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Title: Milwaukee Flag
Medium: Photoshop (Digital Manipulation) Size: 91x61cm The artist wanted to make the flag simple but with a big meaning behind it. This piece it has a variety of symbols, but she tried to make it simple so that a child could remember and be able to draw it out. The artist understands that the image is very complex for a child to re-draw it, however she wanted to make something different. The artist had to be simple but in a way a little complicated, so for the audience can interpret the meaning behind it. Planning For this piece I made several sketches, I wanted to incorporate some of the designs from the current Milwaukee flag into my flag. I made it very simple but also very complex. Symbolism Medium Blue Background: Lake Michigan Gear: Industry (in the past) Atom: Advanced Technology (nowadays) Barley: MKE's brewing history Symbolism of Milwaukee's Current flag Medium blue background/Waves: Lake Michigan Gear: Industry Boat: Port city Flag: Civil war flag Barley stalk: Brewing history Native American head: The Native Americans origins Process My priority for this piece was to reflect that... 1. Flag should be simple 2. 2-3 colors 3. A kid should be able to draw it ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 1. First I opened a new file on Photoshop and made it 36x24in (91x61cm) and 300 res. 2. I uploaded an image of the atom and I cropped out half of the image and I copied and paste it on the new file positioning the image in the center 3. Then I changed the background color from white to medium blue 4.Then I uploaded another image, but this time the gear and did the same process as step 2. 5. Later, I uploaded the images of the barley and I cropped it out and did the same thing as the other images, and I positioned them in the center surrounding the other images (center symbol) Inspiration My inspiration was based of Robert Indiana's artwork and meaning. I really like his use of highly original works and the way of his work explores the American identity, and the personal history and his use of abstraction and language. Robert Indiana's graphic and paintings work have made cultural statements (especially in the 60s). I was inspired by his use of abstraction artwork "Love" and "Autoportrait". The artwork "Autoportrait" I really like the use of details and the meaning behind the piece. The meaning behind this piece is reflecting the artist essential feelings, memories and symbols throughout his lifetime. I consider Robert Indiana to be a reliable source for this project and an inspiration for my piece. Meaning Behind the Piece My recreation of the Milwaukee flag was really simple. I incorporated some of the symbols from the current Milwaukee flag into my recreation. The symbols of this flag is representing the Lake Michigan with the medium blue background, half of the gear is representing the metal industries, half of the atom molecule is a representation of advanced technology nowadays. So the meaning of the half of an image and half of the other is basically symbolizing of how MKE changed throughout time. Before there was a lot of metal industries and machinery, but now technology is a major use of today's day. Finally the barley stalks is the representation of Milwaukee's brewing history. Reflection Overall, I'm really proud of how my final piece came out. It took a lot of work and patience. The part that I struggled the most during this project was when I tried to incorporate some symbols from the current MKE flag to my recreation. Also when I was working in the computer program (Photoshop) I was struggling in incorporating the two images as one. One of my mistakes was when I didn't change the background color to blue and I left it as white, I added one of the images and it was the same color as the background and by the time I was going to make it bigger in size i lost the image (camouflage), and I had to restart all over again. The easiest part of this project was well balancing the use of symbols and design in incorporating as one. At first I had in mind to make my final piece as a drawing, because I was having trouble in Photoshop and I didn't know how to start. |