Final

Artist Statement

For my final project, I was inspired to create a small world similar to work by M.C. Escher. To create my set, I used foam core and white and black paper. I created a few staircases and placed them at different angles to make an illusion. To photograph my set, I used strobe lights and added the colored gels to some of them to create different effects. I tried taking pictures of the different parts individually, and arranged in different compositions. I also wanted to take advantage of the interesting shadows that could be made with the stairs. I photographed my sister to incorporate a person in a couple of my images. I did varying levels of photoshop with my five final images to create different effects. In the images with the person, I wanted to create the illusion that the floor was upside down. In one of the images, I overlaid a few more sets of stairs to create a confusing perspective. In the colored images, I didn't want to distract from the shadows and light created by the gel, so I did minimal adjustments to these. Overall, I am very pleased with how the five images turned out. I feel the project is successful in creating a confusing perspective and illusion. Also, I think my final is a successful take on the drawings of Escher. I wanted to turn ideas in his work into something that was built and photographed to further explore the illusions he was able to create with pen and paper.