Week #4 -Jackie Gonzalez - Your good friend, Texture

Texture is defined as the feel, appearance, or consistency of a surface or substance. It can be found in everyday shadows, on the leaves of plants, on fabrics, paintings, basically it is not hard to find. Not to mention it is included in the basic elements of design. In lighting design, texture can add dimension to our composition(s); can give clues on where you are slash tell you the setting; and or can make something more interesting to look at. Although color is wonderful to work with, adding texture can make your design look finished or just add a little extra zhuzh. 

I was walking on Hennessy St. on the main backlot of Warner Brothers Studios in Burbank, California after getting lunch with my friend, Victoria, at the WB Commissary. I came across this exterior with a bright red door and window with a giant shadow of the fire escape above it. This picture and texture has always wow'ed me because of the complex line configurations that are lined up, but at the same time it is kind of all over the place with the spacing between the safety railing; the spacing between the floor pattern and the medium beams holding it above the door. The texture reassures you that this is indeed a metropolitan setting, it screams New York at me even though these lots can be dressed to be any city really. Also, if you squint your eyes, the fire escape becomes a distorted or very angled 3-D cage!

Lastly, I wanted to share this memory of last year's Brown Bag Variety Show when I helped Nita with tech in the Robert Cohen theatre. Nita, Natori, and I were trying to decide what texture would go on the back curtain to liven up the space a bit. We landed on this speckled gobo and Nita added blue light to make the texture pop along with the strong red center, down light where the performers would be. This made the space eery yet really fun since the speckle texture looks like confetti coming down and worked well with the show's theme of "it's the end of the world, let's party!".  

WEEK #4 -- Diana Herrera -- Textures in My Life

    When I see texture in my daily life, I get a sense of location in an aesthetic form. Texture is a way of light speaking about the object. It is about this light making a statement in partnership with the object. Light has a clear marriage with objects by giving them a voice when people are not directly looking at that object. As an artist, incorporating texture into my art mean showing a sense of space, location, and acknowledgement of the surroundings. 

     

    Texture plays an important role in my daily life. It helps establish were I am. I see textures on my walks around campus and inside my apartment depending on the time of day. In the exterior world, I acknowledge the presence of texture when sunlight shines through the beautiful trees casting silhouettes on the ground. Each silhouette is unique in their own way. It allows me to appreciate the forms of the entities. In my apartment, I appreciate texture when the sun beams through the silts of the blinds. I have learned to tell what time of day it is varying how the texture is casted in the room giving creates a sense of time in space and a sense of location.

 

    

I took this picture the morning the Irvine fire started. I hadn’t stopped to acknowledge what going on until I witnessed the alarmingly saturated silhouette on my wall. In the morning, I have a routine I stick to and don’t really acknowledge my surroundings because of it. Because the texture was bold that day, I noticed it immediately. When the texture of blinds hit that wall, I know it is 8am. By adding texture, the sunlight through my window gives a sharp impact and bolder statement. By experience these textures in real life, I am able to take this useful information onto a future project because now I know what sunlight through a window looks like in an apocalyptic morning.  As a designer, texture does that for me. It helps create bold statements and helps give a sense of time and space. They are also fun to play with by seeing how that can transform the space and take the spectator into a new world.  Texture is a reason why lighting design is such a beautiful art form for me. Texture is simply a different type of paintbrush in my bucket of tools. Just like a painter had different tools to create different textures on their canvas, I have gobos or objects to use on my own canvas.

Week 4 - Jacqueline Malenke - Shadow Play

Since I moved to Irvine for school, I have started to take walks throughout my new neighborhood. I am forever grateful to be here for many, many reasons, and one of those reasons is the fact that I am guaranteed to live in such a beautiful area while I am here. I enjoy that Irvine has so many different plants, trees, and buildings. When the sun is shining, I get to see the shadows and textures nature creates while out and about. The photo below was one I took while on one of those walks. In the photo you see there is a tree up against a wall with stark sunlight peeking through a gazebo ceiling and many plants and foliage. Those shadows are creating a depth and a story to this photo. This is texture. This photo is incredibly useful for a lighting designer's research. For instance, say I am designing a realistic play that takes place in a backyard garden. I can exactly reference this look onstage to create the world of the play. 

