Art III Final Blog

This semester of art has been very challenging and rewarding.  I stepped out of my comfort zone and used different materials for each project.  It was interesting to experiment with different mediums and different ways to brainstorm.  I did more thinking and planning out loud, so much so that I had few sketches because I knew exactly how I wanted a piece to turn out.  Also, using different ways to develop project ideas really stretched my creative thinking.  By starting with questions, words, or elements of art, it provided a way to think of topics that I would not have originally if I was told just to paint a picture of something.

For our unit on nontraditional materials, I created this piece.  It has a very similar look to Rachid Koraïch's piece, "Hadieh Shafie."  The repetition of circles and colors connect my rubber band duck to his woven cloth banner.  I grew as an artist because I learned how to use elements from someone's work to enhance my own piece and create a motif.

Another project I made, my "giraffiti," was inspired by modern day graffiti artists.  These days, graffiti is becoming more prevalent and is being considered more so as actual art.  Depending on the location and the image, these creations can be regarded highly.  My hybrid text art giraffe shows my growth as an artist because I worked more with values and practiced the graffiti style of font.

Teens Inspired

I created a piece that was inspired by a painting in the NC Museum of Art.  I took the element of silhouettes of people and altered it to the silhouette of a landscape.  My painting is based off of a picture I took at a youth retreat as the sun was setting.  No picture or painting could do justice to how beautiful the sky was, but I attempted.  I chose this long canvas to give it more of a panorama feel and to try out a different kind of layout.  It was hard to get the colors to look how I wanted them to and to make the orange water look natural because it was a reflection.

Fancy Snowflakes

For this project, we had to incorporate print making into communicating something we never said.  I decided to make a collection of prints using various snowflakes I made.  These weren't just plain old kindergarten snowflakes, but I put in a lot of effort trying to make them intricate and complex.  Also, out of the four I made, none of them are the same.  This is how it related to the prompt-- I never said I was the same as anyone else, trying to fit in and go with the crowd.  It's important to be yourself and be proud of that.  By combining the different types of snowflakes and the different methods of printing (normal, ghost prints, the print of a print of a print...), I made a piece that is very unique and is made of different individual aspects.  I even connected everything by putting the actual snowflakes on top to provide unity to the piece.  I enjoyed using the purple and blue because I think these colors kept it festive, made it so you could tell it was snowflakes, and they worked well together.

Adventures at the NC Art Museum

My favorite painting was The Cliff, Ętretat, Sunset by Monet. I really liked the cool colors and the brush strokes in the water. It was very calming and it made me want to row a boat in that water.

This Corn Harvest painting was one that I didn't like at first. The super dull colors just threw me off and the shape of the broccoli trees was just unsettling. After looking at if for a long time, I decided the river and horse were nice and I grew to like it.

Milton Avery's Blue Landscape was my least favorite. It looked like a fifth grader did it. I didn't like the swervy lines and rocks because they weren't very realistic.  I think the artist could've put more time and effort into his piece.

Squeaky Clean

For this project, we were required to use nontraditional art materials.  I decided to use rubber bands because I had a large 1/2 pound bag of them at home.  After thinking through some ideas, I decided to make a rubber duck out of rubber bands.  (Cute right?)  I used the idea of twilling to curl rubber bands of different colors and sizes into small swirls.  I glued these down until they formed the shape of a duck.  This was a struggle because the rubber bands were very hard to work with, especially the thin ones.  I quickly ran out of usable ones and had to find more.  After weeks of endless glue gun burns and frustration, I finally finished the duck.  For the background, I decided that since it was a rubber duck, he needed a bubble bath.  I covered up the duck and blew bubbles mixed with food coloring to create colorful bubbles.  I had to experiment with this effect to figure out the best way to get an actual bubble shape, not just splatters from the bubbles popping.  This turned out to be a mess, but I finally decided to cut out some of the best bubbles and glue them to my background as well to create a layering affect.  If I could do anything different, I would've not chosen rubber bands (because I do not like them anymore) and I would've tried to find a way to make the glue less visible on the final product.

Giraffiti

For this project, I exhibited postmodern principles by creating a hybrid of text art, juxtaposition, and artists steal. But mainly hybridity and text art, this giraffe has the letters in "giraffe" as its spots. I used oil pastels and a graffiti style font to create new spots. I enjoyed this project because it wasn't too difficult but it still required a lot of planning, experimenting, and creativity.

