The Deaths of the Disney Princesses

As a little girl, I grew up in the realm of Disney Princesses and their happily ever after endings. Since I’ve grown up I have distanced myself from the Disney image and immersed myself in what the real world has offered me, a world of disenchantment. I am drawn to obscure realities and nostalgic iconography. I enjoy looking at images that draw me into other realms , into the artist’s subconscious where I can burrow to find my own inspiration. The stories that have inspired the Disney Princesses have been sugar-coated to fit a certain image that has become one of the most profitable , and marketable franchises in the world. I am inspired by the collaborative teamwork of Disney animators and the atrocities seen in news papers and on TV. The question I pose for the viewer is what if there were no happily ever after, what would realistically happen to these idealized princesses?

well its been a long time since I've posted

This term has enabled me to become more conceptual with my photography rather than be merely focused on just fashion or narration. School has allowed me access to an actual studio where I get to work with 1800 strobes, so I've been able to really push the boundaries of my imagination. I can't wait until I have enough cash to get my own studio set up.

I've started developing new perspectives on the human body. I am now trying to blur the line between reality and illusion. In my current project I am dancing the fine line between abstract and figurative imagery. I am inspired by studies and disfigurement, nudity and oddities. The body now is not what it use to be. I guess I've just been so desensitized by the nude figure that I can no long see it as a nake body but a series of shapes and shadows; much like an abstraction of flesh. Here is a taste of where I am in my journey.

I am now starting to learn on Mac's and understand the importance of screen calibration and color balance. Here are some normal shots of Brittney J and Lady Bates; fashion to a certain extent while still a bit conceptual in a few of them.

It has also come to my attention that a true artist do not reveal all her or his secrets, so my posting of images on the web will be decreasing massivly. I will be working on more extensive projects that will be displayed in galleries or shared through a physical portfolio. I realized since photography is truly a field of Simulacrum, it is best to keep your ideas secretive..so this blog might be documentations of every day events or just my responses to artistic theory or contemporary artists of our time.

I do plan on redoing my webpage so look for that in the future.

www.emcingari.com

thanks you

-EMC

The Death of the Frog Prince

"The Death of the Frog Prince"

A frog possess boil diseases and a bellyful of parasites.
He says: Kiss me. Kiss me.
At such a time she throws her ball in the air releasing it like bubbles,
into the well it goes.
It was ordained, as simple as the fates deal out the plague with tarot cards.
The ball sank like a cast-iron pot.
It is lost, she laments.
As a tear ran the well grew thick, boiling.
And who should appear: a frog
His eyes bulged like two peas and his body was carpentered into place.
Do not be afraid, he said, I am no vagabond.
I come to you as a tradesman.
*********
I have something for sale.
Your ball, he said, for just three things.
Let me eat from your plate, drink from your cup, and sleep in your bed.
She agreed though her intentions were not true.
And like an old dog he brought up her ball.
over joyed she ran like a doe back to her home leaving the frog quite alone.
That evening three raps at the door
Let me in, he demanded, you promised; now open to me.
She was forced to comply.
And so he sat on her lap. He was as awful and foul as an undertaker.
Soon he was at her plate, enjoying her food.
Forced to eat in tandem.
She choked as if she were eating rotten meat.
From her cup he drank
From her cup she drank as if it were Socrates' hemlock.
Next came the bed,
The silky bed. Ah!
I have been lost in a river of shut doors, he said, and I have made my way over the wet stones to live with you.
She woke up aghast.
I suffer for no frog, she said, and threw him across the room.
Kaboom!
A forfeit of her happy ending.
The frog prince has died.

Julie @ 5 months

We believe its a boy although Julie begs to differ.

Just an update

Tina needed some photos for a pin-up contest that she entered. Here are a few of my favorites from that shoot. ****************************

I also expanded on my vampire series. This is Roz and Stan. (just a taste)

*****************************

This summer has be successfully productive.

www.emcingari.com

Randy.....

Just another day in Lakeland. The photos turned out better than I had expected.

Rae's Retro Pomo Shoot

YAY! for Vintage.

Caliente!

Product of my first encounter with AJ Flame.

For some reason as of lately, I've been obsessing over feet.

just a taste...

Since my male model cancelled on me today, my friend Julie was kind enough to model. I was going for high fashion (with natural light). I only got a few good shots, these two are my favorite.

