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Kiptoe

Have any of you ever heard of the saying “ you won’t work a day in your life if you love what you do”? Well that's how Kiptoe made himself a living off of mural paintings.

His real name is Matt Dean, and he lived in New Hampshire until he decided to take a big risk and move to LA to pursue his dream of painting murals around the world. As a multi-talented artist he is most known for his mural arts and sticker creations. He only makes stickers to share his painting in a small, iconic and cheap way. Kiptoe also takes all of his art projects and vlogs them, to then post them onto youtube. With a total of 754k subscribers, he makes all of his creations, and editing alone.

You’re still not sure about who he is? Kiptoe is a freelancer artist inspired by things like comics, sculptures, movies and by his own life experiences. His art has been viewed by such people that it allowed him to collaborate with private clients, small and large businesses but also be involved in the entertainment industry. You might know some of them, like the famous Fortnite video game and Walt Disney entertainment. In addition, he has painted his work in countries like Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Peru, France, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Finland, England, Lebanon, and across the USA.

Kiptoe’s favorite medium is spray painted so here are three of his top viewed mural paintings straight from his YouTube channel. Beginning with “Venice Beach Dragon” with 3.5M views. “Risk” and “Three Saints” nearly equal 1.9M views.

To start off, “Venice Beach dragon” Made in only 1 day in Venice Beach Walls, was painted over a bunch of tagged graffiti, to remember the building that had been knocked out, and filled with them. 

The mural has KIPTOE spelt across from it, with a dragon attempting to cross through all of the letters. 

According to Matt Dean, the theme for this one is Life. The letters are the bad and evil, people that are trying to put down the dragon, especially in the center where there is visible tension and tearing. Let’s call them obstacles. Whilst, the dragon keeps its perseverance and stays strong through it all, it  finally makes it out of the obstacles and continues to fulfill its own life.

“Risk” a mural made in cali Colombia in 2017, for Matt’s Policromia Tour.

It is a man wrapped in a kraken creature, only to continue fighting and never giving up. It is based on the phrase “a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush” but flipped to express the opposite; taking risks to challenge your limits.

Three saints was a big game changer for Matt since at the time it was the biggest mural he had done. Made in Pico-Union, Los Angeles in 2017.

There’s three saints demonstrated with personified identities to help us through our lives.

Protection, which is the guardian warrior basically protects us from danger and predators, through birth and adolescence.

There’s love, which is represented by the lion, which lets us find out who we truly are and accept our good or bad in our lives and learning to love ourselves to we can learn to love others, so it can be possible to create a heart to heart connection. 

Lastly, guidance, as the man, develops when we become more mature, and gain wisdom. Like the eagle we soar high above and help those going through their first stage.

With all three of the most famous projects made by Kiptoe let’s take a look at one that caught my eye.

Let’s analyze “amor infinite” made in pereira, colombia in 2017. Using saussures theory, this mural is very metaphorical. As we can see it is a woman and a man wrapped around each other with evil looking wolves surrounding them. This signifies that metaphorically, the humans in the center represent the strong love they share for each other, and the wolves are only trying to separate them but their bond is too strong to do so.

Lastly, the visual communicator that I picked today, communicated important lessons through his artwork. Kiptoe uses stories and animations to make his paintings come to life. In addition, his murals add life to the world, especially when it’s to decorate boring places. He was able to make all of these murals, with his passion because that’s what he loves to do, and in addition also gets paid for it, which isn’t really what he cares about but that keeps him motivated to create more beautiful art works. So “if you do what you love you will never work a day in your life”.

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Semiotics Assignment

This photograph was taken on November 8th, 1908, by an investigative photographer, Lewis Wickes Hine. It carried the title of “Sadie Pfeifer, 48 inches high, has worked half a year. One of the many small children at work in Lancaster Cotton Mills”, identifying Sadie Pfeifer, one of the smallest children, wearing a worn dress standing besides a cotton loom in the factory where she worked. There’s a huge emphasis made on the little girl, due to the repetitive and continuous objects of her surroundings. In addition, there’s a touch of blurriness that adds contrast and focus to Sadie’s silhouette. Also, the colour of the photograph is in black and white, not only is it a dull coloured image, because of its incredible meaning, it probably couldn’t print in colour due to the time period it was taken in. A series of tall windows on the right illuminate the large spinning machine that recedes into the distance and dominates the room, dwarfing the figure. 

