Ways To WOW

Good morning everyone! I'd like to welcome you to the course Ways To Wow.

My own journey as an artist forces me to come to grips with the issues discussed in this course. In designing the course my hope is that you will reap these benefits as well. 

I will post new material on the Voila! Homepage every Sunday for the next six months. This material includes a Reflection, Assignments and a Showcase of images illustrating the course material. Always read the entire course material before doing the assignments.

1) To register with the course, you need to be a member of Voila! Logging in means you can participate fully in the course discussions. However, non members will be able to view the course topics, assignments and the image you post in the Photo Gallery. Joining is easy and free.

2) In your profile, mention that you are taking the course by saying “I am taking the Ways To Wow course - 2013". To do this, follow the instructions posted in the article: "Website Functions: Change your profile description”

3) Then click on the Forums and introduce yourself. If you want, write a little bit about where you are at in your personal creative journey and what you are expecting from the course. Sharing your own experience will help others and this is an important part of the course. But please only write down what you are comfortable sharing with others.

Here's the link:

http://www.voila.eu.com/orca/index.php#forum/Week-1-Say-Hello-0.htm

The many faces of emotion

Last week, you built a Treasury of works that elicited emotions because wow pieces speak to us in this way. By discerning emotion in other artists' works we develop our ability to ensure working with emotion is part of our own creative process. Please note, in the context of the course, the term "emotion" is to be interpreted loosely to also encompass feelings and impressions.

As you have discovered, it is often difficult to label or describe the relevant emotions. What is important is to develop your ability to feel the feelings and not worry about being able to talk about them. You may also have noticed as you were adding images to your Treasury that some emotions were appearing more often than others.

Now is the time to put this Treasury to work. This week's assignment asks you to do two things:

1) using the Treasury as your starting point, identify an emotion that represents the most liberating creative option for you to explore in your Final Assignment;

2) observe the different ways in which that emotion is expressed in the various images you have collected.

Note: if your Treasury doesn't have suitable images to make this choice, collect new images. As an artist, you can make deliberate choices as to what space is creatively liberating for you.

As an illustration of the assignment, I have taken "playfulness" as the emotion to work with, and I have posted in the Showcase a number of images expressing this emotion. My observations are:

- some works are more obviously playful (Gu) while some are more subtly so (Ruebel).

- some works convey playfulness through form and colour (Ehmeier, Gu, Faust)

- some works are more figurative and tell a "story" (Charuau, Cobb, Hipolito)

- playfulness can be expressed simply (Ehmeier, Ruebel) or in a more complex fashion (Faust, Cobb, Gu)

- some works are ambiguous (Hipolito).

You may have other observations. When you do this exercise, just note what comes to mind, don't try to be exhaustive or complicated and don't judge.

This exercise is important because it opens up new creative directions, new possibilities in our work in three ways:

1) it develops our ability to see the ways a particular emotion is conveyed in the work of others;

2) it develops an appreciation of things we already enjoy;

3) it nurtures our mind and opens up creative opportunities for our own work.

The Many Faces of Emotion

This week's assignment asks you to do two things:

1) using the Treasury as your starting point, identify an emotion that represents the most liberating creative option for you to explore in your Final Assignment;

2) observe the different ways in which that emotion is expressed in the various images you have collected.

Note: if your Treasury doesn't have suitable images to make this choice, collect new images. As an artist, you can make deliberate choices as to what space is creatively liberating for you.

Let me know how you are doing by leaving a comment in Forums: http://www.voila.eu.com/orca/index.php#forum/Week2-Assignment-1-0.htm

To change the description in your Profile:

• Login

• Click on "My Profile" in the top right corner of any screen

• Click on "Edit Profile"

• Enter or change your description.

To upload images in the Photo Gallery - including your Baseline:

• Login;

• Go to "My E-Studio" and click on "Upload Photos"

• Using the "Browse" function, locate a picture on your disk drive, then click on "Upload File"

• Make sure to enter a Title

• Keep your images to less than 1000 x 1000 pixels, otherwise you might encounter posting problems

• Make sure your image shows up in the Box titled "Photo Gallery" on the Homepage.

To participate in the discussions:

• Login;
  

• Click on Forums.