Art

The Endearing Sunflower; Time Slipping By

By John Tuttle

The sunflower:

Color is a beautiful thing as can be the absence of it at the opposite end of the spectrum. We say our lives are “colorful” when they are instilled with excitement. Color plays an often crucial role in people’s vision, yet I find that color is something rather difficult to define. Could the painter function in the absence of color? As with the eye, the window to the soul, the lens of my camera is subject to the sensory element of color.

For years there were two types of photos: those in black and white, and those in color. The age of digital photography has opened many more doors to creativity, not least among them the effect of selective colorizing. With the aid of digital software, a photographer can edit a still shot so that only a few hues (or even just one) are in color and render all other hues to appear as monochrome.

This allows me to isolate the colors of my choice, drawing more attention to the colorized object. One of the stirring thoughts which provoked me to capture this image was the thought of individuals who are color blind, those who can see but without the vibrance of color. The endearing two-toned sunflower serves as a tribute honoring all those who suffer with color blindness, those same people who see no difference in the color of skin of any human being. This photo also serves as a reminder to those who see the world in the fullness of color to appreciate the world as well as the gift of their own sight.

The hourglass:

The reasoning and editing behind the creation of the hourglass shot are similar to that behind the sunflower photograph. It is another photo captured outdoors in the elements and in genuine lighting. I love using real sunlight and shadows. The actual concept of the hourglass with the pink sand in motion is a simple one.

The running sand itself can be taken to represent our lives. The time it takes for the sand to run out is brief, so also it is with our short lives.The sand is always moving and never stops until it runs out; too many of us never slow down and enjoy the richness of the moment; we are constantly on the move until our lives are entirely spent. And as the sand starts to run out it grows white, losing its color. We say our lives are “colorful” when they are instilled with excitement. Thus, as the bright hot pink hue fades it symbolizes the dullness or greyness too often associated with old age.

John Tuttle is a young Catholic man with a passion for journalism and mass communication. Based out of Cherry Valley, Illinois, he is a writer, blogger, photographer, and video maker. He wishes to pursue a career pertaining to those fields.

Overpass, West Valley Freeway

By Elijah Laker

Every day over the summer, I walked across an overpass to the bus stop for my summer classes. During the last week of the class, I was walking back towards my house and I just thought the view was aesthetically pleasing, so I stopped to take a picture. Honestly, it doesn’t hold any deeper meaning other than the fact that it’s beautiful. The title itself is just the slightly altered name of an overpass sharing the same street name as the one pictured. Maybe you wanted a more poetic meaning behind the image, but that’s all there is to it. I like taking pretty pictures.

Elijah Laker is a freshman in high school. He enjoys baking, drawing, and working on multimedia projects. This is his first published work.

Potkop

By Ana M. Finzgar

The photo was taken in an abandoned hidden military dock. It is now in ruins, but it once served the purpose of hiding – a shelter for boats and the people. The local name for it is “potkop”, a Montenegrin word that does not have an exact synonym in English, but could mean “something in the ground”. The tunnels are eerie and dark, intertwined and they sometimes seem infinite, but you always end up in the area where the ships were stored. There, the sun reflects on the tips of waves, and shadows fall on the walls wounded by graffiti. In the past twenty years, it has become a junkyard, with empty cans and broken glass, plastic bags and shattered rocks everywhere. Once again it is at war, not for the people, but with them. I’ve explored potkop since I was a toddler, and because of it, I fell in love with ruins; history and beauty hidden in the cracks.

ana m. finzgar is a teenager from the mediterranean. she loves music, movies and exploring.

Media Made

By Shannon Muller

My passion is painting, I have been painting since I was five years old (I’m now 20). I’ve recently found out my love for painting landscapes, the peacefulness it resonates in me is addictive! But I also love illustrating, I would always create fantasy characters before I learnt how to draw properly. I think what helps me in my journey and process of art is nature. Nature for me is art and art to me is spirit and exposure of the soul.

The acrylic mountains is a piece I did of a Drakensberg scenery, simply titled “Drakensberg” and the collage one is a recent piece I did titled “Media made”, focusing on the style surrealism with the theme of stereotypes and social media. Women are constantly being brushed to conform to societies appeal for “perfection” and roles a women should be actively participating in. In means of bodily perfection. I used magazine bits and the newspaper to identify the media, they have a role in how people act. Her face is unidentifiable since it’s not speaking to one person but rather a community of women being suppressed and undermined of our abilities. The flowers in her clothes are real dried flowers and represent our femininity.

Shannon Muller is from Durban South Africa, currently studying a bachelor of Fine Art and taking psychology as a subject at Rhodes University in Grahamstown Eastern Cape. She loves to read, paint landscapes in her free time and sit in coffee shops. She aspires to be an illustrator and is currently working on selling hand painted cards in local coffee shops. In the time she’s not studying she enjoys spending quality time with her family and her fiancé, this includes running and exploring her beautiful country.

Sound of Music

By Kathy Li

Music is typically conceived and consumed as an auditory experience, but it can also manifest in many other forms. On a quantitative level, music can be represented by notes, chord progressions, and sound waves. I wanted to capture the range of meaning that music takes on for different people, depending on each person’s interpretation. Those with synesthesia, for example, may perceive music as an overlapping of sensory stimuli. Sound of Music is a reflection of the infinite ways of appreciating music, represented as a conglomeration of colors, motifs, and abstractions.

Kathy Li is a sophomore at New York University studying media and communications. She hails from Rockville, Maryland and is passionate about fashion, art, film, and social justice. She has been making art since the age of seven, but her perfectionism more often hinders than helps the creative process. She is a firm believer in trusting one’s instincts, but is slowly learning that making mistakes can be an eye-opening experience. On a Friday night, you can usually find her jamming out to a Taylor Swift song or curled up with a good book.

Paramnesia

By Noelle Hendrickson

To create the photo, I first took the picture, asking a friend to model. Then I took the raw file into Photoshop CS6, and added shapes, textures, and ultimately editing the photo to convey the title I gave it. Paramnesia is a delusion where fact and fantasy are jumbled, such as deja vu. In the artwork I attempted to show the gap between fact and fantasy, whilst the equal sign bridges the two.

Noelle Hendrickson is an American photographer currently studying abroad in Melbourne, Australia. She combines her photography with her Photoshop Certification to create story-telling visual art. Her work has appeared in literary magazines such as The Claremont Review and The Eclectic.