Communication Project

The original painting

Being a perfectionist, I've always tried to tell myself that the amount of effort I've put in is enough, and that I should stop trying so hard. Yet, as my frustration grows with the task at hand, I only try harder. I hate this, and wish I could tell myself to stop being a perfectionist. For this project, I wanted to communicate this idea through my art work. My initial idea was to quickly paint a couple of paintings, instead of spending all the time for this project painting one meticulously (remember the ship?) I imagined that the paintings would turn out to be amazing, and that they would be done in a fraction of the time (what a perfectionist thought, right?)

With this mindset, I started on my first painting, one of pears. I had found a similar painting done on Pinterest and o wanted to recreate it. But I was tied to idea of creating the pears exactly like the reference picture. My frustration grew as I couldn't capture all those highlights of yellow and white and the dark values with brown and blue. I finally realized that I had to let go of my ideals and just paint in my own style. I got rid of the yellow on the surface where the pears sit, and blended the blue shadow under the pears with the red background. I also invluede D more green on the pears than the original painting had.

My version

This painting took the entire duration of the project to complete. I had hoped to complete this painting quickly yet perfectly, and it was disappointing when that wasn't the result. I felt like I succumbed to the perfectionism streak all over again. But I now realize that you can't plan everything out like I had initially hoped too. You end up fighting your flaws in the place you least expect to, and for me that was deciding to toss the picture of the original painting in the trash, and paint with the color scheme  and style I wanted, even if it didn't look perfect.

NC Museum Of Art

At the NC Museum of Art, the piece I liked the best was The Eruption of Mt.Vesuvius by Pierre Volaire. The painting beautifully captures the eruption if the volcano, and by including Italian civilians clustered around the bridge and ships in the background, you can perfectly visualize how this event interrupted the lives of those around it. I also like he portrays this event at night. The dark sky is illuminated in a bright yellow and orange, and makes it awe-inspiring to look at it. The realistic effect, and European style painting techniques come together nicely!

Orange Outline by Franz Kline kind of fell in the middle for me. I'm not a huge fan of abstract art, so I had to look closer and let it slowly appeal to me. I like how he used brown, yellow and orange, to take a simple black-and-white painting further, while still maintaining the overall minimalistic effect. I like how his strong brush strokes are evident in the painting, because the texture is interesting to look at.









One of the pieces that I didn't like was titled Winter 1946. The artist uses a dull green color that dominates the painting. I would have liked it better if he used more colors for a fuller overall
effect. I also don't like how this scene is captured from a bird's eye view at an uncommon angle, because it makes it awkward to look at. However, I must admit the shadow in painting falls in a way that I would have found hard to capture through paint, so good job there.

non traditional art

For the non traditional art project, I had wanted to do embroidery. I learnt it back in 8th grade during a visit to India. I had done it only a couple of times since then, as it's not that popular of an option in America. The first few attempts at my embroidery project werent that good...I didn't have a solid idea to work with and it was tough embroidering on denim. It wasn't until Ms.Lorenzo did the print making stations that I had an idea!

Print making was a quick and easy way to get a picture down on paper. One of the block prints I printed appealed to me. It left a little negative space on the paper, and it gave me the idea of embroidering in that space. In this way I was able to combine non traditional Japanese art (printmaking) with non traditional Indian art (embroidery)....what a double whammy!!

In my piece of art, the filled in floral pattern was printed with red ink. Embroidery floss of different colors surround it

Post modern Principles Project

Okay, so I gotta admit: the essential question project took a long time to complete...Maybe, it was huge canvas or the ship that took forever to paint. So, when the post modern principles project was introduced and everybody else started working on it, I was still figuring out which colors to use on the waves. When I (finally!)  finished, our class was starting on the nontraditional art project. Not sure of what to do or how to explore these post modern principles, I gladly skipped over to the newest project. It was only when I started embroidering a zonkey, that I realized that my project was less of non traditional art and more of appropriation - one of the post modern principles. Apparently, it's not so easy to "skip" over a project... -_-

The zonkey is an "artist steal" from Mr.Sands. He has so many zonkeys up on the wall by his computer, and they have all been done in different mediums. It could be prisma colors, paint, spray paint, or even wood (for a 3D effect)...you name it, the zonkey has been done in that medium . In the midst of all this variety, I had to ask myself how to "steal" the zonkey idea and make it my own. Since I love doing embroidery and it hadn't been done before, appropriation became the aspect of my post modern principles project.

What I like about this project, is the bright colors and how they contrast beautifully. It was nice to return to needlework after last having done it during frshman year, and see how it enhanced the zonkey's look.
However, what I didn't like was that the cloth I used (jean materials) was hard to embroider on. This made me frustrated very quickly, and led to some hasty work. It was also difficult to shade on the zonkey. I've heard that you can cross stitch or use a gradient of thread colors, but it was hard to apply for me. I tried to shade on the left side of the zonkey's head, but the mix of white and blue thread didn't turn out well.

