My name is Kelsey Ray and I am from Strathmore, Alberta, a small town outside of Calgary. I am currently a student at the Alberta College of Art and Design with the goal of majoring in Visual Communication Design. My speciality is character design, and I would one day like to become a director.
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INFLUENCES
Disney -The impressive story telling, and beautiful animation, even from the very beginning, has inspired the design of many of my own characters.
Music – Alternative music, especially songs by Regina Spektor, influences my art as I interpret the meaning and the feeling in each song. I also play various instruments which I try to communicate in my work as well.
Greek Mythology- I have always found stories from Greek mythology very interesting and use elements of the Gods in my characters.
Naoko Takeuchi – The delicate lines of her manga characters has always fascinated me, and I strive to achieve a similar look when I draw.
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Social Media
Credits: Adrian DeVries, Christianne Leduc, and Kelsey Ray
“Social Media” is a collage of images that uses the logos and pages of social networking sites. It describes how a person can remain anonymous on the internet, but can lose their identity as they create new ones on each site.
Artist Statement:
This project was not what I was expecting for it didn’t involve the use of technology. It was interesting to start out with something simple, like images, and then build up to the more advanced technological projects. Being able to work as a group allowed for different ideas that I would not have thought of to be brought up and expressed. This project allowed for more analytical thinking when it comes to technology and how the world can be expressed by it.
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Anonymous
“Anonymous” is a music video made from images and sounds. Using images from “Social Media” as well as logos from the internet, the video emphasizes the anonymity that social networking allows. The music, which is comprised of effected everyday sounds, is repetitive and mechanical, mimicking the clicking of a mouse, and typing on a keyboard.
Artist Statement:
I found it interesting that ordinary sounds, ones that no one really pays attention to, can be mixed an altered to make it into an artwork. I enjoyed this project because of the many results that could be achieved by combining different sounds and applying different effects. The audacity program was easy enough to figure out in order to manipulate the recordings to make them sound more electronic to match the theme of the images. I enjoyed the concept making “music” out of noise.
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“Dancer”, which depicts a ballet dancer, and “Unbalanced”, a falling wine glass, are simple animated GIFS created in photoshop.
Dancer
Unbalanced
Artist Statement:
This project I found very easy to understand as I had some experience in photoshop before. Even though the GIFS are simple, and only involve a few images, they still create a striking visual when animated. If the time or resources aren’t available to create a full movie the GIFS are an easy and quick alternative. It is a new way to make a video image that I had never considered before and I enjoyed being able to learn it.
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I Wanna Be Loved
“I Wanna Be Loved” is a remix of both music and video. The video is comprised of women as they are shown in various music videos, which portray them in a provocative light. Coupled with video of Marilyn Monroe, who was once considered an object of sex appeal, “I Wanna Be Loved” shows how society’s views on women have changed over the past 50 years.
Artist Statement:
I really enjoyed this project because remixing music was something that I always wanted to try, but never really had a reason to. Trying to get songs to fit together in a convincing way was difficult, but I took everything in stride and just kept trying. The music may not have been as sophisticated as I would have like, but for my first attempt I believe that I managed to create a well constructed remix. The video was easy to put together, as my skill in iMovie had developed over the semester. Trying to synch the video to sound was a little difficult, but I am happy with the result.
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Charlotte Sometimes
“Charlotte Sometimes” is an iPad App which represents the title artist, singer/songwriter Charlotte Sometimes. Images show the personality of the artist, and the music video “How Could I Just Kill a Man” gives an insight to her musical style. Unfortunately the application did not work during the documentation.
Description:
The application starts with the music video, “How Could I Just Kill a Man” in the centre of the screen with the title “Charlotte Sometimes” on a black background. As the video plays it shrinks, remaining in the middle. Four images zoom in behind the title that depict the artist from left to right. Along the bottom of the screen, underneath the video, more images appear in the same way showing her three album covers and two more images of herself.
Artist Statement:
The programming for this project was difficult as it was hard to remember the right coding and it involved a lot of trial and error. This could be very frustrating at times. I could not alway achieve the results that I wanted because it was hard for he to grasp the program and remember all the coding. Although this is something I do not plan to do again in the future, it was a useful skill to learn and, with practice, I could do it again if needed.
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