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.

We never realize how much we use/think about maps and until we're confronted with them, like I am for the second time this year. In my writing class, we had to write paper over a place and look at maps about it. I can now tell you the majority of Lawrence, Kansas' history and involvement with the Civil War, being so pivotal and involved with the start.

The sculpture symposium was not as engaging as the previous symposiums in the last few weeks, though I believe that for people who want to go into the department, it helped get them excited for it. For me, it was sort of boring. I'm not really into sculpture so it was interesting in parts, but sometimes had the painting symposium vibe.

Also, at times, it felt that they were there to just put sculpture above all other departments. It was probably the opening statement of 'what do they hand Adele when she wins a Grammy?' and how they hand her the Grammy award sculpture 'not a CD, DVD, a painting.' I understand that sculpture is more than just what we see in museums and in history with the Venus de Milo and such, but that was sort of out of line to me.

The IA symposium was very interesting. I had an idea of what it was but the symposium broadened my eyes, in a good way, to what the field was. It's all very experimental and similar to coding, except based on the person viewing instead of the product already being in place and no further interaction.

My previous experiences with interactive arts were both with Arcade Fire. They came out with a music video for "We Used To Wait" working with interactive artists and web designers just to get the video working. The website starts by asking you to put in an address where you grew up or an address in general. Then many pop ups take over your screen as the music video/film unfold, dropping trees on the Google maps pictures of the said address with birds and a mysterious person running.

The Wilderness Downtown

And then later, for "Reflektor" they have your participation to change the lighting and effects of the music video. They even have a surprise webcam shot of the user towards the end so the user feels included in the music video. I remember showing it to my little sister and her face lighting up in excitement because she was in it. And then showing it to her over and over again.

Just A Reflektor

They work closely with Google and the Chrome Experiments which is just interactive websites where the user can control what is happening like a dark room which is just a poem that you sort of have a hand in creating. There are many interactive sites on their main. But I think I might take an elective in the IA department so I can make my own Arcade Fire interactive music videos.

Chrome Experiments

This is an example of ditsy design which is an all over design of mini elements that are simple and eccentrically silly and can be funny. I liked the daisies because while it could be argued to be a floral pattern, the inclusion of the butterfly and the daisies aren't the same size and some have stems, changes it from strictly floral.

At first I was unsure on how I felt about the symposium with the experimental video. Like it was cool, but I don't really care for the experimental side as it looked more animation than video. But it started picking up for me with the hidden camera films of NYC post 9/11 and the one with Scarlett Johansson. It also brought up the question on if it's ethical or not to use hidden camera footage to make films when it's illegal to film people without their permission and the lecturers did talk about the legal troubles that the SJ film went through afterwards.

What reaffirmed me into filmmaking was talking to the teachers afterwards about the program. Since the symposium was mostly experimental, stepping away from narrative, I wanted to know if traditional filmmaking was okay since that's what I have more experience with in my documentaries and even short music videos. He explained that sophomore year they try to get you out of your comfort zone and show you different ways to use equipment and such. And then the next semester you start to do your own thing, sorta, similar to what my video classes were like senior year where we had video projects almost every week to do and different techniques. And then you get more open ended and such. I'm excited to declare my major to be a filmmaker.

The Fibers lecture was very informative and interesting in how it's not all about fashion but using certain fibers to make art and sometimes that art is fashion. My favorite part was the long distance pillow and the 3d printed fashion clothes. The pillow lights up when someone uses it where the connected pillow is. So someone in New York could lie on their pillow and it would light up in California where the other pillow is as a reminder that the other person exists. Materalise is a company that 3d prints high fashion clothes for runway shows. It's very innovative in that way because not a lot of people use that for their fibers base.

The printmaking symposium was not really interesting. I was disappointed because printmaking has been around for a long time and I wanted to hear how it is handling everything getting digital and the different between a print and a graphic design piece. Instead it was mostly about collaboration with other artists to make their work or similar to the painting department where prints aren't the subject.

