So, a little background for this next item. I took the online version of this class (ART 270, Digital Art) last year, but had to drop it midway through the semester for logistical reasons. Unlike the live version, which started with an introduction to the Photoshop pen tool, the online version's first unit was about photomontage, and I did a couple of projects for same before leaving the class. There was also a Photoshop exercise as part of the introductory 2D design class, ART 110, I had to take as one of the core prereqs for the graphic design minor.

The reason I mention this is because the first homework assignment in this version of ART 270 was, "Enter up to four pieces of digital artwork for an upcoming exhibition at an art gallery downstate."

(That's right. That was the first assignment.)

So I trawled through my files from previous classes and came up with the Photoshop piece from ART 110, two photomontages from the online version of 270, and a random pen tool scribble from the first class meeting of this version, and sent them along, assuming that the jury would look at them, think, Well, this jagoff clearly isn't taking this seriously, and bin them. What else could I do? I'm not actually an artist.

For the record, here are my four submissions:

"Vanity Projects"
Photomontage
Adobe Photoshop, 2014

This was the product of the first photomontage assignment, "Combine two photographs to make a statement about an issue." The issue, in this case, was basically me rolling my eyes at the way the University of Maine's breathlessly self-congratulatory press releases made last year's multi-jillion-dollar renovation of the athletic fieldhouse seem like it was only slightly less important, in the course of human affairs, than the dang moon landings.

"Secret Film"
Photomontage
Adobe Photoshop, 2014

The second photomontage was more complicated, and required at least three photos be combined for a similar effect. By this point I had realized that art is rooted almost entirely in fraud and means whatever the artist can claim it means with a straight face, so this is a protest piece about government secrecy. Or nuclear war. Or polar bear habitat loss. Or maybe it's just a combination of the first three pictures I found in my odd-sock pics folder plus a shot of a drive-in movie theater I dug up online to pull it, like the Dude's rug, together.

"Progression"
Abstract
Siemens Solid Edge ST5 and Adobe Photoshop, 2014

The assignment here was to use Photoshop to convey depth of field in a 2D illustration. I used Solid Edge to make the blocks so that the perspective would be right (because I'm rubbish at doing that by hand), then cooked the rest of it in Photoshop to have the appropriate textures and shading. Refreshingly, it's not even supposed to mean anything, so I didn't even have to claim it did. :)

"1960s Animation Studio Logo"
Abstract
Adobe Photoshop, 2015

No matter what I did in the "doodle with the pen tool" mission early in in-person ART 270, what resulted just made me think, "That looks like the logo for some 1960s animation studio." So I threw in some appropriate spot colors and called it a day.

Now here's the punch line:

One of these pieces, "Vanity Projects", was actually accepted for the exhibition.

So now I have to come up with a high-quality framed print of it and get it to the capital region by the end of next month.

I am more convinced than ever that art criticism, like wine snobbery, is just made up. :)

--G.
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Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
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