Miles Howell

Before these unprecedented circumstances, I had originally planned on creating a cohesive body of work that told a story. Similarly to the style of graphic novels, each individual piece was intended to make up a single cell on a page. I started this school year by planning and measuring all of my canvases to fit together in one storyline. The story that I had planned on telling was one of a dream, an alternate world of color that existed only in a separate dimension. Setting the scene with a colorful forest scape (Abanondoned_Wood), the protagonist stirs from unconsciousness (Awaken) and rises from the forest floor (Arise). His eyes pour over the scene around him (Where_am_I?) in hopes of finding familiarity. The protagonist then starts his journey through the woods, running towards an unknown destination. He bounds out of the tree line (Emergence) and heads down a hill into town (Ghost_Town). It’s there that he finds an empty main street where he is soon to discover that he is all alone (Realization). It is in that moment that he is brought back to his own black-and-white reality by waking up in his own bedroom.

My goal throughout this entire endeavor was to be able to tell a unique story using my painting skills and refined artistic technique. I designed this story to hold a much deeper meaning than a boy in his dreams; that story has already been told. I strived to comment on the possibilities that one holds inside of their own head, a world unexplored, with endless and sometimes frightening realities. I also wanted to commentate on the evolving realm of digital art by creating a collection of works that mimics the use of technological tools without the actual use of said technology, but instead traditional painting. By using a consistent color pallet, and expanding through the change in setting throughout the story line, I was able to show a steady thread carried through each cell on the page. Similarly, I was able to devise a unique atmosphere for each scene within the story using my singular color pallet. Being a second year AP art student and a senior, I am disappointed in how my time in the Mount Lebanon art program has ended. This program, especially Mrs. Rodriguez, has changed and matured me in a way that I could have never hoped to achieve prior to my enrollment in the class. Despite that fact, I can now say that my original goal and intentions for this story have been achieved. In not being able to finish the story, I have learned that no narrative has a definite and finite ending. They’re all everchanging and progress forward even with the existence of a written ending. The ending to my high school art narrative has been written, but my story never ceases to progress onward.