Once upon a time.... (photo film)

These photos were from a fairy tale themed shoot I did a few months ago. I decided to experiement with editing movies, so I made a little photo film. Its nothing special, just my first try at making a video. I think it came out pretty well.

I plan on making many more of these little films during the summer.

Melanie and Erica

Okay, another shoot accomplished. This is Melanie and Erica. They really wanted to do a sort of nerdy Japanese video game shoot. The first photo here is an idea I had been trying to put into action. This is my battle between two Hindu video game goddess..hahaha. I think I am just drawn to the multi arm aspect. The rest of the photos aren't as ridiculous, just full of video game goodness. :D enjoy!

Will model for food

I was using school as an excuse to not take pictures and that is NOT a valid excuse.

Practice makes perfect, no matter how much you study.

So, here I go.

Lisana Mohamed-- Centre Gallery

Monday I went to the Centre Gallery to see Lisana Mohamed's work. Her exhibition seems to explore a carribean cultural state of dreaming. Each piece was individual but still connect through color and technique. Some of the pieces were sad, uncertainty more palpable, while some of the pieces were celebratory, a rebirth and reawakening evident. This made it easier to connect emotionally to the pieces as the artist must have been connected to them. I really enjoyed the cultural aspect of her work, and the celebration of color.

Bodies: the exhibit

I never got a chance to write about my experience at MOSI's body exhibit. I went to see Bodies back in Jan, Feb. I went with my drawing class as to prepare myself for the cadavar lab the next day. I found the exhibition to not be as good as the last one that past through Tampa. It was interesting to see how they had filleted the muscels in order to be able to see the organs and blood vessels. I thought it was really strange how they had positioned these bodies in werid acrobatic positions, but i spose it was to better illustrate the use of muscles. I thought the camel in the last room was strange since it took up a good portion of room. They included a filleted camel amongst all the human bodies. Very strange. I thought it was cool to see how the complex the circulatory system was in both humans and animals. The overall experience was fasinating. I was really glad that i went to see it because it most definatly helped me through the cadavar lab.

Closure (CAM)

I went to the CAM today to see the graduate students exhibition. I really enjoyed the set up. I was drawn to Becky Flanders photos. I found her series to be very impowering for females. I guess its something to do with peeing standing up. At first I was shocked but after staring at it for a while I really began to appreciate her take on female impowerment. I also really liked April Childers installment mainly because of the taxidermy and the griddiness of the pieces. I found Shane Hoffman's monkey installment to be really kiddy then I stepped in the piece and it seem to take on a completely different complex. That piece was massive it was tall enough to stand up in. Lauren Howard's installment was also enjoyable. I hit so close to home I love antlers and the designer hunting theme. It was so intricate so much for the eye to pass over. And finally James Reiman's photos were amazing. I love the concept of the super hero child rescuing the lawn gnome. It make me think of my own childhood. Overall I think that the gallery exhibition was amazing. I enjoyed all of the different styles of art. ESPECIALLY BECKY FLANDERS! wow.

"The Four Stages of Public Art" Summary

The Four Stages of Public Art is an explanation of the four stages of public art. These four stages are based on Roy Bhaskar’s formulation of a four stage dialectic. This four stage dialectic refers to the practice of arriving to the truth by a trade of logical arguments. This stages coincide with following the transformations in the possibilities of public art and historical events (stages) . The essay talks about the different possibilities of public art, and of all types of public art in different locations which encourage viewers to respond and connect in different ways. The first stage is non unity. Bhaskar starts his argument with stating that “things are not what they are not” which is how he begins any argument that deals with transformations. For example , when public are is put somewhere in a public space that piece beings to change. That is what makes the non unity of the piece; it is that it is not the same as the art from the past. The second stage is negation. This stage makes a connection between the makings of art the impact that the art has on the viewer. This stage is the where the relationship between subject and object becomes visible. This is the realization that the public art is changing the impact on the viewer to something other than it would have been with the art. Artists know that the piece is not disconnected from the public and that then changes their art process depending on how they want the public to view and understand the piece. Totality is the third stage and it refers to the mutual relationship between stages one and two. In the instance of public art, this means that there is a connect between the intent of the artist and the meaning of the viewers. The last stage is the practice of transformation (self transformation). In public art this means that there are possibilities of transformation of what public art might possibly mean. This type of art is difficult to judge because it is constantly transforming so, trying to explain the art would only be helping it to change even more.

