Hello! I am Isaiah Zack and this is my story! My art is a direct inspiration from my experiences with my grandfather, Marty Barer, who passed away a few years ago. Through my work I aim to express my grandpas values, experiences and love he felt for his friends and family. Family and friends are the most important thing in my life, I couldn't be where I am today without any of them and I want to be that support for anyone in my life from now until my time eventually comes. I love being an artist because it allows me to express myself in an infinite amount of ways that words could never do. I don't want to ramble for too long as I hope the images can speak for me. Hopefully through my current school experience and future work in this industry, I can make myself the artist I see myself becoming. Everything must start slow and take time but I am ready for the journey! Enjoy!
The first step was to tell a story with a collage:
I had a couple magazines laying around that I had no use for, so I thought it was perfect for making the collage. I preferred using a physical magazine because it made the collage process more authentic and it always takes me back to arts and crafts in elementary school. I found all the images I liked and cut a basic shape around it. When I had all the pictures I liked, I would cut them more specifically and then arranged them on the page as I saw fit. After that I went in and glued them all together so they couldn't move and proceeded to make extra markings with a pen to give the collage more context and life. Finally I added some images and color to make the collage pop.
This first story is expressed through a collage. I had pictures that I wanted to mix together that showed the quick divide I was experiencing between my grandpa and me. The left side is meant to represent my grandfather after he fell for the first time and the right side is supposed to be me helping him up. The left side shows an older man with his head opening and releasing all the memories and life experiences he had out into nothingness. That was how I felt it should look when someone starts to forget everything and everyone he knows. All the good memories, the bad memories, the inspiration and triumphs in his life all spilled out. The left is a young boy attempting to help his beloved grandfather but to no avail. The sprouting flower coming out of his head represents the new life and journey that this boy is on and meant to show that no matter how said the end of a life may be, that also leaves room for the beginning of a life as well.
This is what the page looks like with the text next to it.
The next step was to make an illustration for one of the stories:
For the illustration process, I began with my pencil and drawing paper. I used some old photos of my grandpa I found on my phone for reference and then began sketching. When I finished I would add the extra details and then go over the entire sketch with a black ink pen. I erased the left over pencil marks and thickened up the pen marks. I added some more extra details as I went on and finally used my purple colored pencil to color in my grandpa's sweater.
This illustration page is me reminiscing about the time I saw my grandpa in his senor living home. The first time I visited him there he actually remembered me and was so excited that he even started crying. I drew this picture to be a direct perspective of myself seeing my grandpa in his new home. There wasn't much in his room except some basic furniture and pictures. What stood out the most when arriving was his bright smile and fancy sweater. I colored the sweater purple in this as that is the color of Alzheimer's awareness.
The text for this page was imbedded into the image itself instead of having its own side bar.
The final story required a photo to be used as the focus:
These two images are of me and my grandfather. I took the picture of him from an old photo book and the second one of me I took right after. I put them side by side and made this.
This last story where I express my final thoughts on my grandpas passing is where I decided to place the images of both me and my grandpa side by side. Both images are of both of us when we were both in collage. My grandma who was with me at the time made a comment on how similar grandpa and I looked. My grandma took a picture of me and put it into black and white and then held the images side by side. I really liked this comparison as it made my grandma feel like her husband was still with her and his memories could be carried on through me.
Lastly was the process of making and designing the book cover:
These were six sketches I made of my monogram to see which one would best fit my vision for a book cover. I tried simple, bubbly, curved, fancy, fused and even sign language. I decide that my sixth sketch which was the fused design was best fit for my book cover and as you can see the design is pretty similar to the final book design.
This is the process of designing my book cover. I traced out and fine tuned the design I selected from above and processed it on Adobe Illustrator. I then added some colored blocks to shade in and emphasize the "I" and "Z" in the cover. Next I added the spread out black squares in the edges of the monogram to give it the fragmented feeling. The next part took the longest but I made multiple colored squares, then copied and pasted them together in several different patterns. I put all of that together as a background layer and when I was happy with it, I then added the book title at the bottom. I made the title seem insignificant because I wanted the main focus to be the cover itself. I know they say to not judge a book by its cover, but I wouldn't be a good artist if the title took away from the cover.
Now the book cover design is complete, I had to put the design on a mockup book:
This is my book cover. The title of my book is "Fragmented Thoughts". The stories in this book are the personal experiences I have had with my grandfather in his last few years. In that time, my grandpa was suffering from Alzheimer's and couldn't remember much that was going on in his life. The font used in the title is Courier because my grandfathers way of expressing himself artistically was through acting and I wanted to use the font that is used on screenplays. The bits and pieces of the separated squares are meant to represent the fragments of this story. I chose to name the book "Fragmented Thoughts" as each of the stories are my collections of those fragmented memories between me and my grandpa and converted them into artistic expression.
