Bibliography: https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/document/d/1w1vKZX82A9FwVV6egk6tbOjtCxbyQbRRppCV-47Lhsg/edit?usp=sharing

This quarter I got accepted to the Rhode Island School of Design, the top design school in the world. I'm pretty insanely excited and I'm not totally sure how I got in but somehow I did. Along with the good though, I lost my laptop with most of my design work on it, some files were backed up, but many were not. The work shown above is what I've done physically and after loosing my laptop. Recently I've been very interested in Wes Anderson's films and have used them as inspirations for my work. 

My artwork this quarter was fueled by my RISD application. Below you can see some of the pieces I will be submitting. I've learned a lot over the past 6 months about drawing and feel much more confident with my ability to draw, I'm not Michelangelo or anything, but I'm happy with the work I've produced. 

I've never thought of myself as an artist, I've always seen myself as a designer, I can make things look good on the computer but I've never liked anything I've drawn. Only recently have I come to terms with the fact that the 2 are not mutually exclusive, you cannot have one without the other. This year everyone is expecting me to produce artwork that will get me into the top art schools in the country and while I have no hope of producing anything as nice as the other students that will be applying, I am trying to get better. 

Two WPA desktop wallpapers

An incredibly detailed laser cut pamphlet about european debt that I designed and fabricated.

Early drafts of ​Philadelphia skyline/bauhaus inspired building blocks. For the Public Workshop Kickstarter I've been doing lots and lots of research about the toys and especially the building blocks of 1900s. I've read "Century of the Child" a book from MoMA about the toys, playgrounds, kids of the 1900s. It focuses on what was going on in the world (like WWII) and how it affected the mindsets of the people and how it affected the toys and children. Below are images of "Century of The Child" and some of the blocks from the book.

This quarter I tried to focus on a little bit more physical art as opposed to design. I started off the quarter by spending a few weeks on a ceiling tile inspired by my previous sticker art squids and marine life. For christmas I got a NeoLucida as a gift (click link to learn more) A NeoLucida is a prism that you look through and it projects an object sitting in from of you onto your paper (sort-of). I've spent a lot of time futzing with the NeoLucida and don't have a lot to show for it, but once I figure out how to make things do right side up, I'm excited to do some more serious drawing with it. I've also been casually challenged with designing a chicken coop for small backyards in Philly (drawings above). And on a more serious note, designing a scarf that will be sold and put into production in the spring. I haven't stopped designing either, this quarter I designed Ms. Ramis Website (meenoorami.org)  and designed and layed out an entire 50 page magazine among re-designing my logo (for the first time since 5th grade) and my website. 

Found Object Sculpture:

“Personal Jesus”

Before my grandparent’s house caught on fire, I was able to take this Jesus statue out of the house. I really wasn’t a fan of the color and I got inspired by the Depeche mode song that was covered by Johnny Cash and later Marilyn Manson “Personal Jesus”. The idea is that everyone has a personal Jesus, someone to hear their prayers, someone who’s there. 

Copy a Master:

Andy Warhol Cats:

For my copy a master I chose to focus on Andy Warhol and his collection of cat drawings. These  pen and water color pieces are fantastic and really capture Warhol, they were unique and simple but filled with character and color.

Click Here to view the the first original piece and the 2nd original piece

#ENGCHAT:

This fall I’ve been working on a giant rebrand for Engchat, A website that encourages communication collaboration and conversation in english teachers. The site it run by SLA’s very own Meenoo Rami. I worked with Ms. Rami on lots and lots of variations of the logo. 

The logo when through many stages (pictures shown below) and finally we decided to strip down the entire logo to just our typography and to incorporate our favorite aspect of the logo, the pencil hashtag. I made the hashtag pencil colored and we came up with something that we absolutely loved. 

Below is an image of the logo at different stages throughout the design process.

At one point during the process of making the logo, we had lots of things that we wanted to put on the logo and lots of ideas for the logo but we hadn't yet come to a solution about to put all of the things we wanted into a single image. I came up with the idea to laser cut all of the design elements I had created and then using the piece, allow my client to build their own logo out of paper. This was helpful for 2 reasons, I got to see what style my client wanted and my client was also able to see that with the number of things they wanted in the logo it was almost impossible to not make it look over crowded. Below are some images of logos that we made

I redesigned Christopher Isherwood's Christopher and His Kind book cover. I took the art deco book cover and the 2011 movie poster and mashed them up into an art deco style version of the movie poster.

