In what ways does your work illustrate your strengths and weaknesses as a learner? One way I think my work illustrates my strengths and weaknesses as a learner is that there are some works that I personally think are really good and others that I know aren't my personal best, but either way, I can always see things that I can improve. Many materials that I used this year, it was either my first time using them or I had used them before just not in a "serious" way. Also as a remote student, I defiantly had a bit of a learning curve when it came to new materials because I didn't have someone physically there to critique my technique or work it was more of a trial and error. One piece that really stands out to me while talking about my strengths as a learner is my Sgraffito Tile. This was my first time using a medium like this and going into the project I was unsure about a lot of things. A sort of blessing in disguise was that a piece of my tile broke off before I started carving which allowed me to test some of my tools beforehand which was very helpful. I'd say of my biggest weaknesses as a learner is I don't like to go outside my comfort zone and I am unwilling to try new materials or techniques unless we have to for a specific piece. One of my comfort/go-to materials is graphite because you can erase mistakes, so using materials such as scratch boars or colored pencils was almost nerve-racking because you can undo those mistakes. In the end, I am glad that I took this class because I got to experiment with new materials, medians, and techniques and I learned a lot.

How does your work show how you have improved? I think that the most noticeable way my work shows improvement is that you can tell it looks more confident and to me, I think it looks and feels more like me, especially later when choosing our own subjects. What I mean by looking more "confident" is that over the year I had a better handle on things such as color, proportions, techniques, and overall conception of what I was creating. For example, looking at my self-portrait and mixed media pieces that both used the graphing method to make a realistic portrait we can definitely see improvement. With my portrait, I feel like I wasn't paying super close attention to things such as negative space and was going more off of instinct where things look like they should be, but that only resulted in a piece that wasn't very accurate in the end. But with the Mixed Media piece of my dog, Katie, I put more faith in the negative spaces because I knew that later when I was going to add values that it would bring things together and pull in some of those edges that looked like they were too far away and out of place in the sketch. Another thing I became more confident and improved with over the year is my use of colors and colored pencils. Looking back at my Colored Cany piece and my Duck Stamp piece there is a big difference. Learning how to apply color theory to balance or make colors popped was really useful. Another thing that I improved on this year was my shadows. I learned that you should rarely use just black or grey because they are much more complex and colorful than that, often made up of varying shades of blues, purples, and even some warmer tones like red. Lastly, looking back at the drawings on my Time Capsule Drawings I can definitely see improvement. One that I thought was a big improvement realistically wise was my self-portrait. learning how to notice things like values and spacing really helped me improve. The graphing method is also something that I really like to use because it breaks down the information even more so it is easier to process. I'm really happy that I have this portfolio that allows me to see how I have improved as an artist and even a person to see a change in passionate themes. I hope that I will continue to see more improvement in my art in the years to come.

What was the most challenging project and why? The most challenging project this year was probably my Wire sculpture because of how many different problems I ran into along the way. I have worked with wire before to make jewelry but its quite different than using it to create art. I thought that this was my most challenging project this year because it was hard to make things sturdy and to keep them in the correct spot so that they would be able to support the structure. Not only was connecting the pieces hard, but after I created the majority of the sculpture I realized that there was no way that I was going to be able to stand it up on four legs because the front was way too top-heavy so I had to change its position. Another big problem was I ran out of wire the night before it was due because I tested out a few leg ideas, but none of them worked and I could only salvage so much wire. What I did to try to combat this problem was I changed the shapes of the legs and used some copper wire I had to connect some pieces together. Looking back at it now though I can appreciate this piece more because I know the work that I put into it and how it challenged me to become more ingenuitive.

What project are you most proud of and why? There are two projects that I am most proud of and they are my Duck Stamp and Mixed Medial pieces. For my Duck Stamp piece, I created a Mallard duck. I spend a long time studying my reference photos before I started and I graphed things out to be accurate. I also spent a lot of time testing out different coloring techniques to get good textures and colors that were realistic and specific to the Mallard. After all the time I put into this piece it felt very rewarding to be noticed for my work. The second piece I was very proud of was my Mixed Media piece. This piece was of my dog that we had to put down so I was compelled to put a lot into this piece. The day that I spent creating the majority of this piece was the day I broke my Spotify record for listening to as many podcast episodes in one sitting, I think it was around 4-5 episodes which is around 8-10 hours of media. To me and my family the time that I put into this piece really paid off because I feel like I was really able to capture her good and goofy spirit in her last days. * What are your artistic goals for the summer/future?

What are your artistic goals for the summer/future? For this summer my dad and I are hoping to do some open-air paintings. I can't remember the last time I painted with my dad or painted nature so I am really excited! I do see are in my future, one of my greatest passions is the ocean's and its marine life well-being. An artist I am greatly inspired by is Robert Wyland who creates huge marine life murals. I remember the first time I was able to see one in real life and it just took my breath away. I hope that someday my art might be able to inspire people to be more mindful of what they consume and how they affect the oceans.