Lewis’ photograph is very much literal since it is a picture taken in real time, to emphasize the enormity of the child’s environment. It’s an introduction to the middle-class America  to the ugly truth about children’s working conditions, and we’re later on instrumental in the passage of child labor laws in the U.S. The young lady was standing in front of such machines because it was seen as normal to send children to work, especially for the urban populations, to keep healthy and in good condition. Lewis was against the fact that children were working instead of being in school getting educated. She was only 48 inches tall, she was a little girl, and using dangerous machinery, everyday. Children’s wages helped their families survive and have accounted for as much as 20 percent of their household’s total income. 

In the photograph there’s multiple signs such as child labor and industrialization. The little girl was very aware that she was too young to be working but there was no law against it, at the time. Families were almost dependent on their children’s incomes, to live. Sadie’s a small girl working in a huge factory filled with dangerous things for days at a time. She’s wearing turned out clothes that only signifies that money is very well needed. In addition, industrialization did not help the process of child labor, since they were no longer working in family farms or in domestic services but into factories and urban sweatshops filled with dangerous machines and accidents they can’t afford, waiting to happen. She worked in an industry as all that there was, was a repetition of cotton mills machines, lined up. 

Using Saussure’s method to read Lewis’ photograph, it is clear that Sadie Pfeifer, a young girl, inevitably way too young to be working, is working in a cotton mills factory in Lancaster, which means that she is practicing child labor. Obviously, child labor didn’t stay for long after hine’s documentary on thousands of children working underaged. The little girl signifies the issue of economy in the world, at the time. Since the only reason she was put to work was to afford for her family. The objective meaning of the photograph is that the little girl is working to make money and stay healthy, but subjectively I think that there’s no need that it should be a child, who should be learning, doing factory jobs. These children are the only way for families to obtain money, if they get educated they have better chances of getting higher salaries than sending little kids, uneducated, into a field for their family's well-being. 

To conclude, I personally think that the meaning is very visible, but it is a horrendous truth. Children were meant to work to keep themselves and their family living, in poor conditions, which is only a bad thing. It is obvious that the girl wearing worn out clothes, is working in a huge factory, at a young age due to child labor. 

Hines, Lewis. 1908, Sadie Pfeifer, 48 inches high, has worked half a year. One of the many small children at work in Lancaster Cotton Mills, 20.2 x 25.2 cm, November 4th, 2022

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A palestinian photojournalist, 24-year-old Fatima al-Zahra Shbair, from Gaza Strip recently won multiple rewards for her pictures that depict life under siege and conflict in the coastal enclave. The shot was taken in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip on May 25, 2021. With that said, the image portrays a couple of Palestinian children holding candles during a rally besides the ruins of houses destroyed by Israeli Strikes. And with further look into the picture, it seems that outside of the homemade tent, there’s just darkness and a complete mess, whilst inside, it is bright, supported by candle flames that unite the children from recent trauma. Also, included with a small description of the photo, my first thought was to feel pity for the children because maybe they had lost their houses due to extreme weather conditions but, after reading I felt pity for the families that were innocent and lost their stuff through the intention of humans and their wants behind dangerous weapons.

Within the picture, I have captured a message that in the worst of the worst, there are always people to comfort u, and see in the picture, as it was a rough time they all ventured together to light up candles and brighten up the place.   But overall, it strongly focused in the tent with all of the other people, or with the child holding the Palestinian flag, which was of course the main focus of the image, where all the light is coming from. It is basically the first thing that catches your attention when looking at the photography. The distance of the picture reveals a lot about the background and says a story on its own. 

To conclude, the image very well portrayed the message, and it is most likely to be something teenagers get educated on or adults read on the news on their free time, but it is definitely important that this can be a learning lesson for a lot of children who don’t go through the struggle of living in a dangerous place. Personally, I feel very disappointed, As a Jew I am meant to stand for my country, Israel, but to know behind the scenes that this is the terror they create, we aren’t making any peace, I hope someone can figure out a different alternative for solving problems. 

