I wanted to create a vibrant graveyard as opposed to a dreary graveyard. I thought some crystal elements would help lighten the mood and even make the skeletal birds give off a calm feeling. The moon is a symbol of the afterlife as hinted in the title Avian Afterlife.

Building a home- Brooklyn Presnell

 

My concept was to create a house from a cardboard box. Growing up I would play in cardboard boxes laying around my grandparents house and pretend to decorate them and live in them. I added aspects from my current apartment into the house to show how I now have a space to decorate as my own. I also included my hedgehog, Clover just for fun. 

Otto Lucas Architectural Blend

 

My concept was to take elements of architecture and sculpture and merge them together. Something I had learned a while back in one of my art history classes was this association with femininity being tied with nature and masculinity being tied with architecture and science. I wanted to make something that juxtaposed those concepts by merging them together. I also wanted to tie in a notion of western religion and its preaching of freedom in structure and the contradiction that lies within that.

Architectural Blend - Sena Lor

 

 

My concept is to create a believable environment of a railroad leading into the city. Within the wall on the left I included in some windows to give a sense of life, implying that this area is inhabited my people. The graffiti on the wall itself also implies this as well. To provide a peaceful mood I made the overall image cool with a warm lighting. This also provides a time of day setting in the later morning.

Rowe Institute: Destiny James

Rowe Institute

For this assignment, I decided to elevate our Rowe building to something that represents the Art department as I know it to be. I see Rowe as a power house for all creatives, so I wanted to represent that in an architectural way. I retired the building's camera inspired structure to something that fits my imagination of how Rowe would look if it was reconstructed. I also decided to add the two murals that are at the back of the building to express how I think the department should display its creativity to the rest of the university.  

 

Building connections by Rocky

 

For the architectural blend project, I revised it and this was the idea that I came up with. The Lego "doors" or arches are the idea of being open to making those connections. As they lead up to the top with the two people where the earth is and make the connection throughout the world, like having a worldly perspective. Then the spiral motion upward can also be seen as DNA and the Lego's within show that we are meant to build connections with people. And lastly, the sky gives the sense of hope and the warmth of love and being able to make those connections. (all photos taken by me)

Kelsey McGoldrick Architectural Blend

 

Shyana Marvelle Architectural Blend

 For my architectural blend, I wanted to take my favorite elements of the UNCC Botanical Gardens and combine them. This garden has always been a safe space for me and I wanted to create an image that would amplify that feeling of serenity. I decided to make the front entrance into a waterfall, and integrate it with one of the ponds. Waterfalls are symbols of prosperity and good fortune so I wanted that to be the center focus of the image. 

Arch Blend-Brooke Buchanan

For my piece I wanted to focus on the concept of nature reclaiming its space. Especially living in the city, construction for new buildings are everywhere, with glimpses of nature within the crevices of the constructed city. For the construction of this piece, I gathered images of trees, bridges, signs, plants, vines, power lines, and I combined a small piece from the building next to Rowe to add a small detail of deconstruction to the sunken hotel.

 

Evie Khang - Architectural Blend

 

For my piece I combined different architectural elements to create a lighthouse on a cliff. My original concept was to create a fairy-tale like home from a fire hydrant, but I soon realized the potential for it to become something greater. I feel I was able to create a calm and serious mood here which greatly juxtaposes with the odd nature of a fire hydrant-lighthouse blend resulting in a whimsical feel to my piece. In the end, I believe I was still able to capture the fairy-tale feeling I wanted though. 

Tiana Architectural Blend

 

The concept behind my blend was to convey a feeling of being lost on the large campus while also showing that the campus is evergrowing and changing. I took a couple of different campus buildings, architecture, and construction sites to convey a feeling of expansiveness. Additonally, I made the image dreary in color to represent how a student could feel when trying to figure out how to navigate campus. 

Post-Apocalyptic Tower, Avery Wallace

 

For my second image, I wanted to go for more of an architecture setting where it gives a glimpse of a post apocalyptic world where mother nature starts to take over a city as if it was abandoned for years. The idea for this image is that people would still be alive, but would occupy old, broken down buildings to form groups in order to survive in this distant future. Many of these photos were taken in old downtown areas, and the bush and old object photos were from the town, or from my home. Each photo I took aims to blend in with the time of day and the blending of the photo was made to be given a dramatic effect on how broken down this glimpse into a possible future could be. 