Our intent in creating the video is to evoke the sublime using awkward tension and confrontations with the box and its surroundings. We used a back and forth technique to bring balance between solitude and the chaotic nature of city life. The use of "Mad World" by Gary Jules further enhances the loneliness of the box. We gained influence from Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Wes Anderson.

I've always loved Graphic Design. I like to mess around with photoshop and make my own graphics. My banner is made by me and most of the pictures for the my slider are made by me as well. This symposium answered my last request in my last symposium post by being interesting and engaging the audience in the broad industry of graphic design and how it effects our everyday lives being everywhere.

I really liked all the talk about Wes Anderson. The book that was shown in the book design I actually bought twice for my friends last Christmas. They love his stuff a lot and the look of his movies and the book was perfect for them. His attention to design is what sets him apart in the film industry. I'm happy they spoke about graphic design in motion. The film reel they showed us was very impressive and cool.

The symposium opened my eyes to the possibilities and opened me up to graphic design a little bit more and thinking about maybe double majoring in film and graphic design, even though I really do not like Illustrator.

Friday's symposium focused on the liberal art majors: Creative Writing and Art History. For me, I wasn't really all that interested. These aren't major majors. They are minors or you could double major, but you have to submit a letter of intent to the program to even be considered. That was a surprise for me, but at least I learned something.

For the Creative Writing part, they had a teacher who teaches poetry. It was interesting the way he spoke of form and content and how they relate to each other. However, it had the same vibe as the painting symposium the week before and sort of bored me. But poetry and I never really clicked like that. I wish they had more than just him speak for the Creative Writing. He focused more on what they do in the department instead of the real world in a sense, trying to expand on form and content and words and colors.

The Art History part seemed interesting since history is interesting, to a point. They showed us appropriated pictures from now and explained the impact of the original photo and how art history has changed us. For me, I just can't tell when an art work is 'shocking' and changes everything the way artists explain it.

I hope the symposiums in the coming weeks are more entertaining in a sense and aren't 'elevated' in speech and make me sleepier than I began.

I can't wrap my mind around painting nowadays. To me, painting is putting something on a canvas. But from Friday, I realize it is not something I really want to get into. Painting from what I gathered is just making people think and go beyond that canvas and whatever kind of paint (if you're using that) to shock people. It felt too elated for me and had that faux artistic vibe. I felt like it was when Whole Foods sold asparagus water when it was just asparagus in water. Or when Kanye West sold a plain white tee shirt for a lot of money.

When I explained this to my friends who go to KU, they basically reasoned a painting major into a Psych Major. Everyone has one, but not everyone uses them. Being that in painting, you can use other mediums (animation, sculpture, printmaking, etc) and still be called a painter somehow without ever doing the traditional painting. It's so strange.

We're learning about values and how light affects subjects and were to find three pictures that represented chiaroscuro (light/dark). I chose one still from Nosferatu of the main man himself.

Friday we had another symposium. This time it was over Animation and how it's changing. I wanted to do animation to make video games when I was in middle school, choosing to go Olathe Northwest, but changed it once I realized how much time it took and how little patience I have for that. So it wasn't a surprise to hear about how much time and effort people put into animation in the 'real world.' It was also interesting seeing how the Iron Giant changed everything for the medium with 2D mixing with 3D so seamlessly. I have to find somewhere to watch that movie again. I remember crying a lot afterwards.

Moving from that, it felt like it mostly focused on eerie experimental animation.

https://vimeo.com/9465841

https://vimeo.com/31110838

I'm sure there are happier less creepy experimental animations out there, but the ones shown felt like something was going to pop out and I really don't like jump scares. If they did it again, I'm sure the second speaker would reopen the videos before their time and I would want them to speak more about video games and movies and shows and weird animations. It was interesting nonetheless to see the making of that one advert with the vibrant colors.

https://vimeo.com/85719094

https://vimeo.com/85725905

The lighting in the room was perfect for shadow puppets.