Book Review:

Christopher Isherwood is known as a pioneer of gay literature. He wrote many fictional books based oh his life in Berlin’s gay community in the early to mid 1900s. Christopher and His Kind, is one of Isherwood’s few non-fictional books and is very much an autobiography. The book was written as a reflection on ten years of his life from 1929-1939. The book was published in early 1976 and gathers Isherwood’s, diary entries, letters between Isherwood and his close friends, excerpts from his books and personal memory into one intellectually gripping book.

Christopher and His Kind was in many ways Isherwood’s tell all book. He writes of his outlandish friends and what characters they inspired in his previous novels, We meet Gerald Hamilton, the main character from Mr. Norris Changes Trains. Gerald is an older gay man who is known throughout Europe as a slimy conman who Christopher (like many others) is drawn to. Isherwood also writes about the Dramatic Jean Ross, the Lead character in Sally Bowls, she is a loud and theatrical British woman to which Christopher has a sisterly connection to. 

We also get to meet Christopher’s Personal friends and Colleagues like Wystan Auden, a satyrical poet who invites Christopher to Berlin in the first place; E.M. Forester, Author of the widely successful A passage to India and Isherwood’s mentor; Stephen Spender known for his many books of poetry. Then there is of course, Heinz Neddermeyer, Christopher’s love interest for the majority of the book, who he explored Europe with in the mid 1930s.

The story begins as Christopher takes a short vacation to visit Wystan Auden in Berlin. Auden takes Christopher around berlin, showing him the underground bars where Berlin’s gay culture thrived. After this trip, Christopher falls in love with Berlin and shortly after, moves there permanently. Christopher Lived in Berlin, moving to new parts of the city and meeting new people and writing new books, until the Nazi takeover in 1933. Christopher spent much of his time after leaving Germany in England, writing screenplays and trying desperately to get Heinz out of Germany. Christopher begins to develop a hatred for the U.K. and struggles to get both he and Heinz to the United States.

Christopher and His Kind as a book in entirety, is incredibly interesting because of the way that it is narrated, Isherwood talks in both the first and third person at any said time, attempting to distinguish between his past self and his present self. This leads to a multi-layered story, with the almost novelesque writings of his experiences in the 20s and 30s, but with an overlying narration from Isherwood, where he looks back and explains why he did something or how he feels about a certain topic now that he is older. In this  overlying narration, he adds in interesting things for the reader like diary entries, letters and poems. This makes Christopher and His Kind a fascinating theory book to boot, Isherwood deals with homosexuality and human behavior and contemplates them in a way that one can only do many years after the fact.

BBC released a movie based on Christopher and His Kind in 2011. Needless to say, it is very different than the book, having Christopher and all of his friends live in the same apartment building together when in reality, they may never have met each other at all. BBC did a fantastic job casting the rolls for the movie and the actors look exactly how Isherwood describes them in the book. The visual of the characters from the the movie crossed with the depth of the characters from the book created a very 3D and real aspect to story.

The movie has a phenomenal cast, starring Matt Smith who gives a remarkable performance as Christopher. Smith captured many of Isherwood’s mannerisms and plays a remarkably believable gay man. Watching the movie, then reading the book can be very interesting in terms of contrast, Smith gives such a wonderful performance as Christopher that one can’t help but prefer to imagine him rather than Isherwood in the role. Although That’s not to discount Isherwood’s writing style. Isherwood is known as one of the most influential Gay writers of his time. If you’re a fan of gay and lesbian literature, read any of Isherwood’s books, and know that they are the first of their kind. 

Christopher and His Kind

Christopher Isherwood

Publisher: Mc-Graw Hill

Year Published: 1976

Pages: 339 

Gay, Drama, Romance, Autobiography 

​Intro:

This quarter in art I focused on a range of things both digital and physical including my website and a ceiling tile tie painting. 


Website:

Having essentially finished building my website, I was able to sit down ad take a look at how people used my site. I noticed that a few changes had to made to the prioritization of different sections of art. I also realized that A new homepage could make the site significantly easier to navigate. After re-designing the homepage, I made minor tweaks to the site that made the visual experience both easier to use and more pealing. 

​Painting/physical art:

I often work with a lot of my art on the computer and when I get a change to actually work with my hands I love it. A really popular project this quarter for our class was painting a drop-down ceiling tile. I took a cartoon-like image of a cat that I doodled in my journal and drew it out on a ceiling tile. I used white paint and india ink. 

Another project that I worked on this past quarter was a mason jar light. Ever since my family has started bee keeping, we've needed a lot of mason jars (to feed the bees sugar water with). After we stopped feeding the bees, we had an excess of jars, we've been drinking out of them and even making lighting. I essentially just cut a hole in the to of the jar lid and pulled the light bulb socket through and hung it from the ceiling. 

