This piece was a project I made for my AP Art class in October 2022. We were assigned to make a “self-portrait” piece - something that we felt represented who we are. Additionally, we were challenged to experiment with our media and try something new. I don’t have a lot of experience with mixed media, so that was the challenge I chose for this piece. I decided that after I was done with the digital portion of it, I would print it out and throw paint at it. As for the rest of it, I dabble a little in photography so I combined it with something I’m more familiar with: digital drawing.

This piece shows who I am because it’s a visual representation of the significance of art in my life. For this project, I researched artists who combined photography and drawing and noticed a trend in their work: a majority of the piece was a photograph, but the drawing was only a small portion of it peeking out. 

I landed on this concept essentially being “art peeking out of reality”; however, I wanted to put a spin on this concept and instead have it be “reality peeking out of art.” I approached my piece in this way because I feel that a lot of my world is centered around art, creation, and ideas. Reality is not forgotten, but it’s instead used as a tool to drive my artwork forward.

This was a project made for AP Art. Essentially, we had to create a “Sustained Investigation” question that we chose to work on throughout the 1-year class. 

My question was based on music and how it affects one’s image/interpretation of a song based off of lyrics. The song that I chose to go along with my drawing was “All the Stars” by Kendrick Lamar and SZA. This song holds a special place in my heart as it allowed me to get through tough times, especially during the pandemic. I imagined my drawing to represent an astronaut helmet and have a space-themed background around it. Additionally, I also incorporated flowers to add to the composition of the piece, making it look appealing to the viewer’s eye. 

The colors I used were specifically black, purple, blue, and pink to give off a galaxy feel. This entire piece was meant to show how your goals aren’t too far away to reach and how putting your efforts toward said goals will allow you to finally achieve them.