Death

          For the alternative media project, I was actually really excited because this time I actually had a concept in mind. We were required to create a work using an alternative media that we have never used before. At first, I didn’t really know what to do for this project because I have printed on many different things when I was in photography 1 and 2. I realized that I have never printed on newspaper and I thought that this project would be a good opportunity for me to try. One thought lead to another and I started thinking about printing on obituaries which lead me to my concept. The main concept of my work is death and the beauty of death; the beauty of the transition from life to death. I was mainly inspired by the movie The Corpse Bride and also because it was getting close to Halloween and I was feeling spooky! To create my work, I used obituaries, unprinted newspaper to back some of the prints, a needle and thread, and a camera.
          I used two elements of art: value and texture. I used value in the photograph and the different blues of the butterflies and I used texture in the substrates. I also used six principles of art: balance, contrast, movement, leading lines, rule of thirds, and fill the frame. I used balance where I put the butterflies and I used movement, leading lines, and rule of thirds with the butterflies. Finally I used contrast in the color of the butterflies and the photograph and I filled the frame with the portrait.
          After looking at my final piece, it is easy to tell what I did well, and what I need to improve. I’m glad that I made all of the butterflies different colors and sizes to add variation and I also feel like I did a good job printing. I was very nervous at first because I have never printed on newspaper before and I didn’t want to mess up. I’m pretty glad how it turned out. Along with things that I did well, there are also things that I need to improve. I feel like I could have sewed the pieces together better, maybe by using a sewing machine. It would have made the process a lot faster. I also probably would have printed a lighter colored photograph because this one printed really dark and it is hard to tell what some parts are. Finally, I would print on two layers of newspaper instead of one so they would be easier to rip off.
          Overall, this project taught me a lot. Mainly that printing on newspaper was harder than I thought and that sewing paper is hard (and a little painful). I feel like in the future I will try to print on different materials to make my work more interesting.