Composite Portrait

Before and After Photo Touch-Ups

Before...

...After

My biggest problem with retouching this photo was noise; the original was very grainy and pixelated. To remedy this, I toggled the options on the "Nosie" filter in Photoshop. I also tired to sharpen the contrast and make the colors warmer. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get rid of the high contrast, overhead lighting. I was able to adjust it slightly using the Shadows/Highlights tool, but not nearly as much as I would've liked.

Digital Collage Assignment

24 Hour Technology Log

7:00 AM: Woken up by my battery-operated alarm clock

7:05 AM: Turn on the lights in my room. Check my watch

7:10 AM: Log on to my laptop, check Facebook, Gmail, put on Pandora

7:30 AM: Getting ready to leave, check cell-phone, turn off room light

7:35 AM: Get my card swiped at the Great Room for breakfast. Check my watch  

9:10 AM: Check my cell-phone again after my first class. Send a text, check my watch

9:20-11:50 AM: My Intro to Drawing Professor uses her laptop to show us images, plays music off the internet

12:30 PM: Get my card swiped at the Great Room for lunch, check my cell-phone and watch, again

12:30-1:00 PM: Use my laptop to study in the library (and check Facebook, Gmail...) Listen to music on my iPod

1:15 PM: Check my cell-phone again before class starts. More texts, check my watch

1:20-2:30 PM: Use my calculator during Psychological Statistics (which is held in a computer lab)

2:40-4:20 PM: Back in library, studying with laptop. Check my watch, listen to my iPod, send some texts

4:40 PM: Text some friends, see what time they want to get dinner. Use my one card to get back in QA. Come back to my room, turn on lights, check watch, plug in my laptop to charge, more studying, send some emails on my laptop

5:30 PM: Get my card swiped at the Great Room for dinner, check my phone and my watch

6:45 PM: Print out some documents at the library, check my watch

7:00-10:00 PM: Use my one card to get back in  QA. Study in my best friend’s room, with my laptop. Send some texts, check my watch, listen to music on Youtube, check Facebook and Gmail, watch a 30 Rock episode on Hulu, make tea with an electric hot pot.

10:30 PM: Come back to room, turn on lights, get ready for bed; charge laptop, phone, and iPod

11:00 PM: Turn off lights, turn on lamp to read

12:00 AM: Bedtime, turn off lamp, set alarm clock.

Digital Scans

Scans assignment for Intro to Digital Media:

Hair

Charcoal Sketch

Acrylic Painting

Acrylic Painting

Photograph

Scarf

Sea Shells

Wrist

Rings

Watercolor and Collage

Sunset GIF

Anne Spalter: Artist Biography

"I'm Leaving You For The Groove"

Anne Spalter is an artist and professor at RISD who tries to use her work as a means to integrate technology and art. Her art educational background is in painting, and she equates her pieces, which consist of several layers of video stills, to "action painting." Spalter spends a great deal of time collecting  images from specific locations, often large cities such as Las Vegas, New York, and Dubai, then combining and manipulating the elements of several images into a single piece. Through her work, Spalter examines the concept of industrial landscapes in digital and traditional mediums. 

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Spalter's pieces are an interesting balance between chaos (created by the overload of visual images compressed into her works) and control (all of her pieces are manipulated to create a sense of symmetry and intent). While Spalter manipulates her images to create new and unique forms, it is also possible for the viewer to discern recognizable objects in her images, such as cars, stoplights, and trees. This combination creates a sort of visual puzzle; familiar objects are now viewed through a new visual "language" created in Spalter's works.

I find Spalter's artwork to be very original and relatable. I love that she equates her process with the more traditional art medium of painting, and I think her attempts to connect art and technology are successful. Her pieces show an obvious mastery in both fields, and her combinations of the two feel natural, yet still innovative. Spalter also creates video art, which I feel is slightly less successful than her stills. I think what makes her still images so powerful is the integration of familiar, recognizable objects with abstracted digital techniques. This allows the viewer to connect with the piece, and simultaneously appreciate Spalter's technical mastery. However, I felt her video works were harder to relate to for the average viewer. Perhaps the integration of sound in these videos could remedy this.

Overall, I think Anne Spalter's art is very successful, and her combination of traditional and new media is impressive. Her commentary on the modern industrial landscape is also very relevant and poignant in our modern society.