pools
87. lizards
88. people picking their nose
89. people who text and drive
90. mothers correcting their children while driving
91. people who talk on the phone while driving
92. people who walk behind you while you're backing out
93. guys who wear their paints below their butt
94. people who wear hats wrong
95. people who scratch their crotch in public
96. guys who hold their pants by the crotch
97. people who pick wedgies in public
98. wedgies
99. public restrooms
100. cat scratches