However, not all texture is sunlight shining through trees. Shadows can be hard edged or soft. They can be really stark or very dim. They can have a naturalistic quality to them or they can be incredibly rigid and architectural. The photo below tells a completely different story than that of the tree. There is a woman laying on a hard concrete ground inside of an empty room. According to the shadows on the walls, there are doors that are blocked by bars. The texture tells the story that she is inside of a jail. Without the shadow of the barred doors, we would only see a woman inside of an empty room. There would be no other context to help tell us the story that she is in jail. In this case, the texture not only helped create the world, but it defined the location of this photo. 

 

I am so drawn to lighting design because it is an opportunity to paint and create endless stories just by defining and redefining the lighting on someone or something. Plus, I can get some of my inspiration just by going on a walk around my neighborhood! Overall, I really enjoy playing with textures within my own lighting design. I have created a warm sunny day in a park with the light shooting through trees as well as a boxing ring using sharp edges and rigid shapes. I really enjoy making abstract looks using textures and shadow vs light. This is part of why I am so excited to finally get to do dance lighting, as I have only ever assisted lighting designers on dance shows. Although I have a general idea of the use of textures within lighting design, I am excited to learn and get a better understanding of them while I am here. 

Week #3 - Jackie Gonzalez - Film Wow!

Film Noir began in the 1920s and ran through the late 1950s; its name translates to "black" or "dark" film in French. The genre was obsessed with creating stories about gangsters, private investigators, screenwriters, crime, and Femme Fatales, while the point is to make the audience question their own morality. Film Noir’s mise-en-scène for lighting followed a certain visual design; chiaroscuro lighting treatments, shadows, heavy use of smoke or mist, gobos, cookies/kooks, and eye lights were used in ways to capture as well as emphasize the mystery and drama within these films. The era of film noir was a great era for lighting design compared to other later eras which do not pay as close attention to it. Furthermore, German Expressionism served as a form of inspiration for camera angles and aesthetics, this also explains why the dutch angle, derived from Deutch, is used often in Film Noir, especially during intense scenes.

Here in this image captured from the film In a Lonely Place, directed by Nicholas Ray, we can see a variety of shadows being cast on the faces of the actors in the shot. There seems to be a brighter beam of light coming from the actors' left-hand side, illuminating Gloria Grahame's face with a chiaroscuro effect, making her look smooth and emphasizing her to-the-point, stern expression. In contrast, the shadows on Humphrey Bogart's face emphasize the lines, indents, and eye sockets that make him look worrisome, not to mention, his arm is desperately wrapped around her shoulder as if he is asking her not to leave him even after she has made up her mind. Although there is a large bright spot in the background, these two characters remain the focal point of this shot due to the various shadows that add darkness to make them pop. 

Just below is a still image captured from the ending of the film, The Big Combo directed by Joseph H. Lewis back in 1955. The two main characters are at an airport; there is heavy fog or smoke that perfect their silhouettes and make the feeling of mystery prominent. Moreover, the smoke makes this a place as busy as an airport look abandoned or quiet. 

As stated in the opening paragraph, Film Noir called for dramatic visual effects, more specifically, the lines of blinds projecting onto a character's face as they contemplate or spy on someone as seen in the picture below were the main texture that was used. In order to create those crisp shadows and textures, designers used gobos, a small textured frame that slides into the camera, or cookies/kooks which are large, flat sheets with cut out shapes that are held in front of a light source in order to create a texture. I found it quite funny that cookies/kooks closely resemble a theatrical lighting gobo more than a film gobo does, but it is called a cookie or kook instead. 

