Sketchbook Archeology

At times, the sketchbook felt live a privilege. At others, it felt like a chore. Looking through, I see I used a lot of graphite, charcoal, and paint marker. There was a time where I experimented with realism, and another where I experimented with cartoonism. Countless times I mixed both. Some abstract pictures are stories of my life, stories of other people's lives. I feel that the ability to experiment with various artistic elements in my sketchbook has been very beneficial to me as an artist, because it gave me a chance to recognize what I am most comfortable with and what elements I enjoy using.
Things that appear multiple times:

• Dice
• Numbers
• Eyes
• Smeared charcoal simulating wind
• Drips
• Circles
• Trees
• Mushroom clouds/explosions
• Cubes
• Text

Initial Reflection

Art Principles has been great for the past 2 terms. My strength has been overall creativity... getting frustrated with a project, then finding hidden inspiration. I began Art Principles not liking art, thinking it was just another class. I have found a creative outlet in this class, and though big projects were sometimes frustrating, they have been overall rewarding. I'm not sure which art I will be taking next term... probably not clay, because clay is a challenge for me that I don't really enjoy. As cliche as it sounds, after this class I try to see art in everything, which will be useful for broadening my creative spectrums later in life.

ART:21

I liked the way Raymond Pettibon uses writing in his work to verbalize art and communicate humor, drama, anger, jubilance, and sadness.  His work requires two arts: writing and drawing. His work ranges all over, because he has a very broad artistic spectrum. His work is varied, but always meaningful. I can relate to his type of art, as it requires an ever-changing, all-encompassing creative mind.

Elenor Antin work always tells a story. She defines what she does as, "inventing histories." The abstraction of her work with cutouts both confuses and intrigues me. There has to be a lot of thought that goes into her work, as the complexity is planned. She continues to talk about re-inventing herself as someone else, in alter-egos.

Clay Project

For my clay project, I have chosen to do a representation of myself. I chose this because I know myself better than anyone else. To represent myself, I have chosen to use a lion. A lion fits me well because it captures bravery, fierceness, and boldness (for instance, "heart of a lion"). These are three very important elements of my personality. Rather than putting a lion in an environment that was out of the ordinary, I am choosing to put it in a position it wouldn't normally be in. By making the lion standing on two legs, winking, and making one of those finger gun symbols with its paw, I am trying to obviously convey my sense of humor and love fun.

Symbolic Portrait

For my symbolic portrait, I have decided to use John Coltrane. He is a fantastic jazz saxophonist, but I wanted to know more about him, and create what I think his mind would be like. Religious influence took a huge part in his music, and he was actually dubbed a saint by the African Orthodox Church. This sort of inspiration, I think, has many tangible attributes. This would be excellent if I were using objects in a picture to make a representation of him. Other interesting thing which could be covered in this portrait would be his death at 40, and his use of heroin. The complexity of this genius's life would make for a great portrait basis.

Hamlett Dobbins

This was my favorite piece of Hamlett Dobbins' work. It is still somewhat obscure, as are many of his paintings, while keeping an element of neatness. I think that the meticulously drawn numerals provide a degree of deep contrast which adds a lot to the painting. The piece leaves the viewer wondering what significance the number 4 has to the artist, and gives leeway for personal interpretation. A question I would like to ask Hamlett Dobbins would regard his artistic process, and what inspires him to create such abstract work.

When I asked Hamlett about his process, he told me that he likes to find a significant moment to him in his life, and either take a picture or recreate it with found objects. This is a base for a painting he would do about said moment.

Collaborative Mural Project

So far, things have been going great in our collaborative mural project. John, Eric, Daniel and I have agreed upon an idea that has a lot of potential to add greatly to the cafeteria. We have decide to dilute paint and dip round sponges in said paint. We will then drop the sponges onto our canvas, cut a piece of realistic plastic fruit in half, and match up the color of the paint spatter to the color of the fruit. In a perfect world, this will look like somebody has thrown food at the canvas. Otherwise, we could try to pass it off as abstract. We are hoping for the former, but out painting techniques are risky and we could easily end up with the latter. Eric, Daniel, and I have already tested this method on paper, and the effect created is excellent.