Artist & Client: Joan Giannecchini
Creative Talent
Writing: Joan Giannecchini
Design: Colored Horse Studios
Photography: Tom Liden (artwork), Northeastern Nevada Museum (historical photos),
Stan Kaplan (artist portrait, Tuscarora)
Web Production: Colored Horse Studios
The Story: While developing an artist’s studio in Tuscarora, a former mining settlement in Nevada, Joan Giannecchini became interested in the history of the area, especially the Chinese settlers who emigrated at the time of the Gold Rush. Despite the large population of Chinese in nineteenth century Nevada, she was disturbed by their ommission from the history of the Old West, and their imagery and stories began to make their way into her work—three dimensional tableaus created out of digital images printed on transparent or translucent materials (vellum, silk, and acetate), along with found objects that evoke the time period and the culture. She framed the pieces to allow light to penetrate the various layers, studying welding in order to construct the metal enclosures.
For the website, she wanted the three-dimensionality to come across in spite of the two-dimensional medium of screen viewing. We created, through simple geometric shapes, the optical illusion of dimensional walls in perspective as a background for the photographed artwork, which appears to float in front. Dark, richly toned background, with vibrant accent colors of red and gold, considered lucky in Chinese aesthetics, focus the attention on the artwork and the commentary.
Special Features: Javascript pop-up windows for viewing images larger, Style Sheets for typographic styling and custom linking colors
Media/Software: HTML pages with linking pdf document; created in Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Fireworks, and finally, Dreamweaver
Features & Specifications:
Resolution target size: 1152 x 864 pixels or larger
Typefaces: Perpetua titling, Palatino (text, navigation), and Verdana (navigation)
Date: Published June 2010
Copyright: Contents of The Celestials website copyright ©2010 Joan Giannecchini, All Rights Reserved |
