Time capsule!

   Recently we had a project where we had to make a time capsule for ourselves out of a cardboard box! We were supposed to put meaningful things inside that would be seen by our future selves 20 or so years from now. In my time capsule I mostly put things from my hobbies such as anime logos, pressed flowers, and old drawings inside as well as a letter to myself. I put these inside because I want my future self to remember who and what I was in high school and be happy. The decorations I did on the outside of he box are leaves, a snake, and some spiders. It was supposed to "be" me so I made it me: kind of odd and pretty to look at on the outside, with some of the inner weirdness creeping through, but so much more when you open it up.
 

This year

  I feel as though I have accomplished many things during this year: I grew in my art skills, became more confident, and produced beautiful works of art (if I do say so myself).  I really enjoyed the projects we had done in my art class, and am quite proud of how they all turned out.  I remember where I was as a freshman and I have really grown, not only in my artings but also in my interactions. I am particularly proud of my book, as I was finally able to get the outside stitch right! Yay! I remember my first book was stitched pretty badly because I panicked and messed up. This year however I was able to understand how to do it! This year was great for my development as an artist both in school and out of it which makes me feel as though it was a success.

Story Time!

Eli looked around, trying to process her surroundings but failing. "......Where......where am I?" A male voice answered her with a chuckle. "Why, you're no where my dear. And everywhere." Eli looked at him blankly and responded with an eloquent: "Huh?" The man chuckled and stepped out of the darkness that seemed to surround them. He was tall, with bright blue hair and red rimmed glasses. "Oh don't worry my dear Aires, you'll grow accustomed to it soon enough." This just confused the poor girl even more and she just sat, hopelessly trying to process what he meant through her clouded mind. The man patiently waited for her to respond but she just sat there mutely. "Are you quite alright?" he asked. "Would you like a glass of water?" Eli shook her head, both as an answer and to try and clear it. The man crouched down next to her and examined her face. "Hmm......you have no idea what's going on do you? Do you know your name? Anything about your past? Anything about who you are?" Eli was frightened to find she only knew the answer to one of these questions. "M-my name is Eli," she said, "Who are you?" The man smiled and stood up, offering his hand to her as he did so. "My name is Aquarius, the water bearer, but you may call me Rei. Come, and I'll show you to the others." She accepted his hand and shakily got to her feet, deciding not to ask about who the "others" were as she would find out soon enough. Rei steadied her and led her to a light brown door, the only thing standing out in the darkness, and into a room with four other doors and exotic decorations on the walls: some bright, full, green leaves, others bare, withered branches and the rest in between. "It's like the four seasons," she commented, surprising herself by her sudden knowledge. "Very good!" Rei exclaimed. "It appears you are getting some of your memory back!" One of the doors opened and two identical heads poked out- at least, Eli thought it was two, her head was still foggy and swimming. The two heads asked in unison: "Is this the new Aries?"  "Yes, Gemini," Rei responded, "come say hello." It was in fact a set of twins, and as they bounded up to her Eli couldn't help but smile at their eagerness. Nevertheless something they said stood out in the young girl's mind. "Wait," she interjected. "you're the second, er, third, person-people- uhm-.....why did you guys call me 'Aires'?" The two girls turned their attention to Rei, suddenly more serious. "She doesn't know?" They said, once again in unison. Rei sighed. "I figured I would explain it when everyone else arrived. Incidentally, where is everyone?" Just then, a large, muscular man with cropped red hair and a strange nose ring entered the room from the same door the twins had just come from. Eli regarded him with interest then looked at Rei for an introduction. "All introductions will come in due time my dear, spoilers just take the fun of surprise away." She was disappointed by this but nevertheless decided to wait as other people entered the room from the other three doors until there was a total of eleven people in the room. A man with medium length black hair took a head count. "Eight, nine, ten, eleven...where is Leo?" Rei spoke up with a tone of apathy. "Does it really matter? Can't we just continue without him?" Everyone gave a collective sigh and the muscular man gave a response to Eli's confused look. "Leo and Rei don't exactly get along." Just then, a tall man with shoulder length golden hair enters the room and gives a loud yawn. Rei's annoyed look at that moment confirmed what the muscular man had said. The dark haired man spoke in slightly impatient manner. "Now that we have all finally showed up, I believe introductions are in order." He gestured first to a girl with hair that was a lighter shade of blue than Rei's. "This is Pisces, the fish." The girl smiled at Eli kindly and waved. "Next are you, Aires, and then Taurus, the bull-" He gestures to the muscular man who also waves. "-Gemini, the twins-" The two girls wave in unison. "-Cancer, the crab-" Another man gives her a brief nod. "- Leo, the lion-" The man with golden hair became more attentive and seemed o notice Eli for the first time. He smiled and walked over to here, bowed, and kissed her hand. "My dear Aires," he said with a slight purr, "I am delighted to be in your presence." She drew her hand back slightly, though she couldn't hide the amused smile that was growing on her face. " Th-thank you?" she said. The black haired man rolled his eyes, as did several others in the room, and continued with the introductions. "And these are Virgo, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, and you know Aquarius." He gestures to a woman in a green dress, a devilish looking young man, a tall man with a bow and quiver slung across his back, a young woman with blonde hair, and Rei respectively. "And I am Libra, the balancer. We all welcome you into the Zodiac my dear." Eli took all this in and decided to believe them. "Whoa," she murmured. "That's amazing. Wait how am I a part of the zodiac?" She still wasn't sure why she was in this place or how she got there, but something was compelling her to want to jump into what these strangers were saying. Rei took her hand. "Come, let's take a walk. I will explain on the way." She accepted, glad she was finally getting answers, and followed as he led her through the spring-adorned door and into bright sunlight. "To start off, how much can you remember from your old life?" This startled and confused Eli even further, but she shook her head. "Not much of anything," she replied, "Just my name and something about the seasons and the zodiac." "That was how it was for the rest of us," he said, "when we first arrived here. You see each of us was another person before coming here. The trouble is, we cant remember anything about the persons we used to be, only the persons we are and will become. We do know parts of why we were brought here, however." "Why?" Eli asked eagerly. "Because one of the  old zodiac signs had died, and a new one was needed as a replacement." Her face fell a little at this morbid detail, but he continued on. "Each replacement is chosen from the souls of the dead that exemplified the traits of that zodiac symbol and given a new life." She allowed this to sink in. "So," she started, "I'm...dead?" Rei looked at her with a thoughtful look, "In a sense, yes. But don't worry, you will make friends here, as well as enemies." He began walking through the flowers again. "The world is bright and young with spring Aires," he turned to her while speaking. "Are you ready for it?" She followed him and somehow felt confident in her answer. "Yes," she replied wholeheartedly, and the two continued walking through the flowers in the bright spring sunlight.

