Spaghetti Face

My father-in-law is a skilled and enthusiastic photographer. Naturally, my father-in-law wanted in on this photo recreation project and I was more than happy for the help! We looked through an assortment of photos of me as a child.  As soon as we came across the spaghetti face picture, he said “that one.” My wife excitedly seconded the motion. Through the help of my wife and her parents, we were able to capture quite a few details of the original photo, especially the more prominent ones.

It was a fun project! How often do adults get to eat like 2-year-olds? I enjoyed it this messy revisit of my childhood.

P.S. My wife was a good sport when I went and kissed her after the photo was taken, thus smearing the spaghetti sauce all over her as well. I figured she might want in on some more of the fun!

-Mark H.

Zack Fielding

Artist’s Statement

          I chose to recreate an old tee-ball photo that my mom dug up and emailed to me.  I was discussing the project with my mom and we talked about a number of different photos we have of when I was younger.  I decided that the comb-over was definitely a requirement for the project since that was one physical characteristic that described my younger years.

          In order to recreate this photo I obviously had to shave my beard and sideburns.  I then found a shirt that matched the picture and a tee-ball bat.  I then combed my hair over and told my girlfriend to “make my hair look like this”.  My hair in the photo was messy and standing up in the back, so I tried to recreate that look.  It did not come out very clear in the picture because my girlfriend is short and I am much taller than I was, so the camera angle isn’t exactly the same.  I tried to match up the grip of my hands on the bat as well.  One of the interesting parts to recreate was the smirk and look on my face in the original picture.  I don’t know what I was thinking in that picture twenty years ago and without knowing that it was hard to replicate the smirk.  This project was a lot of fun to do, and received laughs from friends and family when I shared it with them.

Hmmm...

Artist Statement: Photo Project

                For my photo project I chose to go with an iconic style as well as artist. Andy Warhol has always been a bit of a fascination of mine. From his use of colors, to his unique choice of imagery he has long since made an impression on me. This is why Andy Warhol was the obvious choice. That and the fact that he is one of the only artists that I most accurately resemble, or at least can resemble with some minor tweaks, also helps his cause.

                I choose Andy Warhol’s self portrait ’67 carefully among the many choices that Andy Warhol created because of it’s sense of style. For one, Andy uses his hands to convey that he is pondering, maybe his next piece or maybe even what his next move is in his daily routine, either way it is a strong masculine pose where the face is framed with shadows. Also, color is used to make the most genuine aspects of a masculine face stand out, such as his jaw line and facial structure. Lastly, I am intrigued that only half of his face is shown, maybe signifying the dual nature within the artist at the time of creation.

                In recreating the photograph I knew right away that I would have to seek the aid of computer photo editing software in order to capture the pop art feel. For this I used Adobe Photoshop, which proved to be effective. I had to try to mimic Andy’s pose for many shots that I was then able to play around with inside the program. I started by creating a gradient within the image to show the light and dark side of the photo. I then used one of the filters to create more of a cut out feel and then added the yellow streaks to my hair and basically colored the photo as if it were a coloring book. All in all I think I my work to the best of my ability given the fact that we definitely have out dissimilarities.

                I enjoyed creating this project for it helped deepen my understanding of how to create art. I was able to use a program that I was unfamiliar with (Photoshop) to have an end product that I am proud of.

Living Life

Shuffling through all my childhood photos evoked a mixture of emotions. I found ten photos that I could possibly recreate. Some I based on the background of the photo, knowing I could recreate the correct background since they were taken in my house in Arizona. On the other hand, there were the photos in which the background was going to be a challenge to recreate. I chose such a photo. I decided it was more about me than about the background. I was about three years old, living in California. My days usually consisted of playing with friends or siblings, often getting into trouble. This photo however, captured a brief moment where I was playing alone. I had a Barbie in one hand, a necklace on, and heart sunglasses upside down. I love my innocent, happy smile in this photo. It truly shows my happy childhood. 

