Project #2 & 3 Proposal

This line drawing will be uploaded onto a computer and made into a comic/pop art image as above, using Adobe Illustrator. 

Finished Project- "Big Fish"

Julie Mehretu

Before Viewing

• The scale of an artwork can determine the perceived effect of the work on the viewer. If it is larger, it tends to have a greater impact as being more dramatic, significant, etc. 
• Artists can use strategies of erasure and concealment by literally erasing material, covering it with other medium, and making the object much smaller to where it is scarcely visible. This has the effect of conveying a hidden meaning, that the viewer can interpret or assume is in fact there in front of them. Doing so engages the viewer in analyzing and understanding the context of the piece, if there is meant to be one.
• Painting and drawing can be additive, since both require many overlays of color or lines, to completely make up the image over the process of its creation. Each mark is added to the visual  individually. Both can also be subtractive, when the artist does not include something, or if they cover it up; as they decide it is not necessary to be completely obvious, since visually they think the piece stands complete as is.

While Viewing

• Her assistants will actually trace projections of maps and they will capture various lines present in the image onto their usable surface. 
• Given how her works are traces of maps and images, the viewer may perceive maps as being a literal, still version of something. Mehretu's images are the same projections, but the lines continue almost infinitely, which gives the sense that things exist further from the extent of their exact placement. 

After Viewing

• Mehretu's works are somewhat like interior paintings on walls and ceilings, because she is presenting a larger image on a working surface. 
• Like architecture, she is presenting the subject matter of buildings, but in a more abstract way using basic lines, spacing, etc. Architectural design is far more exact, in precisely arranging and spacing objects to where they fit and function for a literal use. 
• Her one painting incorporates the ideas of capitalism and economic development in such an abstract image by the associated meaning being juxtaposed by its actual location of display. It is meant to suggest these concepts while being reinforced by its poorer surroundings.