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?