Assignment #1: Elements and Principles

http://s1108.photobucket.com/user/carlyszczygiel/slideshow/?sort=3

                This week’s assignment was to capture 14 images, each one predominantly depicting an element or principle of art, which we have learned about in the first three weeks of the course.  When I first read the parameters of this project I thought that I would have to spend a day(s) at Albright Knox or to try to get into the Staler downtown or out at Delaware Park or driving around in my car in search of subjects and mediums to photograph.  However, the next day, after reading the assignment, on my morning commute I began to see the aspects of art design everywhere I looked. I decided that rather than going out into artificial settings to capture the principles and elements of art, I would identify them in the natural habitat of my everyday life.

                This habitat includes my apartment, my commute, my work space, my daily exercise walking route, my husband and my three cats. My apartment is the second floor of a converted Brick home just in downtown Buffalo. I captured my husband walking up the step for my “Perspective” photograph, and the view from our window during the most recent snow storm provided “Value”. I captured “Color” in the cherry of my Manhattan on the black background of my desk in my work space at home. On my commute to Buffalo General Medical Center, where Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I walk  to and from the Metro to the hospital I found “Shape” in the brick pattern of the underground metro station. The lobby of Gates Medical Center on the Buffalo General Campus was recently remodeled and many artistic elements were used in its design.  There I found “Pattern” in the carpeting, “Line” in the composition of the wall, and “Form” in a tree decoration that probably should have been taken down a few weeks ago. Throughout my eight our work day as a Dietitian Intern, I prefer to take the stairs up and down to and from the 10^th floor. On that trek I found the “Motion” picture opportunity, following the downward view in the stairwell. Turning the corner onto one of the last flights of stairs “Emphasis” was staring me in the face in the form of an ominous looking fire hose cabinet. One morning walk last weekend I saw “Contrast” in the broken ice of the harbor against the soft sky of the sunrise. Later in the week from the same lookout tower (it is the midway point of my walk) I witnessed “Unity” in the smooth water of Lake Erie reflecting the setting sun. Lastly my three cats provided, “Texture” (Oscar, my Main Coons are very furry), “Space” (Charlie, is a stray and he is a little socially awkward), and “Balance” (Rupert, has to wear a cone for a few weeks and my husband and I decided that he resembled the cat-astronaut background of his computer).

                All in all I really enjoyed making this album and completing this assignment. I actually have several different examples for many of the elements and principle but had to try and chose the one that best displayed the characteristic of the assignment.