Monday, January 31, 2011

Victory always tastes sweet...

As you may remember, last term I was struggling amidst a fiery battle between my artistic endeavours and the calls of the academic world.

In the end, both sides ended the war due to a mutual agreement for a peaceful ceasefire.


Then along came sweet, innocent Republic Bank.

They sent out a memo to Hillview, inviting art students to enter a lovely competition they were about to host.

The Young Artists' Canvas To The World Project .

The prizes seemed soooo alluring.......

$5,000 voucher for the purchase of Art supplies for the school,
$5,000 for the artist per selected entry

AND!!!!
The artwork would be placed AT THE PIARCO INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT for display TO THE WORLD!!!


Well, needless to say, I began salivating at the thought of entering this ambitious competition.

The calls of this task were daunting beyond belief as I tried hard to forget the sadistic cries of my Chemistry, Physics and Additional Mathematics books.
I could hear them screaming, 'Forget the art, my boy...We're what's gonna make you somebody...'
I responded to those books by giving them rationed attention. 

Physics- 30 minutes 
Chemistry - 30 minutes
Additional Maths - until fatigued
ART..... ALL POSSIBLE FREE TIME

I was just thanking God that Geography was the first exam on my schedule, defeating that subject would be the key to my success or failure in the academic realm. Everything else became secondary.
I managed to squeeeze in some art during the exam prep, but most of that time became brain busting sessions with my wonderful artistic educator, Mrs. Davis.

My parents and I would count down the remaining hours of the day by continuing these sessions for the rest of the night.
Then, in the morning,
I consulted with my friends to fine tune ideas and to develop new, fresh ones.
My brain was drained out until...we all finally decided on a single beautiful concept for the painting.

This was definitely going to be a strong piece for selection.


I started dutifully painting on the background in the art studio at school the week before exams.

I continued like a loyal slave at home.

During the evaluation period at Hillview, I do believe that I had my most productive sessions for painting. I painted in the studio during the break between exams on a daily basis and I worked extremely hard in the comfort of my home on the days of no testing.


The day finally came when I bubbled with pride as I looked at my creation. Every aspect of Trinidad could be seen in this beauty. 
The rush was on for submission...

In the space of two hours, my parents and I rushed to school to get the official school stamp, raced down the roadways of the East/West Corridor to get into Port of Spain, and ran down to Republic Bank's headquarters on Park Street to submit my piece on the second floor.

We then scrambled to get something to eat after submission (this was around 2:43pm) at Grand Bazaar. Then, I was supposed to head off to lessons...

I decided to go home.


The rush was over, the stress was done, and now the suspense emerged.

Stay tuned to 'The Art of Our Lives' for the continuation....

Friday, January 28, 2011

Has anyone seen a brain running by here?

Ahh, after a long week of school, its nice to relax and do some art. Thankfully, we've had full art class periods through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, so I'm even more relaxed.




I've been working on my self portrait for the past couple of days and I've received help from almost everyone I know (yay!).



I was extremely joyous to work in pen again....
This self portrait was supposed to be the inverse of a typical self portrait.

The least detail was to be within the face, while outside was blossoming with finely printed details of my life.

In case you were wondering about my curious title, I was hunting for a Biology textbook which contained a suitable picture of the human brain during school today. 

Unfortunately, I found none.

So, I found the brain a couple of minutes ago online.

It should be fun to put that inside....


I forgot to talk about mono-printing before I posted this....
Ugh, I'll make my next post about that technique.

Its pretty fun, but I'm more of a draughtsman, so printing like that does not..uh......appeal (yes, that's the word) to me as much as other artistic techniques.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

The Game Has Changed



Rotten Tomatoes.com says:

"Tron Legacy boasts dazzling visuals, but its human characters and story get lost amidst its state-of-the-art production design."



I BEG TO DIFFER....


On Saturday 7th January, 2011,  I had the pleasure of viewing TRON: Legacy in 3-D at Caribbean Cinemas 8.

As with most action-oriented 3-D movies, the graphics were astounding and the depth of three dimensions was very present. However, there were not many, "RUN!!!,that thing is coming to kill me!!!!!" 3D moments in the film as can be easily seen in 3D animated features.

In my personal opinion, Rotten Tomatoes was a bit harsh on the movie. The plot was not mind-blowing, it was quite 2-dimensional, but it was stable and thrilling as there were few moments of boredom within the film. Suspense was high and there were some 'bad guy wins' parts of the plot to balance the power of the characters.

The riveting film score by Daft Punk fused my gluteus maximus and minimus to the flimsy theatre seats as the booming crescendos enhanced the blazing action coming through the screen at me. I must commend them for a giant leap into the the realm of film score. A highly successful leap might I add.

I will even go the extent of saying that the movie would be nothing without this resounding score.


But the one thing that resonated through my cranium after the show, and still continues to ring, is the MASSIVE jump for the CGI industry with this film. 

Designs in this show will become a lasting phenomenon which I can personally attest to with this watch I am drooling for...



And this iPod dock.....





Language is a more powerful plot tool than fists or tears to captivate an attentive audience.

TRON: Legacy had a quite flimsy plot on the surface of the movie, but the sub-plot was quite a jump for a studio like Disney (pretty much like Avatar and the sub-plot of destroying our world through greed). TRON: Legacy conveys some very powerful messages about creation, the human spirit and our lack of faith in today's society. What if there was somewhere we go after our life ends in this reality? All of our scientific and philosophical beliefs would lead us nowhere.

Our innate faith would be the only thing left.

The one thing we neglect most. 

I leave you now to visit the Cinema and view this digital masterpiece, TRON: Legacy. I guarantee that you will leave the cinema fulfilled.




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