Critique of Mary Delorenzo's Project

I am critiquing Mary Delorenzo's appropriation project.  Her project involved the appropriation of patterns into various landscapes.  Her project is overall very impressive, especially considering she switched her project idea and put the whole thing together in two days.

In terms of the digitally appropriated photos, I like how the patterns she incorporated complimented the environments that they were appropriated into.  The image of the house was given a dirty, worn looking pattern in the background that fit in with the grungy landscape around the house.  The image of the ocean has a blue tie-dye background that looks unique and cool, yet still resembles the sky.  For me, that could represent how unique the sky is at different times during the day and in different parts of the world.  Finally, the image of the shack on the water has a background that gives the image a tropical feel and it compliments the colors of the shack.  She added backgrounds that made the landscapes in her photos feel a certain way- the way she wanted them to feel.  The backgrounds tell a story that could not have been told with the landscapes alone. Her digitally edited photos were very neat and they brought out the colors and the environment in which her landscapes were shot.

As for her manually appropriated photos, she used a new approach for incorporating patterns into her landscapes.  Instead of using the patterns as a replacement for the background, she used them to create things that would belong in a specific landscape.  For instance, she appropriated a patterned bug into her landscape of the purple flowers, which helped me to recognize the possibility of existence within that landscape.  She also incorporated a sun, made up of various patterns, into her landscape of the Eiffel Tower.  In my opinion, by creating the sun with patterns, she captured the character of Paris and added more of a pop to the landscape.

Overall, Mary's appropriation of patterns into regular landscapes helped me to see past what is visible in an image into what lies behind the landscape.  When Mary was asked, "What do you want your viewers to learn from this project?" she said, "I want people who view my project to learn to see that there is always more than is shown." Her goal was achieved, as she carefully selected the perfect pattern to tell the story that she wanted to be told.