End of the Year Reflection

This whole school year feels like a blur. It was just yesterday when I was in portfolio development trying to decide what kind of artist I want to be. Now we are all about to be in a show and present what kind of artist we have all grown into. We have the painters, the photographer, the sculptor, and I was never sure where I fit on that spectrum. I was always nervous that people would judge the work that I made and be like...well I don't get it. What's so special about it? Honestly I don't blame them it doesn't look like anything anyone can't do. I have realized that I found some kind of creativity and way to combined different images and make them into one. This was realized in Ms. Burmans class this fall where I made a lot of advertisements for already known brands. I brought that into this class. While everyone was experimenting with paint and resin I was flipping through magazines and shopping for prom dresses. Even though this wasted a lot of my beginning time, I realized through this procrastinating that even though I am self conscience that my art isn't REAL art, it is something that I have enjoyed making and it shows my interests in different forms. This class and having the freedom has stretched me to having to make my own decisions and rely less on my peers and teachers for encouragement. This I think I could say was a challenge of mine originally. I also now know that I want to have some kind of future in art, I now will look at the options at Syracuse and see where my art can take me to be successful in the future. I hope that I can share the kind of art I like and find others who share interests like this in the business world. I see my old pieces that I was forced to do, but the collaging type art has become more prominent in my art collection.

Dan Levin

Dan Levin is another artist that uses materials around the house or in every day life it looks like. I think it is really cool when artists use materials like that because it shows that they could possibly have inspiration by just walking on the street. Like in the picture above, he is making skateboards. For all we know he could of seen a boy skateboarding and wanted to replicate one of those boards in a different way.

Sally Jean

I was looking around the internet for artists that do collaging and I came across Sally. She uses really cool materials that all have a similar color scheme and tend to blend really nicely together. My work isn't really like hers, but I think it all looks beachy and I love the beach. Also the images she uses are very simple and beautiful. They have a very feminine look to me as well.

http://cache2.allpostersimages.com/p/LRG/26/2673/SH4UD00Z/posters/melton-bill-pair-of-dogs-dressed-in-clothes-hats-and-glasses.jpg

http://itscoolweb.blogspot.com/2008/12/14-creative-advertisements-part-3.html

http://www.smashingapps.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/30-wonderful-examples-of-shoes-advertisements.jpg

Obama vs. Princeton

Elizabeth Gilbert

Fear. Fear is something that Elizabeth Gilbert has been faced with in many circumstances. I read the book Eat Pray Love at the beginning of the year and that theme of fear came up a lot. She was asked aren't you scared? This question was posed as in are you scared your not going to succeed or people wont like your work. I think she overcame a lot of hurtles and never let fear get in the way of her success which is really big of her. She never doubted herself when she was told that she wouldn't sell a certain number of books. Her dream and her goals were always bigger then the fear that loomed in the background. She talks about a way to protect yourself from certain things. I don't think that there is really a way to protect your creativity because you put so much out there when you share your work with the world. When people criticize this it hurts but have to rise above that. You put your all into everything and there is no better she says. She said its her job to write just like it's our job to make art. If someone is not pleased with what you do, so what, be proud of what you accomplish.

Bulletin Board

Shanye Huang

Mixed Media Piece

http://www.shanyehuang.com/links.php?42630

Critique 2

After todays critique it was a little different because I proposed a new idea since the last time we met as a group. The group as a whole said that they think my new idea reflects more of me rather than something more planned out. I agree in the sense that this comes easier to me, and also is a lot less stressful. Ginny proposed a new way that I could mount the piece in the gallery which I will keep in mind. I like these critiques and it is helping me move forward as we enter the last 2 weeks of this class.

Week 5

This week I changed what my project was. Initially I had this elaborate plan that I thought would work out really well, and reflected my work. But soon I realized that it was causing me a great deal of stress and I completely decided to not do that project. I thought I should stick to the more simple pieces that I made starting last year and make more of those pieces and hope that they kind of find a way to go into the gallery as a final piece. I realized that it would look really clean and sharp with the help of Ms.Roberts if I matted them and got them framed in a thin simple frame. So I took the pieces this weekend to a framer and got them fitted for frames. So I hope that once I get those back I will feel better about my new project and have it feel more me.

25 Quotes To Help You Steal...

“It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”
— Jean-Luc Godard

Austin Kleon

I thought this artists work was really cool. He makes a mini guide book to become an artist. I personally feel like some of this stuff wouldn't exactly work if you were trying to make art. But some of his notes are really incitful. Number 3 on How To Steal Like An Artist says that you should write the book that you want to read. This obviously makes sense because why would you take the time to write something that you did not feel passionate about, or right after it says "write what you like".

