Pinterest Image Critique

The Wisdom of the Universe, Christi Belcourt

Metis Aboriginal
2014, 171 x 282 cm
Acrylic on Canvas
Currently Held in the Art Gallery of Ontario
























This lovely painting is an acrylic on canvas original by Christi Belcourt. It features lots of plantation and nature. It has many curved, intersecting lines, making everything seem intertwined. If you were to look at close ups you'll find that everything looks like it was made from beads, it's quite brilliant, actually. And finally, the colours. I wouldn't quite say earth tones, but more, fantasy earth tones. These are the kinds of coulours I see when I think fantasy.

To me, the main focal point is the top-center. Probably because the red leaves and the bird aren't symmetrical to anything. This immediately makes it pop out like a sore thumb. Other than that though, this is nearly symmetrical, with a few inconsistencies here and there. By far, the darkest part would be the background, what with it being pitch black and all. Since it's pretty much symmetrical, pretty much everything is repeated... twice. There are flowers, leaves, birds, ivy and shrubbery. There practically is no space, so there's flat space.

With all the intertwined lines and nature, I feel that the artist is trying to say something about life and how we're all connected. Even the title can give us some insight on hat she meant. Perhaps, as sappy as this sounds, we should all connect and love one another. If I could describe this painting with a word, it would be "serenity". Looking at it calms me, it's serene and peaceful.

I really like this one, looking at it from a distance it's alright but getting close ups show you just how much care the artist but into this. Everything is made from dots, beads almost. The love and work that had to have been put into this makes the artist quite admirable. I guess that was a cop out, but whatever, it's impressive to me.

Seven Ancient Teachings - Love

Logo Design Assignment

My fictitious company made for the logo assignment is named “Miami Nights: Roller Disco”. The colon is not there for the image but instead there is a horizontal gap between Miami Nights and Roller Disco. I based my company off of the way pop culture interprets the 1980’s, a neon soaked party, retro new wave synth playing and often full of adrenaline fueled violence*. I myself am almost obsessed with this style, stylish cars, synth, the neon greens and pinks. I’d say this accurately represents my tastes.

*Hotline Miami is a great, modern example of this.

I couldn’t stray too much from my reference image as a roller skate is not an animal. Most of my cohorts based their pictographic image around an animal, with a few fine exceptions, of course. I find that if I were to stray far from my object or else it wouldn’t look like a roller skate but more of a shoe. That still didn’t stop me from turning it into a Chuck Taylor Converse style skate. I find those to be a very stylish foot garment. I did however dislike the black lines on the inside and didn’t like any other colour so I went with the bold choice of making the lines white. Doing so pushed a minimalist, and made it look different. As far as I can tell I’m the only student in this class who did this making it unique. I can’t say for sure though as not everyone has posted their designs. In the early thought process Ms. Silverman handed me a book over roller skating design. There were lots with a wing on the end, not unlike the talaria of Greek mythology. I liked this but I felt it was more appropriate for a 50’s roller skate joint. I feel that with the white lines push a minimalist look.

As some 80’s fanatics might tell, my typographic logo is homage to a certain little show full of white sports coats and flamingos (kudos to Pank! Software by the way, I love that flamingo.) It wasn’t all that hard to decide the font style, as bad as it is to say, it was one of my first choices and I had my heart set on it. If you take a look at my roughs, you’ll see one that has the classic Friday the 13^th font. I feel indifferent towards this one for my current company but if I happen to do another one of these I think this would be a great font for a retro VHS rental shop. Also if you’re wondering why it says “Miami Nights VI” it was partly because it was the sixth idea there and I was also just poking fun at horror films and their seemingly endless stream of sequels.  

I don’t have to much to say about my combined image. I imagine that if it was on a business card it would have the logo to the left and say the text to the right along with all the stationary stuff below. I didn't really originally design the pictographic and typographic to work with each other, which handicaps it in the end. So I started to find a way to keep the typographic and pictographic together and I went with shapes. With the black background it feels extra neo-noir.

Original Outline

Rough Pictographic

Final Pictographic

Rough Typographic

Final Typographic

Combined Rough

Combined Final Colour

Combined Final Black and White

Original Image

Film Festival Trip

Last Thursday (the 22nd I believe) most of the year one and year four CyberARTS students took a field day to go to an independent native film festival. There were several short films, none of them personally offended me although quite a few of them were a bit pretentious. The one I liked the most was called "Ka Mitshelitakuess Auass" or "The Child who Hammered Nails".

This 3 minute film focuses on a father and a daughter, who we can only observe through their silhouettes against a rough wooden wall. I'll quickly sum up the story. This father gives his son (who's silhouette looks that of a girl) a bag of nails. He tells her to hammer one into the wall every time he gets impatient. He does this, and eventually runs out of nails. He than tells him to take one out when he can control his temper. He does this. Then he tells him about how he may have pulled them out which was a metaphor for him apologizing for his attitude. But the nails also left their mark, something hard to forget. 

I liked this one, for the visuals and the meaning. Although the meanings are explained by the father, it would sort of make him a bad dad if he didn't explain to his young child. My only real gripe is that they used a Kevin MacLeod piece. You see, Kevin MacLeod is quite the musical genius yet he allowed all of his music to be used by anyone, like anybody. All he asks is for credit in whatever it's used in. If you don't want to credit him you'll have to pay the exorbitant price of around 10 dollaridoos. I'm sure you've heard his music before, it's quite popular among YouTubers and hack independent game designers (the kinds who can't make music.) I immediately recognized it too, it was "Amazing Plan"*, one of his moderately popular tracks. And in the credits I see Kevin's name. I just find that if you're a content creator, even Indie, you should either pay up or create your own music (the Stanley Parable is an exception, great use of one of his tracks). I just find it kind of shallow. Either way, I still like this film, especially it's visuals. 

*https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq4rut6pcfo

Also, here's a screenshot, only one other seems to exist through a quick search.

Aaron Draplin

The first bit of the video made me think Aaron as an arrogant hipster. And everything he said we kind of already learnt. So I suppose this is more reinforcing the need for thumbnail sketches and copying similar designs and changing each one slightly. I guess the notepad is a decent idea though.

Variant
Brian Jungen