Drawing & Painting

My experience in my second year of Advanced/AP Studio was very experimental and educational. I went into this class wanting to try new artistic approaches to almost every aspect of how I create visual art. The year before, I felt stuck at times in my concentration and this year I wanted to use a wider variety of skills and techniques. I feel that I was able to fulfill this goal very successfully. I had opportunities to work with fine detail as I am accustomed to, especially in my Scholastic #3 drawing and in my first concentration piece. I was also able to experiment with more gestural styles and a variety of materials. I think that this year was one of my greatest in term of media variety; I used graphite, charcoal, colored pencil, acrylic, watercolor, and even wood burning to name a few. I always enjoy working with new materials because I feel less intrinsic pressure when I'm experimenting and I often find the process more fulfilling. One process that I particularly enjoyed this year was using charcoal sticks for a gestural portrait (concentration #3). I didn't worry whether my piece looked like my reference; I paid more attention to the contrasts and depth and textures of the image. The process allowed me to express myself more through these artistic elements rather than the subject of the image, which I am not accustomed to. The process was also much less time consuming and more fulfilling, which is why I plan to use this technique in future pieces. One process that I struggled with this year was incorporating color. While I created colorful pieces that I am proud of, I feel that I tended toward black and white to lessen complication. I find that color adds a whole new dimension to both the product and the process, and this year I found myself looking for other ways to strengthen my product without creating precisely the right colors.

I am most proud of the consistency of my work this year. While I branched out a lot and allowed myself room to experiment, I also retained a sense of completion and fullness in the majority of my works. While they are all very different, they all include a figurative depth in the detail and concepts behind them. I think that the piece I am most proud of from this year is my Arrive Alive submission. While it lacks deeper conceptual significance in some regards, I think that it incorporates strong ideas with successful artistic execution. I incorporated complex perspective, color, different values, a message, and alluded to both of my concentrations in the inclusion of a face as well as a skeleton. My works this year demonstrated that I met the standard of learning and improving because I used old as well as new media and techniques and applied my artistic knowledge to create strong pieces, even with unfamiliar media and styles.

To me, visual art is a means of expression that allows me to show, hide, twist, and challenge my self. I feel that I learn about myself through my artistic styles and tendencies and I can improve myself and broaden my horizons by expanding the way I look at and create art. This year I explored detail, gesture, and faces (for my concentration). Detail always forces my to push myself, whereas my gestural work lets me express myself in a more free (but sometimes more frustrating) way. In my exploration of faces, I incorporated personality and added variety by mimicking some of my subjects' own artistic styles. This felt like an appropriate way to honor them in the way I depicted them visually. By the end, it has led me to think about myself and how I might depict myself in one or many portraits. Maybe even in my next concentration....