I Make Art and Art Related Projects

Project #1: Post Cards

Fear is one of the greatest emotional blocks we as humans have.  The general reaction to what we as a people do not understand is to fear that thing.  Fear must be overcome to grow emotionally but it also must be understood.  The three postcards presented are organized under the topic of fear, presented through each assigned focus.  The chosen destination has a personal attachment related to the chosen topic, as I greatly feared this location when I was child.

The first postcard represents fear through repetition.  As a child I would see signs saying, “No Trespassing” at entrances to wooded areas and wonder if it was a warning of something dangerous within the area.  In the presented image that single warning has become a loud scream, a shout declaring this area to be off limits, dangerous.  Someone took the time to present these warnings to the world, however many of the signs are titled as if hastily attached to the trees.  This person knew enough that they had to be quick with their numerous warnings, or fall pray to what they wish to protect the world from.

The second postcard represents fear through transformation.  A worn path leads deeper into these woods, a path made clearly against the posted warnings.  This was the first time I actually entered this path.  The picture presents my childish thoughts, what I believed to be in this forbidden terrain.  Behind the forest, past the normal, lies a dark void of the unknown.  The foreground is clearly that of a wooded area, but something is wrong.  The surroundings are not quite right, the mood dark and alien, the area warped by the fear of what I never dared to see.

The third postcard represents fear through concealment/revealing.  Near the woods I so greatly feared was a small house surrounded by large.  These trees hid the house from the sun.  The red tint to the air masks the house and changes it from a peaceful place of living to an ominous housing of dread.  The dark windows prevent anyone passing by from peering into the house and knowing what it hides.  That is, save a lone window.  The window reveals an inhuman figure that stares back at the viewer, recognizing their presence and responding with hostility.  The message on the house speaks true to us all, telling us what we all know deep down.

Project #2: Animation 

Storyboard

Fear is one of the greatest emotional blocks we as humans have.  What we must understand is that many of our fears, our nightmares and phobias, are much worse in our imagination than they are in reality.  All we truly have to fear in our life is the idea of fear itself.  Fear exaggerates itself and only leads to more fear.  The animation presents a character wrought with fear on a stormy night.  Through the character we understand his fear and then fear for him, only to find that his fears and our own have been exaggerated.

The animation opens presenting a character at peace, asleep and unbeknownst to what is about to come.  While we are asleep we are at our most vulnerable, usually in a state of subconscious bliss.  Whenever an unknown violently shatters this state we are thrown back to reality, sometimes only partially, to face what has awoken us.  While in this mood of half survival instinct and half dream consciousness we are more susceptible to our imagination running wild.  We imagine some dark source to have awoken us from our slumber, threatening our life and requiring swift action to thwart.  In this mindset we think that the worst has come for us, but in reality it is nothing more than a harmless bump in the night.

When we act as witness to events filled with fear, subjects overcome by fear or fear overcoming ourselves, we usually tend to be ignorant to truth.  The truth may not be all too apparent to us, but we tend to look more toward the negative side within these situations.  The end of the animation addresses the fear within the viewer, having them believe in their ignorance that the worse has come to pass upon our protagonist.  Within the finale we see that even our fear for an individual can be blown out of proportion.

The ideas discussed about fear and its ability to cloud us of the truth have been presented through this animation in a way most would deem as cartoonish.  Even in a simple cartoon one can portray deeper ideas, explore human concepts and constructs.  Just because the style is described as simple that does not mean the story has to be.

Just to note, some things went wrong when transferring over to the blog

Project #3: Movie

Storyboard

 

Fear is one of the greatest emotional blocks we as humans have.  Fear is also a tool that can be used to sway society.  From politicians to producers countless individuals and collections of people have used fear to influence the daily life of society.  Some schemes are grand in design, aiding in a select few conquering a vast many.  Some schemes are small, helping to load the pockets of those that make you fear a life without their product, their service, or their presence.  Fear sells, and that is a fact.

The short film presented here develops a world that many know, the aftermath of a zombie apocalypse.  The reanimated dead have risen from their graves, devastated the population, and now we see what is left.  However, this world was not destroyed by the zombie masses.  Instead the world survives much as it did before the “apocalypse” save the fact that zombies are now present within it.  Instead of being a population of terrifying monstrosities the zombies have become a nuisance to the daily life of the living populous.  This is the world that has been developed for this short film.  In this world, a world of monsters, a new batch of products must be created to cater to the populous and to prey off their fears.

Much like the countless commercials we see from day to day for medicines and merchandise that discusses a worse future without and promise a better life with, the product here goes that extra mile informing the audience that without this item they will not only be murdered by vicious monsters, but they will also become one of those monsters who may kill others.   It plays off the ultimate fear that we all have, the fear of death.  It tells the viewer that if they do not buy this item from them they will die in a horrible way and then kill others in that same horrible way.  What more could a human being fear than a horrible and painful death.

Everyday we are subject to a plethora of visual advertisement that will prey on our collective fears.  We are made to believe that our lives are worse off without whatever it is being presented and we fear that worse future.  We must overcome these fears and allow ourselves to rationally decide for ourselves what we need in our lives, instead of letting others prey on our fears.

Zomb-Off Commercial