Comparison of Same-Artist Covers

While researching other New Yorker covers made by the artist Eric Drooker, I found one from September 12th 1994 that has a similar theme as the one I was assigned. The image shows thousands of people walking on stilts above New York City. All of the people are men wearing hats, suits, and carrying breifcases. It is similar to the October 25th 2010 cover because they both portray people above the city, and looking down on it in a sense. I think what Drooker displayed with both of these covers was people trying to climb to the top of NYC. The September issue shows it more in climbing the business ladder, and the October issue focuses more on breaking out of the clutter and confusion and rising above it.

The next thing I found wasn't a New Yorker cover he's done, but it is a piece of art he's done. His painting "The Maze" had a very similar theme as the two covers. It is a painting of New York city, but the buildings are interlocked to look like a maze, and a bird is flying above it. This is right in keeping with the theme of being above the city in some way. The bird must represent freedom, and the bird is free from the confusion of the city. Although the maze stretches on past the horizon and seems to not end, so the bird isn't necessarily free after all. This theme of entrappment is shown in the two covers as well because he shows the buildings in the background that are almost like a barrier.

My New Yorker Cover

New Yorker Cover Comparison

I think that the "beauty pageant"cover and the "twilight" cover are similar because they both describe what New York City is all about. The "beauty pageant" cover shows how New York represents differences, beauty, and a modern world apart from other states. The "twilight" cover represents the city in terms of romantic qualities, nightlife, and the city's many different sides. Beauty is represented in two different ways in these covers. In one it is shown with a beauty mark, and in the other is is shown by a romantic couple. While the "beauty pageant" cover is easier to analyze, the "twilight" cover takes longer to process. In essence, both of these covers describe New York itself and its best qualities.

New Yorker Cover "Twilight"

Notice and Focus:
-Repetition of yellow windows and similar structures on rooftops.
-Yellow towards the bottom and blue towards the top.
-There is a couple holding hands on a rooftop.
-The city is bright even though it's nighttime.
-Romantic theme?

The artist Eric Drooker was not only an artist, but also a novelist and a poet. This says something about the cover because the artwork most likely has a story behind it. I think that by making the bottom part of the cover yellow and fire-like, he is portraying that even though it is nighttime, the city is still alive and bright. The artwork shows a couple looking down onto the city yet secluded from it, which shows the two sides of the city.

New Yorker Cover Analysis Part 2

I found it interesting that in the book they look into the historical context of the time period the cover was published. I touched on this briefly in my analysis, but I didn't think to delve deeper into it. I also thought that it was interesting how they noticed that the three states they used other than New York ended in the letter 'a', which I had not noticed. This further illustrates the similarities between the three states, and differences from New York. The book categorizes the cover as a "dumb blonde joke" by showing how the darker woman with a beauty mark is set apart from the rest. I also touched on this, but in a different way in my analysis. The most interesting part to me was when the book talked about New York as a point for immigrants, and the cover could be focusing on ethnicity. This struck me because it is a very plausible interpretation that I had not explored. Comparing New York to the more southern/west coast states, New York is definitely more diverse due to immigration. This is an interesting way of looking at it, and also very different from my analysis.

New Yorker Cover Analysis

On the New Yorker cover shown, it depicts 4 women with sashes that have the names of states on them. The states are Georgia, Florida, New York, and California. The font color of the title "New Yorker" is the same color as the sashes on the women, and the writings in the corner. Other than the title the sashes, and the miscellaneous writing, there is no other color in the picture, the rest is black and white. The women with the states Georgia, Florida, and California all have long wavy blonde hair, and have large fake smiles. Their eyes are also big and doll-like with long eyelashes, and they are wearing one-piece bathing suits. The women wearing the New York sash is very different from the rest. She has dark hair that is put up in a bun, and she is not smiling. She looks more exotic than the rest with smaller, narrower eyes with dark makeup and a mole on her right cheek. She is also different because she is wearing a two-piece bathing suit.

I think the reason that the title, price, date, and sashes are the only pieces of the cover that are in color is because the maker wanted those pieces to pop. Obviously the title should pop, but the fact that the sashes pop too makes me think that that must be of vital importance to the integrity of the cover. I thought it was interesting that New York was the only state they used that wasn't a warmer climate state. The women other than the New York woman are depicted as typical traditional southern pageant girls with their modest bathing suits, blonde hair, and fake looking smiles. I think the point they were trying to make with this is that New York is a place that is less fake, more fashion forward, and more modern than others. This makes sense as a theme because this issue is from the year 2000 when a big focus was put on being modern.

Grammar Comics

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/apostrophe

Mini Paper Intro/Draft

Michelle LaRosa                                                                                                         9/21/11

Paper 1                                                                                                                        Dr. Devine

After capturing all of my photos, it became clear to me that they were all pictures of items that I own: my jewelry box, my desk, my ITunes card, my poster… etc. I seemed to gravitate toward things that were safe and familiar to me. I think the fact that I didn’t go out and take pictures of things I didn’t own gives this collection a theme of vulnerability. What I mean by this is, taking a risk and taking a photo that was more out of the box would have made me feel vulnerable, therefore I stuck to the familiar. On the other hand, none of the photos had any darkness to them, and they were all portrayed in fairly bright lighting. This gives the collection an undertone of happiness and lightheartedness. Both of these themes represent me because I tend to feel vulnerable when expressing my own ideas, such as pictures, but at the same time I also try and keep life as lighthearted as possible.