"Protect Us From What We Don't Know" Summary

Jenny Holzer has been using declassified government documents since 2003 as a source for her text based artwork. She gets the information from the National Security Archive in Washington D.C.. The NSA collects and publishes materials made accessible through the Freedom of Information Act. Holzer enlarges the text to 33 x 25 ½ inch or 103 ½ x 80 inch . Holzer inserts these works into a long tradition of political pictures, like works from Goya and Picasso. Like Andy Warhol, Holzer’s work are photo silkscreens printed in a range of colors. She stays with black and white like ordinary typed documents, but sometimes chooses designer backgrounds. Also like Richter, Holzer selects her subject matter as a calculated political act as a way to facilitate historical memory. Holzer sees the archival documents as physical objects with specific visual qualities. The most significant visual aspect is the government censorship of the material before it is released. Names and identifications are usually blacked out. Large sections of the information are often gotten rid of. The censorship creates an abstraction in the documents. An example of Holzer’s work that is noteworthy is in the exhibition that is so-called Phoenix memo. It is a black on white seven canvas painting presenting an FBI document sent from the Phoenix AZ office to the counter terrorism division dated July 10th 2001. That is 2 months before the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. At the top and bottom of each page the word Secret has been printed then crossed out with a marker. The purpose of the memo was “to advise the Bureau and New York of the possibility of a coordinated effort by Bin Laden to send students to the US to attend civil aviation universities and colleges.” The Phoenix memo’s foresee 9/11 and the document’s prolonged life in the news make the painting powerful. Holzer’s use of these documents and others are unique in telling stories that the viewer can interpret in their own manner.

Albercht Durer

On Wednesday Feb 25th 2009, I went to the MFA in St. Pete to see the Albercht Durer Exhibit. Albercht Durer was a German artist in the 1500. This particular exhibit displayed his very detailed etchings, woodcuts, and a few of his paintings. The exhibit as a whole was absoultly amazing. The amount of detail he put into his etchings is mind boggling. He's techinque was seriously just meticulous hatching and cross hatching. What was truely impressive was the scale in which he did he work. Some of the etchings were as small as a half dollor and had to be seen with a magnifying glass in hand, but still the work was incredibly complex. Other pieces were chaotic in the hatching and cross hatching but in all that chaos there were angels and devils and movement. There were series from the bible such as Revelations, and the moments leading up to the birth of Christ. There were also genre etchings depicting peasant life. It was a truely impressive exhibition. I had the opportunity to go with my intermediate drawing class therefore I was able to do studies of his work. Here is one of my studies: ( Satyr and Nymph )

Contemporary Artists for consideration

Jenny Saville is an English painter. She gained her degree at Glasgow School of Art. She is influenced by large women, plastic surgery, and the transformation of men into women and vice versa.

Jenny Saville: " I want people to know what it is they're looking at. But at the same time, the closer they get to the painting, it's like going back into childhood. And it's like an abstract piece-- it becomes the landscape of the brush marks rather than just sort of an intellectual landscape."

Jenny Saville on her approach to the process of painting: : "I tend to think about each section of a painting in terms of musical passages. I work on areas like one meter by one meter, so I'll think, I've got to get across the nose or the stomach of the pig or whatever; how am I going to play it? So I mix up all the colors and think of them as if they were tones. And then I think, How am I going to play that brush mark? Am I going to play it hard, next to some fiddly brush marks? I think of it like that."

Jean- Michel Basquiat was an American artist, gaining popularity first as a graffiti artist in NYC, then became popluar for his Neo-expressionist art. He was friends and worked with Andy Warhol.

Basquiat used painterly gestures on canvas, often depicting skeletal figures and mask-like faces that expressed his obsession with mortality. Other frequently depicted imagery such as automobiles, buildings, police, children's sidewalk games, and graffiti came from his experience painting on the city streets. A middle period from late 1982 to 1985 featured multi-panel paintings and individual canvases with exposed stretcher bars, the surface dense with writing, collage, and unrelated imagery.

These works reveal a strong interest in Basquiat's black identity and his identification with historical and contemporary black figures and events.

Ernest Ruckle is an American artist known for his elaborately structured paintings.