Although the original era of Film Noir is gone, there is a subgenre called Neo-Noir, or new noir, that includes fairly new films like Chinatown, Blade Runner 2049, and Sin City that follow Film Noir's storytelling, character types, and or visuals. So, the aesthetic and mise-en-scène of Film Noir may not be completely gone as shown here in a still shot from Blade Runner 2049, where there is a heavy mist or fog that helps create a crisp silhouette of Ryan Gosling's character as well as the larger shapes around him which is similar to what we saw in the still image of The Big Combo just above.

Lastly, here are some photos that I took that I feel resemble what I mentioned in this blog post. The first being a strong black and white photo of some hydrangeas packed tightly together in the gardening section of a Home Depot in Sylmar, California. The rooftop of the gardening center looks that a green-house with its supportive beams holding up transparent panels. There is a strong light source coming from the top and the beams as well as hanging flower baskets create strong shadows on top of the hydrangeas. The one's that are of darker colors like green and magenta has a vignette-like design on the petals while the white hydrangea's steer away from darkness and balance the amount of shadow in the photo. I also wanted to add this photo of Downtown Los Angeles since Film Noir movies usually have a metropolitan setting and I wanted to pay homage to that. It is striking how the streets are very illuminated while the buildings act as shutters and cut the light off at perfect ninety-degree angles or straight lines.

WEEK #3—Diana Herrera—Shady Film Noir

Film noir is all about emphasis on attitudes, pessimism, and menace as the dictionary describes it. There is mystery that tends to lurk in every film noir frame. After doing my research on what this genre is and why it makes it so unique, I noticed that shadows play an important role in all of this.

 

Shadows are one of my favorite things to play with and be in awe with. The reason why I feel moved by shadows is because there is this sharp definition of shapes, curves and textures that I find so appealing. By simply seeing the way light and shadow falls on an object, I am able to imagine the feeling of that object in my hand. I love sensory. I love touching things, which is not all that sanitary, but I do it anyways because I love to feel the curves, angles, and corners of things.  When sharp shadows and lights are casted on an object, I am able to imagine how that object would feel in my hand. Another thing I find appealing about this style is the cleanliness of the peoples faces and objects being hit my light. This also ties in with the sharpness of the shadows. There are no washed-out images. It sounds so weird when I say this out loud or write it down. Pervious to this quarter, I had never really stopped to identity the reasoning behind this interest. The lighting and angles of light in film noir really add definition to the bodies and surroundings. I can see this based off of this research image I provided above. 

I took this a picture in my undergrad. I feel like this image really reflects and connects with the theme of film noir. Every night after a long day of school and rehearsals, I would walk back to my car and pass by a long row of trees that ran parallel to the florescent parking lot lights. I always found this to be a beautiful sight. I was in complete awe of the way the stark lights washed over the tree branches. It gave them so much definition and sculpting. The shadows casted on the tree branches were so defined and sharp that I could not look away. The overall environment was so cold, mysterious and moody. The shadows are so bold giving such a grand statement that gives me goosebumps. The feeling is equivalent to when I see the Film noir pictures.  I wish I had a better image of the full tree to really show the sharp lines of the bark.

 

 

Week 3 - Jacqueline Malenke - Blinded by the Side Light

A dark room. Harsh side light. Tons of cigarette smoke. And a detective with a smooth Chicago accent. These are the things that make up Film Noir. 

Of course, this was my interpretation before researching a bit more into it. Film noir is a style of filmmaking characterized by elements such as cynical heroes, stark lighting effects, black and white visuals, frequent use of flashbacks, and intricate plots. Typically, film noir movies were American crime dramas made in the 1940s and 50s. As far as lighting goes, film noir is most famously know for harsh side light and extreme contrast between light and shadow. The photo below is a still from The Big Sleep starring Humphrey Bogart. These blog posts make me feel so uneducated! I have never seen this movie, but it is now on my "To Watch" list. I really love the texture in this photo. The soft light in the background, the stark sidelight on his face, and the bright light shooting through what looks to be architecture. I think it would be so fun to light a stage production in this style. Not so sure about the black and white aspect, but the style of the design.