Chris Allard Architectural Blend

 

    For my blend, I wanted to create an image based on the concept that a lot of times, certain organizations or symbols will try and build and present themselves as clean and sophisticated, when if you take a closer look under the surface you can find a much messier truth to them. I picked a few examples to include in the piece, but overall, I just wanted to focus on the ideas of the facades that can exist in the world and how we can put these companies or institutions on pedestals.

Kelsey McGoldrick- Old is New Again

 

This piece is supposed to embody the idea of teenagers in this time growing up too fast due to social media. I had my little sister dress up in a wedding dress that is too big to push the concept of growing up too fast. She holds a phone in her hand to then push the idea of social media brainwashing young girls like herself. 

Evie Khang Old is New Again

 

  For my project I decided to photograph my sibling playing their piano. Music and musical instruments transcend time, so I thought it would be best considering the theme of "Old is New". I wanted to create a look of a musician focusing deeply on their performance, as well as getting the best view of the piano, so I chose a high angle to shoot from. To add to the old timey look, I also had my sibling wear a flowy, white dress to emulate old styles. I wanted more texture in this piece, so I found a cotton texture from the Library of Congress added as an overlay to complete everything. 

 

For my wet plate collodion I photographed my parrot Navi. I wanted to document her in her "natural habitat", her cage located in my bedroom. I arranged my house plants behind her to give the scene a natural look, while still being evident that it is an artificial habitat.

This image is a photo of me in traditional Hmong clothing holding a shovel in my parent's yard. My concept is to show a hard working woman who had dug up this trench for irrigation. Although there were some technological developments in the urban areas, the majority of the Hmong lived in the countryside and mountains of Asia far from the industrial parts of the land. Even today many of the Hmong still live in these areas of both East and Southeast Asia. I used all of the techniques learned in class and included some subtle fingerprints in the corners as well.

Old is New Again Destiny James

 Old is New Again

    For the first project, I wanted to reflect on the way old things are literally becoming new again. Whether it is fashion style, food, or music, things from the past are making a comeback in today's generation. I decided to reflect on music and how accessible it is with technology. In the past, one would need a vinyl player for specific records, but now we have the luxury of having any album we want practically on demand. In my photograph, I am posed on the couch listening to one of my favorite Stevie Wonder albums," Innervisions." My laptop is next to me on the couch while I listen to the album on my vintage bluetooth speaker that is seen in the far right of the photograph. My Library of Congress image is a landscape with a bridge that I layered on top of the image for texture.

 For this project, Old is New, I wanted to do something pertaining to my dogs. I cherish both of them dearly and semi recently we lost one of the three. Bear passed in his old age and so now we only have Coco and Peanut. I wanted to make a somewhat humorous image to capture both of their personalities, Peanut is a very smart and independent dog while Coco is a terror and lives to spite Peanut. I wanted something that I could hold onto and look back at when my parents move out of state with them. I used two portraits from the Library of Congress in combination with two images of my dogs to create this. I grabbed what portraits I wanted to use first so I could try to create lighting that was similar to them when I took pictures of my dogs. In Photoshop, I used a variety of brushes and effects to distort Coco into looking like a ghost menacingly over Peanut's shoulder and also to make the border and destresses to mimic an old portrait.

The Road From Childhood (Tiana Cohen)

 For the old is new challenge I decided to create a piece about childhood and me metaphorically driving away with it alongside Chuck E. Chuck E. Cheese is an important place to me in regards to how much time I spent throughout the years of my childhood there. I remember having a great time and this picture is literal gold, but I'm older now so I rely on good memories. The concept also plays on the concept of taking a trip down memory lane and is an ironic portrayal of my childhood. I wanted the photo to look worn out and smudged in certaina areas and like the ink didn't transfer hence the layering on the imagery. The only element appropriated from the Library Of Congress is the background image, everything else in the photo is either provided by myself or created with the use of adobe brush tools. 

