Special Edition: Lipstick and Dynamite

On March 18th at the SXU Art Gallery, there was a showing of the documentary Lipstick and Dynamite. The film by Ruth Leitman, who attended the showing and took questions after, is about women wrestlers in the 1940s and 50s.

To be honest, I was unaware this culture had existed before I learned about this film. I knew there had been women wrestlers both now and in the past, but I didn't know about the whole following that the sport had had.

I feel that I learned a lot from this film. It is incredible all the things these women had to go through. Most of them used the wrestling circuit as an escape from broken homes and broken dreams. They then usually had to wrestle on the carnival circuit to get started. Once established or 'discovered' they would be signed with a manager. A lot of these managers turned out to be scumbags. They took large percentages of the girls' pay, treated them badly, and sometimes became involved with them. Then the women were forced to look their best at all times. Hair and makeup fixed and dressed to the T. They had to be presentable women,ruthless wrestlers, then presentable women once again. Some people had much disdain for the women wrestlers, others admired them greatly. After seeing this movie, I have joined the second camp. While I am not really a fan of wrestling, I found these women and their stories absolutely incredible and fascinating. The dramas behind the scenes and the culture suck you into this documentary that focuses on 6 legendary wrestlers : The Fabulous Moolah, The Great Mae Young. Gladys Killem Gillem, Ida May Martinez, Ella Waldeck, and Penny Banner.

The filmmaking itself was well done in my opinion. Leitman did a wonderful job of finding archival photos and videos and blending them with the footage she took of her interviews. She told the story of these women, she didn't just throw a bunch of images and ideas at us. I don't think it could've been done better.

Week 8!

Assignment: Create a comic strip consisting of nine panes using either photos we have taken, or drawings we have made.

Craft: We will use photoshop to either merge pictures for a single frame or color in a drawing we have made. We will be using a different program to put the panes together to make the comic strip itself.

Composition: I personally will be taking the photo route, due to the fact that stick figures are beyond my drawing ability. It will be interesting to try to set up a lot of these shots, but I am ready for the challenge.

Concept: The concept for these comic strips are the stories that were posted last week. There may be some alteration due to photographic limitations though.

Week 7

Assignment: To generate a story that we will make into a comic, using photoshop. We must include one person traveling, one person waiting, and one of them has a package for the other.

 Concept: The concept this week will be my story:

           First we see a clock that reads 2:35 PM. We then see a shady looking man wearing a trenchcoat and a fedora. He is at a pay phone,making a call. Cut to our protagonist, Mr. Harris, answering the phone. "Hello?" 

         "Hello Mr. Harris, listen carefully. I have a package for you. It is imperative that you receive it. It could be a matter of life and death." 

          Mr. Harris replies "Who are you? What's in this package? What's going on?"

          A gruff voice says "You don't need to know that yet." and hangs up.

          We see another clock reading 2:35 PM. The mysterious stranger calls again. "You will receive an airline ticket in the mail shortly. Be sure to use it." Click.

         The ticket arrives a couple days later -- one ticket to Paris. Mr. Harris decides to make the trip. He is intrigued. He reasons that he might as well go; he has nothing to lose. Worst case scenario, he gets a free trip to Paris.

         He lands at Charles De Gaulle  International. A well dressed man walks up to him and asks "Are you Mr. Harris?" He replies affirmatively. Darkness.

         Mr. Harris wakes up in a Parisian hotel room, slightly disoriented. The trenchcoated man is standing before him.

         "What was with the choloroform?"

          "We had to keep our location a secret."

          "You said you had a package for me?"

           "I do. You can have it whenever you like."

           "Now would be good."

"As you wish."

Mr. Harris is handed the package. He opens it hurriedly. Inside is a detailed drawing of the trenchcoated man

shooting him. He looks up, puzzled. He opens his mouth " What is the mea...?" 

A shot rings out.

    Person traveling : Mr. Harris

    Person waiting: Trenchcoated villian

    Package: the box with the drawing inside.

Week 6!