We need the help of students, teachers and parents to answer this question. 
This focus group will advise and give feedback to a team of designers who will be creating a potential school logo as well as other projects to be determined. Being part of this project will require some brief meetings over the summer (virtual or in person) as well as meetings before the school year ends. If you would like to be part of this project fill out the google form below. If you have any questions, email Wynn Geary at wgeary [@] scienceleadership [dot] org


http://bit.ly/17SAkMi

 Wynn Geary,

Friday May 3^rd 2013 

E Band

 #1

IAGO:

(Iago sits on the side of the stage, his feet dangling off the stage. He has a perplexed look on his face.) “I have rubbed this young quat almost to the sense,” (He brings his arms up to his face while he is saying his line and makes a face, acting as though he is popping a pimple.) “And he grows angry. Now,” (He imitates a mad Othello.) “whether he kill Cassio” He takes out a wooded dagger and acts as if Othello has just stabbed him) “Or Cassio him,” (He turns the dagger around and acts as if he is stabbing Othello) “or each do kill the other,” (He pretends to stab Othello and then acts as if he is dying as well) “Every way makes my gain.” (He smiles widely to the audience. Then suddenly, it fades.) “Live Roderigo, He calls me to a restitution large Of gold and jewels that I bobbed from him As gifts to Desdemona.” (A look of greed/plotting crosses his face) “It must not be.” (He twirls the dagger in his hands) “If Cassio do remain He hath a daily beauty in his life That makes me ugly.” (He puts his fingers up to his head to look like the devil, and makes a sad face) “And besides, the Moor May unfold me to him—there stand I in much peril.”  (He stops twirling the knife and grasps it with both hands and points it up.) “No, he must die.” (Pause) “But so, I hear him coming.” (He stands up and scampers into a hiding place).

#2

Emilia appears in Act 2, scene 1, Act 3 scenes 3 and 4, Act 4, scenes 2 and 3, and Act 5 scenes 1 and 2. In the beginning o the play, she not only observes, but is an instrumental pawn in Iago’s plan to “dethrone” Othello. She gives Iago Desdemona’s handkerchief. Secondhand, I feel like Emilia is somewhat out of the loop in the play, She doesn’t realize how absolutely insane Iago is until like the last scene. I think that Emilia being “out of the loop” explains a lot about her “motivations”. She really doesn’t fully get what’s going on, and for anyone that’s out of the loop, not just her, that can lead to uneducated decisions being made. I think that essentially, Emilia being out of the loop shows that her actions are neither right nor are they wrong, they are simply uneducated and while they still are critical in the progression of the story, they don’t have either a positive or negative motivation behind them. If we zoom in on one of her scenes in particular, in act 3 scene 3 she picks up Desdemona’s handkerchief and gives it to Iago, if you focus on only this scene, her actions only become increasingly more disjointed.  

#3 

Iago: 

When Iago was a boy, he grew up in a small house in a northern Italian town called Padova. His father was a metalsmith for the army; his mother, a stay at home mom who kept watch of Iago and his brother and sister. Iago and his siblings spent their days in the woods and meadows just outside of town; Iago (being the youngest) always had to be the villain in any games they played. Some say that the oppression of his siblings lead to Iago becoming coldhearted and jealous, explaining to an extent his becoming twisted and doing the awful things he did later in life. As a teenager, Iago studied and he spent more time with books than girls - and as a result had few relationships. 

That all changed when (to the excitement of his father) he joined the army and moved to Venice. He met a girl there, also from a small town. Iago and Emilia braved the city of Venice and soon found themselves in love. Even after they were married, Iago’s jealousy showed, he would become angry with Emilia when he saw her talking to men, even in the market. After years of living together in Venice, As Iago moved up in the army ranks, he and Emilia moved to Cyprus, where “Othello” takes place. 

#4

There isn’t a whole lot we could do with our scene, yes, 2 people die, but we just didn’t feel like we had tons of control over the way that it happened. A couple of the things that I (Iago) do are, run onto the stage panting a little bit, yelling a couple of curse words, and then doing a little choreographed stabbing of Emilia. My plan is to make a cardboard dagger, it’d be great if I could find a legitimate looking dagger, but I don’t think that’s possible given the amount of time. I also have a cool puffy white button down shirt that I think will be the perfect thing to wear during the performance. I think that the main thing that makes our group’s performance stand out is that we have the finale. Everyone except for Iago dies and I think it’s the only scene where almost everyone ends the scene lying on the floor. In terms of things that our group has planned out, the biggest thing is the stabbing, we have a little choreographed thing and it seems to run smoothly in rehearsal so, fingers crossed it goes well tomorrow. 

