A Flower Child's Blog - Annie Nolan: February 2015

Friday, February 27, 2015

Photography Contact Sheet

Saturday, February 21, 2015

"The Invisible" Montage: Reflection

Name: Antonette Nolan

Montage Title: This Is War

Medium: Photoshop

Date: Friday, February 20th2015

Technical

Within This Is War I used several new tools and technical steps that I had not previously had much experience with. These include using the clone stamp on the forest behind the cabin, refining the edges by feathering when deleting the background surrounding the body of Christ (and other images), and opacity changes on nearly all layers.

Idea or Concept

My initial idea of “The Invisible” consisted mainly of the dangers and evil (demonic influences, Satan) found both in the spiritual realm and on earth, the moral entities (angels, God) and the two forces' connection with humanity. The concept changed slightly as I worked on the art, however. I found myself viewing the piece as a representation of spiritual warfare more and more as I progressed. This, obviously, lead me to title the piece This Is War. The missiles and bombs, soldiers, and gas mask impart a sense of the tension and 'war' between good and evil. Even the feathers, to me, speak of war. As a child I was nearly always pretending that I was a Native American or Amazon warrior (I guess that is inevitable when growing up with a lot of fairly violent brothers), and thus the feathers remind me of fistfights and wrestling ('wars') of days past.

Influences

No particular artist (that I can think of!) influenced my work in this project. I did, however, find myself contemplating several hip human rights-focused Facebook pages and their promotional material when I was working on the montage. I think that they at least may have affected how I used different opacity levels in certain areas (especially the gas mask within the clock face).

Composition

I balanced the composition asymmetrically, with most of the “weight” in This Is War on the left side (specifically in my dark portrait photo). I intended most of the emphasis in the montage to be on the portrait, and believe I succeeded for the most part through use of contrast and uniqueness (my face and the peacock feather are eye-grabbing as a result of both the stark difference in value and because the feather is in an unusual place), and size (the portrait is by far the largest photo in the foreground). My eyes first focus on the portrait of myself on the left, then move up and right to the cabin, the clock face, the figure of Christ, and the gas mask in the right-hand corner. They then move down the figure’s legs and with the soldiers and flying birds to the middle of the window. They follow the lighter birds down to the rocket and missiles near the bottom left-hand corner and keep with the flock of birds which moves up and towards the leopard’s open mouth and body (which leads back to the Christ’s corpus). Each of the images is placed on a specific angle and made a certain size in order to push the viewer’s eye in a circular motion around the entire montage.

Motivation

I have, as I explained in my brainstorming piece, always had an interest in both good and evil spiritual influences on earth. My strong conviction that calling up demons “for fun” is incredibly ignorant and dangerous was, I suppose, the real ‘backbone’ in terms of this piece’s motivation. I wanted to explore and create visual depictions of the very real threat that Satanic activities pose to the human soul.

Critical Assessment

Personally, I found the figure of Christ and the gas mask on the clock face the most interesting and successful part of the entire montage. The opacity differences and overlap of layers really surprised me with an edgy-yet-classy end result. If I had had additional time, I believe that I may have replaced the image of the log cabin with another that ‘goes with the flow’ in a more seamless manner. As well, I would attempt to load and use new bird brushes; I had to reuse (and thus rotate and erase parts) of the few I had access to.

Friday, February 20, 2015

"The Invisible" Montage: This Is War

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

"The Invisible" Montage: Brainstorming

When I hear the words, “The Invisible”, I think of:

- The weak and unwanted in our society; pre-born children and elderly people

- People with incurable diseases/STDs

- The “sketchy” kids at our school; adolescents who come from abusive homes and/or don’t have the same opportunities as myself

- Nuns and strongly religious people; they seem to have a stronger presence in the city than in Bruce Grey

- The moral truths found in Catholicism; they are “right under our noses” but we don’t appreciate or recognize them—rather, we often ridicule the religion as a whole because it seems like a list of rules to follow/stands in the way of our desires

- The Jewish people and their present-day struggles

- Custodians, gardeners, cleaning ladies, property caretakers; all underappreciated

- The supernatural element; demons, angels, ghosts and the afterlife

- The vaccinations we receive and their true effect on us

- The synthetic estrogen from contraceptives and the hormones from the factory farm-raised meat we consume on a regular basis (their presence in our bodies)

Because I believe that the supernatural element best encompasses my idea of “The Invisible”, I chose it as the theme of my montage. Ever since I was a child, I was hugely interested in the idea of an afterlife and the presence of Satan on earth. When I was about six years old I started talking to my guardian angel and asking him (I was pretty sure it was a him—his name was Fabien) for help to be good when I felt tempted to do wrong. I also started crossing myself with holy water before bed each night. Every once in a while, when I walked into a foreign room or building, I could feel an evil presence. One instance that I remember very well took place when I was exploring an old log cabin near Collingwood. As I stepped inside, I felt the most horrific, filthy sensation I have even known; I could almost smell the evil. It was as though a murder or rape had been committed in that very room, and the evil of it still hung about the place. I was disgusted when I discovered that neither of my brothers (who accompanied me to the cabin) could feel the foul ambiance, and suspected that they were not real humans. I don’t know if it was demonic or not, but having Fabien around sure helped. I still experience sensations of this nature occasionally, but I think I felt them more strongly when I was little.

I would like to have my piece of art embody both the sense of horror I had for Satan and demonic influences, and the comfort and contentment I found in Fabien as a friend—I could trust him more than any of my fellow humans (if they were humans—I couldn’t decide whether or not for a long while). It should condemn the immature and dangerous belief that calling up demons is harmless, and impart the truth that both morality and immorality exist in the spiritual realm. I want to include lighter images of realistically painted angels, perhaps animals, and a picture of Christ’s face to represent the good spiritual presence I felt. The creepy, revolting aura will be demonstrated through the use of several dark images of which I do not have definite ideas regarding (perhaps a painting of Satan, if I can find one good enough, etc.). I might use the slightly sinister-looking duotone photo of myself to blend the two “sides” together and illustrate humanity’s capacity for both good and evil.

When she/he looks at this piece of art, I want the viewer to feel, basically, as I did when I was a child. I want them to feel the same dread, anger and disgust for the evil in the demonic presence, and the same happiness I knew in my alliance with a spiritual pure being. If they had a childhood anything like mine, they should experience an old, familiar sensation. If not (which is more likely—I was pretty strange) they should feel slightly confused, but also come away with a definite sense of satisfaction and at least a partial understanding of my perspective regarding good versus evil.