Assignment: First draft of our second mash up

Craft: We are still using photoshop. We are learning new techniques however, such as the magic wand tool, which is pretty cool. We are also learning about how to use backgrounds to make it easier to cut things out. Cutting things out from a solid background is a hundred times easier than a background that has something going on.

Composition: For my first first draft, I used pictures of some homeless people I saw downtown, and a picture of the Chicago Public Library to stand in for a bank. I needed a picture of a grand bank to fulfill my concept. I could not find one however (I will learn the city, I promise. Six months of living here has helped though!), so I thought a library may work. For my first second draft, I asked some friends to dress up as homeless people for me. We used the racquetball court in the Shannon Center as a photography studio for a little bit because the white walls gave us a solid background and the photography room on the art wing was locked. I thought of using the TCF bank on 95th as my bank, but was unable to get there. I think I will find one at home (Alabama).

Concept: My original concept was to put homeless,destitute people in front of a grand looking bank to illustrate the disparity between the haves and the have-nots in our country. It is so sad to me to see how so few have so much, while the majority is living in poverty. I really wanted to bring attention to that in my piece. I couldn't find a bank, so I took a picture of the library and thought that that could signify how it is hard for a lot of people to get a good education. Even if you are lucky enough to go to college, you will most likely be in debt for many years. When I showed Professor Peck this first mash up, he said that people might think that I'm saying /assuming these people are illiterate. When he made that point, I decided to go back to my original concept.

Week 5

Assignment: Take 25 new pictures of people,places and things
(nouns,if you will) to make into a second mash-up that is not about Abraham Lincoln.

Craft: Once again we will be utilizing photoshop. We will use the techniques we've already learned,and hopefully learn some new ones!

Composition: Because I'm not sure where I want to go with my concept,I'm not 100% sure which pictures I will use. I have a feeling I may end up scrapping the ones I have now and reshoot new ones. However, here are a couple I think might have promise.

Concept: Like I said,I'm not 100% sure what my concept will be. I do know that I want to make a statement; I want my art to say something and provoke a response.

Week 4

Assignment: Finalize our mash-ups of Lincoln or Lincoln era photos with modern day photos that we took. They will be printed and are to be hung in a gallery.

Craft: We once again put our photoshop skills to work to mesh our photographs. Some people made entirely new images while others just edited their originals. I used my original image, and tried different filters and adjusted some little things. 

Composition: During critique, I put up multiple versions of my picture. The class almost unanimously decided that the image with the graphic pen filter (my first attempt) had the best contrast and blending. This helped me decide to go with that one as my final version. The main problem with the other versions was that Lincoln's head was too light and didn't fit on the drummer's body as well as the graphic pen version. [ Blogger is not letting me upload my pictures for some reason,but they will be up shortly!]

Concept: My concept is still the same. I think Abraham Lincoln would be treated as a celebrity or rock star in our society today. I was hoping for that to come through in this picture. My other thoughts were that the picture could answer my question "If Abraham Lincoln was born in our time,in another place, what would he be like?"

Week 3

Assignment: Mash up an Lincoln-era photo that we collected last week with one of our own photographs,also collected last week.




Craft: To create our mash-ups, we used photoshop. I photoshopped Abraham Lincolns face and head onto the body and face of a street musician in Paris that I photographed this past summer. We learned to use a lot of techniques and tools that go along with photoshop,the main ones being transformations, selections, and layers. We also looked at brightness/contrast and hue/saturation. My photoshop skills definitely need work.

Composition: As pointed out in Monday's critique, the thing I've been struggling with in terms of composition, is getting Lincoln's face/head to line up with the original man's head. It is hard to do that without the original guys neck being covered,which looks awkward. Other than that, I'm pretty excited about my first attempt at photoshop. My composition will hopefully improve with work.

Concept: My concept for this photo mash-up is two fold. First, what would Abe Lincoln be like if he had been born in our times,in a place such as Paris? He could very well be a street musician. Abe was a bit of a rebel and followed his own path,much like this musician did. Secondly, Abe Lincoln was one of the first celebrity presidents, if you will. I think if he were around today he would reach rock star/ celebrity status, and this image sort of conveys that.