Week Four

Assignment:

Working on the final product for the Mash-up.



Craft:

I took the photo I had of an empty field, and tinted it blue. I than overlaid a photo of a blues singer on top of the field picture. With the blues singer, I created a layer mask. I turned the opacity to 100% and proceeded to clear out everything I didn't want in the final photo. I than changed the opacity on my soft tipped paint brush to 50% to give the singer a ghostly feel. I then selected and added two slaves working in the field. (On the suggestion of the class I made them larger and moved them more toward the front) I think for today to complete the assignment I will add more musicians to the piece.

Composition:

I am sticking with the blue color scheme because it is the only color that I felt best expressed the mood I am trying to accomplish in my piece. The slaves are in black and white to express the ghosts of our past. The singer is semi-transparent because he is channeling the spirit of those ghosts through his music. I am going to add a glow to the slaves and more musicians to drive home the meaning of the piece in the coming class.

Concept:

I gave up on my free standing sculpture and this piece is the result of that. In both pieces, I wanted to show how the past and the present aren't two separate entities. What happens in the past has a direct effect on who we are today and who we become tomorrow. We still face the same struggles as our ancestors did.
In this piece, I wanted to show how the mournful songs of the slaves directly influenced modern music whether it is Blues, Hip-hop or Rap.