In 2015-2017, I was the programmer and light board operator for the Pamela Brown Theatre at Actors Theatre of Louisville. Every year Actors Theatre puts on the Humana Festival, one of the largest American new play festivals in the US. I was the board operator for a ten minute play called Melto Man and Lady Mantis by Eric Pfeffinger. The production was lit as a film noir superhero comic book piece! It was so much fun, and the designer used mostly stark side light and absolutely made sure to have light shooting through blinds. It seems like a staple for film noir to have harsh lighting shooting through blinds. Here is my very own photo featuring said blind lighting.

Does a film have to be in black and white to be considered film noir? Personally, I don't think so. I feel like the movies John Wick (photo still below), Pulp Fiction, and Drive all have aspects of film noir without being in black and white: stark lighting coming from strange angles, cynical heroes, and crime. I want to explore more classic film noir films to get a better understanding of this type of lighting.

Week 2 - Jackie Gonzalez - Romanticism is My Middle Name

It was nice to use this time to brush up on the history of art movements, their aesthetics, and famous art pieces created during the movement. Romanticism is one that I appreciate very much as I am a very emotional person myself. It is a complex movement and the subjects being depicted vary from region to region, but have one similarity which is capturing the sublime. Interestingly, I found out that Caspar David Freidrich's painting, Wanderer Above the Sea Fog is frequently associated with Mary Shelley's famous novel, Frankenstein, due to the shared theme of sublimity as well as the painting looking like the journey Victor Frankenstein takes through the Swiss Alps. Romanticism opposes the rationalism of Enlightenment and glorifies emotion and imagination which was depicted by nature, animals/creatures, and harsh scenes with human emotional outpour that evolved throughout the 18th century and died down toward the second half of the 19th century.  

The painting I picked is called, "Brudeferden I Hardanger (Bridal Party in Hardanger)" by Hans Gude and Adolph Tidemand, painted in Norway in 1848. The painting shows a Bride and her bridal party on their way down the Hardanger fjord. A beautiful day surrounds the boats as well as the towering mountains that could just scoop them up without feeling overwhelming. All in all, nature in this scene makes you feel as if you are reminiscing on a comforting memory. The shades of blues and greens used in this work are stunning, especially the ones used for the river. Towards the front of the painting, the paddles are causing the water to ripple which causes an eye-catching mix happening between the numerous shades of green and the toned-down blue's. The sunlight coming from the left-hand side brightens up the snow on the mountains overall but makes the tops truly pop. The shadows on the rocky cliffs in the background look faint or as if there is a lot of mist around which makes for a calming effect due to the gray and blue shaded blurs as well as the gradient of the sky that blends right into everything in the back. The greens on the trees and the foliage are nicely done, there isn't any use of the color yellow to indicate that there is direct sunlight on the flora that clearly is, which makes the painting even more gentle on the eye. Overall, I absolutely love this work of art, it proves to me that softness is powerful and large landscapes can be the main subject even if there are people in it. 

One of the more prominent naturalistic elements found in Romanticism paintings are the very elevated mountains in the background, and I immediately remembered a photo that I took from my last trip to Mexico back in 2018. My cousins took my family and I to El Lago de Chapala which is one of Mexico's largest freshwater lakes located in Jalisco. The sky and clouds look as if someone blended them for hours on a canvas, they look heavenly. There is a soft, rounded ray of sunlight on the colossal mountain coming from the right-hand side, it reminds me of the misty fjord cliffs found in the painting above. Most of the colors that are in this picture are natural tones with a few acceptions of red or brick within the town below still making it look naturalistic even in a populated area.  

