Author Archives: Greta Hammen

The Killer Wore a Tattoo✒️

by Greta Hammen

When I, Natasha, was a toddler in Russia, my parent’s had their lives ended by an intruder. I had gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and while in the hallway, I saw a man shoot my parents. He had a silencer on the weapon and on his right bicep was a swirly tattoo. I recreated that image that has been in my head all these years. https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/111886745873351020/embed.

I work in Cybersecurity for the CIA and enjoy creating art when I have an opportunity @ds106dc #tdc4407. The man mentioned above would most likely be in his late 60’s now, if he is still alive. Since I cannot bring my biological parents back, I do not think that I will share this with the Russian police, it may cause problems for me at work too.

Ripples on the Moon🌖

by: Greta Hammen

There was an opening with lots of background noise of beeping and crackling. More sounds and talking were in the introduction and then the narrator introduced himself. The Truth Podcast was interesting because it shared new information for me about an historical event. The dialogue between Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin painted a word picture of what they saw and what they did on the moon.

The astronauts included dimensions in descriptions of craters and also action words such as, I have stepped off the ladder. The surface was dust like and created ripples when kicked. The aircraft tore the surface up a bit, upon landing. They planted an American flag and did a memorable ceremony for other astronauts.

They wanted to leave a legacy with words on the moon, similar to writing in concrete with a stick. They talked amongst themselves asking questions such as, “what are we doing up here? and what does it all mean?”

It amazed me to hear the recording of President Richard Nixon’s voice in a pre-recorded statement, in case the astronaut’s perished in their attempt to go to the moon. What they accomplished is unbelievable! They went to the moon and returned to earth to live for decades. Armstrong died at age 82 in 2012 and Aldrin is still alive, he landed on the moon when he was 39. What an amazing life that we get to live here! Most of us will not attempt to do what they did, but what “moon” adventure will be the big obstacle that you face, and take the next step?

A Word of Voices

by: Greta Hammen

To create my Radio Bumper, I used Premiere Pro. From http://freesound.org, I found two soundtracks that I liked and downloaded them. One is classical music, and the other is of dogs barking for contrast. I imported those into Premiere on separate layers, then used the microphone for voice over on a third layer. By clipping out parts and shortening the time sequence, I was able to achieve an end result that I deemed respectable.

Tune into ds106 radio for short stories and unique happenings.

I did my radio announcing several times for the best reading, yes, I wrote it out, and I increased the gain in the audio to +2 and set the music to -5, to be heard over it.

Weekly Summary 3📅:

Another interesting week in the database of DG106. Watching the interview of Chip Kidd and also the video of work that James Verdesoto does http://Reflections on Kidd, Verdesoto & Stranger Things – According to Greta (gretahammen.com), was fascinating. I applaud them in successfully having lives rich in creativity for their employment!

Our class has a large variety of characters and I wonder how our interactions will unfold and intertwine during the semester. I replied to http://Course Character: Hwei the Creator – AI106 Blog – Robin Yu (robinsyu.com) and to Week One Summary – I Figure Out WordPress and Watch A Movie – Sydney Says Things (sydneyjadyn.com) to get the conversation started.

A challenge that I faced in the Photoblitz assignment was that I would have liked to be able to use stored photos too, not just ones taken right then, within twenty minutes of time. I have a beautiful moon picture taken on a different day, but this class is helping to take away perfectionism Photoblitz📸 – According to Greta (gretahammen.com). The button that was supposed to copy the html for the page, actually copied a different set of prompts, so I typed the list in the post.

The Middlebury AI art assignment seemed involved, as there were many options for sites to explore and to choose from. I went back to it when I had more time to invest and created Middlebury Art Projects 🧑‍🎨 – According to Greta (gretahammen.com). In addition, I chose to post A Favorite Photo – According to Greta (gretahammen.com) and Big Eyes👁👁 – According to Greta (gretahammen.com) as assignments from the bank of options.

Coloring is my outlet and safe place, what do you think of https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/111842388805253661 and https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/111842245877840718. I wrote a poem https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/111836520471660814 and showed in a photo, how I feel when I am doing artsy things https://social.ds106.us/@gretahammen/111847713012359877.

