Artist Statement

Karl Koch
December 14, 2009

Everybody has a different view of the world – sometimes slight, sometimes dramatic. My process for creating art is to make something that is reflective of me, my beliefs, and my perspectives. I am unique, as is every viewer to a particular work, and I see this as a way for people to look in on my world, much the same way I look at other people’s art in hopes to get a look into their world. I have very much embraced the new forms of media that come from the Internet, be it blogs, Youtube, or other new ventures. This is where I feel my art works best. I, like many others, see the Internet as a place where one can reach an almost limitless audience. Producing media has provided a means to express myself and connect with people all over the world. I don’t want to hide diversity, but rather explore it and find common interests within it.

Working in a group setting can sometimes present challenges to this way of thinking. Collaboration is a give and take experience, but one that can be exciting and fun. It can seem frustrating to lose one’s unique vision for the better of the group, but it can often times improve the final product. Just as everyone’s vision is different, working in a group allows me to create a result that is sometimes completely different from what I would have made on my own. I may not always like to compromise between group members, but it is an interesting experience to see how other people’s minds work when given the same topic, and I can become a better artist by listening to this. Giving up a small part of my individuality to see things from different angles is a sacrifice that is often worth it in the end.

Art can take many forms, and people are finding new ways to express themselves each and every day. In today’s information age, there is no need to censor or alter anything I create for fear that it won’t see the light of day. I am free to apply each and every emotion that I feel best represents myself. It would be foolish to expect everyone to like what I create. I have a very specific niche that I enjoy. There is a very diverse and large world out there, and I have found that there really is an audience for everything. It simply becomes a process of accessing your art and choosing the best method for getting your work out there.

Making art comes down to two things for me: time and effort. These are two very different ideas, yet they are a lot alike. Time does not mean that the longer I work on something the better it is; it simply means that I need to have the time to create a product that I am satisfied with. This could be as short as a few minutes or as long as a few months. Only I decide when I am satisfied. The second aspect of making art is effort. I am influenced by artists and media producers that pour their heart and soul into their work, making it a reflection of themselves. One can instantly see if an artist is genuine in their product, and this is something that I strive to accomplish in everything I create.

Project Update - All done

My group doubled in size as Christine and Susan (aka Suzy) joined up with me and Kelly. We met on Thursday to work on the project, and ended up finishing the whole thing. We decided to choose "cheating in school" as our topic. First we went around and interviewed students. The type of questions we asked were:

- Have you ever cheated on an exam? On anything else at Bentley?
- How do you feel about cheating?
- Would you cheat if you knew you weren't going to get caught?

We got some cool answers. Next up, we filmed some little scenes of people cheating/studying. Kelly played the part of a cheater beautifully. So with that done, we went to the lab and uploaded the clips and began editing. Both me and Christine have used Final Cut before, so that was a major help.

As a group, we went through all of the interviews and wrote down the quotes that we found the best. We matched up ones that worked best together and then began cutting in those clips around the scenes we filmed. Finally, we added in some music (some girl song that sounds like Alvin, Simon, and Theodore sang it) and fiddled with the sound a bit so everything was about the same level.

The whole process went by relatively quickly (except the friggin battery on the flip camera died after 10 minutes). We all worked well together, and everybody did an even amount of work. I really couldn't have asked for a better group. It was a lot of fun.

Here is the link to the final product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBdXdh8YWPU

I plan on putting up my finished Artist Statement tonight or tomorrow.

Let's Think About Collaborative Projects

Here I am, thinking about the final collaborative project. I am partnered with Kelly, who I just met last week and who seems really nice and awesome. So anyway, what do I want to accomplish or get across in this project? I don't know.

Hmm... ok. So my first idea was something related to vegetarianism. I am not a vegetarian, but I thought it might be interesting to talk with some people who are big time meat eaters/hunters and other people who don't eat meat. Interview them and try to find out why they eat the way they do. This is kinda like 30 Days, in that we would see both sides of a subject. And it would be easy to maintain a neutral stance on this (hopefully). Then I realized how boring this would be. We'd really need something to spice this up or else it would just be people talking about a topic that only I would find interesting. So I need to think this over some more. Except now all I can think about is this Deadpool comic:


I want to create something that other people would actually want to watch. I watched 30 Days when it was on FX because I thought it was done it an interesting way and was informative and entertaining. And that is important: be entertaining. I could create an informative piece fairly easily, but it would be a chore for people to sit through it. Maybe have a discussion between a vegetarian and a non-vegetarian? But then I think I would just be creating conflict for the sake of creating conflict, and that seems lazy.

Ok, so second idea. College kids clothing? I see a lot of "diverse" styles around campus. I tend to dress down, and it is a conscious decision. For instance, today I wore a t-shirt with Chunk from the Goonies doing the Truffle Shuffle. A lot of my clothes have nerdy references or crap that I bought at Goodwill for $3. I think it could be fun to look at different people's clothes, but it would seem harder to maintain neutrality. Now to break up this wall of text, here is a tattoo of Chunk and Sloth.



Well, I have outlined kinda what I hope to accomplish with the project. I've got the big picture, but I still don't have a real set topic. I think that was the point of this exercise though, so I guess I'm cool.

The Project Part 2

Ok, finished. Here is how it went down. Firstly, I made the two layers, with Bob Ross as the background. Then I resized the painting til it looked about the right size.



Then I moved the painting over to the one in the background, and skewed it so it fit the back one and covered the old one up completely.


That's when it started to get tricky. I decided to make the painting layer semi-transparent, so I could see Bob Ross behind it. Then I started lasso around Bob and deleting anything from the new painting that covered him. It was hard, and took a lot of undo-ing before I thought it looked right. There were some spots that I erased that I shouldn't have, so I had to paint over them with colors that matched the background.


And that was it. Here is the finished project. Thank you for reading.

The Project Part 1

This is the first part of the media project for class. I have just finished downloading/installing the Photoshop free trial.


And now I am deciding on an idea. What I want to do is take a picture of Bob Ross, and remove whatever he is painting and add a crappy picture. I found this picture of Bob Ross on Google...


And I found this one on Google too after looking for kid's drawings.

I am going to try and put that picture on the canvas. Next post will be about that attempt.

Hello

Welcome to the new blog.