This is my interpretation of Nightmare by Fuseli. I photoshopped images together and then used the dodge and burn tools and several others to get the effect I wanted.

These were the images I created in photoshop from a scanned image of a leaflet set. I was just playing with filters and patters and different treatments for the object, trying to get a hold on this photoshop thing. Personally I think the bottom two ended up looking like really bad Hawaii shirt patterns.

This is my exaggeration project.

It is pretty obvious what I wanted to exaggerate. I constantly get asked ignorant questions when people hear I am from South Carolina, and after answering quite politely for several months I got tired of the Q and A. So I started exaggerating my past, and where I was from, what my family was like, and what my living conditions were like. I did not grow up in a mobile home with a old rusted truck permanently parked in the yard with old furniture sprawled out in the yard, but this is often the image that people paint about me when they meet me, so I figured it would be a fun aspect to play up.

This is the puzzle I made for my memory project. I decided to make a puzzle for each piece to represent a specific memory, and an image or idea, or even people are not whole unless they have these memories in order to shape who they are. I also used the self portraits of my classmates in the compositions as actual tattoos on the arms to represent memories we share with others in order for them to see us the way they want us to be seen.

The missing piece represents memories we have forgotten or have become obscure as we have aged, and the two extra pieces represent memories that no longer seem relevant or have any importance, but they still stick with us.

This image is my text project. I used the outlines of black birds to fill with text and layer the text to give it depth and shadow. The text I chose was a song by the Beatles titled Black Bird. This song has had an impression on me due to the fact its my mothers favorite song, and when I was a small child and would get sick, that would be the song she would play for me till I fell asleep. Now whenever I am feeling sad, or sick or gloomy, I play this song and it lifts my spirits.

Triptych

In my triptych I wanted to show the experience I had when I was younger with my uncle and mother. My mother is a nurse and my uncle a dentist, so they both tried to instill in me a degree of self preservation. When I was younger I really hated grooming myself, so when I was about six and I was still not brushing my teeth, my uncle brought me to his office, and for about an hour showed me image after image of tooth decay and mouth disease. Needless to say being such a small child and seeing these nasty images left a scary impression on me. After that I began brushing my teeth at least 4 times a day and showering 2 to 3 times a day. Since then I have calmed down my compulsive grooming to showering once a day and brushing my teeth twice a day, but I still am very aware of my grooming habits.

I was hoping to depict that in my triptych by showing in the top image, my teeth as of today, and how my good grooming has kept my pearly whites nice. In the second screen is an image of me scrubbing my teeth clean with a frenzied look on my face to show how keeping them clean is important to me. The the bottom image shows what my teeth may look like if I were to stop brushing and let my teeth decay. I was going for a little bit of shock and disgust with the image relationship and using colors that would harmonize the composition. I worked for about 5 hours on this piece and I think it turned out pretty well, I would say im pretty proud of it.

This is my first attempt using illustrator.. There are some things I will change like shadow on objects and their placement. I will post the better one soon!

Truth, Lie, Laugh

I use to work at a 'make your own' type bead store.. Jist of it is, people would come in and pick out beads and pendents and such they liked, they would bring it to the 'bead bar' (trust me its not as exciting as it sounds.) and one of the staff would help them put the piece together. Well one afternoon I was helping a woman that came in on a regular basis. Her name is Nancy, shes in the shop about 2 or 3 times a week. The girls and I on staff figure its because she has no friends and her husband hates her because shes such a pain in the butt! Well i am helping her assemble another of her world famous near impossible pieces and talking to her about something else she finds annoying which is just about everything. I sneeze...and one of the balls from my septum ring falls out of my nose...bounces across the table..into this womans lap. She stops talking...I just stare at her hoping she didn't just realize what just rolled out of my nose. She did...She didn't like it either, I got chewed out by her and my boss, and to this day Nancy refuses to work with me...Can't say i'm exactly heart broken over that fact.


So last summer I went onto the Jerry Springer Show with my sister because her then boyfriend had a secret to tell her. Well first off I never liked the guy...He called me hippy girl...One good way to really tick me off. So we go on the show, and what do you know! The sleeze bag admits to having an affair with another woman behind her back.. But this is all after he cheated on his then wife with MY sister. Could you see that one coming? Yeah.. So heated argument occurs between my sister and her boyfriend, the mistress comes out, mistakes me for my sister... and promptly socks me in the eye. I blacked out like a pansy, and had to be taken to the emergency room for X-rays to make sure she didn't shatter my cheek bone. She didn't, but I missed the wrest of the show!

When I was six I had to have a pretty major surgery. Thats how I got my zipper down my chest that you see now! I collapsed in the front back yard of my house when i was 5 after a game of chase. I had had a minor heart attack...But they didn't call it that. They used some weird term to make it sound much less harmless, but basically, I was a five year old girl who just had a heart attack...Why you ask? I had an open Aorta valve in my heart, thats that little chamber between all the big chambers that does most of the big time pumpin' if you didn't know! So within 4 months I was sent to Charleston to have a repair on my heart. They did so and within 2 weeks i was released from the hospital! 3 years after that and my hearts good as new! Now I just have a nice reminder down my chest ;).


Those are my truths, lies, and laughs...Im sure you can pick which is which, I guess most people liked them, but I could have been a little more original and creative!

One of my pieces..

This piece is called Soft Distortion.  It is a cloisonne enamel piece with a copper frame that has been etched and pierced.

First blog... Kind of awkward!

A little about me? Ok here you go.

Calley Dunn, 20 years old, attending Tyler School of Art.

I come from Greenville, South Carolina.  So I am a Philly transplant.  I love Philadelphia and the many exciting things that there is to do up here.  I really enjoy going to the museums and walking around in center city just to look.

I plan to major in something in the 3D realm...  I am just not too positive in which specific major I would like to pursue.  I am really interested in Metals, Sculptor, and Ceramics, my heart just hasn't picked a favorite yet.  I really enjoy being able to sink my hands elbow deep in some clay and build something soft and beautiful from such a raw material.  Working in 3D gives me a very pleasing feeling, knowing that my actual sweat and physical effort is being put into the creation of a piece of work.  I enjoy the satisfaction of the physical exhaustion that I feel after fighting a 20 pound blob of clay on the wheel, or after sawing out ten pieces of copper to then link  together to form a small sculptor.  The more physical I am when creating my art, usually the more satisfied I will be with the result.

 I also plan on double majoring to pursue a teaching degree.  My career ambition is to teach middle school art classes and have my own studio to produce my own work.  I really enjoy working with children and helping them develop ideas of their art work and show them how they can be self expressive through art and explore the many opportunities there are in the art world.  

Artists I enjoy: Marcel Duchamp, Beatrice Wood, Salvador Dahli

Teachers that have influenced me: Susan Willis, Glenda Guion, Jim Cambell, Debbie Cook

I was lucky enough to attend a arts high school for three years of my high school career.  I took two classes a year, each 3 hours a day at Greenville County's Fine Arts Center.  My teachers really opened me up to what I could do with my work, and how I could actually pursue a life dedicated to my art.  They have inspired me so much, and have really pushed me and my work to become something special.

So thats all I can think to tell about me.  Bye for now!