Foundations of Art

My work shows that I’ve grown quite clearly and looking at my first work at the beginning of the year and comparing it to my work now. The effort I’ve put in, the time spent, and the practice I’ve gained throughout a number of different art mediums and forms. My technique significantly improved since back in the fall, and learning how to properly execute different pieces and become creative while doing so. Some of my work I look back on and realize that now after I’ve grown as an artist, I could make it much better. Since I do have all my work, I might even spend time this summer going back and working on old pieces to make them more interesting and how I was hoping they would’ve turned out.

One thing I found challenging was staying focussed and forming ideas to get started with different pieces. I always struggle the most with the starting and designing project and it tends to take me the longest out of any part in the process. Deciding what I think will look best, what is practical and can be completed in time, and just what I think will look cool is not always easy to do. So being able to think of an idea and stick with it and execute it was challenging but still doable. Another part of this year was time management in itself, and I ended up learning the hard way that staying caught up and organized with work is very important. I found myself behind on work for a lot of the time this year and it was constantly stressful and weighing on me, so staying ahead and caught up with work would’ve made my life a lot easier and I know that going into these next few years.

Something I’m proud of is the time I’ve spent working on art throughout this year, even if something was particularly challenging for me. Some projects or pieces were not my strongest area of work or medium, but I pushed through to get it down anyway. I’m proud of many of my pieces that I’ve created, especially the ones that took me a long time, so I’m excited to be able to look back and see the work I’ve done. I’m proud that I could overcome diversities and challenges that certain projects brought on. There were times when an idea wouldn’t work or make sense and I had to completely start over, and while that was frustrating, and at the time seemed tragic, I’m proud of myself for pushing through that and getting it all done.

Moving forward, whether it be this summer, later on in highschool, in my career, or at any point in life, I’m happy and feeling accomplished that I was able to gain so many different skills throughout the year with so many things that I would never have been able to experience if it weren’t for this class. I’d like to get more art supplies to have at my house so that I can continue to practice with different mediums, and express myself and my creativity through art like I’ve been able to do so far this year. I like to be able to look back at art and I also like being able to show other people like my family and friends my work that I’m proud of.

This year for me was something that definitely stretched my comfort zone in terms of my strengths and weaknesses. Art has never really been something that I’m really good at or do all that often outside of school, so deciding to take foundations of art, knowing that I’d be doing something I’m not all that good at, was a little bit nerve racking but also quite rewarding at the same time. Throughout the year I often doubted myself when I struggled and I felt like I couldn’t or wouldn’t be able to complete certain things, but now that I’m done, I’m very happy that I chose to take this class. I get to look back at my completed work and know that I was actually able to do it and I will most likely also use these skills in the future. Overall, I’m very happy that I chose to take Foundations of Art and I would recommend that anyone else in our school that might be hoping to gain art skills and create pieces in a creative, expressive, and fun way should take this class as well.