Final Project: Create Anything!

For this particular project, I started off with So Many Ideas. I watercolored a bird with Ed Westwick's head, I sketched obsessive amounts of collage ideas, I prepared a special canvas and got a heat gun for melting down 25 lbs of wax, but only one idea stuck. I didn't feel like the bird was something I wanted to present to my class-- not my best work, but it was a good experience in watercoloring. Collaging failed after I realized the night before critique (also the night I was planning to collage) that inkjet ink Does Not get transferred by wintergreen oil-- only toner cartridges found in big copier machines do the job. Oops. Then the cheapest and I mean cheapest price I could find 25 lbs of wax was for a bit over $80.00. No bueno. I've had some unexpected expenses that I've had to make recently and a tragic pipe bursting accident at home (1,000s of dollars needing to be paid)-- so I have no money. All in all, I decided to create a portrait about 3 weeks ago and had been working faithfully on it. I enjoyed it so much because I love painting and I love people as subject matter for any art the most. I have finishing touches to make and I experienced some hardships and catastrophes along the way, but I believe it has come out well. It was a Great project and one of my favorites of the semester. :)

Vincent van Gogh and Cuno Amiet

This week, we had to find an artist (or artists) and research why that artist made the art that he or she made. Then, we had to create a piece of art to accompany how the artist made their work, but do it in our own way. That is, do it in a way pleasing to ourselves, not the artist who would have made it. I chose to do a combination of van Gogh and Cuno Amiet. Here is a very brief description of my PowerPoint presentation on the two artists: Vincent van Gogh was unsatisfied with academic art and created many paintings that portrayed realism, but not shown realistically. Instead, he emphasized realism with his color choice. Also, he used color to portray his own mood and emotions about things. Then, I transitioned to Cuno Amiet, a Swiss Expressionist painter. He was inspired by some of van Gogh's and Gauguin's work when he attended the Pont-Aven school in France. Amiet was inspired by their use of color. Thus, he got very excited about color and learned to use it freely and for his own happiness.

Naturally, I decided to do a painting for my accompanying art work. I painted my maternal grandparents. I used more naturalistic faces and everything else had broad, not naturalistic strokes. I wanted to emphasize realistic faces because 1) I prefer naturalistic painting of people because I love the painterly quality of something that is shown to be realistic and 2) I wanted to emphasize the importance of their face imagery by not having them be made of blurred strokes of any sort. Then I used colors that I like and that show my own mood/emotions towards them. I used pink for my grandmother's shirt because she has breast cancer, yet she is beautiful and vividly bright in life. My grandfather has a green shirt because I think of him as a pretty tranquil man and it went with the mood of the garden scene I set for them. This garden scene is a memory of them in my grandmother's garden at our dacha (Russian summer home) in Chelyabinsk, Russia. The surrounding color is a bright yellow, which I think of a happy, sunny summer day-- like the many I enjoyed during my visits there over the years. Then it sort of fades out to a darker shade of yellow to show that they are distant to me.

Grotesque/Under the table

For this Surface Research project, each student picked from two piles of random cards. One card contained an adjective and the other a location. Mine were grotesque and under the table. Using the words on our cards, we had to create a piece.

I cut a wooden panel to the size of the space between a table in an AFO classroom, painted it black (because when I think of grotesque, I think black), and drilled holes in it. This board created a peep-hole space under the table. Then, I creeped on Facebook and took all the images of my classmates' faces and distorted them on Photoshop (to make them grotesque). I printed the new images on photo paper. Then I attached the images to a large piece of cardboard that I also painted black. This final cardboard piece, combined with my wooden panel, created an enclosed space for my images. I attached Christmas lights inside the space to illuminate the images in their totally dark space. My final product was people approaching my piece to peer into the holes to see what they might find inside-- grotesque images of themselves.

Complete work viewed from outside

Uncovered piece

Uncovered piece

View inside of a hole

Another view inside of a hole

Whole piece uncovered

Project Based on College Major

For the latest Surface Research project, I had to create something for the major I plan to go into. My major is Fashion Merchandising, so this project was more of a challenge, but I really enjoyed it. I created a bulletin board that a possible fashion merchandiser would have, while incorporating my own organizational  tactics and specific areas of interests in the career. I included a style board because many fashion merchandisers work as magazine editors who make magazine pages like that. I also included a personal invitation to a Versace fashion show. I handmade the envelope and designed the card. I also included fashion illustrations of latest trends that a merchandiser may have if they work as a stylist as well to plan outfits. Both were done in drawing inks. I would have included more, but I feel that didn't fit my character as a merchandiser at all. Personally, I already keep fashion inspirations in folders and my computer, and would not hang them up. I also always only have a couple of Post-It notes of tasks going. I hang only important things, in this case: an invitation to a big fashion show, my style board, and newly made styles.

