Artist Exploration

I am choosing to write about Francois Robert. I choose to write about Francois because the short bio I read about him in the link. It said he was a photographer and took photos for both commercial and artistic reasons. This connected with me. I also do something similar with video. I visited his website (francoisrobertphotography.com) and was immediately greeted with a collage of photos varying in topic from very strong artistically composed images, to pics of major company retailers like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Although he was originally born in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland, he has done much work in Chicago. According to his website, he has photographed and produced work for Crate & Barrel, Coca-Cola, Chicago Board of Trade, BP, Sappi Paper, Bentley Prince Street, Herman Miller, Polaroid Corporation, Western Union and Yale Medical School. Some of these are major international companies, that used his work around the world. The very interesting side note, would be why he is included in the "Morbid Curiosity" exhibit. Early in 1990's Robert bought a few lockers from a school in Michigan. When he got home two of the lockers were empty, but the third had a human teaching skeleton in it. In an article he is quoted saying "Bones have always fascinated me." He sought after taking pictures of this skeleton. But the one he had was limited. It was all wired together for teaching purposes. He decided to trade up to get one that had all 206 bones in pieces. He has since done many creative pieces that have bones as their main concentration.

Descriptive Page

A few years ago my family and I set out on a family trip to Minden, West Virginia. Our destination was Ace Whitewater, in the shining hills of the New River Gorge. As we drove on a back country road, we looked out the window to reveal sprawling trees, winding streams and rivers, and rolling mountains as far as the eye could see. The sun was setting and cast a vast array of colors throughout the trees that encompassed the mountains. Later the next day we were bused down to the bay by the river and boarded our white water rafts. Before we started we were all nervous, as we would be going through class 5 rapids, which are the strongest and most dangerous you can encounter. We pushed off and the ride was exhilarating. The raft itself bounced up and down like mad. We were thrown about back and forth, side to side. We were told by our instructor to quote “paddle like hell” so we would make it out alive. A few more thrashes back and forth and we had made it out of the class 5 rapid with out a single scratch or bruise. I can still remember when we were done for the day, looking up at a trestle bridge, some 200 feet above our heads, and feeling amazement that we made it out alright. 

Tattoo

I am going to choose tattoo “A” to talk about. I would assume that this person is young and open minded. The symbolism behind the tattoo shows a vastness regarding the person. It would seem that this person has a lot ahead of them and is living in the moment, and that they have no boundaries. Obviously they are proud of the tattoo because it is shown on their lower leg where, during the summer months, people can see it. It is also rather large. It takes up most of the calf, and is very colorful.  Another way to look at this would be a person that loves space and the cosmos. Maybe is an astronomer or person that hobbies with planets and stars. This is a good way to show it, because the tattoo may be of a specific galaxy or area of planets and stars.

I am a person with many different qualities and values. I was born and raised an Irish Catholic. I went to a Catholic high school where I played football. This lasted for 3 years until I injured my knee that ended up requiring surgery. This in turn, ended my football career. I have always loved tv, and have worked in TV for 6 years now. I have worked for local cable access stations, Chicago WhiteSox, various telethons, and now more recently, Columbia College TV department. Coming up in the next couple months I will be working for ABC Channel 7 up here in Chicago. I think my broad background of cultures will make my topic quite interesting to research. The Occupy Wall Street movement is also very full of variety and different cultures. I am looking forward to trying to understand this movement and its relationship to social media.