As a video student, I sort of had an understanding before hand on how music and film mixed together. Music adds texture to make the audience feel more invested with the story, which is why some people can't get into silent movies because most of the time what we see now are old movies with vintage happy music with it. I did learn new music words however, though it felt a bit at times that the music section and the art section didn't match up and were jammed into the presentation so UMKC students wouldn't get bored.

The dance section was interesting because it was mostly interpretive and a lot was going on. I could barely focus on one dance section without feeling like I was ignoring another part. It was interesting to learn that the cubism movement helped with opening dance up. I knew some of the dance words from my three years of ballet when I was fiveish. The dance moves/stretch was really nice and timed well because I thought I was going to fall asleep during the art section, but I couldn't do that since I was in the front and next to the CEO of the Nelson.

Overall, I learned how people taking risks in art helped others take that jump as well and change the norm and making the audience think about getting away from the traditional portraits and landscapes of the realism and mimic our reality.

I've made a page for where I'll show the assignments I've done for my Foundations class. It's sort of like my portfolio page except more focused on drawing instead of my favorite medium of film.





Here it is.

I really like blogs/websites about bands. Mostly because I can find out more information about the bands and what they're up to and if they'll be touring to KC soon so I can go see them. My top three favorite blogs based on the aesthetic would be:

Albert Hammond, Jr.

 I'm a fan of the square posts and pictures as you'll see with another blog/website favorite. It fills up more space and you just hover over to read a title and if you want to go to that part of the new. It also opens with an abstract video of water. When I visited it all the time when the blog was still a work in progress, it was of an airplane about to take off. It helps show Albert's personality and also I found out that he's coming to town soon.


Kahleb & Harley

While not a band, I love the theme of these two's blog/portfolio. I went to high school with these two so maybe I'm bias. I like the blog opens on a slideshow of their projects to show how diverse their videos seem. I also like how minimal it is on the texts and how it's mostly just pictures or their videos.

On Friday, we went to a symposium over Photography. It served as an introduction to photography as a whole instead of an intro into the curriculum at Kansas City Art Institute. The lecturer, Tom Lewis, started us off with one of the first photographs: an almost empty Parisian street. It was eerie looking at the photo and seeing no one in the streets except for a man on the corner. Lewis went on with a small discussion over that point and how the process of taking the picture took so long that when the picture was finally taken all of the movement in the street disappeared making the street appear empty. I thought that was very interesting, knowing that now if I were to take a picture of a street with movement, I would get blurred movement like with the grey car turning in my picture from The Bauer to see Town Topic. To think that even the people waiting to cross the street would most likely be erased and only the seller near the trees and the other across the street would be there, just didn't feel real.

Later in history, we began to learn a bit about Etienne-Jules Marey and Edward Muybridge and how photography can take action, though not as a clear photo as Marey proved. Muybridge would take pictures of people doing an action from two different angles while Marey would attach movement trackers on his subjects, ei an elephant, and took multiple pictures at different points to reveal such actions.

As we wrapped up, I learned that photography is closest to our perception however, because of that, we are easily tricked into thinking that whatever is in the photo is obvious when we can't see past photographic space. Robert Cummings knew this and experimented with making a space originally was 3D 2D or vice versa. It also goes into how film isn't just a continuous action like we believe and instead it is continuous pictures moving fast enough that we do not notice. I knew that part from my film classes in high school and having to sketch frame by frame (mostly) of videos I wished to do. After that, we saw many pictures by different photographers and I wrote down a long list of photographers to keep in mind like the Starn Twins, Oliver Herring, Thomas Struth, and Christian Boltanski.

If film doesn't work out, maybe I'll go into photography since they are so closely related.

I've finished all my videos plus more! I don't know what to do with my film career now, as I feel all thought out and tired. I have a video project that's due Friday so I'll most likely end up doing that. Here's the prompt for that.



I've finished Almost There. It was a long process and I've learned so much from it. I believe that it will help me in the future with connections as people see how talented I am and will help the bands get bigger and more prominent in the Kansas City area and more. My portfolio is also updated! So yeah. Check everything out.