The topics I want to explore in my final project are coming of age and rites of passage. These topics interest me because college has been a very transformative time so far, and I think that I could make really interesting art that centers on these themes. Most of what I know about this topic comes from my own experience at OSU, the experiences of my friends, and the portrayals of growing up and college life in pop culture, particularly film, music, and tv. I want to really learn about what different rites of passage people have gone through in their teens and early 20s, and try to capture what coming of age feels like for different people.

There aren’t too many cliché images regarding rites of passage, the only thing that I am really weary of is travel imagery (particularly roadtrips). I think that most people have at least a basic interest in this theme, as it is something that everyone goes through. However, I also believe that part of my job as the artist is to make other people care and have thoughtful (if not emotional) responses to what I create. I think that I can create unique and original art by trying to focus more on the feelings of rites of passages, as opposed to only trying to translate images from real life into a computer screen. I believe that there are plenty of new ways to discuss rites of passage and coming of age, and using a digital medium, I can create art that explores these themes in ways that will allow me to express myself as well as being compelling to other people.

For my composite landscape, I combined pictures of a bridge, a hot air balloon, and a girl looking out on a ledge all into one. I had a bit of a hard time smoothing out the edges of the images I cut out, and I don’t think it looks quite as natural as it could. However, I was happy with the color layer I added (a yellow-brown that is kind of gross but definitely helped to pull the pictures together) and I still really like the idea I was going for. Overall, I think I grasped the concepts and techniques pretty well and I could definitely use these ideas to create something interesting for my final project.

The Group Joiner Project was challenging and forced me to think out of the box. Working in a group on Photoshop was difficult just because we had to take turns using the computer, or else direct one person to do the things we wanted, and it was sometimes frustrating. Once we moved to cutting out pictures and working with glue and scissors, it was easier just because we could spread out and work on separate things (plus my group was down a person so there was a lot more space). I definitely believe that it would’ve been easier if we had more experience with Photoshop, but also by the time we got to our paper collage, we’d had more time to come up with ideas and a better vision for what we wanted to make. There were a couple of factors that made working with Photoshop difficult, but overall I think our pieces turned out okay!

The question of whether computers and AI can make art is a very interesting one. My first instinct is to say no, and I think the Photoshop collage tool is a great example of this. In my group (and a few others I think), the collage tools took our pictures and put them in a stack that didn’t really mean anything or present them in a visually interesting way. It was simply a stack of photos, and we had to lower the number of pictures put in before it started to look okay. The AI in the article sounds more advanced so maybe that would be different, however, I think that AI would have to be more intelligent and creative in general before I started considering it to be capable of artistry. For sure, I think Photoshop is still just a tool.

Overall, I think our paper collage is our most successful image. We had the most control over what we wanted to do, and I think it had the best presentation of the elements and principles of art. I also think it did the best job of showing the passage of time like in Hockney’s pieces. I don’t think I like the Photoshop collage tool, however, I would like to try creating my own collage in Photoshop again. This project took a lot of effort and teamwork, and I’m generally very happy with our images!