— Written Reflection —

Overall I really enjoyed my freshman year of foundations of art. In the beginning of the year I thought it was going to be a very difficult class, with having to write artist statements and turning in projects in general. Then as the year proceeded I began to realize that, technically, not everything had to be turned in by the posted due date (expertly shown by Kyle Hartnett). After realizing this, I began to relax and found myself to enjoy this class: even beginning looking forward to it most days. This class has been a great introduction to many different mediums that I usually would have put off and never used, and it pushed me to try new techniques/things I wasn't very fond of.

Some of the processes that we explored this year, that I enjoyed, were actually some of the most recent ones we did: the linoleum printing, and the assemblage sculpture. With the linoleum prints, I finally came up with something that I am actually proud of (apart from the mixed media drawing/Kit-Kat, but ignore this) the design had a strong composition and many of the prints came out very well. As for the assemblage sculpture I enjoyed watching everything come together in the end as it began to look more and more like a fox; cutting the fur with the shredder scissors was also satisfying. Some processes that I struggled with this year were some of the more messy mediums such as the oil pastel projects. For some reason I couldn't get the hang of it, and keep everything on the paper clean/smudge-less. Another project I struggled with was the color design: mixing the colors together could become very tedious at times, and I would often lose interest in the project completely (hence it took me almost two months to complete).

There are many projects that I am most proud of from this year including my candy still life, mixed media drawing, linoleum prints, animal assemblage, and my independent project. With the candy still life and the mixed media drawing they both look very realistic and proportional to the original object/photo, making them some of my favorites. The linoleum prints turned out very well in their quality and the overall design. The animal assemblage was very interesting to create, using the shredder scissors to make a textured fur that I really enjoy. As for the independent project, the wood turned out beautifully and the frame ended up being a practical decision, allowing for the artwork to be hung. Throughout the year it is very apparent that I improved in almost all aspects of my art: scrolling down this page you can see how it has slowly become better and better. Art relates to my life because throughout my whole life so far, I have always been in different programs and other things pushing art, and I believe that it will always stick with me, even out of school.