♥dNg's Blog

Sunday, November 16, 2008

|..Artist Statement..|

For the image of cultural lose, I translated an article that talked about how globalization affects all cultures and demolishes own identity. In my image, I tried showing an American Indian losing his identity and culture to the newly globalized industrial world by creating something that shows the future and also has a reminiscence from the past. In order to do this, I first found an American Indian on the internet and pasted on my template. Then I decided to add a grand city full of big office buildings to show that I wanted the audience to see that even American Indians have come to the cities when they use to be living in the great plains. To those who didnÕt not know that, I erased the sky in the background of the city to show that there is fading grassland that the American Indians once dwelled on, but now that globalization happened, it is merely a dream. I also changed the clothes of the Native American so that there is a fading look in his traditional gown, but there is also a more visible suit that he has on to show that I wanted the audience to see how much he has changed due to globalization.
For the image about global warming with the burning Earth, I wanted to show the audience about the article I read on how globalization will cause more pollution and melt the polar ice caps even faster. As a result, I wanted to show the audience that the Earth will soon melt and the world will be smog. To get my message across, I decided to start off with an Earth and added flames around the Earth to show that it will be engulfed in heat because of all the pollution that will happen. In the background, I decided to add more emphasize on pollution by adding factories and a lot of smog to show the viewers that there will be. In order to show that it was because of globalization, I had to somehow show that the world was connected. As a result, I decided to have two hands shaking and have continents on them. That way the audience will know that the world has decided to become one. Since the world is now one, the background shows the consequences.
In the image with ÒWeÕre all happy now!Ó I wanted to show the audience that once globalization happens, everyone will be happy because there are more factories in the world making corporate owners more money and developing countries will have more jobs. In order to do this I got the world map and added factories to the developing countries to show that there are more factories and more jobs will be available to the people. Then I added the face of multi-billionaire corporate owner Bill Gates smiling and an African kid smiling to show that everybody is happy. Then I added emphasize on Bill Gates to let people know that once globalization happens, all corporate owners will be more happy then ever.
During the entire project, I had to use a lot of layer masking, adjustment layers and also some tricky tricks that I was taught. I used layer masking in the cultral lose image when I deleted the sky in the because it was too hard trying to use the magic wand to select the city only. So, as a result I used layer mask to delete and insert the grassland. I used layer masking when I made the suit cover his tranditional clothes in order to make the orginal clothes fade a little and have a more vivid suit ontop. I started by finding an image of a native american because the article was about them. However, I needed one that was sad so I can show that he did not want to transition to the newly developed world and lose his cultual backgrund. The mood is also set for the audience to see with the fading homeland the native americans use to live in. I decided to put grassland in the background to have the most effect of showing faing away. Then I decided to put the native american n front because he is suppose to be the main focus followed by the city right behind him. Those two should be most noticable because they aren't faded. I also made the font different for "We're city folks" to show the transition from handwriting to typing to show the audience the transistion thenative americans are making.
For the image "We're all happy now" I used the world because the message I'm getting across invloves the world so I mind as well use one. Then, I placed factories around the poor developing countries to show that more factories are being built there while none are in North America or Europe. Then I used the color range slection in order to make north america and african see through so I can insert a face of Bill Gates happy and an african child laborer also happy. The mood I wanted to show is that as a result of all the factories, I wanted to show the audience that even workers are happy, but I put a glowing circle around Bill Gates to show he is more happy. I did this by using the gradient tool and then selecting more colors and then creating it round Gates. I also use layer masking to erase parts of Bill Gates and the african kid I did not want.
In the pollution image, I used layer mask to create all pollution clouds by only taking the one part of the original image and just copied and pasted a lot of times. Then I got a picture of a melting Earth and two hans shaking inside to show the world is united by also having continents. I also decided to put factories at the bottom because it shows how much pollution factories cause and with more facories from globalization, the world will be engulfed. The mood of this image is suppose to be a glum one because the world is going to die. In order for the audience to see, I showed the pollution all over the image and a burning Earth. I aslo made the United States more vivid than Europe because the US will benefit the most so I only used a layer mask on Europe. I made the Earth glow by using adjustment layers on it and selecting the gradiant kind and choosing the color yellowish orange.

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