Florence's Art & Design Journal

« Previous       Next »      Understanding and Improving Self Through Graphic Memoirs Book List      Maus I: A Survivor's Tale (Art Spiegelman)      Fun Home (Alison Bechdel) Most of the people tend to limit their understanding of comics and graphic novels to fictions and superhero stories. It may be influenced by the success of the Marvel’s movies. However, superhero stories are no longer dominating the comics’ world. Other genres such as underground, war, autobiographical, and memoirs are getting attention and worth exploring, especially the graphic memoirs. Graphic memoirs are sequential art expressing the author’s autobiographical stories, social and cultural experiences, and self-awareness and evaluation. Through the graphic memoirs, the authors can express their point of view through pictorial art such as Spiegelman portrayed the German soldiers as cats and Jews as mice during the Holocaust period, recog...

« Previous       Next »      Book: Fun Home Author: Alison Bechdel The word "Fun" for the book title is not referring to "fun" but funeral and death. This story not only illustrates the author's father-child relationship but comparing two approaches of dealing with one's sexual orientation. Alison's father died very early but she had lots of fun memories with her father, and the Bechdel family handles funeral business, therefore, using the word "fun" can refers to both of the meaning, especially the one that implied death. Instead using a negative approach to remember her father's death, she choose to use a fun way, that is using graphics and interesting stories that happened on them. Therefore, the word "fun" made the story less burden. Choosing a title is always hard but Alison can combined both of the positive and negative side of the story in one meaningful word. Her father was English teacher and they have a home libr...

« Previous       Next »      Book: Fun Home Author: Alison Bechdel Alison Bechdel used her father and her stories to compare and contrast two homosexual stories, one successful and one failed. She use graphics to illustrate her path of coming out. She accepted her real sexual orientation and confident, so she received support from her family and community. She even shared with readers her first sex experience with Joan.  On the contrary, Alison's father, Bruce, was in the closet because he felt ashamed of being gay. His wife knew his affairs with a few young men. After Alison announcing her sexual orientation, her mother told her about her father's sexual orientation. Two weeks after Alison comes out, her father was hit by a truck and died. Alison believed that her father committed suicide due to his inability to deal with his sexuality.  Bechdel did not appreciate that her father spending too much time on decorating the house and choo...

« Previous       Next »      Book: Fun Home   Author: Alison Bechdel Fun Home is a graphic memoir recording how Alison Bechdel eventually recognized her sexual orientation, her relationship with her father Bruce Bechdel, and her father's death. She starts the story with Icarian game, in which her father will lie on the floor and Alison will jump on top so that she can fly with the help of her father. Alison playing Icarian game with her father Icarus has a pair of wings made by his father  Daedalus. However, the wings are made with wax that it can melt if Icarus fly too close to the sun. Daedalus had warned Icarus, however, Icarus did not listen and flying close to the sun. As a result, his wings melt and he fell into the sea and died.  In Alison's story, she was the son at the beginning because she needed her father's support for her body weight so that she can fly on the air. However, after Bruce's death, Alison thought her fat...

Character Analysis  Protagonists, Antagonists, Conflicts, Resolution, Flat vs Round Character The protagonists in Chungking Express are Cop 223 (He Qiwu), Woman in the blonde wig, Cop 663, and Faye. All of the four prime characters are protagonists because they all insisted to pursue their goals throughout the cinematic duration of their stories. Cop 223 decided to wait for his girlfriend to return the call until May 1, which is his birthday. He will move on if May did not call him back by May 1. His obstacle and conflict is being too attached to May and cannot face the truth that she has already broken up with him. So, the antagonist for him is himself. And during this emotional hard time, he met a woman, the Woman in the blonde wig, and found himself fond of this woman the first time they met. To resolve his conflicts, he allows himself repeatedly buy the pineapple cans everyday, which has the same expiration date of May 1 and then he will start a new life by that time. ...

« Previous       Next »      I would like to comment on the presentation of deconstruction theory . The slides explained very clear about how and why this theory exists and why it is important not only in analyzing the literature but also encouraging us to think critically about human nature. The slides by Ilya explained the deconstruction is about not to accept the general interpretation of something but to challenge and question it if possible. We always take the things for granted and listen to authority without questioning. Using the deconstruction lens, we should go deeper to understand the motives behind and we can have infinite answers because things are not closed end. So, Kristin’s slides at the end to encourage us to think about the deconstruction theory not only on Watchman but extend it to human nature was also a deconstruction example, because this team do not limit themselves to a specific topic but think out of the box. Rylie’s slides compa...

Mise en scene and realism in Fish Tank. In order to let the audience understand the characters’ preference, personal characteristics, emotions, as well as their socialeconomic conditions, the setting played a big role. For example, when Mia walking out of the room, disappearing in the messy corridor that filled with many randomly hanged clothes, the untidiness give audience the information that Mia’s family belongs to the lower class with messy neighbors. Shooting the back of Mia instead of the front when she’s walking away also evokes a lonely and helpless feeling towards Mia. In another scene with Mia’s mother dressing only thin sexy vest and underwear dancing around the kitchen and Mia was at the messy living room watching her gives audience the information that Mia’s mother was not a good role model. Therefore, when Mia shout impolitely towards her mother, sister, or others, the audience did not feel bad about Mia but felt sorry for her because she does not have a good ...

Movie: Psycho Directed by:  Alfred Hitchcock Distributed by:  Paramount Pictures;  Universal Pictures Release date: June 16, 1960  (United States) After Sam and Lila checking in the Bates Motel, Sam tried to engage Norman Bates in conversation in order to keep him in the room so that Lila can walks around the Bates Motel to check if can find some clues about her disappeared sister Marion. Lila found a house at the back of the motel. PSYCHO.Lila to House  (Links to an external site.) In this scene, many photographic elements such as camera angles, depth of field, lighting, and camera placement were used. Camera angle refers to the shooting angle of the camera in relation to the subject being shot. In the shot in which Lila found the house, it uses an eye-level shot to show a neutral and clam environment. People observe the world with their eyes, using the eye-level angle to shoot the subject (Lila) can help the audience feel more na...