 #5

“I told him what I thought, and told no more than what he found was apt and true.” This is a line that brings the audience up to speed on what has happened and brings Emilia up to speed as well so that she finally realizes all of what’s been going on. In rehearsal I spoke this line with a partially guilty tone, although I’d realized that Iago isn’t guilty at all, so I  to switch it to more of a sly tone. I was really surprised at how great everybody’s performance was, last minute I felt like I totally had to step it up. I messed up once because I thought I had one more line before it was my cue. I had to fumble with my script to deliver my last line. Otherwise, I think our presentation went really well. We all remembered our lines for the most part and our choreographed stabbing went really well. I was a little lost at the end because no one clapped and we had to announce that the scene was over, but other than that I think it was great. 

I’m proud of remembering my lines, honestly, if I had one more day with my script I wouldn’t have needed it at all. There are more things that I wished I had done then hand’t done, I think we could have been more creative with our skit for sure. I think that it would have been awesome to have a full on long rehearsal before the real performance so that we could have noted what other groups were doing and had time to make some minor edits to our own skits. I know this is a really simple answer, but watching the full play all the way through made me have a fuller understanding of the play. Being able to sit down and see the entire story of the play all in one sitting opposed to reading the book, stoping and leaving parts of the story disjointed and rough. This really connected the story completely and shed light on parts of the play that may not have made sense when reading the book. 

La Cancion de Leonora, Gregorio, Pablo, Pedro

This quarter, I worked on a number of different art/design projects. The main project that was officially for art class was the Vans Custom Culture competition. I was in charge of designing and applying a design for the BMX, surfing and skateboarding themed classic vans shoe. My idea sprouted from the idea of transpiration and Philadelphia transportation (SEPTA) in the form of a subway map. 

I started out in adobe illustrator looking at real world subway maps and designed my own. After much thought about how to actually apply the map to the white shoe, we figured that the easiest thing to do would be to use packing tape to make a template and paint the lines on the shoe. I stayed for a few days after school working on taping and painting and finally on the day it was due I finished and the shoe was complete and ready to be photographed and submitted. 

On top of the work in art class, I also worked on a number of personal projects. The biggest of them all has been launching my website. I used adobe muse and have been building the website since December. I went into building the website without a real theme for the website, my only real idea for it, was that I wanted there to be a business card on the home page with 2 buttons going to my graphic design portfolio and the other to a photography portfolio. I built the homepage like I wanted it and continued on to designing the actual portfolios. With the help of my mentor phil, we came up with a side scrolling circle concept. It took a few weeks to finally gt the website into a form that was simple and easy for the viewer to use. 

Now that the website is usable, I’m going back and re-designing the pages and taking a second look and deciding what might be better and adding features that some users asked for. One of the big changes that I’ve made already is re-designing the home page, this iteration pulls from my vans custom culture design and uses the “subway stops” as the buttons for the contact page and both portfolios. The URL for the website is wynngearydesign.com

​Other projects included:

Re-designing the SLARP logo,

I've also been working on projects with my mentor like, 
Creating concepts for a nascar/national guard project

How does this project relate to the real world?

I was poking around the easy measure app and I found their instructional video, and I realized how many uses the app (and the mirror method etc.) really have. In the video these people were trying to re-arrange their apartment and they were trying to figure out if they would be able to move the couch in a certain place and still be able to see the TV. So I think that’s a totally legitimate real world use.

What was the most exciting portion of this project and why? What was the least exciting portion to this project and why?

I’m always excited about a project involving art. Since I love art and all that junk it just makes the project a lot more mentally manageable for me, knowing that after I finnish all the calculations that I can do art. My least favorite part of the project was probably having to go measure the building, the realizing your measurements were wrong. Then having to go back and re-measure only to realize that your new measurements aren’t much better. I've realized that the mirror method is a little funky, anything that relies on human involvement isn't going to be super accurate. I'd like to compare all 3 methods and see if there is one that tends to get a more accurate answer. 

What did you learn from completing this project?

I don’t think I’ll be finding myself measuring the heights of building too often (but hey, who knows).  I think the easy measure app really showed me that there are a lot of different ways to use this concept.  I feel like I’ll use this to find the height of things in the future though, like in the video I could see myself moving furniture and having to make sure that everything would fit properly.