Foundations of Art

As an artist, I really enjoy painting and drawing, and using clay. I think I represent this well with my color design and sgraffito projects. That is also why I am taking ceramics next year, I really enjoyed building something using clay. But, at the same time, art class wasn’t always easy for me. I had a tough time with the wire sculpture project as well as the mixed media project. It was hard for me to layer the charcoal in a way that made my drawing look realistic, and I didn’t know what other materials to use at that point. I think that all of these facts can be known by looking at my work, and although I tried my hardest some things just didn’t come as easily for me.

When I look back at my time capsule drawings I become genuinely surprised with my improvement. In just the months that I have spent making art this year, I have improved immensely. I was taught so many new techniques while also growing confidence in myself and my abilities. I think the self-portrait I did in my time capsule drawings compared to the realistic self-portrait I did a few months later just shows how much I improved in such a short amount of time. I started to actually observe what was happening in my references. Where the light was, where the contours were, what features I saw, and most importantly, I started to draw what I saw instead of what I thought should be there.

The most challenging project for me was without a doubt the wire sculpture. Wire is something that I have never worked with before, and I started out super confident but slowly realized it was much harder than it looked. I couldn’t get my sculpture to stand up at all in the beginning and had to redo the base multiple times. Eventually, I figured out a way to make everything a little bit more stable, but it still wasn’t standing straight. At some point, I had to tell myself it was good enough and turn it in. Not only was this project difficult but it also hurt my hands to squeeze the wire, so it is definitely not something I would want to do again. Another honorable mention for a challenging project was the linoleum prints. It easily frustrated me and I found it really hard to get the perfect prints that I needed.

The project I am most proud of is my duck stamp. I went into that project with no confidence and no expectations for myself. But I ended up winning 1st place for 7th-9th graders in the state of Maine. This project is the reason I now have confidence in my art. I think this is when I realized that I actually can do art, and it is also when I decided I was going to take more art classes instead of just taking one for the credit I needed. I wasn’t expecting to do well on that project, because I was fully convinced that I couldn’t draw realism at all. But I proved myself wrong and it really changed how I view art and how I view my own art, and for that, I am very thankful.

Over the summer I don’t specifically plan on making art, but I do enjoy it so I am sure that I will end up making art. I hope to frame some of my favorite pieces I have made. In the future, I hope that I continually get better at art. Most seniors I have talked to have told me that Foundations Of Art with Mrs. Medsker is the reason they love art now, and I can definitely say the same for myself. I never realized what abilities I had and now I feel more in touch with my abilities than ever before. So one big goal I have is to take an art class every year of high school. Overall I am so glad that I took this class and would tell every rising freshman that this class is so worth it.