Blog Entry #1: Dan LuVisi

Dan LuVisi is a digital concept artist and he works mainly in the video game and comic book industry.  A few of his images are shown below but a showcase of his work can be found here.  I observed several denotations while looking at his work.

Layla

In the 1st photo called Layla there is a girl with mid-length flowing brown hair dressed up majorly in what I'd have to call 80's clothing.  For instance her yellow short shorts and her purple and pink wide-necked sweater.  There are some obvious exceptions to this such as her ipod nano, the nintendo ds strapped to her thigh, her robotic-looking armor on her left arm and left leg and her strange futuristic rocket crossbow.  She also has 80's style roller blades but they don't look like they are plain roller blades since there are beams of light trailing from them due to her movement.  She has several necklaces and a belt that relate to videogame characters and a blocky bright red 80's style watch and large green headphones as well as a pair of dark blocky sunglasses.  The background of the image consists of a blue sky that flows similarly to her pattern of movement with pinkish-white clouds that frame the patch of diagonal sky.

From this image several connotations become apparent as well.  For instance the overwhelming influence of the 80's culture hints at the influence of this era over our artist.  Since he was born in 1985, the 80's probably did have a large effect over his life.  Also on his website it mentions how "inspiration struck him in form of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" which ran from 1987-1996.  Another thing I noticed in this image was how the large sunglasses, the chunky red watch and the green headphones could either be items from the 80's or items from today since some of the aesthetics of 80's culture have been blending into what is popular today.  This cross between 80's influence, the items of today, and the futuristic bow & roller blades show us how things change over time but in some ways still remain the same.  It shows how human technology has evolved and how he might want it to evolve.

Another connotation of this image stems from the overwhelming amount of technology-based items that the girl has in her possession.  Seeing as how she seems to be busy fighting something with her bow or at least trying to destroy something with it, it seems impractical that she would need an ipod nano with her.  This distracting amount of technology fits along well with current society.  With all of the smart phones available and the new ones being designed to "save us from our phones" it seems that we might need to take a closer look at ourselves.  Do we really need all of this technology with us all the time or is it causing a distraction to our bigger purpose?

This image can be downloaded here.

Hailie

The 2nd image denotes a hybrid girl.  In some ways she is very feminine:  her hair is done up into a nice bump, she is wearing makeup, she has very feminine accessories such as a daisy behind her ear, two small shiny earrings, her turquoise-framed sunglasses, a diamond-studded necklace, fishnet stockings, and a skimpy bikini-like outfit all standing against a pink background with lighter pink polka dots.  In other ways she looks like she is ready for war:  her futuristic metal boxing gloves with a sawblade wrist guard, her ammo belts storing a beer (even though they are also storing lipstick and an expensive water bottle) with a punk rock belt buckle, the fact that her diamond necklace is a set of brass knuckles, the top of her boots and neckguard look like they are both heavy duty, her cowboyish bandana, her metal studded bikini top, her muscular stomach with a scar, and her tattoos (even though some are girly things like hummingbirds).

This image comes from Dan LuVisi's book Last Man Standing: Kill Book of A Bounty Hunter which is obviously about bounty hunters, but is set some time in the future during a time when the world is overtaken by World War Z.  Connotations observed from the photo come from this girl's gear.  Her gloves are very menacing and look like they'd give quite a beating.  From this, it seems like the World Wars of the future will be very tough indeed.  This sense of foreboding could stem from acts of terrorism like 9/11 or other calamities like hurricane Katrina that have changed our perspective of the world in recent years.  This could be giving readers a warning of what life might be like in the future and that we should either try to avoid it or prepare ourselves like this woman has as shown by her toned abs and weaponry.

Other connotations come from the shear difference between the war-like and feminine attributes of the woman.  Many women in the media today are taking this good girl gone bad attitude in the way they act and dress.  This tough outer shell could be covering up for either a real or presumed weakness inside.  A good example of this would be the actual Good Girl Gone Bad album created by the singer Rihanna who is a known victim of male abuse.  This image shows how some woman think they need to use this tough outer exterior to protect themselves.

This image can be downloaded here.

At the Image_Self exhibition we talked with several of the artists who had work displayed in the gallery. I found the image that combined the girl and her grandma in one picture that was modified into an old photo very interesting. I really liked how she thought of the idea for her art, that she wanted to spend a day with anyone she could and how she tried to combine features of herself and her grandma to physically show the family resemblance. It was very cool that she was able to make up this memory for herself and in doing so I'm sure she was able to gain more of a bond for her late grandma.