 

Week #2-- Diana Herrera-- Romanticism Around Me

 Romanticism was an art movement that glorified nature and added emphasis on emotions. I think this image I found truly reflects those things. The people in the painting seem so lively and cheerful. A celebration is taking place. I find this painting to be inspiring in so many ways. The people carry this fluid energy of happiness and I am able to see that in the way their bodies are captured. The curves and shadows define their dancing bodies and happy faces as they bathe in the sunlight. In the distance there are massive trees that add that element serenity and appreciation of mother earth.  I find myself to be in complete awe of the color tones and shadows in romanticism art. The nature and people are portrayed with such intricate details. Nature is depicted in beautiful masses that bring serenity to me. 

 

 

This painting inspires me as a designer by the way the light defines the humans, trees, and building. When I walk around campus in the evenings, I am able to get a real-life glimpse of something similar to Romanticism art. The rich amber sun likes to hit the massive trees and wash over the landscape of grass with groups of friends. I can see the fluid happiness and tranquility in these views I get to see on my walks. On today’s walk, I took this picture that I feel relates strongly to this topic. Just as the trees were depicted in this painting, the trees in my personal image evoke the same feelings in me. The warm light shines through them bringing them to life. Their leaves sing in the sunshine and I can hear them. When I passed these beautiful massive trees, I was able to feel the same way the people in the painting felt: full of life. 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 2 - Jacqueline Malenke - An Unknown Romantic Enthusiast

The Romanticism art movement brought about so many incredible works of art including paintings, poetry, and literature. To be quite honest, I never really understood Romanticism in that I was never properly taught about the movement. In fact, before researching for this particular blog post, all I really knew about Romanticism was that it was apart of an old art movement, and it consisted of oil paintings. That is really about it...how sad. 

If I am being honest, I am pretty grateful for this assignment. I watched a few videos and read a few articles to really get an understanding of what Romanticism is, and I am kind of into this movement. I love that it is all about evoking strong emotions and usually involve man vs nature or man with nature. My favorite piece I found while researching is Casper David Friedrich's piece Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog. 

This piece is so incredible! It makes me want to be apart of this moment that this man is experiencing. Imagine the combination of tranquility and fear he must feel standing over such an amazing sight. The roaring sea, the beautiful mountains in the distance, the wind blowing wildly, and the calm pastel sky. It shows how small and powerless this man is compared to nature. Not powerless in a demeaning or negative way, but more in a humbling way. A way that calls for man's respect of nature. One slip on those rocks, and the sea can sweep him away forever. It feels like a gift that he gets to view this part of the world in such an immersive and intimate way. 

A photo from my own personal life that represents the Romanticism movement is one I took while exploring Cherokee Park in Louisville, KY on one of my few days off a few years ago. 

This photo makes me feel so small compared to the tall, wooded trees. All I wanted from my day off was to get back in touch with nature. I needed time to just slow down, appreciate my surroundings, and take a damn breath. I feel like in some ways, this is exactly what the Romanticism movement wanted to evoke: an appreciation for nature and a place for emotion. Some Romantic pieces tread on gothic and supernatural themes as well, and even sometimes death. The main point is to focus on man, nature, and the emotion that the combination of the two create. While some pieces make me feel at peace, others I viewed made me feel fear. I love that a movement of beauty can make feel such a wide range of emotions. 

Overall, I really enjoy the Romanticism movement. I love art that is derived from emotion and the harmony or disharmony of man and nature.

Week 1 - Jackie Gonzalez - There's Color & Inspiration All Around You

For the past couple of months, I have been challenging myself every day to take pictures of things that catch my eye to teach myself that inspiration and beauty can be found all around me and wherever I go. Color is one of the elements of design that can catch your attention right away and as a designer, color palettes are one of the things I stress about a lot to the point where I get a horrible headache because I am very on myself about it. Color has a good amount of impact when it comes to inspiration and creation; each one of these images I took has its own emotional and or visual impact depending on the colors presented within the photo. Personally, I am a colorful creative and the world around me is becoming a source of inspiration in my work or what I do. In this first picture, spotting an overgrowing gorgeous magenta bougainvillea bush on a spotty brick post on my morning walk filled me joy, energized me, and inspired me to get out more to find interesting plant life in my neighborhood. 