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Undoubtedly, the world is influenced by advertising. They all effect our daily routines, from newspapers and magazines to television, social media and radio. Regardless, you have probably already made a judgement in response to an advertisement you saw without even acknowledging it, using Antonio Gramsci’s concept of hegemony. Surfrider's Rise Above Plastics’ Foundation had an advertisement, "What Goes in the Ocean Goes in You," created by Pollinate Agency in Portland in 2012. It made all of its viewers question how heavily pollution affects them, especially indirectly through their diets, with what appears to be sushi made from plastic bags.

The Surfrider Foundation wanted to bring attention to how ocean pollution affects them. The main idea of this advertisement was to explain in a metaphorical way that plastic poured into the oceans is not biodegradable, but photodegradable. This means that the material is deconstructed into small chunks that fish and other marine animals mistake for food. Multiple statistics dispersed around the world made people aware of the impact of plastic on the environment, especially in the air, which lead to a lot of deaths. Nonetheless, while analyzing the ad, the white background in this particular visual sends out a message of  universality. Having a simple background allows any viewer to relate, which is fairly important because pollution is a worldwide issue. While the fear of air pollution was fresh in people's minds, Surfriders could also begin to educate the world about the severity of the problem. With that said, this advertisement is none other than a dominant-hegemonic reading because it is unquestioning that plastic has slowly sneaked into our foods.  

To conclude, I think that the Surfrider’s Foundation carefully and properly sent out a message to the viewers. In bigger words, the pollution is quickly getting infested with unhealthy plastics and waste, that all ends up in our diets. The ad also demonstrates that people should focus more upon the use of reusable items. Anyway, I think that the advertisement was made for the audience of adult-teens to, around, adults. Now, I say this because that’s the age where it is common to go shopping, so with the statistics and the awareness of the image, it can make a person within that age group act smarter when buying throwaway plastic items. Lastly, with an ad having such a bold image and text, it immediately causes viewers to feel some type of emotion. I can strongly say that I felt uneasy reading “What goes in the ocean goes in you.”, because of the fact that I might be eating plastic and it is not something that I want to be doing. 

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Dennis Lee Hopper caught Los Angeles,  at the intersection of Santa Monica Boulevard, Melrose Avenue, and North Doheny Drive, through a photograph that became one of his most popular out of the thousands that he took: “Double Standard”. He was an American actor, filmmaker and photographer. From 1961 to around the time he was shooting his movie, “Easy Rider”, in early 1968, this photograph was taken and considered very well known. It was titled “Double Standard” because of the two “Standard” billboards. Taken through the windshield of a car, Hopper’s photograph highlights the Pop elements of the Los Angeles landscape, with its billboard advertisements and predominant automobiles.

    Dennis didn’t find Los Angeles to be the most attractive but he was fascinated by the city’s roadways and their relentless procession of billboards. He was known to take photos for the fun of it. With that said, this artwork was one of his “grab-shots'' that barely took minutes to shoot. In this photograph, there’s a feeling of real space, three-dimensional, carried by the depths of the shadows and the partial interior of the car, that indicated it was shot from the driver’s seat. Nonetheless, with an emphasis on the rearview mirror, there’s a vehicle stopped behind the photographer’s car, which indicates they're at a stop light. Dennis took the photograph because of the billboards. Withal, the variety of interesting display panels, in the photo, drag the viewers eyes to the rearview mirror, and then through the windshield, to observe the landscape. In addition, the colour of the photograph is black and white for the main reason that the producer wanted to remove any distraction of colour to help the viewer focus on the other aspects of the photo, such as the subject. 

    With a full analysis of this picture and its background, I’m fully amazed at how a groundbreaking photograph can be taken in less than a couple of minutes. I think after observing the picture long enough, I got the chance to see things I didn’t see at first glance, and with that, I came to understand my reaction. The producer, Dennis, definitely wanted to share his vision of the amazing billboards of L.A. with a quick flash of his camera. From now on, I’d observe more thoroughly an image before making my opinion, because I left out a lot of things that I didn’t see at first with the “Double Standard” photograph.