Thursday, April 2, 2009

Finding A Voice

The focus of my sophomore year was to find my voice. Every artist has one. What is mine? I took many different classes that pushed me to try new mediums and to go past what I am comfortable with. I found great satisfaction in looking back at the year and seeing where all of my struggles and hours put into less than mediocre projects brought me to.


I had never done Intaglio[form of printmaking] before. I found it intriguing and fascinating! I liked it much better than lithography. We did not get along well. It was too process oriented. Intaglio, however, worked very well with how I like to go about making art. I loved the different mark-making that could be achieved with acid and a copper plate. Although these images are not my best, I enjoyed freely exploring a new medium.




I have been itching to attempt abstract art. I have had images floating through my head and screaming to come out onto canvas and paper for a long time. In my oil painting class, we had the opportunity to create our own assignments. The abstract just had to come out!
My teacher was great at pushing me. The painting below is not finished. I became stuck and had to leave it as is seen now. It will be finished.
This is also the first canvas and stretcher I made myself. I used power tools and chopped the wood and everything. I am a pro with the router now!

I also took a water coloring class! I had never water colored before. These are just a few of the many little studies I did of the images and ideas that have been racing through my head. I felt as though I was trying to catch fireflies with a jar, leaping around the moonlit field foolishly trying to catch every last thought. This probably wasn't the best process to go by and is probably why these studies didn't turn out the best. Once again though, I learned so much .











Titled Finland. I almost sold this one, but they backed out last minute.
Bummer.
I wanted to focus on layers and colors while in the confined space of contained spaces. I love the process of building up paint and taking away.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I love the history of old buildings and cities. This door is from my travels to Estonia with my dad and grandparents. This was my first time painting on paper. I am converted.
This painting came out pretty quickly, which normally does not happen for me.




I had extra boards hanging around and finding myself bored one evening, I just started throwing paint around. This is what I came up with.


I wanted to see what would happen if I went into a painting having no plans of subject, composition, color, etc. It turned out to be a mess really. I like doing small paintings like this however, because you are allowed to make mistakes and do different things.

People


I am a people watcher.
A nice name for a creep.
Someone who likes so sit in public areas and watch people's interactions and how they carry themselves. I think that clothes can say a lot about a person, what they think about themselves and others.
Anyways, I love to study the figure. The body is beautiful. These are a few sketches/watercolors/collages that I have done recently in my little sketchbook.



















The Mistake Book



My "mistake book."
I went to DI and bought an old book. My water color teacher gave us the assignment to spend five minutes every day creating anything, and something or nothing in this used book. I found that by exploring just ONE thought every day, my ideas for bigger projects became much more profound.
Here are just a couple of pages of my doodles.