Carved From Stone: Brooklyn Presnell

For my piece I drew a lot of inspiration from the Romanticism Era. I love the dreamy aesthetic and lighting that was popular in that time and I wanted to capture that similar look in my photo edit. This picture of myself was taken in the Botanical Garden on campus. I am dressed in a white sheet to mimic the sleek dresses/statues of that era. I added a black and white filter to the photo, distressed the edges, and added creases to look like the photo had been damaged. I used several kinds of both wet and dry brushes to create the "damages" to the photo. I incorperated the broken effect into my "dress" by using a crack in a photo from the government website. I feel like this accomplished the look of a wet plate overall pretty well. I wish I liked the photo in sepia a little more because I think it would've really pushed the "worn" effect. I also made sure that the main focus was on the upper half of my body, making it the most focused aspect of the photo.

 

Growing up: Shyana Marvelle

 I wanted to take the "old is new" challenge and correlate it with my concept for this project. For this project, I wanted to highlight the act of growing up. I wanted to create an image that incorporates myself as an adult and as a child. Sitting on the steps is both a literal as well as a metaphor. As a kid, I was always playing outside and most days ended with sitting on the steps. Older me is sitting closer to the top of the stairs to show movement and growth. This would be a reminder to slow down because time moves fast. I also wanted to create the message that even if I don't necessarily feel the best about where I am in life right now, I know my younger self would be so proud. I wanted to make my photo look worn as if the photograph itself has been carried around in one's pocket. I also wanted the image to appear smeared as if it got wet or was an attempted transfer image. As for texture, I added fold creases from images from the Library of Congress in order to add to the wear of the photo, and show that someone carries it around with them.

Life on the Farm (Avery Wallace)

 

For my first project, I wanted to give the audience a glimpse on what a farm looks like. My grandparents had not only raised a farm of their own with horses, chickens, and cows, but they also own a business of their own where they would sell cow manure to stores like Southern States, and to give milk to local dairy factories around Alexander and Iredell County. Since there were no cows present at my grandmother's personal farm, I was able to find a cow from the Library of Congress while also choosing the right lighting for the cow as well depending on where the light's position was. During the final stages, I was able to add some of my own effects with different wet brushes for the borders, or small brushes for the crack as well. The last effects I was able to implement were the fogy effect I acquired from taking a picture of the floor of my garage, blur effects for the background and subjects, and finally, a simple written description of who the person's name is and what they are currently doing. 

Rocky's Old is New

 For this project, I wanted to show the importance of food and how it is something that is taken for granted at times. This was taken with a couple friends on campus at the Panda Express capturing the moment of eating and the friend trying to steal the food. In photoshop I started off by messing with some brushes. Then I added the library of congress which is the slight scratch on the bottom right. Then messed with more brushes and added a border. Lastly messing with the levels and adding a slight color balance. 

Chris A: Old is New Again

     For this project, I wanted to go for a somewhat creepy/unnerving feeling for my overall piece. I wanted my composition to be somewhat of a constructed reality, where I have the main character in the center and have some clues of a story littered throughout. I dressed in an old-timey costume shirt, a work apron, and some boots to create a character for my location. For my location, I took my dad's workshop and tried to fill it with older furniture and remove any blatantly modern items to help set the stage better for this carpenter-like character. In Photoshop I replaced the picture in the background with a painting of air balloons I found from the library of congress, then proceeded to add layers and layers of different brushes, noise filters, and level adjustments to get the desired effect. I also found two cracked images from the library of congress to add a crack to the image. 

Brooke B. Old is new again

 For my project I wanted to create a wet plate collodian portrait with a timeless aesthetic, using various brushes/custom brushes, and adjustment layers. This is a self portrait, and the background was previously an image of Abraham Lincoln found from the library of congress, in which I have edited him out. Also used from the library of congress is a small piece from a wet plate you can see on the right side of the portrait. I wanted to portray a fogged look, with smudges and scratches, to mimic a wet plate collodian. I also used accessories (gloves and meshing) to add context to the portrait, and to put myself in a different time era, portraying someone who attended a funeral. 

#old-is-new-again