Practice Surrealism

Surrealistic Theme

For my surrealism photomontage, I'm going to make it a personal one. From my surrealism inspiration, Martin Stranka's "Rejected" photo, I liked the idea of having a dark picture. It seems to be perfect for my idea. The theme of my picture is "So close, yet so far". My girlfriend lives far enough to feel lonely at times and can't see her whenever I want, however she's always going to be there for me. To express the theme, I'm going to have our hands losing touch by holding onto each other's fingers. Then I will put us close together to show we are still close. A moon will be in the background because it seems more romantic you could say in the dark.

Surrealistic Inspirations

Martin Stranka was born on Friday the 13th in April 1984. He was born in the Czech Republic and then he graduated high school in Litomerice. Stranka lived there for more than 20 years, and then he finished the university in Prague. He became a photographer in 2007 and was self taught since he didn’t go to school for it. Martin has been rewarded for his photography many times.

Artist’s Name: Martin Jan Ogrodnik

Title of Artwork: Apocalypse of St. John. Date of Work: 1985 

Description: The stormy clouds give off an eerie mood. Something bad is about to happen. There’s a lot of different colors in this picture. From the  blue lake to the dark hills in the background , and not to mention all the shades in the clouds.

Analysis: There’s a lot of repetition with the clouds. The clouds are darker in the back than the ones near the man.

Interpretation: The man is calling forth the gods to either punish earth for their sins or he is calling them so he can join them in the heavens.

Judgment: I understand the meaning of the picture. I think it’s a successful drawing. I would think the man’s clothing would be blowing in the wind, but there seems to be none. If he would have added that effect, it would have looked more interesting.

Artist’s Name: Martin Stranka

Title of Artwork: Rejected Date of Work: 2011

Description:  The shading on the edges makes me focus on the man in the middle of the picture. The man is in a little ball showing that he is sad or just alone. The man and the background are the same color. I think that’s a good tone for a sad person.

Analysis: The focal point is the man in the middle. This photo isn’t symmetrical, because he’s in a ball, it’s hard to get a vertical and horizontal line of symmetry.

Interpretation: The man is curled up in a ball because he is sad. He’s also naked so that adds more to the effect of sorrow to me. The fact that there’s a lot of dark tone around him expresses the sorrow mood.

Judgment: I kind of understand this photo. The guy is feeling sad and is in a ball. The room is dark to set the mood of the picture.

These two artists are from a different time, however their artwork can be related. They both resemble something dark. The first picture is one with a man calling to the heavens for either destruction or something else. The other is a man suspended in the air naked and in a ball in a dark room. The meaning can be related but the style cannot. Ogrodnik’s picture is full of light and a bunch of varying colors. Stranka’s picture is a dark room with little difference in color. All in all these are two great pieces of surreal art.

Martin Jan Ogrodnik was born in 1950 in Poland. He studied graphic art in a private studio for about three years. Then Ogrodnik soon developed a great interest in painting with oil. Oil on canvas then became his favorite technique and preferable form of art.

Where I'd Rather Be!

My love of all time. Mariah Carey and I on the Red Carpet. They caught her kissing me on the cheek.

Partner Picture

David Hockney Collage

The assignment was to make a collage inspired from David Hockney's style. I took multiple pictures of the same thing but just from different perspective. You can kind of see at the bottom that the middle of the closet is bigger than the ends of it. About 20 pictures were used.

30 Day Challenge

Photo Walk 2