Goodbye for Junior Year!

Alright fellas, today is my last blog of my Junior year! Next time I post my musings, I’ll be a SENIOR!!! This year has been crazy for me! I started off with painting, which I have always loved. (click here to see my mountain piece!) Then I moved on to my tape project, which lasted for quite some time and churned out a lot of work! (click here!) It developed into so much more than tape hurriedly stuck onto a piece of paper and painted over (who knows - maybe I’ll revisit this next year)! In March, I decided that I shouldn’t be working on a project I wasn’t enjoying (that tape project lasted a loooooong time) and moved on to printing. (here's my thought process!) This was my water piece that I slapped onto paper with a piece of linoleum. Now, at the end of the year, I have decided to look into Pointillism. Ironically, I think this relates in more ways than one to my first piece! (psst - I talked about this here) 

Okay, so this has been a crazy year! I can’t believe I’m already writing my last blog! I had to double-check to make sure we didn’t start writing these second semester! I thought that I would point out the highlights of my year. 

The Mountain Piece, les Montagnes

Whew! I am so thrilled with this piece! I started this piece last year and didn’t touch it this summer. I was itching to finish it from the moment school started, and with two art classes first semester, I finally got it done! There must be a billion trees on that dang painting (feel free to disprove me - if you’re up for counting them all!). As much as I love it, there are still so many things I could change about it when I look at it. Even now, I would love to go back and add in different shades of trees to the forest. Honestly, I grew a little impatient during those last few weeks of blip, blip, blipping tiny brushstrokes onto the canvas. It also really bothers me that the right edge of the painting isn’t straight, but instead pulls inward towards the bottom. Overall, though, I can’t help but be happy with this piece. My favorite part is probably either the river or the sky. Both are very carefree and simple; very different than the intricate snow and forest! I hope to do a piece like this some time next year,

The Tape Project

Okay, this piece kinda turned out to be that overbearing aunt that overstays her welcome over the holidays - nice at first, but then it’s got to go. I have no doubt I’ll work with this project again in the future, I just expect it to be in the not-so-near future. Honestly, I think one of the main draws of this work for me was having an excuse to look up quotes! I truly love literature and hope to incorporate it into future pieces I make. It’s hard for me to choose a favorite piece in this project - a bit like choosing a favorite child - but I do love the NYC skyline and Jane Austen quote. It’s a very minimalist painting that isn’t difficult to look at (if that makes sense).

Another highlight of my year was deciding to take Portfolio II instead of AP Art next year. I can’t wait to still be able to explore in art! I strongly believe that you should never be bored in art class or think what you’re doing is a chore. Next year I would love to work with Pointillism, pottery, printing, and continue painting in detail!

In my first (brief) blog post, I mentioned that I wanted y’all to be able to witness my process. Now, scrolling through my entire blog may make it seem like I don’t have a process at all, but there is an undertone to every piece I make. I’ve mentioned it multiple times, remember? Beauty. Throughout my art career, and my entire life, I aspire to create beauty through what I do.  I hope you can find beauty in my work, and will continue to see it the world around you! Thank you so much for keeping up with my blog this year!

Looking Back and Ahead

Okay guys! After this, just one more blog after this! Thank goodness! Of course, I'll be back next year! Today I wanted to look back at my work this year to identify some key elements, and then look forward to see how I could incorporate those into future works. Okay, so let's start with my mountain piece. Whew! I am so glad to be done with that one. Those teeny tiny brushstrokes were so frustrating, but I was happy in the end. It's funny because I hated the stupid brushstrokes so much at the time, and now I'm getting into pointillism! In my sketchbook, I've been experimenting with creating colors with pointillism (i.e. yellow and blue to make green). One key element I've noticed in my work is that it generally looks better standing farther away from it. I've noticed this in my mountain paining, my ink water piece, and my pointillism rough drafts. Of course, everything I make is what I consider beautiful. I especially showed this in my tape project, what with watercolor (which I always love) and beautiful quotes. I am so excited to explore next year! I am so glad I have the freedom to play around with different materials to create beauty in my world - and I'm excited for y'all to see, too!

this is a really rough (and not even complete) picture of my water piece... 

What's Next?

I've been doing a lot of thinking recently about what all of my pieces have in common. Not my common thread - we already established that here. I mean physically, what do my pieces have in common? And guys, I got it. All of my works looks better and more complete from far away! Seriously, during critiques a few days ago, my classmates and I walked to the back of the room and noted that my piece just looked better back there. So that got me thinking: what kind of art looks better farther back? Pointillism! Yup, I wanna experiment with those tiny little dots. Do you see how perfect this is? It captures so many details from my pieces! Details, layering, painting with tiny strokes, looking more complete farther back... this is perfect for me! I would love to replicate some pictures of flowers I've taken (don't you think hydrangeas would look amazing??), but I would also love to "paint" a picture of a scene in Paris. I've added some examples from different artists below in case some people don't know about pointillism.

This is a self portrait by Vincent van Gogh. Notice that he didn't really use dots - he used tiny dashes. That counts, too!

