Final Project: Crowdsourcing

For my first of two online crowdsourcing projects for the Art 245 final project I chose to contribute a frame to The Johnny Cash Project. As a longtime fan of Cash and his music, this seemed like a really fun way to fulfill a segment of my final. I scanned through the random frames until I found one that spoke to me and ended up with Frame #1284. I really like the image of Cash walking up the train tracks with the guitar on his back and thought I could alter it to fit the project. Below is the original frame from Johnny Cash's video for the song "Ain't No Grave."

When first starting with the drawing application of the website, I found it hard to work with. After a bit of trial and error I began to figure it out and it was pretty fun. For me, Johnny Cash will always be the "Man In Black," so I decided to leave him as a solid black figure in the middle of the frame. His guitar seemed to be his guide through life; he took it everywhere he went and made his career a success by playing it. Since the guitar was such a big factor in guiding his life, i decided to make it white to contrast the black of his body. I like how it looks like it's glowing as he carries it on his back. Finally I made the tracks go into a blinding white light, coming out of a hazy fog of darkness. I wanted to represent Cash's journey from a troubled life into a pure afterlife as a way to remember his legacy. He was a simple man and he goes out the same way. A man and his guitar.

My frame for the Johnny Cash Project was accepted and is now randomly included into the sequence when anyone views the project!

For my second project I wanted to complete an assignment for Learning To Love You More. I think its a really cool concept to complete these simple tasks and then share them with the world, while opening yourself up a little more in the process. After much personal debate I chose Assignment #51: "Describe What To Do With Your Body When You Die." I chose this assignment because it's not really something I think about, but it forced me to go a little outside of my comfort zone and really ponder it. I chose to handwrite the assignment because the pen and ink make it feel more personal, something I think is very important to a project like this. Before scanning my text, I decided to crumple up the paper and then flatten it out to give it a weathered, used look that I think lends a thread of authenticity to the piece. Unfortunately Learning To Love You More is no longer posting new submissions, but mine will live on in my blog.