Painting 1

Ryan Kramer "2022"

9x12, Acrylic, 2020

I got my idea originally from a sketch I did of my wrestling shoes and since I really enjoy wrestling, I thought it would be a no brainer to do a painting of something wrestling related. During my senior year I’m hoping to make it to state for wrestling and I was thinking that I could paint the state podium then and put my shoes on there as a symbol of me making it to state. I put the weight I want to be at my senior year in the corner to give another symbol of me instead of just having the shoes.

I started by painting the background of the canvas the purple and once I got it to the color, I wanted I then did the podium but I put it to far off to the side so I had to cut off the 7^th spot. After I did the outline of the podium, I painted it red and then put the black squares in for the weight and the year. I then put the numbers on the podium and put the year and the weight into the black squares. After I did that, I painted the medal in because I did not like the empty space that was just sitting there. I thin painted the ribbons that would have gone on the medal and painted the IHSAA state that is on the Medals you get at state. After I did that, I added my shoe onto the 5^th spot on the podium and had it go like it was walking up to the first place spot.

The artwork to me is motivation to accomplish my goals in wrestling and to make it to state. The symbolic imagery in the work would be my shoe my weight and the year. The shoe is my wrestling shoe currently and I put it there to show that I would make it to state. The year is my senior year and that shows that I want to be at state my senior year. My weight that I want to wrestle at is also on the podium and that is there because I will be making it to state my senior year.

The most difficult part for me was the numbers because they were hard to do with a paintbrush. I ended up using a paint marker and a sharpie for the numbers so I did not have to use a brush to make them. Something I would do over would be the podium because I don’t like how it is off center and all of the spots are not on the canvas and are not visible.

This is realistic and it is unique to my own personal style because I enjoy wrestling and if I enjoy wrestling than it would make sense that I would enjoy painting and drawing things that would have to do with wrestling.

Ryan Kramer "School House"

9x12, Acrylic, 2020

I got my idea because I wanted to do something with a landscape. I thought it would be cool to do something that represents Iowa so my original idea was to make a corn field with a combine plowing the corn. I changed this idea somewhat because I was not sure how to make the corn so I turned it into a yellow field and I’m leaving it up to the viewer to decide what it is. I was planning on making the school house a farm house but I was looking and decided a school house would be more fun to paint and I could use better colors for it.

My process started with painting the yellow bottom then the green middle or the grass after that I thought it would look cool for a road to be going through the middle of it so I added a road and then the sky and school house. I then used a small brush and painted the porch and the tower. I then spent a lot of time fixing small mistakes I made.

The artwork is how I see Iowa. I see it as a bunch of farms with a cool historical place here and there. I want my audience to wonder what I painted and why because I’m not sure what all I painted I was just kind of going with it and going with the flow.

(ARTISTIC GROWTH) What was most difficult for you? How did you overcome the struggles? What would you change if you started over?

The most difficult for me was the school house because I never felt like I did enough to the school house and I would try and add something then to me it would look weird so I would paint over what I just did try something new, and then I would do it again. I eventually added the tower found out I liked that and then the porch I was iffy on for a while and decided to keep it because I felt like the school house would be missing something so I kept it. I would change the whole painting if I would start over, I do not like it that much but I kept with it and I’m still not sure if I like it or not, but I spent time on it so I was going to stick with it.

This style of art is supposed to be Realistic. The art is unique to me because on the tower the sides are not even and its unique to me because I’m not that good at being precise so there will be a lot of small incontinence spots of paint that will go into other parts of the painting. The one thing I love about this painting is the road I like how it looks and I like how it curves.