                                                                                    END

Fotune Cookies

My teacher distributed fortune cookies to the class and we were told to interpret them into art. After some thought, I decided to go for an almost direct approach, meaning I tried to draw representations of the fortunes. I wrote the fortunes on the paper and drew pictures to represent each one. I know it may sound odd but the thing I am most proud of in this piece is the way the ribbons with the fortunes on them are drawn. This was a nice project and despite my fortunes having pretty much nothing in common,  I was able to represent them in some way.

3 Artists, 1 Painting

So there's this interesting new project my teacher introduced to us: Art x3! It's where one person starts a piece of art, another one continues it, and a third person finishes it. The theme for this art endeavor was "celebrity," and we were allowed to interpret that how we wanted. It was really interesting to see how other people took your art and changed it to fit their ideas. The above picture was fairly sparse but still really good when I got it and I had no idea how to "make it my own." However, with guidance from my teacher I was able to turn it into the piece you see right here. I had worked on two other pieces before this one and had to let both of them go. It was not an easy experience, especially since I had just thought of where to go with each of the pieces when Poof! they went onto the next person. I have to say I am rather proud of the final result of this one. It took a lot of time and effort but I was able to "make it my own."

Pop Art Stamps

What's fun and kooky and can be used over and over again? Stamps! This marking period we made stamps of our own in pop art style! As you can see, the subject for my stamp is and/or was a globe. I chose it because I have been into geography and history of late thanks to this show I've been watching. Anyway, I thought the globe would be a nice challenge for my artistic skill and it really was. I first had to envision what the stamp would look like then draw the globe on a small piece of paper. Then I darkened the lines so the pencil was nice and thick and then printed it onto a rubber stamp. I then spent several days cutting it out using various tools and eventually viola! It was finished! Next came the really fun part: the printing. I made several different prints other than the ones in the above picture but these were some of my favorites out of all of them. I am really quite proud of how these turned out and the way they are situated really gives them that "Andy Warsaw-mass production" type feeling.

