Update on projects

An update on the projects for my course and some ideas I've had concerning them.

1. Create a photo narrative using a Flickr photo set
Flickr is an image and video hosting website that is free to use (for the base account, more features are available for a fee). Flickr allows users to organize their photos into "sets", or groups of photos that fall under the same heading. Create a Flickr set of images that tells some sort of story (i.e. training my dog, a road trip to St Louis, the life cycle of a picked flower, protesting disability services to president White, etc). The narrative must be evident and there must be a logical progression of events between the images.

I started off college becoming friends with an incredibly skilled Guitar Hero player. One of his big projects at the time was to custom paint a guitar from the game. I thought the idea was a lot of fun, so I ended up spending a few weeks creating a guitar of my own. I have a lot of photos of the process, so I figure I can make a decent photo journal from that.

2. Submit a desktop design to pixelgirlpresents.com
PGP is a site with loads of free wallpaper and icon sets (for Mac and PC) available to download and install for free. Individual designers create the wallpapers and icons and, if selected, each designer is given credit for his or her work. Design a wallpaper using the site’s recommended guidelines and submit your design.

The Koi piece below could make a decent icon/wallpaper set. I figure I can spend spring break making a few icons that relate to the fish project and make the art piece itself into something a bit more finished/wallpaper-ey.

3. Put a piece of your artwork for sale on etsy.com
Etsy is a website which focuses primarily on providing the general public with a way to buy and sell handmade items. The site follows in the tradition of open craft fairs, giving sellers personal storefronts where they list their goods for a fee. It has been described as a cross between Amazon and eBay. The fee to list an item is 20 cents, so not too bad.

This is a total unknown for me. I have had a few ideas, but nothing that has really panned out. I have a few home-made items that I own, but would be unable to recreate or part with. I was thinking of maybe making a pair of my old Converse into something a bit more artistic and seeing if anyone would bite.

4. Start a blog
Blogging is a great way to organize your ideas, develop your artist statement and allow people to get to know a bit more about yourself. Using Blogger (free) or Wordpress, develop a blog that will feature your creative works and ideas. Do not get this confused with a personal blog – no lamentations over ex’s or roommate complaints here, please! Stick to your artwork – process, ideas and inspiration. You should post at least once a week.

An ongoing process, as you can plainly see!

5. Find an online art partner and make a collaborative art piece that utilizes both geographical spaces
Now that we have all these forums for finding other creative people, find a like-minded individual with whom you can work to create a piece of art that utilizes both of your geographic locations. This could be something that specifically features each of your areas, or simply something that exists in both spaces in some way that can be documented. The further away the better, but your partner must live at least 2 hours drive away.

My friend, a girl I met when I was only 13, lives in Pennsylvania and is an accomplished artist. I hope (no pun intended) to arrange something with her. In terms of how it will use each location, though, I'm not quite sure.

6. Using iWeb, create a web portfolio for your artwork
If you don’t yet have one, register a domain name (something professional, that relates to your work) for your site. Godaddy.com is my recommendation. As a student you can host your site through the UIS student server for free, but godaddy also has hosting packages. iWeb is probably the simplest web editor program out there and it looks great. (here is a sample site: www.laurenpeltzman.com)

This is something that I will do once I have more pieces to actually post.

7. Using your cell phone (or other simple camera) to create a stop-motion video from still images and upload it to youtube and vimeo
We take photos everyday, with our cell phones, webcams, surveillance cameras and plain old digital cameras so why not make something cool and interesting with them?
a well-known example: www.youtube.com/watch?v=55YYaJIrmzo

Me and my friends have been throwing around ideas for a butt-surfing video. Always fun!