Book Project

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

For this project we need to create 10 identical books that look like they just came from a printer press. These have to be “How To” books and need to have several pages with pictures or text. For my “How To” book, I decided on “How to Identify Styles of Tattoos”. This was exciting because it’s fun making books and we get to trade them at the end of the project. Here are the pages that are in the book.

The Focus: Species

speciesplural of spe·cies (Noun)

Noun:

A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal… A group subordinate to a genus and containing individuals agreeing in some common attributes and called by a common name.

While I was exploring the line I gathered several examples of plantation and other organic materials. My goal for this project is to link all of the plants I collected and pair them with a story from the Native American tribe, the Seneca. On each page there is a plant and a story about an animal (since they used animals as examples in most of their stories). This is allowing me to take something I’m passionate about, the Native American traditions, and apply it to my life and school work. I have always found the Native American traditions exceptional and fascinating. Being able to apply them to my art project makes me excited! Some stories I’m including is one on creation, one on the struggle between good and evil, how the deer got his antlers, and so on. All are contributions to how nature works today and how things came to be. 

Along with the stories, I have been illustrating pictures of the animals depicted in the story and I have been hand writing all of the stories. This is making the stories come alive and connect the visual aid to the story and allow the view to make multiple connections.

I enjoyed this project because it allowed me to express a passion of mine using the line to show an organized progression of the line. This is the line through my eyes using the word species.

Word Definition

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Species: (n) A group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, e.g., Homo sapiens. (according to Google)

Species can be expanded to a wide range of things and doesn’t have to be limited to just living things. You can have species of animals, plants, bottles, rocks, branches, skeletons, and so on and so forth. It is an unlimited category that can be explored for a long time. You don’t even have to limit to yourself to physical things. There can be species of feelings, moods, ideas, theories, etc. I was playing with this idea debating on whether I should abstract the general thought of species. I combined the thought of species of ideas and physical things which is how I arrived at the idea of my project.

For my project I will be exploring animals and plants, both real and imaginative (or so we think!). Finding all of the species is going to be a challenge but the real test will be categorizing, organizing, naming, and learning about all of these species will be key. Like the pictures above, there can be hybrids of animals as well. I will mostly be using photos, drawings and writings to explain my process and to show how I organized everything. The central thought of my project will be native american stories of the seneca tribe which is native to this part of New York and taking plants and organic items from the line and drawing in the characters of the stories.

I find Native American stories to be very natural and earth bound ideas that incorporate nature with their own society. Giving and taking is how natives live in their community and their faith is centered around the occurrences of the world. I am very passionate about the morals and ideas of the natives.

Honor the sacred.
Honor the Earth, our Mother.
Honor the Elders.
Honor all with whom we share the Earth:-
Four-leggeds, two-leggeds, winged ones,
Swimmers, crawlers, plant and rock people.
Walk in balance and beauty.
~ Native American Elder ~

Exploring the Line

Along the line we walked exploring all the parts of the campuses that the line runs through. All the small parts and intricate components that make up the line. Varying from man made scenery of the campuses to the trees reaching for the sky in the mountains. I found small subtleties in all the parts of the line, the disintegrating logs in the river, the holes in the leaves hanging off of the trees, the cracks in the brick walls, the fading pavement, the crisp color of new pavement, all subtle and unique that to the unseeing eye are just not there. I allowed myself to learn about the smaller things and to appreciate the overlooked objects. It was a good learning process for me because I have a hard time slowing down at times. So, taking time to slow down and investigate all the beauty in the simplest things was a good exercise. I believe I will use the line as a place of thinking, source of direction, and as a place of shelter for when I need to escape reality and find inspiration.

I found pictures of interesting patterns and objects on this walk and I drew a picture of leaves.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

In the first picture I truly loved all the little holes and the veins in the leave that made a unique pattern that showed a unique form. It showed how old that leaf was and that it has seen a long time. This leaf was fascinating with all it’s small details.

The next photo I took was a picture of the tree stump which had interesting patterns to it. All the rings just showed how old it was and just how many years it saw before it was taken down. There was a small fungus growing on the tree stump, against the grey and brown stump, the orange, fiery colors really stood out to me. I really liked how they worked together and how they looked cool.

The next photo was of a pine tree and all it’s little spines. It is a unique look that took my fancy because of the different texture and look. I really liked how the tree looked and the dark colors looked. They reminded me of all the trees that surrounded my house and just knowing about how they function was interesting. They don’t shed their leaves in the winter because they can store water in those small needles and survive the cold temperatures of the winter time.

There was this small ditch that I walked by that had an odd boundary line looking thing at the base of it. The rocks on the ground were a wide variety of grey tones, making a perimeter around a small plot of grass. I liked how the rocks looked on top of the grass. It was a unique and random pattern.

My final picture was of just the grass. Simple? yes but on it’s own is enough. To the normal person who walks by, there isn’t much to see, it’s just a green blur. Should one stop and investigate, you can find so many details and unique components to the patch of grass. It was interesting looking concentrating on the blades of grass, the golden leaves on the ground and the small little plants that share the space with the grass. It was unique in it’s own, simple, little way.

