Ana and the Shark and the Cunning Fennec Fox

28 February 2014

0838 hrs

Good Morning, Patient Reader!

I am here at school, on a Friday, when I don’t even have class.  Dedication?  Nah, Just homework.  Also we start shooting for the film project, today.  Very excited about that.  I’ll let you know how all of that goes.  I apologize for the dearth of posts as of late, but we’re getting so close to the end of term; that scheise keeps on keeping on. 

            I am getting consent forms from some of the models, and you’ll see more and new pics, soon.  I’ll throw in an essay that I wrote regarding a photographic composition I recently saw in the college gallery.  Meantime, I wish you al a great day.  You will have a great day, yes?  Splendid!

Your Fuzzy,

Cunning Fennec Fox

P.S.  Remember, http://chickwithaquill.blogspot.com

and,

My essay is just below . . .

Professor ---------------

Rift by Guillermo Penafiel

Rift

By

Guillermo Peńafiel

            I chose to compose this essay on the work “Rift.”  Included with this you will find my own rough of the piece, throughout which this essay references.  The medium is Photography/Monoprint; the motif I would call, “Neo-religious” in nature, though I am certain that is not the name of the style.  I would posit that the style is more a Historical Reassignation.  I say this because he uses in his images old churches, or at least their ruins.  There seems to be a Man-God conflict at play considering the subject common in his works in the gallery.  There is a supplication to god; a vulnerability as he reaches with his hands in some; naked as Adam in all.

Unity: 

The unity here is achieved by the artist’s repeated use of curvilinear and straight, vertical and horizontal lines.  The curvilinear lines are represented primarily by the use of the lancet or equilateral pointed-style arch, popularly seen in Gothic architecture. Within these graceful curves are the masonry joints that comprise some of the aforementioned straight lines.  Though curvilinear, as they must be in 3-dimensional space, they appear as lines here in 2 dimensions. 

Another way he achieves unity in this piece is the monochromatic, near sepia-tone throughout, with achromatic touches in the negative forms throughout.  Especially energizing is the charged appearance of the atmosphere framed by the apex of the main arch and the top of the arched wall structure in the background.

Hierarchy:

            This is well-displayed in his use of the thick arch frames; larger in the foreground; smaller in the background; the large opening at the top of the main arch is mirrored, down to the bright-light display, in the windows of the smaller arches.

Perspective: 

            This piece displays the use of Three-Point Perspective, evident in the centrifugal appearance that is the arch in the foreground, contrasted by the diagonally-oriented line that crosses in the background; left to right in ascension.

Conceptual Concerns of the Artwork:

           I think that what “hooked” me about this piece is the appreciation I have for Old Religion and the irony and tragedy it represents.  There was the pushing out of the relatively peaceful Matriarchal societies by the violent and warring Patriarchal societies. 

            There were the pogroms against all non-Christians in the form of The Crusades and The Inquisition.  The extermination of over a million women in medieval Europe accused of witchcraft, simply because they were beautiful or odd or reclusive- whatever the reason may be.

            There was oppression against all things scientific; against anything The Church considered heresy.  These ruins of old churches suggest to me a time when it was religion that ruled the world:  it was called the Dark Ages.

Compositional Concepts:

            Which brings us to application of the artwork in the compositional concepts we reviewed in the classroom.  In sweeping terms I would have to say that this, Rift, is a practical application of all of the theories put forth in class.  But leaving it at that would be a cop out.

            I would say that out of the projects we have done so far, I see the Mapping Diagram strongest in my mind as I review this work.  I see the Macro and the Micro in the lines and windows large and small, as if it is a picture made up of many smaller pictures.  I see the introduction of art within the negative space. I see strong Figure/Ground Relationship in the fore and backgrounds; psychic gaze via the implied lines that take your eyes out of the defined frame where the imagination takes over, seen in the cropped windows and the crenellations in the masonry of which they are constructed.

            All things considered, and salivary cohesion aside, I rather appreciated this piece for its simple design and yet the composition of it is very complex and expressive.  I feel he put much thought into the positioning of his camera and the objects he chose to be within the defined frame; that he was particular in his deliberation of the use of cropping, the use of slow and fast fall-off of shadow, and of the subtle superimposition of his barely discernible hands, reaching out to the heavens in adoration, or perhaps, in the begging of mercy; either way, in the obeisance of God.