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.

The Unexpected Match

Term 1 Art Principles Reflection

This term in Art Principles has been terrific. I've been able to hone my artistic skills dramatically. Before Art Principles, I was able to draw with a steady hand, but I only saw what was in front of me, and copied it. I learned to take what I was given, and make it into a real work of art, exemplified in the Found Object Project and the Found Image Project. Also, rather than starting out precisely, I learned to take a mess of pencil marks and shape it into a realistic picture, Like in the Drop Everything and Draw with sticks. These are just a couple of skills I've honed or acquired this term. Though I've been extremely satisfied with my work, I now see that many of my Drop Everything and Draw projects are incomplete due to running out of time, but I will try to put in extra hours in the future. I'd like to thank Ms. Roberts for a great term, and I'm excited for next term.

Glass Half Full Project

In this project, we were supposed to choose one general theme and reflect its good and bad attributes. I chose winter, because my feelings towards winter are very ambivalent. I love skiing, wrestling, snow fights and watching basketball, but I hate dirty snow and the gloominess that seems to take over Massachusetts. For the positive attribute, I portrayed a skier going off of a jump. I love skiing and the picture looks fun. In contrast, as the negative attribute, I have a pair of lonely footprints adjacent to a cold, icy road. I struggled making the road look gloomy rather than peaceful, since it was supposed to be a negative. Ms. Roberts helped me a lot by telling me to contrast one side of the road more by making it lighter. I think that by using white charcoal, I accomplished what I wanted in my picture.