Comments-Zonkey

I love the subject and colorful theme.-Liah

The stitching is so well done and very neat, i can see that it's a zonkey. -Shelby

Embroidery looks awesome!-Brooke

I like the idea of doing a zonkey -Kris

I don't know proper embroidery technique, but it looks really good! -Skylar

Your zonkey is so cute.  I just want to cuddle with it.  Way to go, love Claire

love the colors and wish i could embroider....are you ready for our physics test today? -Olivia

OH MY GOSH this is so cool. I love this so much!! the use of colors looks so great!! -Hannah

The best art supply store doesn't sell

Since my younger brother goes to the newly made elementary school in Apex, his art teacher recently sent home a list of "art supplies" that the school would like to have. Looking at it, I saw most of the traditional redundant supplies that we've all used in the past: acrylic paint, poster paper, color pencils, oil pastels and such. Even now, as a high school student, I mostly use the same materials. At the beginning of most art classes and summer art camps, most of the art teachers will let us know what supplies we should get on our next trip to the art store. So between now and then, when do we get to exposure with non-traditional materials, and come with creative and equally artistic work?

If we step outside the box, and look away from the popular art materials that have been used over and over again, we'll find that art can be made with many of the common everyday objects as well. For example, instead of teaching kids how to paint objects, why not let them use the ones they have to create a painting? In the picture above, the artist reused the toy cars she had played with as a child to create an abstract piece of art. She was still able to focus on the different values of the colors, contrast, and design. By using a non-traditional medium, she was able to gain an appreciation of the materials she had and their characteristics, while using her creativity to bring them together in a cohesive manner.

Taking a different approach in choosing your medium, also lets you convey a stronger message. Take the example to left. It was found on a website that supports endangered animals. For the artists, the main question was how to make a strong impression on their audience that would elicit care and action. Instead of painting the animals locked up in cages, or taking sad photographs of them, they took it a step further. they painted the endangered animals on large pebbles that they could hand out as paper weights. the animals appear crouched in a little space. That was the only way they could fit, and it conveys the message that endangered animals are being forced to uncomfortable lives in smaller habitats.

Using unique art materials and objects, allows you to pursue the true focus of art ; creativity. It takes  away the refined artistic lens, and lets you look at objects anew and wonder how you could use it to make art. Maybe you'll look at pensive person sitting, and instead of snapping their photo, you'll use them as your subject and paint over them for a 3-D effect. Or instead of teaching little kids how to draw pictures of their toys, you let them explore their options. Maybe they'll apply different colors of paint on their teddy bear and press it down on paper like a stamp! Or you can use old objects lying around the house, like rotary phones to create a sheep sculpture. What used to be the curly wire, now forms the fluffy body of the sheep, and the phone handle is the curved feet. In addition to creating unique art with new materials, you get to explore their form and structure and determine how it could enhance the 3-D effects of your artwork. Could you get all that at a typical art-store?

Response to Olivia Gude

Olivia Gude accurately comments on how art teaching strategies have become redundant, repetitive and even meaningless. As a professor she was able to see how art students at universities and grade school all had to do "insignificant exercises" on line shape, color, etc. As an art student, I have done many of these and although I can see the importance of learning new skills, I wish moat teachers let us take a fresh and new approach in exploring the elements and methods. Instead of having to draw spheres with pastels and learn how to implement highlights and dark values as a warmup, maybe we could turn this into a "morning project". Every morning we could work on our project and inculcate the same art  methods, but we could choose the idea and make it personal and meaningful.
Taking creative approaches and exploring post modern principles can expose us to new ideas and techniques that we might not be able to observe in old classical paintings such as that of Van Gogh or Kandinsky. This will teach us to be independent and set a trend that defines 21st century art instead of merely copying  the older art styles.

Essential question: What is small?

the first attempt

What is small? What makes an object small? Its size? Its characteristics? The environment it's in? I decided to explore these questions in a painting of a ship in the sea. Large, powerful and strong, a ship is the last thing you would label as small.  
Yet, the ship's size is only relative to the situation and environment it's in. Out in a storm, with waves crashing down and tossing the small wooden box around, the ship is small and powerless. It is at the mercy of the environment. In my painting, I presented this idea, by showing dark stormy skies, and strong powerful waves. The size of the ship is small in comparison to the nature surrounding it.

The painting is done in acrylics. To make the clouds in the sky, I made swirly motions with white paint, and then brushed over it with a huge dry brush. For the waves (and this took forever!), I used a dry brush to stroke the paint upward. At the tip of the waves, I used the bristles of the brush to add the "spray effects" with white paint. for the sky I used the dry brush to apply different shades of blue in a gradient.

What about the end? Well, it took a lot of effort to avoid painting the ship, but now I'm on it. I'll post a picture of it soon!

Going back to fix the waves

Is art without meaning decoration?

