Final Installation: Stages of Anorexia

Chairs for installation

These are the four chairs I got for my installation. Round table on its way.

 

This will be the excessive exercise stage. I'm going to have a pair of running shoes at this chair (will be able to see under table). Text will be transferred onto the cushion about excessive exercise.

 

This is the 'calorie counting & obsession' stage. I will have quotes about food and calorie intake transferred onto the cushion. I'd like to include men's work shoes for this chair to say that not all those who suffer anorexia are teenage girls, or the stereotype.

 

'Struggle with appearance' stage. A large shirt will be draped on the back to represent baggy clothes worn by those with warped body images and trying to hide their actual size. I'm going to have small women's shoes next to this chair. Quotes will be about body image, denial and the continuation of losing weight.

 

'Downward spiral' stage. I'm considering swapping this one with the last since they are both equally smaller, and the last one is more aged to represent a deterioration at this stage. I will include quotes about end weight.

This is an example of text to transfer to the chair cushion:

 

And another one for a small quote without as much typography for an element:

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I'm considering a recovery chair, not sure how I feel about it and it would be on its own away from the table with the other chairs. Thoughts? I probably won't do it for fear of a cluttered space.

Final project - installation piece

This is the setup for the installation, assuming I find a reasonably sized table. Since the issue is anorexia, it makes sense to have a dining room set up with table, chairs, and plates. I'll be doing image and text transfers onto the table, plates, and chairs. Also considering getting flowers today so they'll be wilted by Friday and putting them on the table.

Final project ideas (continued)

I'm still on the idea of having chairs set up, but I have to decide on a number (thinking 5). I might include shoes also, showing different "people." I'm going to use typography to hand letter and transfer type to the chair about society's view on weight loss. I also want to have some personal accounts from myself and other people about their struggles with body image.

I definitely want this to be something that viewers can interact with and relate to.

This might be going too far but it might be cool to get Weight Watchers, Atkins, Slimfast, etc. products and wrappers to put in the shoes.

http://www.livinghealthynews.org/how-to-recognize-the-6-stages-of-anorexia-in-your-daughter/

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Stages-of-Anorexia&id=2745525

Final ideas (part 2)

I'm going to do an interactive installation for my final piece. Right now I have a picture of setting up chairs (old ones from Ram's Rack) that I will be painting, not sure how yet. I will be using typography on the chair backs and possibly seats and transfer them on somehow.

I then want to attach shadow-like decals to the floor, possibly with images or writing on them. I want to incorporate food into it somehow, also.

Final project ideas

Something I have struggled with since middle school is food and weight. There was a point in high school when I attempted Weight Watchers (my whole family did it) and lost 35 pounds but kept going, obsessed with calorie counting and working out to the point of anorexia, just because I believed I still looked like my original weight. Since then I have put back weight but anorexia still haunts me and of course, calorie counting is still huge in my life. I've recently gotten back into working out (healthily) also.

So without ranting too much, my final is going to be about my struggles with food and the 'perfect size' image that I also worry about far too much. I'm trying to stay away from the stereotypical anorexia/bulimia poster of the rail-thin girl looking into the mirror at a larger girl.

I kind of like the idea of writing down thoughts I've had in the past and thoughts I've had recently about the topic and displaying them somehow. I'm very into the idea of taking very personal things and expressing them via art. Or images similar to PostSecret (www.postsecret.com) where people write or type their confessions on a postcard-sized photo. Example:

I also want to do something that gives people chills like this example:

Final options

(See other process final/crit work in the post below.)
These finals turned out kind of oriental, I just noticed.

I need help choosing one of these for my final. Which is the strongest?

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

For Thurs Crit

My final idea for this piece is psychological and physical growth. We all grow in different matters of life - spiritually, mentally, physically, etc. 

The blue panel is our beginning (relative to a tree sapling). The yellow is a stretching before sprouting upwards, and the pink is everything in between. The series represents growth in relation to all living matter that grows, gradually pushing out of itself and upwards into the world. Or someone else might see it as retracting into ones self and therefore psychologically 'dying' as a tree would without water.

With darken and multiply blending modes (personal favorite).

With subtract blending mode & opacity at 50%, 75%, and 75%.