The photo I chose to focus on is filled with objects, and is generally very cluttered. When I first look at the photo, all I see is the confusion and I am not sure what to focus on. The color scheme in the picture tends to be mostly shades of blue and red. The object in the foreground that I would consider to be the main focal point is a Tim Hortons coffee cup. The reason it stands out is because it is the largest object in the photo, and it is also closer to the camera than all of the other objects. There are warnings all over the coffee cup that say ”Hot!” “Caution!” and “Careful!”.  The other objects in the foreground are a computer, a pair of headphones, some dry erase markers, the bottom of a lamp, a tissue box, and a pair of scissors. These items stand out less than the coffee cup, but still seem to be points of focus in the picture. In the background of the photo you can see shark printed sheets, a plaid comforter, and a horizontal metal bar. Although these aspects are more difficult to spot, they are of vital importance to the integrity of the photo.

When first looking at the main focal point, the coffee cup, it has an obvious meaning of needing caffeine to get through the day. But looking closer, the warnings on the cup could represent over cautiousness.  I have always had a problem with stress and anxiety, as most do, and so I am generally over cautious about a lot of things in life. These warnings represent that part of me well because of the blatant stressful tone that it brings to the picture. As for the shark printed sheets, they bring a subtle quirky undertone to the photo. The metal bar locks away that part of the picture and cuts it away from the rest of the picture. This also represented my personality because I have a subtle quirkiness that I tend not to show to most people, therefore it is somewhat locked away. The overall brightness of the photo also struck me. There is not a direct light source per say, but rather the entire photo is represented in a bright light. I think this is a really good illustration of how I am overall lighthearted. Even though there is an element of stress and clutter in this picture, it never loses its bright and cheery feel which is what I wanted to focus on. Rather than portraying it in a dark and dreary theme, I chose to take the picture in a bright setting with a generally cheerful color palette. I think this says something about my thoughts when I took the picture, and how I wanted my happier side to show through.

In essence, this photo has a theme overall happiness and lightheartedness, with undertones of stress, quirkiness, and clutter. This is a complete self representation, because that is exactly how I think my personality works. In a more general sense, this picture also showed all of my favorite pastimes such as music, coffee, writing, etc.  As a whole, I think all of the pictures I took represented how I like to stick to things that are familiar and close to me, and the collection shows my vulnerability. All of the aspects in the photo I chose are a non-literal self portrait of myself.

Photo Analysis part 2

Out of all of the pictures I chose, the one that stood out to me the most was the first one. The main themes that stood out to me in this picture were adulthood, freedom, and happiness. It was the easiest for me to evaluate this picture because of the loud colors and the drawings on it. The second most grasping picture for me was the one with the coffee cup. This picture had a lot going on in it and I was able to pick it apart a lot. The clutter in it had the theme of business and getting through hardships, and there were subtle undertones of quirkiness in the shark printed sheets. I think that this picture was the best representation of a self portrait overall because it showed my personality, and what I do on a day to day basis. The picture of the street lined with trees was difficult to analyze because there weren't many things in it that jumped out at me. Other than the old fashioned buildings and crosswalks, I didn't have much to say about it. The calendar picture was fun to interpret, but it related to me in too much of a straight forward way. The pride and prejudice picture was also to straight forward, because it represents my favorite movie. The most difficult picture to interpret was the one with the flowers and beading. It didn't say much about me as a person, although it did have some themes portrayed in it. By having all of the flowers moving toward the light, it had a theme of reaching toward things that help you grow. Other than that, there weren't many things to pick apart in that photo. Overall I would say that the photo with the Tim Hortons coffee cup was the one that spoke to me the most.

Carl Sandburg's Poetry

In my experience reading the poetry of Carl Sandburg, it seems that he tends to repeat certain words or phrases for emphasis. He does this in the first section of his poem "In a Breath"by repeating the word "sun" to emphasize the feeling of heat. He also repeats the words "large" and "cool" in the same poem to emphasize the switch from heat to water. By repeating the words he puts a clear image into the reader's head and makes it stick.
Carl Sandburg also repeats words for emphasis in his poem "Bath". He uses the word "rose" twice in the poem, but with different meanings, to clearly show the change of theme. He also repeats the word "singing" a few times to make it known that music is an important aspect of the poem. This repetition emphasizes the most important aspects of the poetry.
Another thing that Carl Sandburg does in his poetry is that he changes between themes quickly and dramatically. In "In a Breath" he switches between hot and cold. He starts off with summer heat, switches to an ocean, and then goes back to the first theme. Not only this, but he switches from playfulness to aggression without any warning. This gives the reader the idea that so many things can be happening in one moment.
Carl Sandburg does the same thing in the poem "Bath". He does this by switching themes from death to life. He uses binaries like "grinning skull and cross-bones" and "broke down and rebuilt" to make contradictory statements and further hint at the change of theme. He puts the idea of creation versus destruction in our heads by using binaries and word repetition, which subtly hint at his ideas.