None of these things are just like the other, but all of these things really belong!

What do all of these items have in common? They're all blue! That's right, my art class began collecting these blue items in response to being shown pictures of Portia Munson's work. Portia Munson is an artist who makes color coded collections of cool stuff. I personally think the above collection is pretty cool, especially the globe and the hat. This collection really says a lot about our class as a whole. We were asked to bring in blue things and some people really put effort into it while some other people just brought in a pencil they found in their bag the second before class started (and yes, by that comment I do mean myself.) But other than that, this collection really tells a lot about each of us as individuals, what we think of when we hear the color blue, and what things pique our interests. For instance, one person has an amazing blue top hat, which could mean they like cool hats. Another example is the paint bottle, which would lead one to believe that person enjoys painting. This collection not only tells of our interests, but the time period as well. There are things on that table that could only be found in this era, such as the Angry Birds card in the bottom right of the picture. In Portia Munson's work, there were things that mostly consisted of toys from the 90's and earlier, which is a time stamp of when the collection was created. The time stamp on this collection would be in the 2000's just going based on this picture. And so, collections of all types can tell a lot about a person, not just their personality, but their time period as well.

Collecting

Many people have collections. Collections can be large enough to just barely fit in a warehouse, others can be small enough to fit in a purse. They are collections of things that have an intrinsic value to the collector. A few years back, I began collecting business cards. I am not sure why I began doing this, I just thought it was fun. When I would go down to Maryland to visit my grandmother, or when my family would go to the beach, I would go into the shops and take a business card. Even simply walking in downtown Haddonfield, I found both beautiful and fun looking business cards. I would keep this collection in the pockets of my purse. While I was not deeply, deeply attached to this collection, I was very sad when I lost my receptacle of this collection. It has been this was for two years and I have lost hope of retaining my beloved business cards. Because of this unfortunate incident, I am unable to show a picture of my full collection, but I have been able to keep one cards from being lost. The card below is this card, and incidentally my favorite of the collection. It is left over from a store that now goes by a different name. Pretty cool though, right?

The Marking Period

This marking period, my art class has done a total of two drawings, both of which took alot of time and energy but turned out great in the end. The first drawing, the bike, showed me how to vary the darkness of my drawing depending on the darkness of the paper I was drawing on. I also learned much about the composition of a drawing on a page and what it means. In the colorful candy colored pencil drawing, I learned about drawing using almost only colored pencil, with just a light graphite sketch. It was a great expirience doing these drawings, and I hope to do more like these as the year progresses.

Colorful Candy

The next art project I am currently doing is a drawing of candy in colored pencil. I had never really drawn in colored pencil before so I was a tad nervous when we began, but now I am rather enjoying it. It was a new experience for me, and I quikcly became frustrated with the angle and colors of the lid, but after I got used to it, it became really, really fun. The first thing i did was make a blending gradient of the complementary colors which really did help when creating darks and lights in the drawing. The second step I took was to practice the highlights on a piece of tracing paper and then transfer them to the actual paper. I rather like how it turned out, how it really feels glassy and how it looks liek the candy is actually in the jar. My favorite piece however has to be the blue Jolly Rancher in the bottom right corner; not only because its one of my favorite candies, but also because it turned out really well. This drawing, I must say, was a complete sucess.

The Graphite Bicycle

 
The first drawing my art class did this year was a drawing of a bike. Sounds easy right? It really wasnt. I started out with several light sketches on one piece of paper to get a firm standing on the composition of the piece as well as the proportions and mechanics of it. I finally chose to do the seat of the bike and so started the almost life-sized drawing on blue colored paper. It started out well, i drew it to the proportions I needed and everything was gong fine until I realized the drawing was beginning to become lost in the paper. My teacher showed me how to darken the drawing to make the lights lighter and the darks darker. I will admit, I began to get frustrated when things were not going according to plan (i.e. the lines were getting too fuzzy or the shape of the bike was getting warped) but when I got past that part, I actually began enjoying it. When I was finished it, I was quite proud, not only of my drawing but of what I learned while in the process. At the end, I was given a self asessment sheet. I gave myself fair grades on the understanding of composition and value, of technical excellence and attention to detail, and of the use of processes and problem solving according to where i felt my skill level was. This project has reminded me of and taught me skills that I will be able to use in future drawings and to that I say: Horaay!

