I'm a monster in my small studio

93 til infinity

Hi! 'sgoin on?

I'm Ellen, and this my IP blog. For those who aren't familiar with IP, it pretty much equates to a senior thesis project. I'll be spending this year developing an idea and executing an illustration/design, somewhere in Ann Arbor....

Anyway, I'm gunna use this blog to post various things I find interesting, or stupid, or funny or juicy or scratchy along with many other adjectives but never anything that's damp. Nothing I post here will ever be described as damp. Never. Not ever. 

So my idea so far goes something like this, I seek to visualize bizarre, ambiguous and chaotic narratives through a large scale, organized graphic map/web. Each strand of narrative will be a collaboration between digital montage and hand-drawn/painted imagery, to be printed on wall vinyl and adhered directly to the exhibition space wall.

 I am responding to a desire for new interactions between the viewer and two dimensional design. Much the way a “choose your own adventure” novel provides a controlled environment in which the reader can make choices, my installation demands that the viewer decides where to look and which narrative to follow. The scale of the project allows the audience to see the general shape of web from afar but restricts the viewer from seeing the detailed images without approaching the work and selecting a visual path to follow.

The project is important because it fosters a relationship between the viewer and the work and should animate their own imagination. The work illustrates WHAT is going on in each scene but not why or how, leaving the viewer to make free associations and create stories for themselves. Using a collection of dream sequences as the initial inspiration, I am accumulating imagery from found vintage ephemera, orchestrated photo shoots, typography, original drawings and paintings. As I gather visual information, I fit the various elements together digitally to create forced relationships between seemingly unrelated items, much like putting together a puzzle without seeing the cover of the box.