Non Traditional Art Materials

This article discussed the use of non-traditional materials to make art projects. It posed the idea that buying from art supply stores is not as creative as picking out more unique items. In a way, I can see how using your imagination to utilize various things could produce more thoughtful and wild projects, but I also understand that you can be creative using paint and pencils as well. It's all a matter of how much thought you put into something and how you use whatever medium you decide on.  It is a good idea to experiment with different materials to switch it up and add pizzazz.

Here are some fun examples...

A portrait using vegetables

 The pitchfork painting using balloons

 Fish made out of water bottles

 Dolphins made out of driftwood

A flag made out of lace

Olivia Gude Response

Olivia Gude describes the use and need for elements and principles of design. What I question is why she says there are "the big seven elements and principles" since there are more than seven. She might list the postmodern principles she thinks are most important, but in class we discussed several alternate ones. If this is the case, how do we know which ones are the most substantial?  I like how she mentioned Dow's idea that the postmodern principles increase our creativity. They give us rules and an outline to follow while still allowing for creative ideas. I also like how she questioned the importance of learning about past and relevant artists. This is important because it cultures is and lets us see what is seen as successful art around the world. I think that by learning about other artists, techniques, and thought processes that we can think more outside the box in order to make something original.

MOOSE on the run

For this project, we came up with a word and created a question around it that we were supposed to try and answer through our art.  I chose "wild," and after a lot of brainstorming, I decided to pose the question, "Can something wild really be contained."  To demonstrate this,  I sculpted a moose out of clay and sent it to the kiln.  While I waited for it to cook, I worked on his platform home.  I used a piece of wood and painted it green and brown like a forest floor.  Then I created a fence to corral my moose by gluing twigs together.  I used spray adhesive to stick little pieces of pinestraw to the bottom as well.  When I got my moose back, I covered it in pinestraw, pinecone, and bark pieces.  Using all of the outdoor elements was my way of keeping the moose wild, but the fence tries to tame him.  Yet I included a gate door so that the moose can be free when he wants to and therefore the wild spirit in him can not be contained.

The Art of Ed response- Is Art WIthout Meaning Decoration?

     This reading posed some questions that are rather interesting.  The discussion of the meaning behind art and whether or not it is necessary is something I've never thought about.  When you're in class, it's obvious whose art has more meaning between the pretty landscape and the dark, symbolic, mixed media piece that is super original.  This whole argument can be negotiable to go either way.  Art does have facets that require learning skills and and applying them in new ways.  I think it is important to come up with really creative out of the box ideas, but sometimes working on a piece that almost replicates a photograph whether you're using paints, pastels, or another medium can show your mastery of the materials and ability to imitate images in life.  As for defining meaning, anything can have meaning yet it depends on the mood exerted from the piece.  A gloomy piece with a small bit of color can symbolize despair with hope on the horizon.  Sometimes you have to just go with the first idea that interests and excites you the most so that you will be eager to work on it or even expand on the meaning behind the idea.  Art can also represent where you are in life, and that provides sort of a hidden meaning as well.  I don't think assignments hinder meaning.  Having a completely open topic can make it incredibly hard to come up with an idea that you can picture as a completed project and a success.  While some may argue that that leads to more brainstorming, a better plan, and the fact that failure produces growth,  it is more productive to have a narrowed down topic that still allows plenty of room for creativity. 

Is there meaning?  But it helps practice with lines, shapes, value, and color-fundamental elements of art...but you could come up with meaning like you don't know whats lurking underneath you or expect the unexpected or it may look like smooth sailing but rough waves are coming...

I like barns

                                              (Here is my palette, I thought it looked cool.)






      For this project, we were required to create a piece that emphasizes one of the elements of art. I chose the element line. I used pen and watercolor to paint a barn and a field. I picked this type of media because I was inspired by some pictures I saw on Pinterest depicting cute old houses with whimsical lines and pretty colors. I decided to paint a barn because I love barns and farms! I thought the pen would look really cool shining through, and I've used pens a lot before. I wanted to challenge myself with the water color as well, and I thought it was really fun! It represents line because of the rows of grass and the lines drawn with the pen.