Tarun Dani
Around the US in 18 years! Oh and India
Over the years, my family history has largely been shaped by adventure. We have traveled to many places together to visit other relatives and spend quality time. Despite, this travel, I have only been to a few places, often visiting one particular place. My journeys have mostly been within the boundaries of the United States, except once, when I was five years old and I took a trip to Delhi, India.
My collage consists of various pieces of fabric that have unique shades of colors. My idea behind the collage was to show the difference in my travels through different shades of color. For example, I cut out the replica of the United States in black fabric. Despite the regions that are in different colors, the black territory symbolizes the places that I have yet to explore with my family. This decision would make the brighter colors seem more intense, accentuating their different shades. The water all around the land is actually purple fabric. I chose this color because it also a place in the world, which I haven’t taken a journey through. So instead of choosing black or blue, I decided to combine the two and create dark-shaded oceans.
I based the colors of each region on the number of times I visited those particular areas. In order to show the difference, I decided to choose a bright strong color to show where I visited often and a light color to show where I visited least. As you can tell from the collage, the Northeast is in a bright red color, since it is an area where I’ve visited the most and it is also the location where I reside. The second color on the list is actually Florida, assigned a lighter color of pink, because it is the next most frequent vacation location for my family. My aunt has been living in Tampa, Florida for many years, long before I was born, and it’s my favorite place to visit. The green color in Texas is actually the third most frequently visited place because I have visited Houston a few times, to see my uncle. The last color that you can see is a faint light yellow color that outlines a country away from the United States. This land mass represents a portion of India, Delhi, which I only visited once in my life.
All in all, this collage represents the journeys my family and I have taken in the 18 years of my life. I believe that the shades of the colors accurately describe the importance of certain locations to my family and to me. In the next 18 years I hope to be able to color up more of this map and reduce the black or dark areas.
December 12th, 2006 at 4:04 pm
Hey!
What I like most about your collage is that it is so simple and yet you are able to illustrate a big part of your life. Your collage topic is also unique because you chose to discuss the places you’ve visited. It’s interesting that your entire collage is composed solely of fabric, of different colors and textures. My favorite part is the small faint yellow fabric creeping up along the right side of the page. It’s cool how that’s not the actual location of India on an actual geographic map, but you chose to put it there. I hope you are able to cover up more of the dark space in years to come!
December 12th, 2006 at 5:21 pm
This collage creatively demonstrates Tarun family’s expeditions and suggests the geographical influences on their lives. It was a great idea to base the color scheme of the collage on familiarity with the region. With bright emphatic colors emphasizing the locations that he has visited more frequently and dark colors implying areas he has yet to visit, this work of art is easy to interpret. Not only does this collage track Tarun’s travels, it also establishes his goal to explore the unexplored.
December 12th, 2006 at 11:42 pm
Hey,
I like the fact that you took a simple but meaningful approach to representing your family history. You created an image that can be easily understood without a lengthy introduction. The usage of colors to represent frequency was good because this concept is common and understood by many. I think it will be interesting to watch the map grow with color in the years to come.
December 13th, 2006 at 1:21 am
Tarun, the simplicity and meaning of your collage makes it stand out among the others. When you were explaining, during your presentation, that the brighter colors represent the places/areas you’ve visited the most, it made sense because I saw those ‘pieces of land’ first. I also like how you made the parts where you and your family haven’t been purple and black because the darkness of those colors represents mystery. It’s great that you were able to illustrate your unique focus-your family’s travels-in a way that we can all understand.
December 14th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
I love the simplicity of your collage. The color scheme that you used is a really creative way of showing the places you have traveled and the places you visited most often. Not only does this collage represent your past history with your family but it represents your goals for the future as well. Good luck on filling up all the portions of the map!
December 17th, 2006 at 4:12 pm
Hey Tarun, Nice work. I like how you turned a simple map of the United States into a map of your family’s travels. The fact that you made the entire map out of a black fabric is a very nice touch, as it puts further emphasis on the places where you and your family have already traveled.