Week 4

This week I thought was more productive then the last weeks. We started the week with the critiquing and it really started me thinking about getting going on my project. I always knew what I wanted to do, but it has been hard getting started with figuring out what to photograph. It is also difficult to find the people to take the pictures. I worked more on my blogging this week, and some of the figure five artwork that I wanted to finish.

TEAM.

I have always loved sports. They have been a way to get involved in school, stay in shape, and have a second family. Sometimes people only play sports for the competition but that is only one of the reasons that I play. Competing is a way to only focus on one thing and get my mind off of whatever is bothering me. One of the reasons I have focused some of my pieces on athletics is because it has always been prominent in my life. I watch with my family and have been playing since such a young age. Our coaches always say how we are a lacrosse family and how we are all there for one another which is very true. This also relates to art, because artists are all a part of a family as well. Everyone can give feedback and people feed off of other artists as inspiration. It is the kind of thing where you grow off of one another.

Grid of Names

Sidewalk Psychiatry

Candy Chang is an artist that Ms. Roberts showed me in our figure five class. I thought that she has a really distinct style of art and that it leaves a lot of open space for people to interpret what they wanted the piece to me. She uses the public as her studio which I think is really original becuase most artists who strive to be in museums and fancy art galleries but I feel like she is different. I really this piece because these are questions that you can read and it will relate to your personal life in different ways. They are simple questions that you can ask yourself and think about something that you have done in your life. http://candychang.com/sidewalk-psychiatry/

Critique Dynamics

There are a lot of things that I didn't really realize played a role in critiquing peoples work. Like the lighting in the room, how you present it, having titles for each individual piece, and having the way you are going to present already prepared. Making sure that your audience is engaged is also helpful, because you can then get the most out of the group critique. When I personally share my work I get a little nervous. I feel vulnerable when sharing because most of the time when I create a piece of work, I love it, and I feel like it shows a lot of me. If someone doesn't like it I cannot take it personally. I know that it has nothing to do with me as a person, and that my peers are just trying to make me a better artist.

Critique 1

After the first critique I feel like this was the first time where there was actual constructive criticism that I could use to move on in my project. Ginny informed me that she did not like the shape of paper I was planning on using, so I took that comment and realized that if each photo was a different size and then I fit them together some way it would look really cool. I liked how people realized that doing human photoshop is something that I enjoy doing and people said that it was good that I was focusing on one specific thing. I also liked our discussion in the beginning and how everyone has similar experiences with when we have critiques no one gives negative comments but today was the opposite. I felt like everyone gave me very insightful comments that I can really take to make more strides in my work.

Week 3

This week I caught up on all of my blogs, and started thinking more realistically about my project and trying to see what one piece would look like if I combined the color photo and the newspaper print object. It looked pretty good but I have to make sure the scale of everything is proportional which I think will be one of the biggest difficulties. I realized that I also like the middle area between all of the tables. It allows me to stretch out which I like and I like the inspiration of being able to be surrounded by the whole art room. I also like working by Ms.Roberts. My calming music is Jack Johnson today it is up beat and relaxing which is what I need on my friday morning!

Different Artist Give Inspiration

I liked the artists that you showed in the slideshow this week. I think that all of the artists are very relatable and can give each one of us inspiration. I do like the Kehinde Wiley pieces because it combines 2 different things into 1 painting. I like how Lorna Simpson uses different materials in her work. I like also how each artist presents their art in different ways. Some used the ceiling, some used the floor, walls and more. I think that there are more original ways to use a wall and make things pop and make people see it more than a piece of paper on a blank wall.

Art & Fear

Talent.

Every person has a talent and a different view of what talent truly means. To me, you aren't just given talent, you have been given a skill and if you decide to take that skill to the next level then you may become talented in something. This is unlike the packet Art & Fear. "Talent, in common parlance, is "what comes easily" ". I think talent should be observed and be praised. Talent makes everything more interesting and makes everyone different. You can learn from different peoples talents and grow from them. It gives you something to reach for and push yourself beyond what your comfortable with. If I didn't ever want to become better at anything and be looked at being a talented person I wouldn't work half as hard as I do. There isn't one thing I want to be talented in, but all I can hope for is to do the best that I know I can.

Week 2

This week I had some trouble advancing in my project and staying focused but today I started taking a picture of Izzy and seeing how one of the pictures would turn out. So I took a photo today and used photoshop to fix the lighting and then I will start to place a microphone in her hand. By doing one picture I will be able to tell if I think this project will turn out how I envision it. I was able to also collect more of the times when my friends are confident and vulnerable.