Book Project

For the latest Surface Research assignment, we had to somehow involve a book. What I chose to do for my project is show my Russian heritage. I made a box which looks like my Russian passport with faceless handmade Matryoshka dolls inside. The dolls are a symbol of my family now and past. The pages of Russian text inside the book are from a textbook I used when I was four years old in Moscow and learning the Russian language. The box enters into my heritage and is slightly opened as I am the first in my family to move out of Russia. The opening is a gateway to other places.

The Jacket (For Surface Research and Destroy Project)

The Jacket

The Process

1. Christopher Walken painted in acrylic on lining and sewn to jacket

Destruction: Burning

2. Walken Tree on Jacket Island (symbolization of new growth post-death)

- fur as grass

- matches from Walken burning were used to elevate the tree

Destruction: stomp on tree

3. Hands holding coffee (charcoal drawing)  w/ real coffee (growth from plant)

Destruction: paint used with coffee to wipe away drawing

4. Starbucks cup of coffee and jacket table cloth

Destruction: squeezed and thrown away in garbage bin (like I would to drinking cup), used table cloth also thrown out

5. Picked up the garbage that was once the Starbucks coffee cup

-created useable handbag out of “garbage” (symbolization of reuse)

Destruction: tear the seams apart

6. Made a deer (fawn) to symbolize what some leather bags are made of

Destruction: pulled it apart

7. Created a shirt to go with a skit from fawn and jacket remains

Destruction: jacket torn apart during fight

Exploring My Top Three Majors

The first departments that I visited were Fashion Merchandising, my first choice major, and Fashion Design, my third choice, which were both located on the fourth floor of the Pollack building. I spent a good bit of time observing my surroundings and slyly peaking into classrooms filled with busy fashion students, draping and sewing. I was inspired by the beautiful clothing creations and more than ever want to attend a VCU student fashion show. (It's a good start before I go to NYC, Paris, and Milan Fashion Week. Har, har.) Finally, I went to an office on that floor and was welcomed by a man and woman who work in the Fashion Merchandising and Design Departments. The woman gave me a book and some papers about the program and the duo answered all of my questions. The Fashion Design program is just stellar and students have grown to be great successes coming out of the program. One fashion design student had an internship with Alexander McQueen (R.I.P.) during her years at VCU, which greatly strengthened her resume. However, the Fashion Merchandising program still stood out to me and this visit only strengthened my interest in it. There are 280 students in the entire Fashion Merchandising program and they bust their asses for success. One former fashion merch. student is now the stylist for the Jonas Brothers, who I'm not particularly fond of, but that former student is now making bank doing what she loves. Another fashion merch. student is an editor for Elle in NYC. There are also successful stylists and buyers who work for Marc Jacobs, Macy's, J. Crew, Armani Exchange, etc. I love it. I feel like success is definitely in my future if I work hard in this program. I'm more thrilled than ever. Furthermore, Fashion Merchandising students also get to design a line of clothes. This means I'll still get to do art-related things in this business-stressed major. Just my thing.

Next, I visited the Graphic Design department which was on the floor below in the Pollack building. I was welcomed by the department chair, John DeMao, who has been working for the school for well over ten years. He showed me a bit around and gave me a packet of information goodies in a chrome envelope. Some of the things that were in the envelope are pictured above. The Graphic Design program is by far one of the finest in the country. Students are extremely hard workers, which is really true for just about all of the art majors, but anyway . . . I was greatly impressed by a lot of the work that I saw hanging in the building. There was both BFA and MFA student work, which was interesting to see. I love that the Graphic Design department has an old-fashioned printing press. Those are hard to come by and it really brings you back to the roots of the art of graphic design. So much can be done with a graphic design major: typography work, web design, package design, magazine layouts, album art, poster art, the next cover of a great novel or blockbuster film. I love seeing the work. It's very unique and inspirational. I love seeing totally new images that come out of the minds of fresh, young artists.


All in all, visiting these three departments was an excellent journey for me. I'm still into Fashion Merchandising for my first choice, but Graphic Design and Fashion Design are still up there for me if I have a change of heart.