Fall 2009 Signature by Brandi Price

there is always something more

a | ONE

I started the MFA program in Graphic Design at Virginia Commonwealth University in the fall of 2009. This is a documentation of my journey through the first semester. In addition to ideas and avenues of interest I had before entering the program, I have been introduced to equally as many new horizons, and have expanded on my methods of working, thinking, and learning. This semester, for me, has been a valiant opportunity to explore, adventure, create, make, think, to do... any and everything. My mind has been in constant motion, a mantra resounding this... Think. Adventure. Explore. Make. Think. Do. Read. Think. Read. Dream. Make. Think. Think. Think. Explore. Make. Think. Dream. Think. Make. Think. Think. Think. Think. Etc. Etc. I stay in constant flux and feel no closer to figuring it all out, still I enjoy the journey.

2 | THREE

This semester, through a series of many adventures (and those yet to come), my mind has opened in itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach of methods of discovery. These adventures taught me that absolutely nothing is meaningless and that the process or even end result is not necessarily the final goal, but instead the complete experience. I purposefully pushed myself away from my comfort and discovered options I might never have before. I discovered the beautiful simplicity of watercolor, the intrinsic value of video plus sound, and most definitely, the importance of a sketchbook.

4 | FIVE

TIME WA L K I N G I S NEVER WA S T E D

I walk to and from my studio on most days. The walk takes about 20 min., one way... There is nothing that gives me the as much inspiration on a daily basis. The ability to open your eyes and notice the world around you is something that I hold dear. There is something about movement that stirs the mind and makes ideas generate. Some days I try to notice every single detail of the world around me. Some days I meditate on an idea that has been stirring around in my mind. Other days I put on my headphones and crank up the music. On these days I can feel myself levitating above the streets and my mind existing on another level.

6 | SEVEN

T H E

E V O C AT I O N O F

S O UN D

& &

P R O V O C AT I O N M O V I N G

I M A G E

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afterhours

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cold sun

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dead leaves & the dirty ground

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CARIBU

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS

W H AT

D O E S

S O U N D

L O O K

L I K E

I believe music and sound is a very important part of design and designing. A reoccurring thought since before I started my graduate study is how is it possible to visually communicate sound. With this exercise I played a group of songs and allowed my mind to control my hand and create marks that represent the sounds that I am hearing. A free-writing of sorts.

THE

VIVIAN

WHITE

GIRLS

STRIPES

afterhours

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cold sun

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dead leaves & the dirty ground

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CARIBU

STEPHEN MALKMUS AND THE JICKS

W H AT

D O E S

S O U N D

L O O K

L I K E

THE

VIVIAN

WHITE

GIRLS

STRIPES

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10 | ELEVEN

One afternoon, on the way to Charlottesville, VA., to see a music performance, I had an adventure in a moving car, with friends, a camera, and the sun hanging very low. There was something magically spectacular that I noticed. Every once in a while the warm almost setting sun would peak thru the dense trees and create a flair of light. Back in the studio I slowed the video down and added a reverb-drenched sound track courtesy of Deerhunter, and the magic happened again. When I showed the video to my classmates, I sensed a general transfixiation in the room. The evocation & provocation that I was trying to call upon had been reached. This short movie was able to do this because of two things; it is grounded in the known, but calls upon the unknown. The audience could tell there was movement and that there were trees, but because of the slowing of the film, the audience began to anticipate the glaring of the sun, peeking, through at somewhat random intervals due to the natural spacing of the trees. The atmospheric sound track enabled the level of provocation needed to uplift the audience and begin to evoke feelings of varied degrees.

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12 | THIRTEEN

A N Y

R E P E T I T I V E

A C T I O N

W I L L

M U TAT E

O V E R

T I M E

– A L A N F L E T C H E R , The Art of Looking Sideways

I find that when I get into a creative rut, I’ll flip through Alan Fletcher’s book. I always see something that I have never seen before, and it always seems to get the wheels in my mind turning.

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At the time I started these exercises, I thought they had nothing to do with what I wanted to explore in my graduate studies. Instead these concepts have come full circle. This particular method gave me the idea for the movie displayed in still frames on the previous page, as well as thoughts of a new way of thinking about transmogrification.

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I began making these type of drawings displayed on this page and throughout this signature. They seemed very natural for me and I would almost thoughtlessly let one line follow the other. When I grew tired of making that repeating line, I would start in a different direction. Although I did not know why or how they would become important to me, the act of creating the drawings became a meditation of sorts for me. I soon started applying water color washes over the top and enjoyed the transformation they would take at that time. The lines would began to melt together and soon this very tight line drawing would morph into something very different and more obscure.

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14 | FIFTEEN

T H I N K I N G A B O U T T R A N S M O G R I F I C ATION

After a drawing is created, what happens if it is then painted on, scanned n, printed out, blown up, printed again, sized down, painted on, scanned in, etc... I happened on this notion of where creation starts and when does it end while focusing on the genesis of ideas. The idea of taking one image and adding to it cultivates a completely new evocation. This transmogrification of images is a concept I have only recently started exploring. Trying to further the concept throughout various facets of my output, I have been revisiting older photographs, drawings, and explorations of typography of the chance of a new life and purpose for them.

16 | IBC

I N F L U E N C E D

Everything is created for a reason, though not always preconceived or intentional. Nothing created today can be created without the experience of yesterday. I want to create in order to provoke & evoke. I want to present art that creates thought, that offers a world in which there are numerous answers and not one person can experience it the same as another. I would like to stimulate visually and so thru the eyes and in response an involuntary experience is created, a second sensory pathway is probed.

AKERMAN, DIANE.

FLETCHER, ALAN.

HADDON, MARK.

LAMB, WALLY.

B Y

W O R D

A Natural History of the Senses

The Art of Looking Sideways

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nite-time

She’s Come Undone

LARSSON, STIEG.

LIGHTMAN, ALAN.

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo Einstein’s Dreams

MCCARTHY, CORMAC.

Outer Dark

SAFRAN FOER, JONATHAN.

STILGOE, JOHN R.

Eating Animals

Outside Lies Magic

VENESKY, MARTIN.

It Is Beautiful... Then Gone

B PRICE

| fall 2009