I'm Back!

Here I am for another year of art class. Why might you ask? Because art is an amazing way to express you're feelings, thoughts and ideas of course! My teacher told the class about a cool new project we will be starting, a time capsule. I'm really excited about this because I think it will be cool to open it a few years from now and remember where I was when I made said time capsule. That isn't the only thing I'm excited about, I get to see the friends I made last year and see how they have developed artistically, then compare them to myself. By comparing, I am motivated to get better at something I may not be as good at. So glad to be back!

End of the Year

Well.....I have to say this year has been fun. The projects my art class has done have been so much fun. I have made some close friends and let my creativity grow, not to mention how proud I am of the things i have accomplished. My favorite project we have done definitely has to be the metal work. Though the work to make it was hard it was completely worth it in the end. I am very much looking forward to coming back next year for another great art class, but for now au revoir! 

My Slideshow

my slideshow - slideshow

Unicorns for Audrey

Audrey was always a special little girl. Ever since she could remember, she had been able to see things other people couldn’t.  She could see faeries, gnomes, dwarves- you name it! She made friends with most of these creatures, but her absolute favorite and best friend had always been a young unicorn named Arthur. Most other people never seemed to notice Audrey’s friends, which got her in trouble quite often. Something would happen around the house or at school which was so obviously caused by a sprite and Audrey would get blamed for it! Her parents said it was her overactive imagination, her teachers said she was just trouble. The only one who seemed to understand (other than her faerie friends) was here cat Tiffany, and even she ignored the sprites that came to visit unless they were small enough to chase.  Audrey lived in a small cottage in the English countryside adjacent to a rather large pond, where she spent most of her time. This was where she had met the mermaid with whom she had become very good friends. It was also the place where she had first met Arthur. She still remembered how beautiful he had looked, standing at the edge of the pond in all his grace and majesty. Just like out of an Arthurian Tales book.  He was her best friend not only because he was kind and loving, but because he accepted her and all her oddity. And because he let her ride on him every so often but that is beside the point. Her parents tried to be accepting of her friends when she was younger, but when she turned ten they began to grow worried that her imaginary friends would get in the way of her succeeding in life. They even tried sending her to a psychiatrist. So she had no choice but to lie. She said she could no longer see the magical beings, and eventually that came to be. She stopped noticing the little sprites that flitted around her room every now and again, the little faeries that flew with the fireflies on summer nights, she even forgot about the sweet mermaid in her pond. However, even to this day she never forgot Arthur. Not only because he was her best friend growing up, or even the fact that he still visited her and her family, but because he was a piece of her life, and a piece of her. She moved into the same house she grew up in when her parents died along with her husband and son, who she named Arthur. Arthur oddly enough had the same friends she had had, remarking every so often of the new ones he has met. Audrey every so often will see a little flit of light around a flower pot or up a staircase and she will stop and smile at her old dear friends.

The Year So Far...

Greetings once again! I am here to tell you about the wonderful wrold of Art Class! To start off we are doing a really cool thing called Empty Bowls. Baisically, we arfe making bowls to be used on February 9 for a special dinner. It is a benefit for The Food Bank of South Jersey which means all capital that is made goes towards their funding. It really is a great cause and it was a lot of fun making the bowls and plates. We made each one ourselves and hand painted them. These are some finished bowls. The molds we used to make them are the odd, white objects behind the shiny,pretty ones.

The next subject that we did was paper lanterns. We practiced cutting paper into cool shapes. It was really painstaking at times, but all of the lanterns turned out looking really nince. The theme for all of the lanterns was the four seasons. My season was fall. They are made out of a thick paper and could be backed with either a sort of tracing paper or another, softer, more fabric-like paper. Mine was backed with the tracing paper on account of the thin, flimsy shapes.



The latest project i have been working on is a blind contour self-portrait. Basically, a blind contour is when the artist does not look at the paper they are drawing on and only at the object they are drawing, in this case a mirror. The artist is also not supposed to lift the pencil while drawing so as not to loose where the line ended. We were also supposed to answer questions about ourselves such as "I am....." "I dream..." "I like...." and so on so the reciever of the art has an idea of who the artist is. Mine is not quite finished yet but the picture below is how it looks so far.






