Samantha Gruskin

Cat Scan

Sam — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:24:01 +0000

These are scans of my cat in a dark setting. These scans capture my cat’s motion while he was (reluctantly) sitting on the scanner bed. Visible horizontal lines means that he moved at that point during the scanning process. In a sense, these scans are a visual motion timeline. The detailed texture of the cat’s fur is also captured here.

Side-note: my cat was NOT amused while participating in this process. However, he was compensated with a lot of love and treats!

Glass Bubbles

Sam — Thu, 05 May 2011 23:16:56 +0000

This is a scan of clear aquarium marbles in a dark setting. I thought the result looked like bubbles.

A Spring Bouquet

Sam — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 19:50:49 +0000

This piece was inspired by my love for floral arrangements and fascination with scanning 3D objects. The objects in my piece were acquired locally from indoor plants and a neighborhood florist. I arranged the flowers to look as if they were growing up from the greenery. I chose purple and orange flowers because they are contrasting colors from the green leaves, and I wanted the flowers’ colors to stand out. Some of the leaves look metallic which was a result of naturally-shiny leaves being scanned. When the piece is viewed closely, there are fibers on the scanner-bed that fell off of the flower stems, and I like the “debris” because it should remind the viewer that these flowers are real and therefore not perfect. When viewed in person, the flowers feel larger-than-life and the bold colors grab the viewer’s attention. The piece is printed on canvas, and is 36″ X 60″.

Here are some images from the gallery show my piece was featured in:

Secret Lace

Sam — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 22:54:09 +0000

Brightly colored lace fabric on a scanner. In the originals (which are 150+MB files that I cannot host here), the specific stitching details in the lace fabric are visible. A snapshot of the lace detail at 100% zoom is shown below.

Tea Graffiti

Sam — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:50:23 +0000

This was a quick, fun project my class did on a graffiti wall. Anyone who knows me well knows that I love (and am probably obsessed with) tea. So, why not share my love for tea on a public wall at my school? I hand drew a tea pot and tea cup on thick, stencil paper and razor-cut them out. Our spray paint color selection was limited… and it turned out that some of the spray paints had different consistencies than others. My initial attempt (shown above) was spraying the tea pot stencil orange, and the paint instantly dripped down! Instead of panicking, I used this “mistake” to make my artwork more interesting… and I made the tea cups “catch” the paint drips. The mistake piece ended up being my favorite in this short series.

Garden in a can

Sam — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 00:54:30 +0000

This piece was assembled from all-natural ingredients, excluding the can (obviously!). I carved the yellow flowers out of mango slices, and the centers of the flowers are made from a clementine peel. The red flowers are strawberries that I cut to look like tulips. I positioned the “fruit flowers” on a bunch of frisée lettuce to complete the arrangement. The can holds the arrangement, simply as a juxtaposition to the fruits and vegetables. The piece is grounded with romaine leaves with mushrooms “growing” out of the ground. The goal of my assemblage was to express contrast between the natural and manmade.

Heal Japan

Sam — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 04:24:47 +0000

I was granted the privilege to make large prints in my digital imaging class this semester. The natural disaster in Japan has emotionally affected me, and I thought this was a good opportunity to make a poster with impact. The poster’s imagery is made from a red piece of paper that I cut into a circle, and then crumpled and tore. Then I added a bandage to a tear symbolizing the world’s need to help “heal” Japan. I scanned the modified red circle, and then constructed this poster around it. The actual print is 36″ X 42″. I hope this poster influences people to donate to Japan’s recovery efforts.

My Summer at Apple

Sam — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:28:50 +0000

After meeting so many amazing people and doing tons of fun things this summer while I was working at Apple in Cupertino, CA, I had a ton of pictures and I wanted to do something special with them. I made a collage using the shape of an Apple logo as the centerpiece. The center of the Apple is filled with the awesome people I shared time with in California and various things I did. Outside the Apple logo are pictures with a “blue” color scheme, because so many images I captured were outdoors against the Bay Area’s perfectly blue sky. This piece is 42″ X 42″, printed on glossy paper.

Flower in the sky

Sam — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 00:06:46 +0000

This piece was my initial work in my flower series. Inspired from a ladies’ bathroom fake-floral decoration, I wanted to make these fake flowers look better than they did in real life. I printed out a picture of a bright blue sky for a contrasting background, and stood the fake flowers up in front of it. The resulting photographs made the flowers look brighter, happier, and more realistic than they do in real life. When looking at this image closely, the texture of the fake flower can be seen. The goal of this piece is to trick the viewer initially into thinking that these flowers are real.

Gesture Drawings

Sam — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:28 +0000

These are 5-minute gesture sketches of a nude model in different positions. I experimented by sketching with my digital tablet on my computer (for the first time) rather than using the typical pencil and paper. I ended up enjoying drawing with my tablet, and I liked the results of the sketches. I used a semi-transparent brush so every stroke can be seen in the sketch.