This work combines two ideas: the painting with the fork and potato. I have lived in Idaho for the last nine years, and Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” reminds me of how people perceive Idaho with its rural simplicity. For this project, I removed the gentleman’s pitchfork and replaced it with a fork and baked potato to humorously place the painting within a new context. The effect, I hope, connects Wood’s painting to the Idaho stereotype of farmers and potatoes. Interestingly, Grant Wood wanted to create a work that captures quintessential Americana. Although completed in 1930, much of these ideals are still promoted as “lasting American values,” and the media often romanticizes rural America as the way “American should be.” However, such ideals are overly simplistic. Within this dynamic, it also is important to consider how stereotypes can influence and shape how people perceive themselves. By unmasking the stereotype, I invite viewers to confront their limited viewpoints. Such inquiry exposes that it is problematic to place any group within narrow perimeters. This encourages deeper investigation, understanding, and appreciation. Hopefully, we can be better at seeing each other as individuals, rather than placing people within the limited confines of social constructs.

This work is an isolation with the use of multiple forks with shadows broken up by one fork having a shadow of a knife. I wanted to call attention to eating disorders. 20 million women and 10 million men have eating disorders in the U.S. I know people who suffer or have suffered from this illness. Those who suffer from an eating disorder perceive food differently. Rather than seeing food as nurturing, delicious, fun, etc., it is seen as something harmful, which I have illustrated with the knife. The fork then becomes an instrument associated with pain instead of pleasure. The four forks represents people who do not suffer from this condition. The fork with the shadow of a knife, however, represents a person with an eating disorder; it is something they must carry wherever they go and overshadows their thoughts and actions. Eating disorders have long-lasting and serve health risks. It is my hope that such people will know they are not alone and seek help. 

This image is a metaphor to connect the charger with the fork and plate to represent how we need to recharge through proper eating. I removed the prongs from a Macbook Pro charger and replaced them with the prongs of a fork to stress the importance of eating regularly in our busy lives. I know many will skip meals due to having limited time. As intermittent fasting becomes increasingly popular, many may use the research on its health benefits as even more reason to skip meals without fully realizing the health risks. Connecting the fork to the charger creates awareness that we need to recharge ourselves the same way we recharge our devices. Several of my friends get anxiety when their devices go below 20 percent; however, they ironically miss regular meals. I want to call attention that charging our personal batteries with regular, healthy meals is as important (if not more so) to charging our devices. Eating regularly helps to maintain a high metabolism, provides greater energy, and boosts the immune system. 

This image is a change of context and environment. I have placed the spoons and forks within the Star Wars Universe to provide new meaning to them. Without the impending battle between the spoons and forks, the landscape scene with a picnic blanket and pie looks perfect for a picnic. I wanted to convey the idea that there was a simple picnic when a fight broke out between two schools of thought. Personally, I never know which utensil is best for eating a pie a la mode. A spoon doesn’t really capture the true pie eating experience, and ice cream is challenging to eat with a fork because it drips through the prongs. So, this is a metaphoric representation of a debate between which utensil is best for this dessert. I have placed the debate within the context of the final battle in Star Wars: Episode I to humorously underscore the importance of this discussion. I took the landscape photo from a farm southwest of Rexburg, but I added a filter to brighten the image and make it resemble the green fields of Naboo, where the final battle in the movie takes place. I hope placing these ordinary objects in a new connect will invite deeper reflection on what is being represented. The pie in the middle provides contextual clues regarding the objective of the battle.

This work is a physical change and shape similarity with the road resembling the handle of a fork. Although it is a dad joke, it was the first idea I had when reading through the assignment. However, this proved to be the most challenging. Finding the right road with no visual distractions and matching the angle of the road to the fork was very tricky. This was the first and last image I completed for this assignment. I now affectionately have subtitled this work “The Widowmaker” due to the amount of time I had to spend on it. However, in the end, it provided a basis for understanding the key principles of Photoshop and helped me to be more successful in my other five designs.

This work is a change in concept because it places the planets in the context of a plate being consumed. Seeing a plate of spaghetti and meatballs is common; however, placing the planets on the pasta changes the context and challenges the viewer to think about these ideas differently. I wanted to call attention to our culture of consumerism. Some research suggests that 1% of what we buy is still in use 6 months after we purchase it, and we produce 2.12 billion tons of waste each year. However, many do not understand how much we consume, and the tremendous cost of this on our natural resources. The other planets are a reminder of how the scarce the previous resources we enjoy are in the universe. No other known planet can sustain life. This image advocates for better awareness of our consumptive patterns and invites the viewer to be better stewards of our world.