 

The Great Mary Cassatt

Mary Cassatt was an impressionest paintere of the 1800s into the early 1900s. She was born in Allegheny City, Pennsylvania in 1844. She was first exposed to French artists at the 1855 Pasris World's Fair. She studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, against the wishes of her family, and had her mind set on becoming a professional artist. Her femminest views were shared with such controversial male students such as Thomas Eakins. She later quit the Acadamey because women were looked down upon as artists and were not allowed to use nude or live models. Consequently, they could not learn proper anatomy. Mary Cassatt was highly influenced by Degas on her Impressionism work. She died on June 14, 1926 and is still heralded as one of the greatest woman artists in our time.

My interst in Mary Cassatt started one day in a previous art class a few years back. My interest was captured when I found out about her femminest views towards the Acadamey and how she was a great woman artist. I liked that she was able to make her way as aprofessional artist in a male artist's world. I loved the way she was able to make such beautiful paintings and capture the actions of a model. She painted the


One of my favorite paintings is the first one of her's I learned about: Mother and Child XI. As you can see, she painted a LOT of women with children. The woman appears to be tenderly holding the child as they get their portrait painted, but if you look closely at her left hand on the child's thigh, you can see that her grip is a death grip that lets the child know that there will be heck to pay if he acts up during the painting. It appears unfinished, but that is the beauty of it. It makes the observer think.

















This painting, which apparently was not named, stood out to me because it once again has has a woman with a child, except this one is finished. In it, the woman is washing her child, but still has an almost death grip so the child doesn't move or squirm. I found this one interesting because of the way Cassatt captured the light and the pudgy rolls of skin on the child.

This painting, known as Young Mother Sewing, captured my eye because of the simplicity of the figures in the painting. The woman is simply sewing a new dress while her daughter watches Cassatt paint them both. Again, a mother depicted with a child, but the child is old enough that she does not need to be made still. I like this particular piece of hers because the observer, well I can anyway, imagine the warmth and time of that afternoon or morning that this was painted.


As you can see Mary Cassatt is a very notable artist and one I am proud to call one of my favorites. Her paintings are beautiful and she herself was an exquisite person.



 

A Reflection

      The marking period went b very fast; it seems as if only last week school began. I do not believe i have changed much at all over this forst marking period, my drawing skill may have improved slightly but it mostly stayed the same. I do, however, fell I will change in skill by the end of the year, or even by the end of the next marking period, but for now I am at my current level and will probab;y remain here for a while. As I learn to draw things as I see them and understand values and contrasts more, I can advance. If my friends need help getting values or understanding a method, I'm there since I took this class before. Also because I'm a good friend. The marking period has gone so fast, but I am anxious to get on to the next one where new interests await!

The Next President

     After the show drawing, my art clas worked on collages on who the next president would be. We chose topics on which to base our collage, mostly issues such as health care, cay rights, abortion, ect. I chose enviroment, since it is an issue that really interests me. I could have gone several ways, but some of the material I was going to use dis not fit so I was forced to leave it out. For instance, I had a picture of a kitten behind bars to symbolize animal rights, but the picture was to big in contrast with the other things I wanted ot put down. The materials I used were mosly from magazines and print outs but I also used tissue paper and paint to bring some things forward and make others stand out.  I used pictures of endangered species but they were covered by the tissue paper so one would have to look very hard to make them out. My collage is all about the problems and what the candidates plan to do about them.

The Drawing of the Shoe

        For the forst marking period in my art clas, we drew shoes. It is honostly not as boring as it sounds. There wa a lot of hard work and effort put into every part of it.

First I used a cut piece of paper to look though, in order to get the proportions. Once it looked the way I wanted it, I could start drawing the outline and then work on the details. The nig problem for me was making sure the shoes were lined up properly in proportion to what I had drawn, and for some reason the shoes kept moving each day. (Another class? or a ghost, mabye?) Either way I was eventually able to move on to the details which weren't that hard suprisingly. Another thing that tripped me up for a while was the shading. For some reason I just could not get that darkness on the bottom of the left shoe! However, I managed it well enough and this is how it turned out:

 

The darkeness on the side is the value scale to help me get the darkness correct as well as showing me how to blend.