AP Studio
Semester 1 Reflections:
With the introduction of sustained investigation I decided to change last years concentration of houses to the question "How can poetry enhance a piece of artwork?" I thought of this inquiry at the beginning of the year because I had gotten back into writing poetry at the end of last year. I thought it would be cool to be able to combine two forms of art that I love. The process I take will all of my works is that I write the poem and then create a piece of art that relates to and/or incorporates that poem. Going into this second semester I would like to try and do the opposite by creating a piece of art and letting it inspire a poem I write. I felt that through this semester I struggled with realistic drawings and then trying to get the text of my poems into the art itself. I have mainly stayed away from using too much text in my art over the past three years and now I feel it disrupts a piece of art. I will have to learn how to use the style and composition to make the text look more appealing in a piece. My goals are to get better at both writing and art while continuing to improve my skills with mediums such as acrylic and watercolor. I also want to draw inspiration for my poems from the world around me and current problems or feelings.
Final Reflection:
Over the second semester I made my inquiry question more specific. It went from "How can poetry enhance a piece of artwork?" to "How can I use poetry to enhance a piece of artwork using text and contrast?". I started trying to incorporate the poems I was writing into the artwork itself instead of having it be a separate piece I would have next to the art. For most of these pieces I put the poems in the middle of my paintings. Through recent feedback I could have developed my pieces more by trying to build the text into the subject of my pieces. I feel I did this best in my collage piece Concentration #15. Because it is a collage the text itself is part of the piece. During this semester I also tried to branch out and use new materials for my projects. For Concentration #10 I cut up empty film canisters and arranged them abstractly. Then in Concentration #11 I painted on a piece of wood which I had never done before. In most of my pieces I used my own handwriting for the text on the page. I wish I was able to include different fonts and styles in my pieces as I feel something different would have fit better. I used a lot of watercolor over the course of the year and I feel that I have improved my skills with that medium. I still have some trouble with acrylic pain but have been getting better.