VISual art Seniors Group A

Corona's Ghost

Paper, glue , tape , gel pen , micron pen , 3D adhesive foam squares , metallic sharpie pencil

For this work I was told to create a piece that had reflected the spring of 2020 and the way I felt and saw the world around us. To start I thought of the first thing, covid then I thought of what type of material I wanted to use. I choose to make my piece using paper, glue, gel pen, micron pen,3d adhesive foam, tape and metallic sharpie. My interpretation of this spring was how I felt, trapped and isolated in my own home by covid-19 like a ghost which traps you, brings sickness and death. Baring you in and not letting you leave. This piece was inspired by Sam Heimer, an illustrator and designer.

Gone Swimming

Acrylic on canvas

What will you see when you've gone swimming? Plastic, bone, flesh? Will you bump hands or heads when you reach the deepest point?

But wait, you're in the sky. Not sunbeams refracted in the movement of water; but clouds brushed smooth and thin.

A bird flies, and falls, you catch him. You notice your hands have gone blue, or green?

Floating on the surface long enough for a person to walk by.

It’s just a lake.

Sticky Notes

Digital painting

How is online school going? Are you adjusting? Are you getting organized? Are you in control

Try writing things down. You could color code them. And write neatly. Put them in order.

Do you remember what order they’re in? Are you organized now? Do you need to clear your head? Are you in control?

Try going on a walk. Try cutting your hair. Try to take control. You can’t.

A Pierced Soul

Acrylic Posca markers and paint on skateboard

This final piece explores a deeper meaning of life; that nothing is perfect and in many aspects of life you will be struck by Heartbreak, Fear, and Death. But putting this idea on a skateboard you can learn to “Roll with the Punches” and ride through life, living it in the best way you can. I first spray painted the board white and used a light blue sharpie to sketch the design and then painted over the sketch. Making this board was frustrating for me and I changed the design multiple times; wanting to put multiple thoughts and feelings into the board. And was surprised yet content on how it turned out.

Coronavirus

Acrylic on canvas

I created this piece representing a coronavirus, or rather, two coronaviruses, in response to the global pandemic known as the coronavirus. The two coronaviruses are separate but curved around each other as if clinging to one another. This is to represent the way the pandemic spreads, and the challenge we are having with stopping it. The coronavirus is generally perceived as being red, but this is false-- the coronavirus has no color. Thus, I chose to make it pink, to represent the body it infects.

Nostalgia

Digital painting

During the beginning of online classes in spring, I was assigned to do an interview with someone I know about quarantine and have a conversation about how it’s affected our lives. We ended up finding a pattern to how many people our age are reacting to the isolation. It’s a pretty common experience to have a bad and isolated time during middle school and many people right now seem to be returning to that bad middle school mindset. We are all going through similar emotional and social struggles and I find a lot of people have returned to similar methods of coping with those struggles, such as revisiting old tv shows they used to watch or music they used to listen to. They make us feel nostalgic and they are comforting. They make us happy and bring us back to a time when life was a lot different than what it is now.

I started this piece by revisiting that recorded conversation. Then I began drafting sketches and concepts for how I wanted to execute this piece. What you see here is my second adaptation of it. After I completed painting it digitally using the program Paint Tool SAI, I printed it out on glossy paper to help show off the glow and rainbow colors in this piece.

Flower Boy

Digital (Procreate)

In June my family went to George Floyd's memorial. It was an emotional experience for my family. It was also a wake-up call for us. When we arrived at the memorial I was upset to see so many people there with no intention of connecting with the community or paying their respects. I was surprised to see many walking up to the center to take a few selfies and leave. As my family and I were standing outside of Cup Foods reading the notes and signs that covered the sidewalk, a woman walked in front of us and started to yell and cry. She was upset that so many people came with impure intentions. She started crying on the spot, and twenty people filmed it.

The truth is, she was just saying what I had already been thinking. After a while, the crowd around her got bored and dispersed and I was just about over the experience. Then someone caught my eye. He was just sitting on the ground handing out flowers to people passing him. He had about 3 or 4 bouquets next to him, and for some reason it made me feel a bit better. I so was bothered by the negativity that I barely acknowledged all the good around me.

2020 is a reminder to not live individually. It's easy to block out the world when at home with just the click of a power button. But now more than ever we need a reminder to be involved in the things around us and live in the now. Flower Boy is my reminder.

For my summer project, I decided on a portrait of the boy I saw at the memorial. I only thing I remember about his appearance was the fact that he wore a bucket hat.

Socialism/Barbarism

Collage

For this piece, we were instructed to reflect on how the events of the last year have affected us. The feelings of fear and desperation looming over almost everyone have gotten increasingly intolerable, especially as volatile, fascist right-wing extremists rise to power around the world. It feels like the choices before us are becoming more and more divided and that action needs to be taken as soon as possible, before it’s too late. I took inspiration from a excerpt from philosopher Rosa Luxemburg’s “Junius Pamphlet”, a selection of which reads:

“...Friedrich Engels once said: “Bourgeois society stands at the crossroads, either transition to socialism or regression into barbarism.” ... Until now, we have all probably read and repeated these words thoughtlessly, without suspecting their fearsome seriousness ... We face the choice exactly as Friedrich Engels foresaw it a generation ago: either the triumph of imperialism and the collapse of all civilization as in ancient Rome, depopulation, desolation, degeneration – a great cemetery. Or the victory of socialism, that means the conscious active struggle of the international proletariat against imperialism and its method of war.”