This specific painting is called "The EuroDisney Triptych"

Ruckles work process: "The EuroDisney Triptych was painted on Strathmore illustration board, using ink and a mixture of Winsor and Newton watercolors and Liquitex acrylic medium, which also served as the final varnish. The painting is an elaborate comment on the juggernaut of American popluar culture that's homogenizing the world. The EuroDisney theme park is the perfect symbol of this phenomenon. The painting shows the park being destroyed by a huge crowd of violent demonstrators. The structure of the painting is like that of a comic strip, moving chronologically from left to right, the action becoming more and more violent. The style reflects this change and turns gradually from a 1930 newpaper-cartoon style on the left to a more realistic style in the center to the expressionist- cubist style on the right. The demonstrators bring with them signs, floats, and giant ballons that grotesquely parody the Disney images. Ultimately, the demonstrators prove themselves more imaginative and relevant than the designers of the park. The theme of the painting is not an attack on Disney. Instead, it's a challenge to Europe and the rest of the world, not to put up barriers to keep out American popular culture, but to create and update their own."

The Leslie Shows Lecture

I attended the Leslie Shows Lecture on Feb 6th 2009. Leslie Shows's work is exhibited in the San Franscisco and the Bay Area. Leslie Shows works with micro and macro detailing by doing extensive yet sophisticate collaging but still maintaining a sense of subtleness throughout her work. She is also drawn to minerals especially salt and uses techniques and a variety of material to imitate the seperation and compostion of minerals. She mainly paints/collages obscure landscapes with rollercoasters diving into black holes; along with mountains that show significate separations in the rock. Although her pieces are large and may seem abstract, she still pays great detail in her seamless collaging work in which she shapes the landscape. Seeing her work through photo does it no justice, to truly experience her artwork you have to see it in all its grand detail in person.

Here is an example of her work:

Come see whats going on!

Come and have fun @ USF Fine Arts Building Courtyard

Feb. 11th 2009

5-7pm

"The Cat that caught the canary"

Agnes Denes- Wheatfield

When Agnes Denes ended her statement with, “the power of paradox,” she meant that planting wheatfields in the middle of Manhattan was a contrast between nature and industry. I think her statement is strong in defining her main thesis. Planting that wheat certainly did open people’s eyes to the simplicities of nature which often become showed by the complexities of industry. Although Agnes received mixed emotions about her Wheatfield experiment, she forever left an imprint in the minds of those she affected with her art. Applying a paradox like that to an event seems to help people remember the basic elements of being alive. The public has an opportunity to reexamine life and reprioritize.
Agnes’s writing style is pretty straight forward. She explained her intent, the process, the difficulties in which she endured the finished product, and the final reaction. She made it seem as if she touched a lot of people with just simply planting something as simple as wheat in an area that is the complete opposite of what nature symbolizes. I think that the overall concept stands out. Her event was a complete success. She successfully harvested wheat in central Manhattan while exposing people to the simplicities of growth and nature.
Some similar challenges that I have had when discussing my artwork is trying to express the deep down meaning of it all while also trying to bring my art to a whole. I haven’t made such an impact on society or people’s lives that was so profound like Agnes Denes. When discussing my artwork I feel as if I cannot speak for my art, I must let it speak for itself. I have yet to successfully impact people with my art and it seems like there is a lack of meaning behind my art or at least I’m having trouble trying to express it.
Three necessary elements to formulate a project must start with an overall thesis. What is the artist trying to tell the audience? Another element might be the execution, where will this event take place? What supplies will be needed to achieve success? Another element would be location. In Agnes’s Wheatfield, she was able to find an area that was close to her audience although the area was a dump beforehand she was able to change the ecosystem so that she could make her project successful. All these elements are fundamental to trying to achieve a successful work of art that has both substance and meaning.

Concepts & Practices II

(Heartless)

I am a BFA Art Studio student majoring in photography. I don't limit myself to just photography. I also paint, sculpt, and draw. I take a lot of my inspiration from books and videogames. I have weird obsessions with taboos. I have several weaknesses when it comes to the creative process. I work by the seat of my pants. I definatly don't plan that much when I start shooting. I think it henders me a bit and definatly stops me from achieving the best quality photo. Another weakness would probably be my lack of practice. I procrastinate way too much. My last weakness as a photographer is that I don't have proper lighting equipment for studio shots, so I depend on flood lamps which often washout my subjects. Its a lot of trial and error on my part.