As cheesy as this sounds, even the items we bring back after grocery shopping can hold inspiration. The limes just happen to be assembled in a way that looks like there is a strong source of a yellow light coming from the left-hand side, emphasizing them more than say the dark green poblano peppers but still not demanding as much attention as the red apples do. There is a potential light study painting in here that I am very much inspired to paint. 

Lastly, I took this image one evening after a run to the store with my Mom. The sun sets behind my house which makes for a nice photo-op. There is a really nice contrast happening with the soft pink wisps of clouds along against the calming blue gradient happening in the sky. My front porch light gives off a strong amount of yellow-orange light which reminds me of a guiding light and is a visualization of the words "Welcome home, we are happy to see you!" or the sound of comforting guitar strumming that happens when the main character in a show or movie gets their happy ending. All in all, this image inspires warm and safe feelings.  

Although I am just a beginning designer, I try my best to implement exercises like the one I mentioned in this blog post to keep me trying to find inspiration around me as much as I possibly can. I have discovered that [vibrant] color is a major factor in the images that I look at for inspiration. 

Week 1 – Diana Herrera – Inspiration in Nature

I find my inspiration from all sorts of things in my daily surroundings. The main things that inspire me as a designer can be found in wildlife, the sun, and the moon. 

 

Depending on what time of day it is and where the sun is located, it has the power to affect my mood in contrasting ways. I find myself fascinated by how just one simple source is able to affect how I feel throughout my day. On cloudy days, a simple and soft wash of daylight allows me to feel the most cozy, relaxed, and peaceful, whereas a sunny, clear blue-sky day triggers me to feel adventurous, energetic, and driven to bathe in the sunlight. Afternoons strangely make me feel weary and sad because it means the day is coming to an end. No matter what, the sun is able to paint the sky in such beautiful ways. The time of day that I find most captivating would be sunsets. I love the way the sun colors the horizon with heavenly color palettes. Amber, pink, lavender, cool blue. I also love the way the sun and moon illuminate and sculpt nature: trees, grass fields, flowers, mountains, and bodies of water. This is where nature becomes a source of inspiration for me. I am really moved by the way the sun and moon enhance the colors and shapes in nature. The colors in nature can be so vibrant as if the plants, mountains, bodies of water have something important to say. The colors of the plants call so much attention to me, each one appearing to have a different personality based on what color that are. The way the moon sculpts objects in the night allows me to appreciate the shapes of those objects being illuminated. 

 

These three things are what inspire me to do what I do. There is such simplicity and beauty within our environment that moves me in so many different ways. As a designer that I feel it is my calling to help recreate that beauty with lighting so others are able to appreciate the colors, shapes, and textures within those surrounding that tend to go unnoticed. 

Week 1 - Jacqueline M - Inspiration is Everywhere

As a lighting designer, I can find inspiration literally anywhere: scrolling through my social media pages, in the television or movies I watch, and even just looking outside of my front window. I think the strongest source of inspiration for me is by watching others work and create. This ranges between other lighting designers to painters to social media influencers. I know the last one seems a bit weird, but their entire job is to promote a specific aesthetic and brand. In a way, is that not what we are doing as lighting designers for a production on a stage? There is a theme or a story that the director wants us to tell, and our job as the designer is to make that come to life. 

Personally, I am an incredibly visual person. When I first start to read a play or book, my mind's eye starts to consider the location of this place. Sometimes it is a full picture, but most of the time it is more of an idea, a feeling, or just colors. For instance, when I first read the play Eurydice, I immediately imagined the world on Earth as being dull and lifeless, and the underworld being extremely vibrant and contrasted. To be honest, I didn't have a clearer idea than just that: dull and lifeless vs colorful and vibrant. Finding research images really helped me solidify what my idea was for the concept of this design. I have attached a few photos below that helped me solidify my concept. 

Overall, I personally believe that inspiration for art can be found literally anywhere. I think the challenge really comes from trying to decide how to translate that inspiration into art.