So this is pretty classic pointillism - I'm pretty sure i replicated this piece in lower school. (tooootally as good, too)

PARIS HOLLA I WANT TO DO THIS

all of those teeny tiny dots coming together to make such an amazing piece of art!

This piece seems like it could be one of mine... lean away from your screen - look better? 

Iris Scott - Expert Finger Painter

I have started a new project that I am super excited about! I am roughly recreating a picture by painting printing ink onto a cork-like thing and slapping it onto my paper. I've found that it created a really cool 3D pattern because the ink sits on top of the ink already on the paper - I'll post pictures soon! This artist, Iris Scott, has an innovative way of getting the paint on the canvas! She reverts back to kindergarten ways and finger paints! She manages to create beautiful pictures, and if I hadn't known how she painted, I never would have guessed that she uses her fingers! It's certainly a step up from all of my old finger paintings.

I just love this picture - how in the world does she create such detailed pieces? 

I love the vibrant red treetops and the way the headlights look so realistic - it looks just like the road after it rains.

This is like my water piece! Well, just in the fact that it's water, but whatever.

Iris at work!

I just love autumn, so this is such a great picture to me!

This fox is SO DETAILED! I don't just understand.

This is such a beautiful cityscape!

My Common Thread

Hello again! My art teacher just looked at my blog and suggested that I look at an art show put on by SCAD (https://www.facebook.com/scadceramicarts/posts/1054453787908817). It's an installation for the ceramics class. How awesome is their setup??? I love the mugs on the wall - what an awesome way to show them! That way, people aren't having to bend own to look at your mug, or pick them up and potentially drop them (yikes).

I love the perfect lines... I'm a sucker for symmetry

I've been thinking about what my common thread will be next year; the thread that runs through all of my pieces. I think it will be beauty. All throughout my art experience, I have wanted to convey the beauty I see all around me. To be honest, I see beauty in things like really close-up pictures of random objects like the carpet, but nobody wants to look at that.  My point is that I tend to find beauty in ordinary things like weeds in a lawn and details of a brick wall. My pottery is just another thing I find beautiful, and I can't wait to see if everyone else agrees with me! Even if they don't, who cares, I like it. I hope to post pictures soon of my progress with the water picture (I refer to it as if there's only one, like my camera roll isn't full of pictures of water)! I'm going to the beach for a week, so I hope to get even more pictures. I'm kinda hoping it storms; oceans are so beautiful in stormy weather!

Plans for Next Year

Hello everyone! Next year I will be taking Portfolio II, and I really think I have made an awesome choice. Since the very beginning, I have had trouble choosing what to do because I love so many different styles of art! Taking Portfolio II next year will allow me to have to freedom to experiment with all sorts of techniques to broaden my horizons. I feel like taking AP Art would have confined me to a certain style of art, and I didn't want to feel constricted in my art making. Art is about exploring and creativity and freedom! With that said, I am super excited about what I will be doing next year. I plan on returning to the pottery wheel and experimenting with different glazes. I would love to make mugs, bowls, plates, etc. - really, anything I can! There is a shop up in Mentone, AL (http://www.miraclepottery.com/Mugs.html) that my brother and sister have become obsessed with over the years. Since the first mug they brought home, my family has been obsessed with their collections! I love their style of glazing and would love to recreate some of the patterns. Mugs will be a challenge for me; I've tried making them in the past and it hasn't gone so well, whether it's handles falling off, holes being torn in the body, or just a downright awful looking cup, I've struggled. I am excited to experiment next year and finally create my perfect mug! I've included some pictures of the mugs from Miracle Pottery's website, but I also have some other ideas. I would like to make a collection of white pottery and find a way to add gold to it. I'm not sure how gold leaf would work, but I'll be keeping you all updated next year!

okay y'all I just added this picture because it's hilarious... it's a juicer, and then they photoshopped a lemon onto it... hahahahaha y'all I'm dying this is amazing 

my obsession with water

Because my tape project is so long, I've gotten somewhat bored with it. I'll come back to it later to finish it up, but for now I'm setting it aside to focus on something I'm really interested in. A few years ago, I did a project with printing (as in printing ink and rollers) and I have wanted to revisit it ever since! Last time, I carved a lion's face out of cork and printed gold and white onto blue paper. This time, I would like to print out of of my photographs, make marks where the water is choppy (that's hard to explain... like where the water has definition), carve out the marks on a piece of cork (or whatever material you use), and make prints on top of each other with different shades of blue. This is tricky to explain, but I'm so excited for this! I've added some pictures that I would like to work with.

Andy Goldsworthy

Happy Monday! My tape project is a rather extensive project that I can even continue to add onto next year, so I'm running out of artists that relate to that piece! This week I wanted to talk about artist Andy Goldsworthy because his work absolutely fascinates me. He is a British artist that makes incredible pieces with nature, and documents them with photographs. I've added a bunch of pictures that I liked, but feel free to check out this website (http://visualmelt.com/Andy-Goldsworthy) to see some more! I have to admit... I'm jealous! He gets to travel to beautiful places to create his art. I hope to visit some exciting places for my tape project too, but meanwhile I'll just have to drool over his work. Seriously, guys, I can't get enough!

