So this piece came a little late because it takes weeks for me to get a single piece of pottery done because I only go to the studio once or twice a week when I don’t have school or work or just too much to do. But here is the final product! I went along with my original brainstorm thoughts of drips like condiments on a sandwich.
(photography by me)
This post is pretty late for when the directive was given but I have a lot of individual projects that were much longer term than one week just because of the mediums used and my access to resources. For this post I reflected on my original brainstorm on the directive of “sandwich” and what was really simple but stood out to me is the idea of layers. This doesn’t stray very far from the original topic itself but my effort was really applied in the actual process of making my final product. This began by me simply taking photos with a regular old 35mm camera. I took pictures from nature because they relate to beauty and growth and therefore the Barbie brand. Then I developed these photos and chose which single photograph I wanted to work with. Then I transferred the photo on to a textured paper. This involves coating the image with transfer medium on to the paper and then letting it sit in water for around 20 minutes. Then you remove the paper and peel away the original paper from the photo and let it dry. You can fix the image on to the surface with more transfer medium.
(made and photographed by me)
This directive made me think most directly to identity which had me thinking about myself a lot and the struggle most people my age are going through, definitely including myself, trying to figure out who they are what they want as they’re in college and growing up. I am just now starting to get any clue of what I want in life and what I want to do to make money and survive. For now I just know what I enjoy and what I actually enjoy doing. Pottery is one of those things. So for my last post for the directive of “The ID” I decided to post something that I personally identify with that I made with my own hands.
Identity to me means all the differences between each person that makes us all individuals. One of the most obvious things that is different on every single person is their finger print. I used my thumb print and pink paint to make the Barbie logo silhouette. Barbie is something super generic that has been duplicated millions of times but this is made of something that has been repeated but has only existed and will only exist once ever. Another thing I thought about is how their are a million Barbie dolls that are exactly the same but they’re all in different little hands, covered in different finger prints, given different personalities and voices and imaginary lives. So all Barbies are different in a way and that’s why so many little girls are attached to their dolls and even grown women still make a connection to the Barbie doll but also to the Barbie brand.
“It’s better to be a lion for a day than a sheep all your life.”
This directive really made me think about if I am a sheep in my own life. I think I try not to be someone who just follows everyone else but sometimes it happens anyways. I often wonder about how much of the stuff I’m doing is actually holding me back from being the best version of myself. The concept of “herd mentality” describes how people are influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors or to follow trends or to purchase particular items maybe. That is kind of what advertising is all about but I guess it does not have to be that way. Sometimes you can sell a really good idea that people can benefit from, not everything is about a certain material item that you’ve just got to have. The Barbie brand enforces the herd mentality from my perspective. So yeah, some of the dolls have a few other ethnicities than just stark white with blonde hair but then what? They’re still shaped like an anorexic runway model which is completely unachievable in life. But so many of us try to achieve it anyway even though it can affect our lives so negatively. I really like the idea of advertising for something really good that changes at least one person for the better in the process of maybe selling something else. I don’t want to just fall in to cookie cutter state of mind. I don’t want to just sell things solely to make money just like I don’t want to buy something solely to follow the trend and look like everyone else.
(made by me and photo by me)
So the directive of “The ID” immediately made me think of work. I’m a pharmacy technician and the most important thing is making sure all of the information about a patient is correct. If you have the wrong information then you might have the wrong patient. If you don’t have all the information then you might have missed an allergy for a patient that won’t be caught by the system and then the patient will get sick or worse. When you sell a prescription, you ask for their name and their address and if it’s a drug people really like such as Percocet or Adderall, you have to see their license and copy down all their information again. Knowing people’s identities is basically the number one priority at work so I deal with it 30 to 35 hours every single week. I leave work knowing more about strangers than is probably healthy. I know people’s social security numbers, where they live, and what’s wrong with them. Sometimes I know things about strangers that they’re family doesn’t even know because they’re embarrassed or scared or ashamed. So with that, thinking about identity, I thought of pill vials because the labels on them give all their basic information such as their name and address and then detailed directions on how to take the pills in the bottle. Then I started to think about giving the pill bottles a little bit of their own identity. Giving each vial something that identifies them from the rest can make them easier to identify. Another thought is that people may use the vials for other things beside pills afterwards. So then I was thinking about decorating the drams and one way to do this is to bejewel each vial. With the vials looking a little bit more fun and fancy it will be easier to know which one is which but it also makes a daily routine more interesting and maybe easier to do. This relates to the Barbie brand because it’s making something simple and boring more interesting and a little bit glamorous.
(photo taken and developed by me, scanned in to computer)
This directive of “sheep” really just sent me on the idea path of not following in someone else’s shoes or taking someone else’s path, even if it worked, because you have to find your own way. Along the lines of the Barbie brand, it’s kind of about how girls have to grow and do things their own way, mistakes and all. You can’t expect to be perfect, you are going to make mistakes on the way, but you’ve got to move forwards. I took this photo with a 35mm camera and developed the film and then the photo in a darkroom.
(made by me)
sheep → herd → follow → influence → thoughts → beliefs → opinions → crowd effect → women → standards → double edged sword → hypocritical → sexuality → slut → actions → society → judgment → control
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