Digital Surrealism Artist Statement
Rob Ford in an oven
For our CyberARTS class, we had to create a surreal image while using 3 photos ( one of which we had to shoot with our own camera) to portray a message of something that we had an opinion on/ and or felt strongly about. For my Digital Surrealism photo, I decided to put Toronto's own mayor Rob Ford in a standard cooking kitchen oven, displaying him being baked/ "cooked". Many people have heard rumors and stories about mayor Rob Ford in the news lately. They've heard gossip and factoids from drug scandals, to potential homicide charges, all the way up to "having enough to eat at home". Even with all this evidence, what is there to prove? The only response that I could think of was that our own mayor Rob Ford was being roasted- no, he was being cooked- cooked like a turkey. I thought that by placing Rob Ford in an oven while displaying him being "cooked" showed a symbol of what happens when you're put in a tough position/ and or are being prosecuted or criticized, especially when you're in high power- or just a mayor of Toronto. The effects aren't devastating on the public, but instead on the victim. This photo helps to symbolize and exert the message that if you're backed into a corner, you might as well call yourself done for (or in this case, cooked). I tried to use a head shot photo (or anything as close to a head shot photo) of Rob Ford to help focus on mainly his facial expressions. In many cultures, they'd roast the head of a boar and eat it with mustard at around Christmas time, so I thought that by using the head of mayor Rob Ford, I could almost create the same image. I used an image of Rob Ford that had him making a very quirky and suspicious facial expression (as if he was surprised or if someone jumped on his stomach and scared him meanwhile waking him up in the middle of the night). I thought that this facial expression would help to add the effect of being prosecuted as well too. I added in the carrots all along the edges of the oven pan to help top off this image. The carrots help the viewer quickly connect the dots to understanding the image and itself as a piece, and also adds to the "cooking" theme of this piece as well.
I originally had various ideas for this assignment, but after many trials and errors, I had the idea to "cook" our mayor from thinking of ironic symbols and messages to show to the audience to convince or represent something to them. I had drawn up a few sketches, some of which include our mayor lying horizontally on an open grill with a shish kabob skewer going through him garnished with vegetables, him lying down in an oven pan and being roasted while appearing to be caramelized, and the final sketch which was of him sitting in an oven pan being cooked. Once I knew what my idea was, I began to compile images to use for this project. I selected an image of Rob and some carrots from the internet, while I took the picture of the oven myself. I made some notes about the steps and processes that I would want to use and how to take them. After reviewing my notes, watching some videos and tutorials, and playing around and trying different tools and techniques, I was finally ready to get to work. I started off by opening a new Adobe Photoshop CS6 file, then I opened up the image of the oven, then the image of Rob Ford. I dragged Rob Ford onto the file of the oven and then deleted the lock on the oven's background layer. I used the "free transform tool" found under "edit", and then re-sized the image of Rob Ford. After that I used the "quick selection tool" and selected the areas of Rob Ford that I wanted to have show up on the background (oven layer). After selecting the areas, I then used "refine edge, changed "view mode" to "on layers", changed "edge detection" to "smart radius" and changed the radius and used the "paintbrush tool" to paint around Rob to erase and correct any mistakes that I see. I changed some of the different edge types in "adjust edge", and selected "decontaminate colours" in "output" and played around with that option a little bit. I selected the "output" to "new layer with mask". I then went to "adjustments", then "exposure" and then I lowered the exposure. Afterwards I moused over the new layer that I made, and held down the command key, clicked on the layer, then selected "layer via copy" in the "layers" tab. I then clicked on the new layer and dragged it all the way to the top. I then clicked on "normal" (an option setting which can change different styles the image can have), and changed it to "colour" and then lowered the opacity. Afterwards, I applied this process when using the image of the carrots as well. I duplicated the image of the carrots so that way I would have more carrots to use in the image-thus making the image seem more natural. I played around with different filters, adjustments, masks, and other tools to help create the image of Rob Ford being "cooked". I used "colour balance" to greatly increase the red amount in the background (oven) and in the mid tones to make the oven appear to be working and hot.
After completing this project, I discovered that if you look into and research something that you want to learn, then you'll find all sorts of information and help on the internet to use. I also learned that sometimes unusual images can work well together if the proper setting and adjustments are used/ and or made. Generally I'm not very "tech chic", and I wasn't too sure about how I could execute the surreal image that I've created in a definitely natural and proper way, but after learning and discovering new techniques and options in Adobe Photoshop CS6, I feel that I'm becoming pretty well versed in using Adobe Photoshop CS6, and now I feel more confident in my tech and computer image editing skills too. At the end of this project, I feel that the image that I've created actually turned out pretty well. I feel that the image's blending looks decent, the hues worked well together and helped to create unity, and there's little to no mistakes or issues with the image that are visually noticeable itself. I also feel that the image carries across it's symbolism and message pretty strongly. In conclusion, I had a lot of fun learning about and trying different techniques in Adobe Photoshop CS6, and I got to put Rob Ford in an oven which is always a fun activity to do too. I'm glad that I got the opportunity to complete this assignment while experimenting and learning as well, and I feel that I got to use my time efficiently and was able to enjoy this assignment too.
