Art of Water
Exhibition Text
As I explore the powers of water, I also uncover the beauty and elegance beneath it all. Food coloring is used to discover the invisible movement and living water that we as human can take granted for or become blind to.
Design
This project was giving me the opportunity to explore any multitude of art and express ourselves and a powerful meaning the the piece. I wanted to challenge myself and go with something that was way out of my comfort zone and work diligent at it so that I was successful with myself.
Leonardo, Old Man with Water Studies, c. 1513
Sources:
http://witcombe.sbc.edu/water/artwaterchange.html\ http://witcombe.sbc.edu/water/art.html http://witcombe.sbc.edu/water/artleonardo.html |
Leonardo Da Vinci and WaterLeonardo Da Vinci was fascinated by water, and examined it in the same way and artist and engineer would. He described water as "the vehicle of nature", believing water to be to the world what blood is to our bodies. As Leonardo understood it, water circulated according to fixed rules. It falls as rain or snow, springs from the ground, and runs into streams and rivers to the vast reservoir of the seas. Water can also be seen as being indispensable to humans, animals and plants, yet it can also be the instrument of their destruction. Its power is irresistible. Leonardo studied water also with the view of learning how to control it.
There is nothing more terrifying, he felt, than a swollen river breaking its banks and sweeping people, animals, houses, trees, and even land itself down into the sea.Perhaps as a result of these events, and as a way of dealing with his fears, Leonardo devoted a lot of energy to developing ways or devices to control and move water around water. |
Process
When I first started with water drop photography, I thought it was going to be fairly easy, as you need nothing more than a camera and a way to make drops. I found that there are multiple methods about going into water drop photography, such as using a water drop kit, but I simply used the manual method of doing the drips and the shots myself; mainly because it was the cheaper alternative. I used a Fujifilm FinePix S3200 , along with a large glass bowl, a black background and food coloring. I wanted a larger are of water because I wanted to no have to rely of the quality of zooming into it to be able to capture that color effect in the water. I would drop the coloring into the water and then quickly focus on the water and snap the shot. Then I would have to empty the bowl out and refill for clear water once again. I found this to the only way to efficiently take picture after picture. I found that I very significant flaw with the pictures was that I wasn't satisfied with the lighting that I was getting. So I had to scratch this process and find a new one.
So once again, I started all over and readjust the equipment. On the tripod I tilted the camera 90 degrees so that I could get the whole glass jar in the picture an less of unneeded background colors. As I was dropping the colors into the water, I experimented with dropping multiple drops in at a time or mixing colors together. That is how I was able to create the purple colors dye.
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Doing this process, I used a smaller glass jar and I tried zooming in and it drastically improved to quality of the photo. I used the bright light of my phone on the top and bottom of the jar for that lighting effect I was hoping for. I as well changed out the background color for white to blend well with the added light. I thought that this was going to be the best that my pictures that I was going to get, but I soon found a camera that had been dormant under the bed. I was a Canon PowerShot SX10 IS. Along with it was a floor tripod and a flash light accessory to equip on top of it.
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Meaning
Water itself may contain the power to bring about change in many forms. I wanted to emphasize on how the food coloring would flow through the water. Instead of an art piece where items are stationary, this is a progressive, moving piece that shows vibrant, circulating, explosive results.
Reflection
I found that this project was more than I was expecting. I imagined everything working out first try and it being done an over. Now, after the project taking four times and long to complete, I am glad it went the way it did. I was able to run multiple trials using different angles and techniques that ultimately improved my final product. There were also so many things that I wouldn't have discovered or done if I had just been satisfied with what I originally started with. Such as mixing the colors to create new ones and improving all aspects of the picture.