Wednesday, August 31, 2011

30 day challenge: days 6-7


My 30 day challenge is going really well. I got some new floral stuff, and tomorrow I am going to be working on designing new flower masks so I can really start to branch out. I am starting to itch for bigger set-ups, but I just don't have the room until my school's lighting studio re-opens. I think it's okay though. My friend and fellow grad student Carolyn and I had some discussions about our art over a cup of coffee yesterday and it was really good for me. I told her I am worried about not having produced what I want for the beginnings of my thesis work by the time fall quarter starts, and she encouraged me to just keep plugging away at this and that it's like a rough draft for the thesis work. She's right. It's not that far off from what I hope to show, except that I really have loved my 2-3 person set-ups (like the one in the right sidebar) and wanted to expand on that even more perhaps to some 4-5 person shoots in all floral. But like I said, I just don't have the room right now. But I'm telling myself that it's not a big deal, that this work is worth something and that it is a great starting off point for the other shoots I want to do. Plus there is also something I like about the 1-person photos too (it's just that after awhile they feel limiting), so it's not as if they are worth nothing. Sometimes it is just hard being an artist and realizing your limitations! But the best thing to do is make something amazing despite those limitations.

2 comments:

Leslie McDaniel said...

Hey Kristen. I love the first one, more than the others you've posted for your challenge so far (I think). I don't know if it fits best with your overall idea, but in this one, your outfit is not overwhelming, but matches the background and the combination of colors and floral patterns are still a bit much (as in what you're going for), but not so much I want to look away. For me, it's a nice balance. Plus, I love the way your hands are situated around the mask. I think I might even like the bottom one better if you didn't have the added apron. But again, these things might not be what you're going for (since the bottom one is definitely overwhelming for me).

Kristen said...

Leslie,

Thanks so much for your feedback! I appreciate it very much. I think the top one is my favorite so far as well. It is definitely part of the challenge to find the florals that work best together. I have been wanting to experiment with breaking it up by choosing some with large flowers and some with small flowers and putting those together, which is what I did here. I think it is also going to be good when I have a variety of masks to choose from, which is my creative task for today. I also think that the overwhelming quality is something I would like to have a in a few, and not like to have in others. It would be good to have visual resting periods in the series for those looking at the entire thing at once in a gallery or portfolio. I think you're right about the apron. I shot a few with the apron off and this morning I liked those better too!

Thanks for taking the time to write out your thoughts!

Kristen