Foundations Of Art
My experience in this class definitely had its ups and downs. I learned so many new ways to create art and use new materials that I hadn't before. Though sometimes my experiences were frustrating or I didn't necessarily enjoy every process or the materials I had to use I still learned a lot from each project this year and now know many new ways to create fun art. Even though I may not have enjoyed it in the moment I am left now enjoying how I was challenged to make the best art I possibly could and learn how to use entirely new materials. Foundations of art definitely broadened my mind in terms of art and taught me that there is usually a way to change your art if you mess up and to overcome thoughts of being incapable of completing a hard project. Overall I am very proud of how I progressed throught my art this year.
My artwork definitely shows how I have progressed and improved over the entire year. By looking at my google sites page or Artsonia it's very clear that my first couple of projects like “whatchamaDRAWit,” “beautiful oops,” and “Time Capsules” were not very good and did not show strong artistic strengths and capabilities, but further through the year my work definitely became stronger, and less simple looking or like a little child made the art. I think the growth of my artistic abilities really started to grow when I did My Graphite Self Portrait and Mixed Media Drawing with charcoal. I am very proud of those two pieces in general and I think they both show a lot of growth and strength of my talents.
The most challenging project for me was the wire sculpture. As soon as the project was introduced I started stressing and already had the mindset that it wasn't going to be fun or enjoyable which could have been what caused it to be not so fun in the beginning. When I started out by making the wire tower I immediately started getting frustrated because it wouldn't stand up but eventually, I got it too! When it came to the box it was really hard to make it stand up as well and also to make the fishhook connections, and it hurt my hands using the pliers. Even though I finished the box I still struggled and stressed about how I was going to do the summative project for it. For the summative wire sculpture, I started by creating my water bottle but nothing was working, it wouldn't stand up, and it didn’t look good at all. I ended up switching ideas when I was already halfway through and chose to do a heart-shaped bowl which ended up much better but was still a challenge to complete. The overall project was really hard but I overcame the hard parts and found solutions and the final product came out great!
I mentioned my Mixed Media Drawing with charcoal already and how it showed my artistic growth but it was also one of the projects I am most proud of. The other project I am most proud of is my surrealist project. The reason I am most proud of these two projects is because I feel that they are both the most realistic to the references I used. I sincerely enjoyed the surrealist project creating the collage and using paint, though mixing the paints was a little tedious I feel that I matched each color extremely well and the outcome is nearly identical to the collage, and just overall looks really aesthetically pleasing. My mixed media drawing using charcoal was a really fun project because I got to see my own cat Summer come to life. this project took me a long time and I definitely turned it in around a week late but I found myself really caring about the outcome while I was working on it because it started to look so good even towards the beginning. I loved using charcoal for this project, and even though it kind of got everywhere it was easy to blend and erase and the final outcome I thought was amazing!
Throughout my freshman year in Foundations of Art, I definitely picked up new artistic skills and ideas and I now can see myself making much more complex and appealing art in the future now that I enjoy doing art, and am more skilled at it. This summer and in the future I definitely want to continue doing my own kinds of art that I enjoy such as embroidery and sewing. Additionally, This summer I'm going to be a counselor in training at my Sleepaway Camp, and at my camp, we do lots of arts and crafts so hopefully, I can help little children and encourage them to love to make art and maybe teach them something as well. I also love putting lots of art up in my own room, and currently, most of it's Matisse or bought off of Amazon but I'm excited to make more art myself and put it up in my own bedroom and maybe give some of it as gifts to my grandparents and/or parents. I am also both enthusiastic and excited to take 2D design with Mrs. Medsker and Photography 1 and 2 next year with Mr. Anderson!