Pictures and Analysis

The focal point of this photo is the number 18. I think the number 18 represent the age, and that it represents adulthood. The photo has bright neon colors, whic is a loud and bold choice. A choice was made to only depict the top half of the person, and the hand is cut off from view which could indicate vulnerability. The person is dancing to their music, which represents freedom and being carefree. The person has a smiling face drawn on and is yelling "Yay!" which indicates happiness. In the background you can see a reflection of light which indicates that the surface of the object is shiny. The reflection looks like blinds from a window.

The main focal point of this photo is the Tim Hortons coffee cup. There is also a light blue tissue box, a pair of headphones and a computer, a pair of scissors, and Expo markers. If you look closely into the background you can see something printed with sharks on it, and a horizontal metal bar. There doesn't seem to be a direct light source coming in other than just a general brightness about the photo.

This is a black and white photo of a city street. The street is lined with old fashioned looking buildings, trees, and lamp posts.You can see 3 crosswalks on the street which indicates that the area has a high population of pedestrians. That means that the area must either be commercial, or residential. The fact that the photo is black and white must mean that either it is a very old picture, or the feelings attributed to this picture are sad.

This picture looks like an advertisement for a movie. The focus of the picture is put on the title of the movie, "Pride and Prejudice", and the review that says "The Best Film of the Year!". The photo depicts a person walking from an orange sky where the sun is behind a tree, to a blue sky where the sun is not shown. This could be a depiction of time passing, or just change in general. The top half of the photo is not shown, which means that the part that is shown is of more importance.

This picture shows two rows of silk flowers, and a lot of intricate beading. The light source is coming from the right half of the picture, and the flowers all seem to be moving toward it. This means the the light source could be representing the sun. The beading is all moving in all directions and patterns. The flowers are only in the middle diamond shape of the picture, which could represent isolation.



This picture is showing a calendar of the month September. There are green explosions drawn on either side of the word September which indicates that it is an exciting month. The days are X'ed off up until the 10th which shows that the photo was taken on September 10th. The X's give a sense of counting down to an event. On the 16th it says "Going Home" which seems to show that that is the event being counted down to. The photo highlights only the X'ed off days and the "Going Home" day while the rest of the days are excluded from focus.

Carl Sandberg Poem Analysis

In a Breath

Notice and Focus:
-Ocean theme
-repeat "sun"
-dramatic words like "flashing" and "drum"
-repeat "large", "cool", "sun-fire", and "flimsy"
-goes from playhouse to knife

So What:
In the poem the scene drastically changes from heat to water, which gives a sense of two different worlds. It also goes from a playhouse theme to a hunting theme, which are very different. The poet sets the scene at first by emphasizing the word "sun" by repeating it, and when he continues on he repeats words like "large" and "cool". The poet also emphasizes the women's "flimsy clothes" to contrast with the knife and the shark's "mouthful of teeth".The title of the poem, in a breath, is repeated in the poem. This shows how in a breath, so many different events and stories can be happening.

Bath

Notice and Focus:
-binary, "grinning skull and cross-bones"
-use "roses" twice, both in a different way
-uses the word "singing" to keep with music theme
-binary, "broke down and rebuilt"
-uses the word "hit" instead of touched to make it more dramatic
-fake vs. life
-repeats "something or other"

So What:
The theme changes quickly in the middle of this poem. It starts off depicting the world as something fake and cruel, using the "grinning skull and cross-bones". This makes it shown to be devoid of life, and putting on a front of fake happiness. The poet uses objects like dust and ashes to to show something that once had life, and lost it. This is also depicted in the shriveled "rose flesh of life".

Brooklyn heights, 4:00 A.M. Poem

Notice and Focus:
A lot of contrasting ideas, child/ adult
Undertones of how our idea of fun changes as we age
Marlboro Light filter repeats
Idea of "playing" repeats
blonde repeats


So what?:
In this poem, the idea of putting your childhood in the past is a recurring theme. The hopscotch court represents childhood, and putting out the cigarette on it is a symbol for letting go. There is a lot of contrasting ideas like the Coors Light versus the jumprope. The blonde hair represents innocence, and the blonde child finding the filter is somewhat of a loss of innocence.


Text Analysis:
In the text analysis they saw pretty much the same binaries that I saw. The text explores the multiple meanings of "far" which I had missed. The text also explored all of the different violent actions that are used in the poem, that give the poem more of an edge. The repetition of the word forty was also acknowledge, and was said that it alluded to being middle aged. The text had some thought provoking analysis.

Your Space Ad

In the "Your Space" ad, the type of car being shown is a Honda Pilot. The sentence that states that this vehicle can hold eight passengers is bolded, which makes that information seem important. I noticed that the shadow underneath the vehicle does not stretch in any diraction, so the light source must be coming from directly above the vehicle. The vehicle looks very small against the large white background, and there is also nothing else in the background. The lettering that says "YourSpace." is large and bold, and it is the first thing that pops out when you look at the ad. All in all, the ad is very simple and to the point.