Artist Statement: One of the main ideas guiding my work was to have an everyday item that people could identify such as shoes. The idea was to also have them outside on a deck to show that sometimes things like shoes aren’t always valued and it relates with how sometimes life isn’t valued and donating isn’t always valued in every household for whatever reason and I kind of want to help bring attention to that with this piece. So that is where some of the bigger symbolism from my perspective came from. I also recognize that not everyone will understand the piece like how I will and that is why I think the artist's statement can be a crucial part of the work as a whole. While having based the deck off of the one I look out to on the bottom level of my house I also wanted to add an element from a somewhat substantial bond I have with my mother which is the ocean and how it brings a calming breeze to any situation for me personally.

I made this work by brainstorming the pencil on paper, getting down a sketch and then having to go through several sketches to find and feel what was going to be right for this particular project. Once finding the sketch I was willing to go with the next steps proceeded with getting the right colors and angles for this work to come to a full image with a semi three dimensional element to it if I could even get to a point. I also wanted to use everything with a different color and for there to be (as required) a foreground and a background in the piece. I looked through some donate life work and I couldn’t find any that seemed to be enough similarities to be considered copied so I went through with my ideal sketch. (The sketch was a hundred percent my idea).

My process involved going through sketches as mentioned above as well as checking for any hints or parts that may get me in trouble because it may look like I copied someone else's piece of work spite coming up with the sketch all on my own. Once I felt I found a good sketch and someone else had not done something overwhelmingly similar I went through with the sketch and started getting down the official lines and doing what I could to make it all come together in a sense that I felt was good enough. Once getting in official lines that I would be stuck with I started my coloring journey which didn’t exactly come out as I was hoping but it just chalks up another trial for getting stronger with color.