Exploration #36 The Truth About Inanimate Objects

In this project, the book required us to pick an inanimate object and to describe the daily life of it when no one is looking. What it’s doing, who it hangs with, where they go, what their thoughts are, and so on. For this exercise I picked a tree.

• They use the sun to keep themselves alive, Earth’s solar powered organisms
• They dig into the ground to find secret sources of water
• They overlook across the land
• Some hang with a large group of different trees
• Some like to be by themselves
• Some are a part of huge families of other trees
• They compare their ages with each other
• They age through their bark and height
• They provide shelter for strangers who wander beneath them
• They give the whole world air to breath
• They are homes for many animals such as squirrels and love them
• The old trees are wise and have seen many things, they are ones to consult for problems
• They provide a spot for you to sit
• They shed their hair (leaves) for the winter and go to sleep
• Trees come in many shapes and sizes
• They don’t judge each other for their differences
• Many live in harmony together in a small place
• Like cities, there are large groups of them creating a forrest which is a very busy place
• Like towns, there are small groups of trees because they like the peace and quiet
• When it is time to die they go peacefully
• When they have been dead for a while they collapse to the ground and give themselves to the earth to be recycled

Trees are very giving creatures and are the better part of the world and get the least amount of credit for it.

Exploration #32 World of Magic

In this exercise it was required to take ordinary objects and give them magical powers. While I was sitting in my personal territory I thought of a couple.

1. Stick – It’s a wand, you can cast magic spells
2. Green Leaf – Instant camouflage
3. Red Leaf – Turns red when significant change is coming
4. Small Rock – make a wish and toss it in the river
5. Medium Rock – Allows prayers to be heard
6. Large Rock – Flys through the air and lands on selected object
7. Wind – Whispers secrets in your ear
8. Water – Life’s elixir
9. Feather – Gives one the ability to fly
10. Tree – If climbed, it opens you to a new world
11. Butterflies – Gives one messages of hope
12. Ladybugs – A mini genie! grants you one wish
13. Lightning – Warns all of threatening events
14. Fire – Provides an abundance of heat
15. Berry Bushes – regenerates food
16. Flowers – Source of undeniable beauty
17. Sun – Provides hope for eternal life, gives energy to the earth
18. Moon – Controls the oceans and seas, provides lights in the darkest hours
19. Animals – Nature’s messengers
20. Mosquitos – Nature’s vampires

60 Things In My Personal Territory

My personal territory was located down the street from Alfred University, called the Alfred University Band Stand. This place just seemed peaceful and unique in it’s own special way. The goal of this exercise was to find at least 50 unique things about our space but I found 60 new things. I included the self guided tour that we were required to make for our class. This has instructions on how to get to the space and how to explore it while allowing your own interpretation.

Personal Territory Tour PDF

The 60 things I noticed include:

1. It’s a wooden structure
2. It’s surrounded by trees
3. It’s a small amphitheater
4. All the pillars mirror each other
5. There is a small brook that runs bellow the structure
6. Many small, mossy rocks
7. The breeze blows through my hair
8. Smells of plants and water
9. There’s a stage
10. There are 14 outlets on stage
11. Structured like an asian building
12. Leaves clutter the ground
13. There’s a small sound of running water
14. the bell rings at the top of the hour
15. Birds fly in and out of the windows
16. Wouldn’t be a good shelter
17. There are gaps in the roof
18. Listening to the cars drive by
19. Pillars look to be over 10 feet tall
20. Moss clings to the wooden structure
21. Trees are incorporated into the deck
22. It’s very dark with the tree canopy
23. Kids always walking by without looking
24. Kids are always listening to their music or on the phone
25. Rarely are they not using electronics
26. Birds chirp in the distance
27. The trees look old and withered
28. The stream ripples
29. The ripples collide into each other
30. The water reflects the sky and trees
31. There’s graffiti by the bridge
32. There are sound boards hanging about the stage
33. Moss is growing up between the bricks
34. Feels open in a sense but all the pillars clutter it
35. Theres a bike lock on one of the rails
36. Foundation seems old but still solid
37. The leaves look like maple leaves
38. There are a bunch of pine needles
39. There’s a new bench
40. The new bench looks miss placed against the old wood
41. There’s a single spider web string running along the stage
42. The metal bolts are rusting out
43. There are small blocks running between the pillars
44. Ledges run around the tree trunks
45. There’s no grass across the bank
46. Just bushes cover the ground
47. Looks like the brook ran higher at one point
48. All the tree roots are exposed on one side
49. The roots look like spider webs
50. There are knots in the real wood of the pillars and railing
51. The floor boards are fake wood
52. The wind pushes the leaves across the deck
53. The structure is grey, green and brown in places
54. Branches that broke dangle through the roof
55. The wood splits in the pillars
56. The bank is cluttered with sticks and branches
57. The structure has no specific shape to it
58. The shadows create a criss-cross pattern on the ground
59. There’s barely any trash on the ground
60. Random nails hang from the pillars