Overload | Escape from Hoarders

As part of my digital processes class, I was tasked with expanding my Flickr Overload photo set into a photo book.  I pieced my photos together in a style that tried to remain true to the Flickr set.   It's hard for me to say if the narrative had more of a say in the process of placing the photos, or if the consumerism had more of a voice.  Maybe they were both equally heard. Who knows…

I wanted the viewer to simultaneously experience my everyday routine that I go through when it comes to beauty and to also be gradually overwhelmed by all of the brand names and logos that I tried to portray through the photos.  The photos that are spread over two pages at the end are photos that I felt drawn to aesthetically.  After all, someone(s) did sit at a desk and design these products for us!

Some lovely design humor, poor guy/gal

As a result of this process, I realize I've seemingly become blind to my own consumerism that I'm totally giving in to.  But at the same time, it's my job as a makeup artist to be familiar with new products and current trends in the fashion/beauty industries.  How do I find a healthy balance between these two problems?  Is there a healthy balance? Is it worth looking into?  Should I start looking into contacting an space organization specialist?  So many questions, so little time.

You can view the photo book here on the Mixbook website or watch the cute little slideshow below.  (If you watch it below, you won't be able to get the full effect of the photo spreads.)  I wanted the theme of the book to remain relatively simple with the emphasis on being this sensation of being overwhelmed as a viewer.  I tried to listen to my intuition, as suggested by Sandy Dyas, to puzzle my narrative together with some semblance of a flow.  Hopefully my intuition was right.

I hope you enjoy :)

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Overload | A Makeup Artist's Antisocial Routine

For this project, we were challenged with capturing the notion of our environment and our own antisocial actions.  I set out on capturing an antisocial environment that I create daily, my very own morning routine.

During my morning routine, I am faced with countless products screaming for my attention.  Whether products new or old, the cry for attention is the same across the board.  The amount of products that I have for one person is pretty ridiculous, but one can't help buying shiny new things when the opportunity presents itself!  My Flickr set is focused on capturing the essence of a quote from "The Medium is the Massage,""When faced with a totally new situation, we tend always to attach ourselves to the objects, to the flavor of the most recent past" (p 73).

When planning which products to photograph, I found that I gravitated towards the ones that I choose almost everyday.  Although I probably have over a hundred products to choose from, I consistently use only around fifteen of them.  I realized that I am "liv[ing] imaginatively in Bonanza-land."  I hope to expand on this idea and photograph other people and the routines that they run through in the morning, with a focus on the brand name overload.

Why so much?!

Consumerism and our obsession with new products coming to the market almost daily are not only problems concerning our pocketbooks, but the waste that we are seemingly blind to.  Consistently using the same fifteen items means that the countless others I have are wasting away to no use at all.  How many other people are living like me?

Blind

Primers first!

In the world of makeup, a smart makeup artist always applies a moisturizer and primer to the skin before any makeup at all. As Elle Woods put it, "The rules of hair care are simple and finite. Any Cosmo girl would have known." I'd like to think of this post acting as my primer for the class.

Bruiser Woods would agree.

My name is Ariel Garcia and I tend to resolve to the world of fashion, makeup, cosmetics, or anything beauty related I can drown myself in.  I'm a budding makeup artist intent on shattering the stigma concerning makeup and its use by everyday people.  My initial obsession with makeup stemmed from my younger years as a boy growing up in a southern Pentecostal church.  I would stare at the beautiful singers on stage and admire them for the pounds of makeup they loaded onto their faces to look pretty for Jesus.  I wanted to look pretty for Jesus, too!

Ain't I so pretty now, momma?

It was not until I moved to Appleton for college that I was able to escape the suffocating smothering of the southern Jesus I came to know in my adolescent and teenage years.  I was finally free to buy all of the makeup in the world and consequently become not only a poor college student, but a pretty one too.

I call it... Hobo glitter brow chic...

I would like for this blog to serve as an extension of my artistic palette, primarily because it seems that the cosmetics and beauty industries have taken such a large interest in how the everyday consumer is affected by more than just advertisements, but the increasingly popular "beauty blogs and gurus."  I find the relationship between the cosmetics consumer and technology to be incredibly fascinating and, unfortunately, vastly under-studied by artists.  I hope to explore and exploit this dynamic in the coming months with this blog.

PS - I am a proud selfie enthusiast.