Stacey McCraw

Artist Statement: Stacey McCraw
I chose a painting by Raphael that had been assumed to be a copy by
another painter. Last year, it was found by a museum worker doing
inventory and he started to think it was perhaps an original by
Raphael. The article I found on Today claims that art historians will
still have a lot of work to do to make sure that it definitely was
painted by Raphael. I have not been able to find the latest news
unfortunately.
When the project was first presented I looked back at all of my
childhood pictures. Unfortunately my mother made the terrible mistake
of insisting I have ridiculously ugly bangs for my entire childhood.
So I decided to look at painted portraits from the Renaissance because
I have always loved those. I narrowed it down to this portrait and The
Girl with the Pearl Earring. But I thought that I resembled this
painting much more.
In order to recreate the image, I went to a fabric store with the
image and found fabrics that seemed similar to the image. That was
fairly simple but the hard part was figuring out how to do my hair
like her. She must have had a lot longer hair than I do. I ended up
putting my hair in two braids and passing them over at the top. It was
very difficult to hide the pins and hair ties. It was also very
difficult to make the veil look like hers and I didn’t quite achieve
that. The lighting in the portrait is very extreme. It is in a dark
place with a spotlight. In order to achieve this I stood in a corner
of my room with the lights off and then shined one light on myself. My
friend shot the picture for me because he is very good with cameras.
Overall I am very pleased with the photograph although I can
definitely find many differences between it and the portrait. I really
enjoyed this project because I not only tried to replicate how she
looks but I tried to replicate how she did her hair and her facial
expression. This made me think about what kind of person she was.

Brittney Dicker's Artist Statement:

For this assignment I decided to replicate a photograph by Edward Steichen. He was known for photographing celebrities as one of his top specialties. The photograph I selected was of Gloria Swanson behind a veil. It was taken in 1924 during her prime years. The dramatic feel of the photograph instantly captured my attention. Swanson was a well-known star in the 1920s. This photograph was also one of the most celebrated portraits that Steichen has taken.
My version of the photograph was taken of my younger sister Jordan who is 16 years old. I always ask her to model for my photographs because she is so comfortable in front of the camera and looks amazing in all of them. Jordan resembles some of the womanly features of Gloria Swanson: her shaped eyebrows, long lashes, and lips. Steichen tends to use sharp focus and props in his photograph, so I made sure that I was able to grab a black lace cloth to match his image. Although the lace is not in the same position as in Steichen’s photograph, I still think I utilized it well to create the same approach. I wanted to grab the viewers’ attention by having Jordan’s eyes be the dominant focus in my photograph. The time of the day is unsure but both images have sparkling eyes that are being reflected by some sort of light. The facial expression is revealing sex appeal and fierceness. The whole purpose in my idea of portraying this image was to attract other peoples’ eyes to my photograph. My sister is basically forming a connection with the audience or whoever is viewing the photograph. I am still capturing the 1920s style but mixed with a little 21st century flow.
This photo project was a great opportunity to express my photography abilities and to incorporate technology and culture from today’s world with styles back in the 20s.

Artist Statement: Stephanie Castillo

I chose Rosie the Riveter to recreate. Although she is a drawn figure, she is representative of a large female group. I thought it would be interesting to recreate because Rosie is a drawn figure. In order to recreate he look as closely as possible I searched for a demin shirt and a red bandana. One of the most difficult part was finding a denim shirt that best matched Rosies. Since Rosie is a drawing the most difficult part was deciding the emotion or facial expression I should have in the picture. After many takes I decide to go with the picture shown I feel it most closely represents Rosie.
Recreating this picture was very interesting because you don't normally think of all the details in a picture until they are missing. Making sure the shirt was matching, the bandana appeared the same not just in color but in shape once it was in place. Position of the arms is everything in this picture, didn't notice some differences untill comparing the photos.
Overall I am satisfied with the result, I believe the picture on its own would still be recognized as Rosie.