Seeing art in everyday life is shared and encouraged via the instagram app for iphone. This is sort of a commercial for them and I'm sort of fine with that. It is free app that makes quick and easy artmaking accessible for those with the tools (an iphone or ipad). There are boundaries and freedoms within the mechanics, which is usually a good equation, and seems to be working out pretty well for them and us.
The user is forced to use a square frame, immediately requiring more of a mental focus of the them by taking the typical rectangular cropping device out of play. Because of this, composition quickly becomes key before you even get into the color adjustments as one cannot thoughtlessly click (or tap) away.
There are 17 filters to choose from to send the photo through if you don't want to keep the original color balance. There is a black and white filter along with variations that lean towards the respective primaries and also some that will give a vintage look to the shot.
Another app that has come out to help get creative with your photos is Ditpic, which unlike Instagram is not free but pretty cheap, I think it is 2 or 3 dollars. Using Ditpic the user can photo collage away with templates that have been set up. There is also the option of altering these templates by dragging the lines between the photos all over the place to change the shape of each piece of the puzzle.
It is so easy to get carried away documenting every second of life, and I'm pretty much doing that all the time. These apps slow me down just enough to really think about what is happening, and what I want to happen, visually.
What am I trying to emphasize? Just above, the orange, and below the glass. Within those focal points, I'm playing with the contrast between these things and what is hanging out in the rest of the frame. I can make these decisions very quickly, choose the appropriate filter to bring out the warms, cools and contrasts I'm looking for and share away.
I truly believe that art is anywhere you want it to be and that anybody can make it if they want to. This app helps us unselfconsciously share the various visual stimuli we get throughout our day to inspire ourselves and our friends.
By the way, I got my Dana Schutz If the Face Had Wheels book in the mail and it has pretty good forward, a great interview, photos of paintings that were not in the show I saw (which rocked) but the photo of painting Licking A Brick was not included!! wth?! That is the ONE painting that I was anxious to get to it's page as I was flipping through. Why is there no documentation of this piece online OR in this book??
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