Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My biggest goal for this piece was to show how I will not stop being myself, even when I am going through a very hard time. I love this piece. I think that it really allowed me to show emotions and the lost feeling of losing a parent. While creating this piece, I learned about myself and my emotions. This piece helped me identify the lost feeling after losing my dad, and it helped me find ways art can be an outlet for this emotion. This piece will also help me use art as an outlet for my emotions because it gave me a chance to experiment with new painting and color techniques that I can use to express myself in upcoming artwork."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My artwork is called 'The War Inside Me.' The subject matter of this artwork are the warring thoughts going through my mind. The thoughts in my head are always fighting for dominance. My artwork is inspired by my ADHD. In this condition, my mind is always racing. This is in direct conflict with the need to concentrate during school. This artwork depicts thoughts crashing in my head fighting for control. My goal, as an artist, is to make an art piece that shows in art what I cannot convey in words."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My inspiration was from this post I had seen online of a girl who had words coming out of her head and it inspired me to do objects instead of words. I also wanted to include things that make me happy and have positivity only. This piece has proved to me that this past semester has helped me get better at art in general. Overall, I learned that art takes precious time and you need to trust the process."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My goal was to make an artwork that looks like me. This was my second ever attempt at a portrait. The objects falling out of my head directly do this. The car is there because it is the car from the album cover to one of my favorite albums (Goodbye & Good Riddance by Juice WRLD). This is supposed to represent my love for music. The pencil and ink pen are there to represent my love for drawing. The pen in the artwork is the actual pen that I use in real life. The comics represent my love for superheroes and comics. My favorite superhero is Spider-Man, so that is why he is on the front. I added an Xbox controller to represent my love for video games. I included a vapor wave background because it one of my favorite color combinations and I love the aesthetic. I am proud of the way I drew the objects that represent me."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"The idea behind my piece is that anyone can do anything no matter what. I show this by combining things that are sometimes thought of as different and are things that people act like they don’t often see together. The idea for my self-portrait was that it would show myself now looking at my future, breaking stereotypes along the way. I drew myself in a dark green feminine ball gown holding a red lightsaber (two things that don’t usually go together) looking ahead at the capitol building where I hope to be in Congress someday (also breaking the stereotype of women in power). I wanted this piece to show me looking into my future from who I am right now. I am very proud of this piece and I like the way that it turned out. Before making this piece when I thought of a self-portrait I would think of a painting of someone from the shoulders up with nothing behind them, but now I know that self-portraits can be way more creative."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"From this piece I learned more about proportion and also how to draw my face. I originally didn’t have the comicbook page floor, and I didn’t know what I was going to do with the background. I ended up adding the comicbook page, because that lower space was very bare, and I decided to make it blue, because it would match with the jeans, so you wouldn’t focus on anything down there. Then, I wanted to use both red and yellow to keep it balanced, so I decided to make the background red and have a yellow glow around everything that I already had. I made it that way, so that it is like I’m surrounded by rage and sadness, which are generally evoked by red and blue respectfully, and I’m a beacon of joy, which is generally evoked by yellow. Overall I am happy with how it turned out."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My artwork was inspired by music and the pleasant feeling I enjoy while listening to it. My artwork expresses how I use music, specifically Alternative Rock, to tone out the world. The emotions I tried to show are calm and peace in a storm. Some of my goals were to get better at drawing realistically and to get better at watercolor. I think I reached both these goals. I wouldn’t have improved these skills if I didn’t draw this piece. This piece will influence future art pieces because the concept I used in it is a concept I like and will probably use again."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"For this final art piece I wanted to show what makes me unique. I wanted to convey part of who I am because while I do think about myself positively, sometimes I neglect to give myself credit for my accomplishments. Since I usually focus more on where I need to grow and how do that, for this artwork I decided to just be proud of what I have already done. I wanted to convey trust in others, intelligence gained from what I have already gone through, and strength throughout the challenges I face."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"I drew a big, red tree growing from my head, symbolizing a memory tree. Then I incorporated different personal memories, like moving, middle school, traveling, and family/friends. Next I made a light at the top of the page, “shining down on the memories”, showing the good and the bad. The title of my piece is 'Remember'. I titled my work this because I think it is important to remember the good and bad memories, because they shape who you are and who you will become in the future. I learned that creating a more meaningful piece about yourself is more fun than creating a piece that is not meaningful."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"The big idea behind this piece is to show off my art style, and my take on a self-portrait. Lately I’ve been intrigued by concepts that are very “out there” and have reflected this in most creative projects I’ve been working on. So much so that my head, which is supposed to be how to identify someone, breaks apart in a very unusual way. Some people you don’t recognize because of their appearance, rather you recognize them because of their style. Surprisingly, I am proud of this artwork and how it turned out. I haven’t worked on an art piece this big in years probably. It was fun to get out my markers again and go through the whole process of creating something."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"In my artwork I explored the concept of being blinded to bad things around you. The title of my work is 'The Bubble'. My goals for this piece were to show some harsh realities of the world around you. I tried to show the harsh difference between the world inside the bubble and the world outside. The world outside is chaotic and organized. I learned a lot from this piece and I am excited to create more."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My mom actually helped inspire my idea. She is always talking about how I have my “head in the clouds” so I decided to try and draw that! While I may be in school, I am always daydreaming about riding! My main goal for my self-portrait was to create something that I could really go into detail on while also keeping it simple. I think that this piece really helped me do that. Overall, I really like my final product. I captured the ideas and goals that I wanted to show and really enjoyed the process of making it."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

Inspiration for this piece came from moving to Nashville from New York. I struggled with the move and missed my friends a lot. This is when I realized that your past never actually leaves you. The thing you do in the past, hobbies, passions, people, places, it all sticks with you. You may think it is gone, but they are just drifting in and out of your life. That is how I got the idea for the ocean and the name 'Tides of Past.' I feel like this artwork radiates sort of a bittersweet emotion, at least for me."

Conceptual Self-Portrait

"My art is a girl drowning in her thoughts. That is why she is in an ocean with the word “THOUGHTS”. The big idea of my art piece was that 2020 overall is very stressful for people my age and can cause depression because we are stuck inside and can’t see friends at school. Being by yourself for long periods of time is never good for anyone. With online school it is hard to get our work done because we can’t work on it during class. All the assignments that are given to us cause us to stress out and overthink and we start to drown in all these thoughts that are going through our mind."