Kehinde Wiley

http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/images/02-07_full.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.npg.si.edu/exhibit/recognize/paintings.html&usg=__-yg1ss1zhZXtdqCBwUpjrXJKlyw=&h=447&w=600&sz=73&hl=en&start=0&sig2=HL30V3QRJ7qR-3vA1fSCXw&zoom=1&tbnid=jwAyXxbkWjjwgM:&tbnh=126&tbnw=167&ei=BZ-UTa3sOY6tgQfs-5TXCA&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkehinde%2Bwiley%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dsafari%26sa%3DG%26rls%3Den%26biw%3D1279%26bih%3D569%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=255&oei=BZ-UTa3sOY6tgQfs-5TXCA&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0&tx=56&ty=18

First Week

The first week was fun when we started to decorate our nook. It was kind of hard to think about what we wanted to do for our project and I always new I liked to combined different actions and put them into one, and using magazine and newspapers. I love being around my friends so I wanted to incorporate them into one of my final projects at beaver. I decided to take what we are all confident in and what we are all self conscience about and put them into one, this is what ties us all together and makes us all so close. So I decided to make a 5 by 4 pieces of paper mural with these 2 opposites. Even though I have a pretty direct idea of what I want to do, I am kind of nervous that this wont turn out the way that I envision it.

Inspiration

For me, inspiration comes in different ways. I think that flipping through books and magazines help get my mind moving in a way where I try to visualize what I want to come out on the paper. Sometimes I get ideas at really random times like when I am watching TV or just walking down the halls. There are no tricks that you can teach someone, because everyone has a different mind and different ways to pick up on artistic ways of thinking.

I like when she says "You never want the planning to inhibit the natural evolution of your work". I think that this is exactly what you said to us the first day of class. You did not want us over thinking anything yet and wanted our ideas to come naturally and as we went along. We didn't need to have it fully organized. This is hard for me though because I am a visual person and like to make moderate guidelines for me.

I feel like her dance would make her studio very laid back and very loose with a lot of movement.

POWERFUL

I like advertisements that when you look away your like wow. I don't know what I want to do when I'm older but if I could ever have the affect on people I would feel like I'm making a difference in someone's life, which is an accomplishment. I think you can find power in art by having just words on a blank canvas or a picture of a sports player with a black backdrop making a serious face. There are advertisements of global warming, technology, children, and sports and all are attractive to different types of people, but I think that there are messages in each one whether its written or not. The golf picture shows that even if you have a dissability there is strength and hope that you can overcome the "impossible" and do what ever you put your mind to. With the apple and blackberry ad, our world today relies on technology and we are literally glued to our phones and computers. It is slowly ruining the way we interact with our peers and our ability to hold normal conversations because we text, email, and instant message 24/7.

Alexis Rockman

I enjoyed reading the Inside the Painter's Studio, except I found some of the interviews to be somewhat slow. I liked the conversation with artist Alexis Rockman. The way that he realized he wanted to be an artist was because he never felt like he was good at anything else, which is a way that I think a lot of teenagers feel so this makes him relatable in that sense. He was successful by showing with Jay Gorney at a young age which shows his determination to succeed in this industry. He says that he wears his pajamas to work, which I think is so cool because I am most comfy in my sweats and a sweatshirt, and you are truly yourself and in your element when you are most comfortable. He also works on the floor when painting, which I found a connection with because I always like to sprawl out on the floor and use my space rather then on tables.

Also while looking through some pictures from his site, I saw a picture of a girl and it looks like she is morphed with some type of animal and playing a sport which is an interesting way to combined different types of bodies and themes into one piece.

http://alexisrockman.net/projects/wonderful-world

Erin Harmon

Erin Harmons work is filled with bright colors and florals. Looking through the pictures of her studio space she has flower pots, branches, and objects that are filled with color and brightness. These things cross over into her work with the obvious things such as plants, but also the color schemes of greens, reds, and blues are really eye captivating. You can tell that garden inspires her along with insects and "life/living things".

Me...the senior artist

Beaver has been a place where I have tried countless types of art. Some I have hated, and some I loved and was able to find a real connection with. The funny thing is I never took a mixed media class, but I think the type of art that I seem to use in different pieces is mixed media. I have found a way to connect two things I love and some how link the two together through a form of advertising. I have loved being involved with sports throughout my high school experience and I used sports as a theme in a majority of pieces I have done. Art for me has been therapeutic and a way to release stress. Sometimes it is difficult for me to express myself in ways such as public speaking or in words, but art is a way where I don't always need to pin point everything that I am thinking. I can leave room for the public eye to see if they can figure it out.