Luxemburg’s analysis couldn’t be more relevant to us today. With current events making the massive, looming flaws in our culture, systems of government, healthcare etc... harder for people to ignore, America and the world as we know it is on the brink of change, for better or worse. I felt the best way to translate these ideas was through two pieces representing the two possible futures we eminently face.

a transformation

Acrylic on hard-board panel

I created this piece to be a statement on the changes and destruction of nature. To do this I used a hard-board panel and acrylic paint. I thought this would be the best way to get my message across. I started with a navy blue underpaint. I chose this color because if there were spots where the paint was less opaque, I didn't want the tan hard-board to show through. The left side of the piece shows the landscape before it has been polluted. I wanted to make it very peaceful and serine with no people around. For the right side, I wanted it to be dark and dreary. I used a lot of gray tones to establish this mood. The assignment was to make a piece that reflected on current events. I wanted to construct something that shows the effects of pollution. This problem affects people all over the world. When people see my work, I’d like them to think about if they have seen or experienced first hand the effects of pollution and destruction of nature. I want people to be conscious of their surroundings and not just ignore the litter in the street.

IMG_5536 2.jpeg

Ink, digital software

In order for me to capture cyclical thoughts and the inability to choose one thing pertaining to 2020’s events, I attempted to draw the clutter around me (while making sure to include my internal process). I then took my drawing into Photoshop to play with opacity and do some layering.

Please wear a mask.

B(LGBTQ+)LM.

Phytoplankton produce more oxygen than trees and are extremely undervalued and overlooked.

Thank you.

C'mon do something...

Digital

I created this piece as a response to the summer assignment, which asked us to share our experiences with current events during that summer. I wanted to share my feelings of being antsy, uncertain, and bored. I felt as if I couldn't do or see much due to feeling trapped indoors because of Covid. I try to show this through utilizing a common meme format, the “C’mon do something…”, and applied it to myself. So it's basically just me poking me with a stick, in hopes of trying to find motivation within these monotonous days that are devoid of inspiration. There's also a funny covid sun with sunglasses.

I used an Ipad with the app Procreate to make this piece. Since it is a digital piece I tried to make it feel less stiff by utilizing textured brushes. In more of my recent artwork I’ve been using lines on figures to indicate form and lead the viewer’s eye, exemplified in this piece. The curved, wispy lines on the clouds help to outline its form and the pink lines in the sky are meant to draw the gaze down to the human figures and products littered throughout the grass. I used a color scheme close to being triadic, with my main focus on rusty pink and lime green, with accents of more orangish colors. I wanted to do this because the unnatural colors help to reinforce a concept of being disconnected with reality and purgatory like state I’m trying to invoke in this piece.

Unity

Photoshop

This year has been one of the most scary years of my life. Each month has been so unpredictable that I really don’t know what to expect from the world anymore. This piece is a map of the world that shows protests going on right now in as many countries that I could fill in. These protests range from black lives matter to women’s rights to leaders out of office to police brutality. I made this piece to show that the voice of the people matter not just in the U.S. but all over the world. I wanted to represent that a country is defined by its people, not it’s government. Each country has problems and each country has people who want change.

I made this piece using Photoshop. First I found a photo of a very basic map of the world. Then I searched up as many current protest photos I could find. Lastly I traced each photo into the shape of the country that the protest was from.

The American Flag

Acrylic on canvas and reflective glass

The American Flag is an acrylic painting of my interpretation of the U.S. flag in today's world. The mistreatment of black women and men is a part of our nation's history and culture. This summer my heart was heavy from the murder of both Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. But after the killing of George Floyd, my sadness turned into anger. I constantly thought about my brother and father, who could have been in the same deadly situation George was. So for The American Flag, I focused on the black and brown men who’ve been killed by this country’s laws, politicians, millionaires, Presidents, and law enforcement. For the basic pattern of the U.S. flag, I decided to switch red, white, and blue, with the colors in the Pan-African Flag or Afro-American Flag. These colors represent the black liberation in the United States and our fight for equality. The drippings of blood symbolize the killing of black people isn’t seen in just one state but all of them. Then by adding shards of glass onto the painting, I want the viewer to reflect on this so-called “United” States of America and see that the “American Dream” is nothing but lies. I hope that this painting inspires people to go out and help make a change, whether it’s protesting in the streets or signing petitions. So that we can finally bring justice to those lost and to their families.

Drowning in Masks

Acrylic on canvas, paper masks

The assignment was to create a piece that was based on the events of spring 2020. I was originally thinking of using color pencils for this piece, but I decided to paint with acrylic instead, since that’s what I’ve been craving. Early in the summer, my dad got very ill, so my whole family got tested, and no one had covid, but it made us apprehensive. Because of that, I knew from the beginning that I wanted to do something with real disposable masks. I like drawing figures, so I painted a figure that would lie in a pile of masks, clutching a mask in her hand. I modeled her after a singer named Nicha Yontararak, but it ended up looking a bit like me. The whole idea behind my painting was not supposed to be serious, more just about how we have all used so many disposable masks since the spring of this year, it’s like the world was drowning in them.