Red Dads: A Senior Surreal Photo by Thomas Hoke (2015)

The transformation of objects that you can observe in my surrealist piece includes but is not limited to: the changing of solid red vines in a sarcophagus to a more liquid like series of red vines in the same sarcophagus. They create a swirly pattern that can be described as either melting or welding into the surrounding sarcophagus. To do this in Adobe Photoshop, I used the liquify tool to create the melting look, as well as adding several filters to enhance and add texture to the piece.

For this surrealist project, as a little added challenge to myself, I gave myself the task of using only objects that I could find within my own bedroom. I then searched for the most obscure objects in order to create the strangest thing I could imagine. What I found was two beanie baby anteaters, a three foot lego tower, red vines, a sarcophagus, as well as a poster full of all the red power rangers ever created. I then placed the redvines in the sarcophagus and the anteaters on top of each other to confuse the viewer. The basis for the narrative surrounding the photo is that the red vines symbolize my life supply and as I place them in the sarcophagus I am slowly giving away my life force to the power rangers in the back so that they might finally be able to break free from the imprisoned form inside the poster. I do all of this to impress the King and Queen anteaters as they sit atop their lego tower throne and watch over everything that happens within my room.