Amy Heidbreder

Cut Paper, Technical Pen, Gouache, Mounted on Black Foam Core and Black Letramax

This is another fun, hand done project, inspired by watching my sister play so much Splinter Cell. She loved that game on the PS2. Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell was an award winning stealth shooter game, released in 2002. Since then, several Splinter Cell games have been released, and I think my sister has beat every one.

I would watch her play this game all the time, and then she would watch me play Burnout. The premise of this project was to create a storyboard for a video game. Most students chose to lay out their projects in six even frames, but the instructions did not designate height, width, or spacing between frames. It just said, six frames arranged however we wanted. Our limitation was only the size of the letramax board we mounted the project on. My arrangement choice was somewhat unique, which I feel is what made the project stand out a little .

I remember finishing up this project the night before block review. “Block review” was the audition to qualify for the junior and senior level art courses at the University of Houston. In this block review, graphics sophomores displayed their work for professors to review. I don’t think I had even turned this project in yet, but I remembered my plan of attack that night. I was to finish building this composition in the junior studio and then work on my display in the senior studio, which was slowly coming along next door. It took me about the entire night. I certainly was not alone. The studio was lit like day and teaming with the feverish life of students trying to get ahead for block review the next day. This would be my second attempt at block, and I made sure to really dig this time around. The creation of this project is probably the most memorable for me. I don’t know why. Possibly because of the emotional attachment that memory has to block review. I can recall in great detail building the “infiltrate” frame, cutting the letters, and gluing them in place.

The attempt by this composition is to tell the story of Sam Fisher on the job. In the game, you play Sam Fisher who works for the NSA and is sent on secret missions all over the world. While a first-person shooter game, the game is not a shoot ‘em up type of game. Stealth is the priority, and much of the game is spent monitoring your light meter to know if you’re hidden enough in the shadows, using night vision goggles, dragging bad guys you pick off into the shadows so their bodies aren’t discovered, and always responding to Lambert in your ear as he guides you along your mission.

My sister thrived playing games like Splinter Cell, while I was like Ricky Bobby and just wanted to go fast. Racing and driving games were my favorite, unless it was a Sega Genesis, then Lion King all the way! Something was intriguing to Splinter Cell to me, and so iconic that I didn’t even have to play it to grasp the entire story. This piece of art is my homage to it.