The Growth of the Rose

Team Project: Kristi Flango & Jess Eaton

Film

This project challenges the ideologies of surrealism. Inspired by the creative surrealist Salvador Dali, we brought his painting, The Meditative Rose, to life in two forms: a mixed media sculpture and a photograph.

Sculpture:

The mixed media sculpture was our attempt to make The Meditative Rose a physical reality. This was a challenging feat. First, we attempted to make the rose float by air pressure inside a contained tube. But after searching all over Austin, we couldn’t find the right materials to make it work. We then decided the air wasn’t necessary to make the rose float and felt that water would suffice. After purchasing an octagonal bird feeder, we altered it by cutting out the top and painted a sky on the back two panels. We then covered the base with some earth-toned material and layered rocks on top to represent land. Theoretically, this form of art not only depicts the reality of The Meditative Rose, but it also shows the monstrous of our human civilization—biological consumption.

Photograph:

The photograph was our attempt to recreate the original painting as close as we could. To shoot this, we tied a rose (without its stem and leaves) to a stick with fishing line to make it appear as if it was floating over the hills of Austin. We took nearly a hundred pictures before we shot the perfect one. As the sun was setting, we placed the rose directly in front of the sun. This proved to be the most accurate portrayal of the original painting.

Project 2:

Trapped

This film exhibits the frustration I have with my muffled drums, my neighbors below me, and black culture in white society. It shows my progressive release of my evil demons that I hold deep in my subconscious. I also did this film to demonstrate my skill on, and love of the drums.

Project 3:

Rude Awakening

Team Project: Kristi Flango & Jess Eaton

This project was inspired by a class discussion on aura. The idea that that every object has its own life force and a story to tell was intriguing to us. So we took this idea a step further by questioning, What if objects also had feelings? From this we produced a film in which we personified an alarm clock. We gave it emotions, desires, and needs. This film demonstrates a day in the life of an alarm clock.