Mid-second semester, I became interested in the idea of creating spaces, especially spaces that are completely unusual in their context. Like converting a work studio space into a cave that’s still completely functional as a work studio, so trees and rocks would open to reveal cabinets and drawers, etc. That would be a far more complicated version of what ended up being my final for Visual Language 2. Continue reading
Given some examples, making an artist book is really not that easy of a thing to tackle, especially when the assignment is this open. But I managed. I wanted my last two projects for this class to have to do with home, be it a place or simply the concept of home. Looking back now, I realize I did a few others leading up to this and at the same time, in other classes, that were about home as well. I guess it was a pretty solid theme in my subconscious at the time.
Anyway, the assignment was very open, and I didn’t quite do as much with it as I wanted to, but with all the other finals going on at the same time, it was a pretty daunting task to focus on this enough as well. And I am happy with the way it came out, and it’s gotten great response.
The book cover is a dark, earthy, grainy walnut, roughly cut, with the words ‘home…’ on the outside and ‘An embrace from a place’ on the inside. When you open the book, there are two hands, and if you pull out the hands, their arms stretch out and unwrap themselves to reveal memories and thoughts of home written all over them. The hands have Velcro in their palms, so that when the memories are all read through, they can clasp behind you, and you are literally embraced by home.
The assignment was literally that open. The music could be anything, even stuff not usually considered music. People used sounds, songs they knew, songs they wrote, all kinds of stuff. I chose this song because it reflected my state of mind at the time. And because I love Flogging Molly. It was a great project, and was nice to open back up to the film/video medium again after ignoring it for a time. I’m very happy with this.
Motion Boards
Float – Motion Boards from Blake Johnson on Vimeo.
Final Video
Flogging Molly – Float from Blake Johnson on Vimeo.
This project was essentially a giant fail on my part. I wanted to take a short story and extend it with beautiful artwork, and on top of that I wanted to use watercolors, a medium I’d never used before, and certainly not to this scale with this kind of planning and organization and specificity.
Needless to say, I chose entirely the wrong medium for the situation. If I’d tested things out more and had more time (as in not over-washing the boards with water and paint and just waiting to the layers dry), maybe something decent would have come out of it. But everyone makes mistakes, so hopefully I’ll take this lesson with me into future projects.
This project was awesome. I threw myself into it, worked almost every day from getting my idea approved to presenting the final thing. It was great fun.
The objective was just to make something thinking about sound. We could incorporate sound into an object, video, or make sound itself be the piece. I chose the latter, and walked with an orc raiding party as they returned to their village, following one lone warrior all the way back to his home to rest. Check out the sound or the maps first, and enjoy 
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Orc Raiding Party (Right-click & download).