Darken and multiply blending modes cut out, centered on solid colors.

With subtract blending mode.

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And the same thing but with diamonds instead of circles. I think I like these more.

With darken and multiply blending modes.

With subtract blending mode & opacity at 50%, 75%, and 75%.

With subtract blending mode.

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Same thing (again), better quality images of the women. HUGE difference (when it's bigger at least).

New direction...

So this is what I've been working on, trying to make it more abstract than before. I am planning on having the woman stretch from fetal to a full stretch, like a tree or flower growing towards the sun. I am going to work with drawings to see if that works better.

Still not entirely sure how the background fits the content... but I want to include the tree so the viewer understands the relationship.

Progress for tree project!

So I've taken a complete step back from my original ideas and tackled it from a new approach. I wanted to experiment with the notion of age, and how human age correlates with a tree's age.

Keep in mind this is still pretty prelim (and the clipart used is super pixelated - will get much better res photos).

I've got a personal image/diorama of the tree from Wey in the background with a blue filter in front of it/with an effect on that.

Any feedback would be great! 

Idea (project 3)

Brainstorming for cyclical nature

For idea #2:
-Bipolar Disorder is something believed to be partially genetic, handed down from a parent.
-I want to use pieces of a mirror to really pull the viewer into the final piece. *This will be my one framed piece of the semester.* With the mirror bits, I'm going to photo transfer old photos to make it look like relatives, and place the mirrors in places where viewers can look into them and BE the piece.
-Photo transfer to mirror: http://nonphotography.com/blog/photo-craft-projects/image-transfer/photo-transfer-to-a-mirror/
-*OR maybe my final for this assignment is ON a mirror (with the frame of the mirror being the frame of the piece) and I'll leave white spaces/gaps where I want the viewer to look through at themselves.
-Another disorder that can be passed genetically is schizophrenia. Not sure how to do this... I always think of the Captain Sparrow scene in the third Pirates movie when twenty of him are there on the ship.

For idea #1:

-On an entirely different track, the other idea was a circle of life type thing. Everything can connect to the tree in some way. (Human = umbilical cord, etc)

(an image I found)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-DutuiRCZH565V8z8LA8DRofUmOBfo5DzyIlyQn4JZ5zu_zhQMANLH0-jRYepNTBjmV3wwURJR8Y6HraOe5iaXeuiWjmJKAwitaflMPQ-wn398ccpzOlzYwB6ZPq_KTvhfvRflEJwces/s1600/56x38_Img46_Arch300_Curled_Up_GirlSM.jpg

Project 3 | Cyclical Nature of Things (tree photos)

So far I have two ideas for this project. Bear with me, they're hard to explain and they make me sound crazy.

1. I am a vegetarian. I'm fascinated by the whole "circle of life" with survival via food/consumption. So I thought about the idea that plants are eaten by animals, animals by other animals, animals by humans, etc. Then humans die, get buried (go back into the earth) and relate to the idea that plants grow from the earth.

2. I also wanted to play with the idea of an endless psychological problem cycle. I.e., if your mother has depression you will be more likely to have depression, and your mother's mother may have possibly had depression. (Or other issues that might be easier to illustrate with a tree.)

Thumbnails below!

Final Project 2 | Fantasy Appliance

Ta-da! The blue 99 at the top ties into the woman's blue dress at the bottom, and that was the last thing that needed fixed before it was done. Enjoy.

More in work

Added a yellow color in front of the sun so it's more recognizable. Don't know if this is completed, I feel like I need one more thing. I can't decide if I like the way the plug is.

Oh and here's a close up of the toaster oven.

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Digging the change of font along the top.

Added a banner in the space... not loving it at all.

Liking 'in Store' added to it, fits the space more.

Poster design

So I've been working on only one design this time around (compared to Project 1... wow). I've got the idea of the retro poster and the 'product' that's being sold. Here it is so far...

And then with added copy at the bottom 'advertising' the toaster oven/global warming machine...

Ta-da! I think I'm very close to finalizing this project. I might change the sun to a stereotypical image of the sun so it's more easily translated by people.

Project 2 Ad-style

I want to create a retro-looking ad for my fantasy appliance for a background. These are examples I'm looking at.