AP Concentration What is AP Concentration?

CONCENTRATION is … a way for you to fully explore connections difficult but will make you a more informed and accomplished artist 1 of 3 parts of your AP Studio Art Portfolio

CONCENTRATION 12 works (slides) 3 can be a detail of a work Works describing an in-depth exploration of a particular design concern and shows investigation, growth, and discovery.

Photographers that have work in a series that show a cohesive visual idea: “Anything that excites me for any reason, I will photograph; not searching for unusual subject matter, but making the commonplace unusual.” ~ Edward Weston “My own eyes are no more than scouts on a preliminary search, for the camera's eye may entirely change my idea.” ~ Edward Weston EDWARD WESTON

Edward Weston – Bodies and Vegetables Pepper, 1930 Nude, 1936 Two Shells, 1927 Nude, 1934

Edward Weston – Bodies and Vegetables Cabbage Leaf, 1931 Untitled Cypress Point, Lobos, 1930 Oceano, 1936

“….what grabbed hold of me as motivation for making fine art was the possibility of creating meaning in terms of the relationship between images produced and the society that produces them. That’s a symbiotic relationship that led me to question every aspect of the artmaking process, from what it should feel like to make art to what objects look like.” ~Sandy Skoglund SANDY SKOGLUND

Sandy Skoglund Revenge of the Goldfish, 1981 Fox Games, 1989 Radioactive Cats, 1980 Green House, 1990

“Photography has an amazing ability to capture the fine detail of surface textures. But far too often these intricate patterns are loved by the photographer for their own sake. The richness of texture fascinates the eye and the photographer falls easy prey to such quickly-caught complexities. The designs mean nothing in themselves and are merely pictorially attractive abstractions. A central problem in contemporary photography is to bring about a wider significance in purely textural imagery.” ~ Arthur Tress ARTHUR TRESS

Arthur Tress – Dream Series Girl with Dunce, Cap, New York, 1972 Flood Dream, Oecan City, New Jersey, 1971 Hockey Player, New York, 1970

Arthur Tress – Dream Series Boy Under Redwood Tree, Santa Cruz, California, 1972 Flying Dream

Arthur Tress – Shadow Series Untitled Untitled Untitled Office Workers, New York, 1966

Arthur Tress – Shadow Series Untitled Untitled Untitled Skater on Crest, California, 2003 Great Example of a CONCENTRATION….Check this out: http://www.lagalerie.de/tress2.html

Arthur Tress – Fish TANk Sonata Central Park, New York City St. George Island, Florida, 1989 Gulf of Mexico, Florida

Arthur Tress – Fish TANk Sonata Saratoga Springs, NY, 1989 Turtle Pond, Central Park, New York City Fern Lake, New York

Arthur Tress – TEA POt OPERA Untitled Untitled The Voyage . The Ideas embarked upon a Journey, 1980 The Birth of Ideas, 1980

Scoring Guidelines 6 = Excellent 5 =Strong 4 = Good unmistakable connection between idea and work engages viewer with the work and the idea effective integration of concept and design skills technical aspects are strong risk-taking and development beyond technical concerns evocative theme original vision excellent quality work and topic have a close relationship idea is good to strong evidence of thought technically competent, skill is evident effective pursuit of the idea some less successful pieces but work shows strong grasp of design principles transformation over time evocative them investigated work is strong quality sense of concentration and work related to the idea manipulation of ideas is evident growth and discovery are technically competent but incomplete investigation although it is strong and excellent quality, it is not a concentration good quality

Now, it is your turn to come up with some ideas for your own composition. Come up with a list of 50 ideas narrow it down to 2 great ideas draw 12 thumbnails for each series choose one and take pictures of a practice concentration referring to the thumbnails.

Bibliography Edward Weston www.artphotogallery.org/02/artphotogallery/ph... Sandy Skoglund www.temple.edu/photo/photographers/sandy_skol... Arthur Tress http://www.arthurtress.com/ http://www.lagalerie.de/tress2.html www.lagalerie.de/tress1.html www.vaultgallery.com/Tress_Avail.asp www.luminous-lint.com/__sw.php?action=ACT_SIN...