Foundations of Art

Over the course of this year, my work has changed dramatically. At the beginning of the year, looking at many other people’s self-portraits, and how much they changed was incredible, but I would have never expected my work to also change so dramatically as well. I remember in science class, Katie Whittier and I were talking about when doing the time capsule drawing, in the moment we thought they were not bad. Now looking back, we have realized how much our work has changed. The proportions of all of the drawings are much more accurate, and each piece looks thoughtfully planned out (granted we had more time for in class work than the time capsule drawings.) With the self-portrait, I was able to draw what I actually saw, and not what I believed to be. When doing the linear perspective drawing, I was able to use the correct techniques of finding the horizon line, using the vanishing point, and sketching in the convergence lines to create an exact piece, similar to a blueprint that one would find at the home depot. All these drawings show the way that throughout the year I taught myself to see shapes and lines rather than the illusion of what could be there.

Over the course of a year in Foundations of Art, I have had a constant problem of completely restarting rather than morphing and shaping the current subject into something that would look pleasurable to the viewer, and would allow myself to be at ease with the current piece. I believe that this issue originated from not planning each piece out beforehand, or simply not having a clear vision of what I want. This was a challenge that I have suffered with for the entire year. And yet, over and over again with each new piece, I would spend hours thinking about what I wanted to do without ever considering if I had a plan, or knew how it was going to come together with each step in mind. It was this thought process that with each new piece lead me down the wrong path. I would start confident, then slowly without a plan each piece would slowly waste away from my vision. This was another problem; if each art piece did not turn out the exact vision that I had planned than once again, I would ditch the piece altogether.

I am most proud of the way that I was able to learn from each mistake, powering through every redo and mistake to create something that I would be happy with. The block prints are a perfect example of this idea. With the block print creation, I would often have to revise how much ink I used; too little and the final product would look patchy, but too much and the ink would invade areas that should be highlighted. I also would frequently print and then see a flaw in the carving. It took me about ten revisions to the cork board before the final printed product matched my face. It was this motivation to overcome mistakes, or completely restart to create A piece that I would be happy with that I am most proud of. Oftentimes, I would have to take pieces home in order to finish on time, and get enough progress in.

These are just a few examples of how often I restarted many pieces:

“I decided to try again, only this time finding images that I found exciting to the eye in some way, and working off those images to compose a pleasing piece of artwork.”

“After beginning this project, it was not turning out the way I was expecting, so I decided to restart completely.”

“...so, I switched my background to a pop art approach, trying to match my mysterious, childlike expression to the colors and brushstrokes.”

There is one thing remains in common with each piece I restarted. Each redo was something that I could be at ease with, each one was something that I was satisfied with, that is something that I am proud of.

This year, I have the privilege of experimenting with many different medias in the art world. With each new media, I have been able to see my comfort level, abilities, and strengths and weaknesses when using new materials. With each new project, one can see my ability to use new or foreign materials. Oftentimes, new materials would surprised me with how much I liked working with them. For example, I really enjoyed the block prints. Even though this material was completely new, I found myself surprised with every aspect of it from the carving, to the printing, and finally to the artist statements.