Label Information: Kharrington DeBose, Leaves of Brush Creek, Digital Photo Editing

Artist Statement:

I explored Brush Creek early November and started in the middle of the Plaza and then worked my way to Brush Creek Parkway and then all the way to the Paseo. My constant parameters were that for every three trees I'd pick up at least three leaves. This parameter got tricky once we got to an area where the trees were not by the creek and there weren't any leaves around to pick up or the places where there were a lot of trees and so many leaves I got confused. With the leaves I marked a number on them with white nail polish and then photographed them. After that I transferred the files to Photoshop where I cut them out of the white background and then placed them in numerical order. To make them all equal, I got rid of their details and color blocked their shapes.

Label Information: Kharrington DeBose, Leaves of Brush Creek, Digital Film

Artist Statement:

On November 24th and December 1st, I went back to Brush Creek to film where I found the leaves on my map. My parameters remained the same as I just filmed where I marked on the map. After that, I took the footage and placed it behind the leaves for about a second and a half and added sounds of nature in the background. It's interesting to see the visual changes between the leaves and the different reaches.

For the Foundations final we are to explore the historical creek nearby and make art and awareness of it. It's a very old creek, but has dealt with a lot of pollution and changes within each reach (parts of it) as it intersects the city. It has a very different feeling as you walk it, going from naturey in Kansas to industrial concrete on Ward Parkway to controlled in the Plaza and sort of a mixture of both as you go deeper into Missouri, however more dirty.

For our map we were to collect materials and such for our maps that we were supposed to make. For my map, I collected leaves from the various reaches, every three trees, collecting three leaves. I collected about 72-73 leaves Saturday, marking them with white nail polish and putting them in a bag to keep them safe. If I could change one thing, I would have brought something different to write on the leaves and I wouldn't have went on such a windy day. It slowed down the processes as I would have to stop and mark group all at once and hope they wouldn't fly away.





I found it interesting how the leaves changed depending on their location. It made sense that the leaves on the Plaza were prettier than the leaves I found near the Paseo Reach because the Plaza is more manicured and is a shopping area whereas the Paseo is more urban and the trees are there not for looks per se.

For my second part of the final, I am thinking about inserting a video for every leaf where they were found since I marked them on a separate map. This is similar to the works of Sophie Calle and her having 107 women read the break up email from her ex. The videos were played simultaneously along with written responses to the email and other art. But for me I'd be focusing on the video side, making a video for where every leaf was found and then on the place where they art in the conceptual map, put the video there. However, for space that might be changed.

I also am bouncing around the idea of making a gif of the leaves I found just being on a plain white background, flipping through showing what they really look like with their numbers and illegible print from my inexperience in writing with nail polish. It's similar to those a picture every day artists that just take a picture of themselves everyday like Noah Kalina who did it for 12 years.

Another idea is just flipping to the leaf and the video of where it was found back and forth in a rhythm in a pattern. I don't know of any artists who show the object and show the location. But that seems the simpler form of the first idea and will be easier to look at than many videos at once either in the shape of the leaf or just rectangles.

I'm not really a fan of the symposiums that are in the middle of the day, because I forget about them until it's ten minutes before. They're only great before because the sandwiches are so delicious and sometimes the chips are good. And we also get cookies. Which is sweet.

The symposium was alright in general. Hearing about Chinese and Japanese art was interesting as it showed that the Chinese and Japanese artists are struggling with their identity and tradition as they adjust to the modern world. It would be an interesting certificate to get, but personally it seems odd to learn about Asian art from white people...

The Post-Baccalaureate part was interesting a bit to me because I had thought about being an art teacher and stuff but I don't like little kids that much (besides my little sister but even with her, I need breaks). But I could be a high school teacher, maybe. The holiday breaks sounded nice. It was also interesting to me because I knew Mrs. Robino from my high school, barely however from my freshman year.

The Social Practice part was a bit interesting too, but didn't catch my eye as much because it reminded me of what we've already seen with previous symposiums with artists wanting to say something with their art. This time however the artist uses the community compared to their reactions.