Re: Jeff Soto

Jeff Soto's artwork incorporates many common themes and symbols found in graffiti and pop culture, such as skulls, weapons, and butterflies, along with just the idea of oft-repeated symbols between different pieces, similar to a gang's graffiti over an area. Some of the pieces are also painted on the sides of buildings, like most graffiti is. Some pieces include text slogans, with the art taking secondary importance to the message conveyed by the text, similar to advertisements. While they want you to see and enjoy the art, the art really only serves the purpose of underlining the meaning of the words.

Re: Mariko Mori

Her works seem to show a mixture of past and supposed future cultures, with references to ancient Buddhist traditions and ceremonies along with modern (at the time) interpretations of future styles. All of these aspects are taken to extremes, though. The outfits in Birth of a Star and Head in the Clouds are both reminiscent of futuristic clothing depicted in shows and anime from that time period, but even more outlandish than most of those. Burning Desire is a literal take on the words, and mixes ancient Buddhism with modern references to the then-popular and still widely-used term "moe" which is Japanese for "to burn" (specifically as in desire). Miko no Inori, (literally, "The Priestess' Prayer"), also has a mix of past and future, with the miko's clothing not at all matching with traditional styles, but still playing with the ideas of a miko's spiritual role.

Re: Martina Lopez

Martina Lopez' works are all taken from her own physical memories - family photographs. Using the people in the photographs, she creates new stories by combining them with unrelated images in order to evoke a different sort of emotional response. She said that she uses her own history as a base for the images, but anyone is free to interpret them how they want.

Visually speaking, I find the work kind of odd. The mixture of black and white with few-toned color backgrounds creates an interesting juxtaposition, but it makes the people look like they are just pasted on over other pictures, or that someone colored in the backgrounds and left the people alone. It kind of gives the impression that the people are forever frozen in time whereas the environment and world around them continues to change.

Re: Dystopia

This series is showing skilled use of the clone, stamp, and other similar tools of Photoshop, or perhaps another image manipulation program, in order to mask the main facial features of each of the subjects: namely the eyes and mouth, but also the nostrils and eyebrows. This removal of distinguishing features leads to a series in which all the subjects resemble one another. Certainly, there are still differences, but no picture is recognizable as any specific individual anymore. When paired with the title of the series, "Dystopia," these images represent a world in which people are losing their individuality, following the crowd, or else being viewed as less than full humans by outside forces. The idea is reminiscent of classic works such as "Brave New World."