Most time we get so hung up on pleasing a teacher or just completing a project to get a grade, that we miss the most essential part of our artworks : the meaning behind it. The predicament that Mr. Sands described in his article is one that I can easily relate. All throughout Art 1 and for a good bit of Art 2 as well, most of the art assignments I did were were done to follow a teacher's directions to learn a new skill. For example when my Art 1 class was introduced to oil pastels, we did assignments where we drew a circle and used oil pastel to add values and make the end result look like a sphere. Although they looked good, the task was tedious and didn't allow for a whole lot of creativity. I have a few oil pastel spheres hanging on my wall, but when I go to college I probably won't take them because they hold no value to me. Another tedious aspect of art is when teachers give you the instructions for an assignment and you have limited options. In my opinion, this doesn't allow for creativity. One such assignment I did was back in art 2, when we had to recreate the style of a famous artists. The artist I ended up with was an abstract artist, and since I didn't relate to this style of art I found the project very limiting. Even though the end result imitated the style, I am not very proud of the piece of art. Art without meaning, is not appealing to the one who has to create it as there is a clear lack of inspiration and worth attached to the goal. This is why i like open ended assignments

art 3:

Done first with prisma colors

For this project I chose to explore the element of color. I wanted the color of the flowers to be bright and vibrant as it stood out against the plain cardboard background. My top choices for the medium were acrylic paint and prisma-colors as they would have a vibrant appearance on the cardboard. I decided to go with prisma-colors because it blends easily, and you keep layering it to get the right values.

Waiting for the background to dry

In the background, I applied layers of blue, turquoise and red water color paint to get a subtle yet interesting background. The water colors didn't over power the flowers and my background didn't look empty anymore!

All done!

 I chose this subject because I wanted to go for a landscape/nature theme, which would be common for everybody. By focusing on color, I could give a unique aspect to common everyday flowers, by letting its natural colors stand out.

 

With filters :)

Practice for mixed media

too dark too fast

This was one of my first experiences with mixed media art. Before this I had only cutout letters from magazines and glued them onto paper to spell out someone's name. However, I've now learned that layering is crucial in this form of art. It gives your artwork substance and a more developed look. I enjoyed layering different materials (ribbon, crape paper, origami)  because it gave my artwork a 3-D aspect. Through some trial and error I also learned that when layering, its better to layer dark and then work your way up with lighter colors. On my first try, I started layering with white and red, and then tried to put a layer of dark blue on top. The effect of the blue crape paper layer was only noticeable.

When I started the practice, I was flipping through magazine, looking for something pretty or interesting to paste. I had no theme or story that I intended to tell through my work. Since, I was looking at magazines like People and Teen Vogue, I realized how much these magazines focus on beauty. I wanted to take a slightly critical view of that in my practice. So i cut out pictures of pretty women, shoes, and other stuff we tend to regard as beautiful. My favorite picture is of this girl sipping a drink, and layered beneath that is a green eye. I tried to make it seem like its a complete picture and as if they both are meant to go together. when the viewer looks at it, I want him to realize that  when we look at a person we tend to look at the outer beauty only (thus the eye weird but pretty in its own way).

In the third practice I tried to see if could make a picture on the first layer and then layer with black on top of it.It was similar to a pciture of text Id seen that had used to a similar effect to make text stand out. Personally, it was kinda hard to layer black paper so carefully and precisely. I also should have used colors that were more contrasting, it would have made my picture more appreciable to the eye

Mixed Media Card

     Through this artwork I was able to communicate through my work and wish my friend a happy birthday.Like any other birthday card, I wanted it to show that a lot of considerable effort was made and that I had customized it for my friend. In the card  I included a lot of clip outs of jokes that would make her laugh, words cutout from magazines that described her, and on the backside, i wrote my message over white crape paper that I had layered. I tried to give it a girly touch with the butterflies and glitter paper that I glued onto the red crape paper. Through this project, I also got to show my friend what I value about her and our friendship, through my art, and in the end , I believe that it made a personal connection with the viewer (my friend).

This project not only reflect my own ideas, but also that of my peers, who collaborated and gave constructive feedback while i made the card. Emma helped show me that I was solely exploring the crape paper media on the card. She brought over some wrapping paper and reminded me how we had learned to make origami butterflies in Art 1. Not only did this liven up my card, but it also gave it a 3D aspect. I also discussed with her the idea of putting glitter on the front, on top of the solid boring layer of black paint i had applied. when i was finished with the card, I was holding it and considering how I would hand it over to my friend. Sabrina suggested that I should attach a ribbon on the top, so that my friend could hold it less awkwardly, and even hang it up.

For this project my source of inspiration, was from cards i had seen on Pinterest. these cards had cut out letters from the magazine spell out "Happy Birthday". I decided to take this a step further, and customize it more I also wanted the card to have more mixed media on it. since my friend always has an awesome sense of humor, I also chose funny pictures and jokes that would make her laugh.