City with a View

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This assignment was to narrate a memory based on collage and also render it from different perspectives of the same view.

My memory is my first time in New York which was a childhood dream of mine, specifically the view from the Empire state building at night. My mom and I went to New York in February of 2018. We visited the "tourist" classic spots, but the Empire State building was the one that really wowed me. We went during the day and at night and honestly, I could have just stayed up there all night and been so happy, it just had a certain type of quiet magic to it in such a loud city.

For the viewpoints for my project I chose three:

New-found. I wanted to depict my view with the visual element of an eye the “viewer.” For the buildings I utilized images that I took to showcase the alive feeling in the city. For the amuse and wonder and the lights I wanted to incorporate actual lights of art that I had seen while visiting. I wanted to incorporate elements that I had seen throughout my trip within the piece-the subway, MOMA, and artwork. I wanted my view to communicate seeing the city as it is with the hope and brimming with possibilities as it felt when I was there.

Magic Eyes. For the second image I wanted to depict the same idea, but through the eyes of a child within their first visit to the city with the view. I wanted the kid’s to be more the magic of what the city could be in the eyes of a child. With all the lights I feel like it could be a bit of a blur in some cases. I wanted it to look like the view was being torn from a page of child’s coloring page and their imagination was spilling into the physical view. I chose to utilize star imagery because of all the lights of the city I kept thinking space themes that a kid may pick up on being surrounded by lights in that way. I wanted to layer some images as well, so that at the same time the viewer’s imagination can take what they want from the imagery.

Unamused. For the final image, I wanted to depict the idea of someone who found no magic within the city. I wanted something that had a bit of contrast from the lightness and colorfulness of the other two images. For this one I wanted there to be a very cool tone and dark wash over the image. I drew some inspiration from the depictions of Gotham in Batman with the blue and grey tones. I wanted the person to be more of a standing point rather than having it be through their eyes because I feel like this viewer would be thinking of how utterly bored they were with the setting rather than actually viewing through fresh eyes.