This picture is so beautiful! I adore the deep green grass with the almost white crystal. Breathtaking!

Honestly, guys, I have no clue how he does it. How does he have the patience to match up those tiny leaves???

I love love LOVE this piece because of that gorgeous red color that draws your eye, and the absence of color creating that trademark circle.

Your eye is first drawn to the dark circle in the center of the image, but don't forget to look at the rest of the picture! The beautiful, lush moss on the tree and the way the sticks almost blend into the bark on the left of the tree - I love it.

Note that he only made half of the figure - the rest is a reflection! I would hang this picture in my house, I love it so much.

This is so incredible to me! ripping up those tiny leaves to make a line? Sheesh, I couldn't handle it.

I absolutely adore this picture - Fall colors are a huge draw for me!

As you can see, his work deals with pattern and color quite often. He likes to leave that famous circle in a lit of his pieces, which I love! The starkness of the light inner color against the black or dark circle totally draws in your eye and almost forces you to look at the picture. Make sure to look at my captions on the photos - I added some of my opinions and also things you may have missed! 

Eric Kimberlin - Photographer Extraordinaire

A while back, I became obsessed with spoon rings and stumbled upon a website (http://www.kimberlin.co) and happened to notice the photography option (on the far right). Guys, you have to check this out. Eric Kimberlin is such an incredible photographer, and basically lives my dream by living in the Pacific Northwest and taking killer pictures of the nature surrounding him. I have included some of his pictures below, but I hope you'll take a look at his website. The spoon rings are pretty cool, too. I really posted this as a look waaaaaay into the future. Although I would love to be taking photographs on his level, I don't have to locations to do so. This is giving y'all an idea of where I want to end up, like a view of where I want to be in ten years. I hope you enjoy his pictures as much as I do!

I LOVE THIS PICTURE OMG GUYS WATER IS MY FAVORITE THING EVER

I love love love love love trees, y'all

Here's What I'm Working With...

Hey guys! So today I wanted to finally do something I said I would do a while ago: show y'all some of my tape project pieces! I've talked about these so much so I'm glad y'all now have the ability to come back to the post if you need a visual. I've included four pictures that will be the watercolor section of the project. I think these four accurately represent what I was trying to do with the spacing of the tape and the realism of the background. I hope you enjoy them (and the quotes) as much as I do! This is truly such an incredible project for me - the bookworm in me loves the opportunity to read poetry "for homework" every night!

"all the beauty of life is of light and shadow"

"he will make the face of heaven so fine all the world will fall in love with night"

"we do not look in our great cities for our best morality"

"He will come to us like rain"

I apologize for how hard it is to read these! I hope you can manage. So, what do you think? From here, I would like to put tape over my photographs, and take photographs of the tape on nature. I'm super excited to continue with this project and see how everything turns out! Let me know if you guys have any questions or recommendations. Have a favorite quote? Let me know! It may just end up in my project! 

Quotes Over Photography

My tape project is evolving, guys, and here's what I plan to do with it.

First, let's backtrack. My tape was initially used to cover up small parts of the background to draw attention to the words. I watercolored the background to match the quote, such as patches of red for a quote about roses. Really, I was forcing the viewer to see it the quote from my perspective - I was interpreting it for them. Now, I am going to gradually fade the background and increase the size of the tape. But get this - instead of taping over watercolors, what if I taped over photographs? My photographs, to be more precise. Or what if I put tape on something in nature and then took a photo of it? I am super thrilled for this, guys. It was hard to find pictures of this online, but here's a kinda good example of what I mean. The next picture is just a visual of the quote I want to use - it's my favorite poem, For Whom the Bell Tolls, by John Donne. I hope you love it as much as I do!

I like the dark photo with the neon white quote - don't you?

Hope is a Thing with Feathers

Hey everyone! This week I'm going to talk about another one of my favorite poets: Emily Dickinson. She is such a fabulous writer and I love to read her work. I've added a few of her poems that I'm considering using in my poem project. Have a favorite?

I think for the one about hope I'll use soft colors like pale yellow, purple, and green, because that's what I imagine when I think of hope. I have been working on a watercolor that I'm not too fond of because it looks really strange. It was supposed to be the night sky, but it's ended up being really weird and swirly. I am considering restarting, but I think I'll try to salvage it first! I'll keep you guys updated! Sorry for a short blog, but this is sort of like a continuation of my last blog, since I'm working on the same project and with the same idea!

Poetry in Art

In my artist's statement, I talked about how I want my art to be my definition of beauty. While I love photography and painting, I also want to include other types of art, like literature. Tyler Knott Gregson is a poet that does phenomenal work on a typewriter. He types his poems on any piece of paper he can find - the back of an old receipt, an envelope, a menu - and almost relates to e.e. cummings in the way he spaces his work. I posted some examples of Gregson's work below and some of cummings work for comparison. I encourage you to look up more of his work - some of it was a tad iffy for the blog, but it is beautiful. I don't plan on writing poetry, but I used him as an example because I love his work and could definitely see myself using his quotes in my work. (see my last post for a description of what I want to do next!)

notice the random paper?

while cummings didn't necessarily write on the typewriter, doesn't the spacing look familiar?