Final Narrative

Going into the project I was planning to express a more traditional narrative. When I first heard that we needed to do a narrative I was really excited because I was planning to go on a road trip that upcoming weekend. I ended up driving to Madison, WI for the OSU vs. Wisconsin football game then spending the night and next day in Chicago. Originally I was going to try and do a picture for every hour of the trip but after five straight pictures of me driving in the pitch dark I realized that there would be quite a bit of boring in the process of capturing the few exciting moments. So I figured that I would just take pictures and videos along the way and create another large scale map like we did in one of the first micro-projects. After the trip I looked at my camera and was pleased with the pictures I had taken. However, reflecting on it for a few days I decided I wanted to try and be more creative and do something new.

               

 After quite a bit of brainstorming I still didn’t feel like I had a great idea, the best I could come up with was some sort of “how to” video. I thought there were some cool possibilities as to what I could do with that, I got to the point where I was going to do a “how to get dressed video,” while thinking about  what clothes to use it hit me that I should do something with shoes. For about the last four years I have been collecting shoes, then starting two years ago this month I started working at a shoe store which has only fueled my collecting. This has become a trademark of mine, everyone knows that I always have on new shoes; rumor has it I could go over two months without wearing the same pair twice. I was first going to video of me walking somewhere changing shoes every few steps but I quickly found out to be a logistical nightmare. From there I decided I would just do a collage of shoes and shape all my shoes into the shape of the shoe. To do this I first had to set up a white backdrop and then photograph every left shoe of mine (26 pair?) that I keep here in Columbus. Then came to the technical part, editing with Photoshop, which turned out to be quite an arduous process, but after few hours I had manages to get all the shoes lined up in a shoe shaped pattern.  Still not happy with the result I came up with the idea of taking a shoe outline and cutting that part into the collage.

              

  Looking back at this project I realize that the project itself has been a narrative of ideas, I had at least 5 or 6 ideas that I had started to move forward with to only stop for one reason or another and change directions in terms how I wanted to do the project. From this I gained a new appreciation for how hard it is to actually make interesting art. Before the class I used to think that a lot of modern art could be made by anyone. The end result of this project was really gratifying, honestly I did not think that I possessed the artistic ability go through this process and make a piece I am truly proud of.