20. “I am leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.” /Wash/

This is picture taken by me by Baltic sea in Latvia, Mazirbe.

The composition of this image makes impression of soaring. Because the wind is blowing and the girl is gliding hand lightly in the air.

Most of sunny photos by the sea with wind blowing in hair creates the that sensation of freedom an lightness. I hope so does this.

And more important is that the horizon is slanting so looking at this picture there is no thought about standing solidly with both feet in sand.

And to top it of the sea shells kind of make a road ahead. And it does not end so she can go on and on.

19. Movie posters – Lord of the Rings.

I never noticed before but these three posters can be analyzed by the size and place of the characters.

In “The Fellowship of the ring” poster the dominating (front and largest) is Frodo since in this movie it is all about him. Next are Gandalf and Aragorn standing behind the hobbit as guardians; and further on the rest of the fellowship. Arwen is beside Aragorn because of their relationship but Galadriel is above them all – dressed in white as the symbol of good and pure. The opposite to her are the Nazguls – beneath them as a black, scary cloud.

“The Two Towers” poster is different with the fact that actually the dominating image is of the Sauron tower. Because in the second movie the Bad side start to show its power. But none of the characters are actually dominant because in “The Two Towers” several stories are told parallel each other and all of them are important. In this poster is also Eowyn who is standing between Aragon and Arwen symbolizing that she in a way messes with their relationship.

The dominant character in “The Return of the King” movie and poster is Aragon. But Frodo is still in front and the rest are “guarding his back” as it is in the movie as well. Even Gollum is on this poster in front because he has important role to play in events of third movie. But behind them in the distance is Sauron – always looming and being constant reminder of the danger.

18. “Keep your coins, I want change” by Banksy.

The British “art terrorist” Banksy has created this underground masterpiece and other unique graffiti artwork. He has approached different problems and this graffiti is one of the best known.

I see this as a good way to show discontent and frustration about nowadays problems. The young man has been sprayed only in black and white but you can distinctly see how he looks. Mostly dominates red colour that as i said before is colour of revolution and passion. But the text is what catches attention the most because it is witty – at first it could be confusing because of word “change” ambiguous meaning.

Most say that this graffiti is inspiring.

17. „Dogs playing poker” by Cash Coolidge (1903) modernized version.

The original was commissioned by Brown&Bigelow to advertise cigars and this one was most printed from the series.

In the ‘modern’ version few of the dogs have been replaced by well known dogs from cartoons that in their shows are more or less anthropomorphized the same as C. Coolidge had anthropomorphized his painted dogs.

I think the replacements have been made carefully and every cartoon character mach the original. In the original the most intimidating is the Dog who is replaced with Stich (who is not even a dog and can destroy everything in his path) but both of them usually are gentle. Then Scooby – the funniest and mischievous cartoon has replaced a dog that seems to be planning something impish. And both Pluto and the original dog have something enjoyable in their mouths and they do not look stressed about the game. And I guess Oddie is not allowed at the table because he is quite stupid.

I think this idea of adding cartoons to popular work of arts is really interesting and I hope it will continue to develope.

16. The Summer Sunrise.

This is picture of sunrise behind my house in summer of 2009 made by me.

I chose this photo because of the contrasting colours – bright orange and dark green and greyish blue. And also because of perspective grass looks nearly taller than forest on horizon.

The rising sun casts rays in a way that they reflect on the lens and it looks like you almost can see them.

Beautiful.

15. Soviet Union propaganda. ’All hail the young pioneers – worthy next generation of Lenin-Stalinist Komsomol’

This is propaganda poster used in Latvia in late 1940’s or early 1950’s and was commissioned by Communist Party for displaying to society of Soviet Union, especially children, to recruit new pioneers and more importantly to influence their opinions of the Pioneers.

The poster is classical piece of soviet propaganda – Socialist realism, little text, symbols, usage of colours, and ideology. In soviet propaganda posters it was common to have little text so they were also effective in reaching the uneducated or in this case those who have not yet learned to read. Children in the poster are both genders and wearing different uniforms which indicates that pioneers are different and encourages different children to join – both sexes, various interests. All three pioneers are smiling and looking forward in same direction. Smiles symbolize being happy and proud of being a pioneer but fixed looks could have two meanings – they are eagerly looking forward to future, to communist World revolution thy hope to be part of or it is reference to the text that pioneers are anticipating being the ‘worthy next generation of Komsomol’. It also could be both meanings. The kerchief was three cornered with corners symbolizing the Communist Party, the Komsomol and the Pioneers.

It is no coincidence that Stalin is portrayed beside Lenin because it was commonly used emblem which indicates that Stalin is rightful successor of Lenin. The colour of the flag also is no contingency. Red colour was general symbol of communism (symbol of revolution) as was the star and sickle and hammer nonetheless it is uncommon that the said symbol is absent from this poster and that the red star appears only on the hat of one of pioneers. All these connotations combined makes clear message – being part of the Pioneers means being part of something bigger and it feels good, pioneers are proud of what they.

14. Butterfly.

This is another drawing of mine only this one is in ink. This is the third way I sometimes draw – patterns without sense. They are mostly just swirls and lines but in the end they take some form.

As this one – I did not know what I was doing until in the end I understood that it is a stylized butterfly (it looks like I really have a thing for butterflies :D ).

It is circle composition with some bold, some light lines, circles are together with checks and swirls. Everything put together absent-mindedly with quite enjoyable outcome.