Blog 3 - The Impact of Photoshop

         As a general rule, I believe photoshop to be an artistic tool of incredible importance. Even just taking the ability to completely change photographs away, Photoshop has proven to be very influential in allowing for an entirely new genre of art. Perhaps more importantly, it's presented in a way that anyone can create art of their own, and entirely without the need of canvas or paper.
        That being said, the ability to manipulate images is as dangerous as it is revolutionary. As mentioned in the article from Huffpost the use of doctored images in both physical and digital media is widespread and, perhaps more importantly, often goes without a disclaimer to inform the viewer that the image they see isn't real. This has made the spread of misinformation via news sites and propagandists very easy and accessible.
        However, I do feel that the majority of supposed issues caused by Photoshop are misplacing the blame. While I do believe that organized media has a responsibility to avoid misleading its readers, I think much more responsibility lies with the individual to not treat media as irrefutable fact. Even now, I think more and more people are learning to treat media with a sense of skepticism.
        The picture below is of me, after I ran it through a filter on my phone, then used a spot healing brush down the face starting from my hair. I thought the result was interesting.

Blog 2 - Dreams

        Personally, I believe that dreams are the essence of the sense of purpose that we give ourselves. More than anything I think dreams exist to keep us focused on our goals by allowing us to envision "what could be" so long as we keep working hard at it.
        As for coincidence, I certainly would say it exists. I never liked the idea of "fate" since it often seems used as justification for defeatism. I think just about every aspect of our lives has a sense of "randomness" to it, at least as far as we can prepare for things. I think our personal choices tend to manipulate the events and people we encounter in life, and people often mistake that for fate.
        I think memory is like a dream in that it often holds significance to us, whether it be consciously or unconsciously. I've always held a fair amount of stock in the idea that people tend to remember what they want to remember, for better or for worse. I believe that, like dreams, recurring memories are often an indicator or reminder of what's important to us.

Transformation classwork

https://www.timlordart.com/#gallery/ca15193e8b01d77c3f91d0a0c2462300/83

      This work I found today is by an artist named Tim Lord, a freelance illustrator based out of Shrewsbury, UK. From what I observed looking through his portfolio on Hire an Illustrator and on his own personal site, he seems to place a focus on intense detail in his illustrations. This lends itself well to the sort of steampunk-type imagery seen in many of his works, and in creating intricate scenes within portrait-style works.
     This art in particular, called Kraken, stuck out to me because I felt the depth of detail in the work when I imagined the sense of scale. The random bits of junk seemingly patched onto a creature so large as to be wearing a ship for a hat seemed novel to me, and the overall appearance of the creature reminded me of some sailor's corpse, with the empty eyes and detritus hanging all over it.