Middlebury Art Projects 🧑‍🎨

by Greta Hammen

The top image is Marilyn Monroe AI generated in the style of Mona Lisa on the Adobe Firefly site. It looks more like Mary, the mother of Jesus. The second image was generated on Craiyon.com and looks gorgeous. Just like Marilyn Monroe with red lipstick and a gold dress and shawl.

The top image was AI generated on Adobe’s Firefly and looks more like Mary, the mother of Jesus, than of Marilyn Monroe. The second image was AI generated on Craiyon.com and I am pleased with the results. It looks like Marilyn Monroe, but her pose looks like Mona Lisa, the red lips and gold gown with shawl add to the overall effect. On both of these sites, I asked for Marilyn Monroe in the style of Mona Lisa.

I changed the Craiyon.com image into a pop art version and that has a cool, Andy Warhol look. To achieve this image, I used the phrase, Marilyn Monroe in the style of Pop Art. I believe that creating art this way is a threat to artists because it takes time and talent to create original art on canvas. If the masses continue to produce and print art in this manner, it will diminish the livelihood of many.

Photoblitz📸

by Greta Hammen

  1. I have a serious face at the moment, so I chose a doll that has a serious facial expression.
  2. The shape of the window reminds me of a half-moon.
  3. Toilet paper rolling on the holder looks still in the image.
  4. What a great back on the actress featured on the cover of Million Dollar Baby!
  5. My husband gets the newspaper still because he likes the feel of it in his hands while drinking coffee, so we have newspapers at home.
  6. The water coming out of the faucet is in motion.
  7. Lastly, the toy shark is my take on a wild animal/mammal.

The URL that I copied from the box on photoblitzer (johnjohnston.info)https://johnjohnston.info/photoblitzer/, did not work correctly for me. What it gave me was the first list of photo options, not the one that I went with, after clicking on the “click for another list tab”. I started at 7:55 pm and ended the photo taking at 8:15 pm. It was a fun assignment because as I ran around my house, new thoughts came to my mind as to what to take pics of. I especially like the running water. #ds106, #photoblitz-CogDogBlog

Big Eyes

by: Greta Hammen

These piercing eyes were increased in scale by opening the image in the paint app. First, save an image from the internet, then open in Paint. Choose the selection tool for free form and trace the eye shape, adjust the size by taking the image handles and pulling the shape on all four sides, until you get the desired scale and press enter. Repeat that for the other eye. Save as a different name than the original. This is Natasha Sidorov, cybersecurity employee for the CIA.

This assignment reminded me of artist, Margaret Keane, who was famous for her Big Eyes collection of paintings. The one below is titled, The Holy Grail. I recommend seeing the movie of her start as an artist Big Eyes Official Trailer #1 (2014) – Tim Burthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2xD9uTlh5hIon, Amy Adams Movie HD (youtube.com)

Reflections on Verdesoto & Stranger Things

by: Greta Hammen

James Verdesoto is one of the Creative Directors at Indika Entertainment. He explained so nicely, how the posters for movies are done and the things that are emphasized. Red and white are typically used for comedies and allows the characters to stand out on the background. The use of negative space is strategic in terms of where it leads the viewers eyes to focus. The color blue is used in thrillers many times and they include a running man too, to emphasize that something is going to happen. What about a significant profile? Russell Crowe is a great character actor, in The Next Three Days, the advertising company used his profile and included an inset, like his thoughts, in a smaller image. When a movie budget is on the conservative side, yellow is a great background for the poster, because you get a lot of bang for your buck! Some examples of this are The Brown Bunny, Little Miss Sunshine and The Optimist 3. The use of negative space and the placement of the actor’s name was also significant on those posters, famous actor’s names go above the movie title. Action movies frequently use black and white with a little fire to create contrast, think of Die Hard and The Fast & Furious. Lastly, in the video with Verdesoto, he talked about blue and orange. They are complimentary colors and Star Wars used it in different ways with negative space to reach audiences that were different.

In the Stranger Things YouTube interview, we see that the font was derived from books from 1980’s book covers. By shining light through the letters imperfections were made visible, and they liked that, so that is how the opening for Stranger Things came into being. The jobs that the two individuals have in each video are dream jobs! CA is a wonderful place to live to be able to do that type of work!