Print Concept

Based on my original series of randomly selected words, I chose to work around the theme of Emperor Norton while maintaining a similar aesthetic for the other two prints. For those, I drew upon the popular mythology of San Francisco surrounding Norton's reign as emperor. One is based upon a specific incident in which Norton was said to have prevented an anti-Chinese riot by placing himself between the rioters and their Chinese targets, and reciting the Lord's Prayer until the mob dissipated (thus, the inclusion of the Chinese text overlay, which is in fact the Lord's Prayer.) The other images included in this print are drawn from a period photograph from Chinatown in San Francisco, and landscape and art nouveau elements similar to those in the first print.

For the third print, I focused on Bummer and Lazarus, San Francisco celebrities of the period in their own right -- much-beloved rat-catching dogs often said to belong to Norton (who, however, staunchly denied this, though as lovingly as his fellow San Franciscans in regarding the dogs as their own autonomous individuals.) The overlay of this piece is drawn from a comic of the time depicting Lazarus' funeral, attended by other local celebrities.

Book Concept

For my book, I decided to work with one of the groups of ideas I've been wanting to delve into on my own in depicting various dreams that I've recorded over a period of time -- though, save a few recent dreams, the one I chose to work with is the only remaining recorded dream I now have after my laptop got stolen this semester...

I wanted to work with lyrical prose and a somewhat surreal illustrative style which would go well with the text. This went so far as a visual parallel between the two -- I decided upon a font called Mom's Typewriter due to the fact that when I write, it's usually on a typewriter (especially now!) From there, I chose to incorporate a stamp-like quality to the images. I toyed with the idea of color, but ultimately decided to leave it black-and-white; I liked the starkness of the images and feel they go better with the text as is, and furthermore this makes reproduction of the work much easier -- I'm interested in making copies of this to either distribute as placed public art or for sale. Overall, I'm very happy with how this piece turned out.

Mural Concept

I was in the group with Jess, Jeff, Keith and Nick. For our mural, we decided to work with the theme of the human figure, a concept which was extended to movement/dance. The body was segmented into five pieces, and each group member worked on their respective part. The aesthetic incorporated anachronistic juxtaposition as well, as an expression of the gradually accelerating blur between organic and inorganic elements of humanity.

For my segment, I chose to work off the idea of the Shiva Nataraja, the Hindu deity whose cosmic dance maintains the balance between creation and destruction -- or, for that matter, any of those binary elements which are in an engagement of self-perpetuating opposition (such as the inorganic and the organic, or the natural and the constructed, as focused on in our mural.) I chose to represent him drawing upon one of Alphonse Mucha's art nouveau posters (a personal influence in a fair amount of my work) for his dreadlocks, a portion of his iconography which also plays a fairly large role in the god's mythology. For his face, I drew upon a classic Indian statue of him -- in which the role of technology and inorganic creation is implicit.

Print #3