You've got style

The several behaviours that are shown in the apex high school's rubric include some of my weaknesses and strengths. Most of my art comes from an idea that sparked in my head from seeing something else, like for example my mural I'm creating in art. I saw a post about a type of sketch called a mandala and I thought it had to be one of the coolest things ever. Like something that seemed so simple actually turned out quite hard to do as you want the entire piece to be somewhat symmetrical. So most of my art consists of being something that was triggered in my head from seeing something. 

I like to try to expand and develop my art making skills as I like to learn a lot about the different materials and techniques but to also study those of the greater artists in the word and see exactly what else there can be to learn about the different styles. 

One thing I think is a weakness for me is my communication though my artwork. I know that a lot of the time I'm just creating a piece just because I feel like it and not having any meaning or message. What this tells me is that I have to improve on this in my future in college.

Taking risks- another weakness of mine. I like to play things safe. I do this because I want things to turn out the way I pictured them and taking risks can either make or break that vision. Part of being an artist is all about taking risks and learning from your failures and I'm attempting this more often now with the pieces I am creating. An example would be the sculpture I tried to make this semester. Although it started off fine, the more I worked on it and the farther it progressed it got farther and farther from what I wanted to to look like. The proportions were off and the final look bothered me A LOT. Although i don't really like the piece I can look back on it and see it as probably one of the first risks I have taken.

Collaboration is something I dislike to do in a way. I'm okay with getting together with someone and sharing ideas and helping them and stuff like that but when it comes to the critiquing part count me out. I don't really want to hear or give negative input on someone else's work as it can really effect a person. I know I would absolutely hate it if someone said my art sucked. This is like this for everything though, not art. Nobody wants to hear the negatives about something, especially from other people around you. Criticism is one way to grow as an artist and hopefully one day I can learn to accept what people have to say (if negative) process it and then improve.

Solving problems- I'm getting better at this! I used to just abandon any project that would face me with a problem but now I am able to sit there and think of possible ways to fix it. Once again an example of my cat sculpture ( this piece was horrible but it turns out I'm learning a lot from it¿) the biggest problem I encountered was when the clay dried. It cracked and it broke. The frustration was so real when this happened. I tried to fix it with many things and unfortunately nothing really worked, but hey I tried right? In the end I tried my best to fill the cracks with more clay hoping it would eventually build up a lot and stay nice but it didn't so I had to go to my backup plan and just paint it in attempt to hide it. 

Reflecting- in a way what this post is, is reflecting so I guess I can do this alright. As an artist I'm able to look at my pieces and see what went wrong and what went right. But I can also take what has happened to me in the past and use what I have learned to apply it to my future work.

I tend to think I understand art in the world but do I really? Does anyone really? Like the artists of the past you can look at their work and see what they've done but you can't actually talk to them to know EXACTLY what they were feeling at the time, or what was going on in their life or why they felt like creating that piece. With artists of the current century it is a lot easier as you can actually ask them these questions and hopefully get an answer. Luckily with the age that we are in, we have a cool thing called the Internet. Where you can look up anything and get some sort of answer. This has been helping people ever since it has first come out, educating millions about the many different things happening around the world!

My priorities when I make art is I do something that I enjoy. I want to enjoy what I'm doing because if I don't I find the work that you're creating can get boring extremely fast and that makes the artist start to not car how the finished product turns out - sometimes makes them not finish their artwork! So when I'm about to start some sort of artwork I think about something that I'd really like to do and that I know will keep my interest long enough so that I won't give up on it. An example of this would have to be when we were starting our series assignment and we were all asked to choose one topic to focus three creations on. I know I don't have many things that I am enthusiastic about but one thing I was, was definitely cats. They are such a big part of my life it's crazy. So thinking things over like that I find extremely crucial when it comes to making art. Another priority is that I want my art to be perfect and to have it look exactly the way it was in my head. Although this is extremely difficult and can take up a lot of time. It has worked sometimes but some projects I have done this year did not follow this at all and it made me so so frustrated I basically gave up and tried finishing it as soon as possible so I can move on to the next project. You may have guessed my cat sculpture and if you did, you are correct. When certain things don't go exactly how their supposed to we all know it can make us angry. Another priority is definitely time. When I'm doing art I need a lot of time. And I mean a lot. I get so easily distracted my attention span is like a goldfish. Some days I can be right into my art and like so focus and other days I don't even feel like doing it. 

When I create my art I try to express feeling through some of it. By this I usually mean happiness. I haven't really done any pieces where I had to communicate something to an audience. Quite possibly in last years grade 11 class but not this year have I had to do something on an emotional level to connect to people. With all pieces I have created this year I've tried to have like a happy vibe to them as that I how I want to feel when I look back at the pieces I have created.

The materials that an artist works with are extremely important when it comes to communicating effectively. I say this because all materials that have ever been used to create something in art, are all used to express and communicate different things. One thing I do when I'm creating art is that I like to know I'm able to use a material properly and have it work with any techniques that I'm using. Like I dislike working with things like charcoal as an example because it smudges so easily and it can wreck the look of a piece by one little slip of a hand. So I like to stick with materials like pen, pencil, marker, & paint that have some hope to fixing. Understanding how a material works and the different ways you can use it can really help and artist with how to communicate something effectively. Every technique an artist works with matters. This is because some techniques don't work out for some artists where as for others it does. It's all about getting comfortable with what you like to do and what you feel works right and makes your creation the way you want it to be. I'm like 100% that any artist wouldn't work with just any material, when in the creating process a big part of it is taking your idea and think what materials and techniques would work best to be able to create your vision.

Proper presentation - probably an extremely important thing. When your work is finally done you want people to look at what you've created and just be like "wow" at least that's what I want people to do when they look at my work. And I mean this by not the forced "wow" I want the audience who looks upon anything I create to be amazed by it. All artists are like this too, as it sometimes is what they were looking to achieve. Only when the piece is finished can it really give a feel to the work. Proper presentation is a huge thing when it comes to being an artist. Like sure your artwork might be complete and all but the way you show it off to the world really matters. Sometimes art work can have a whole story/emotion in it from just looking at it and sometimes it needs a little help from the artist by possibly a brief description. All artists want people to think something when an audience looks at their artwork, whether they hate it or like it.

Appropriate Appropriation

To start off this discussion about appropriation, you kinda have to know what it is so...

What exactly is appropriation??

Now that we know what appropriation is, it's time to look at the scandal that has happened recently in art news. A man named Richard Prince had taken to his Instagram feed to create his next art collection. Simply by scrolling down his feed, he screenshotted photos that fit together somewhat and from there blew them up and put them on display to eventually make $100,000 off of them.

In my opinion what Richard Prince did was completely wrong. Firstly by taking the pictures from Instagram without any permission whatsoever but also selling them to make a profit. Even though there is somewhat credit to the Instagram user he used the photos from by displaying their user name and comments. I was so curious in this incident a bit more.. I found a site called theverge.com which had an article about the topic. In it it talked about how the photos were "mostly of young women in seductive or vulnerable poses" which left me to the question why would he choose these photos? Was it a plan to sell them in the long run? Continuing on with the article it stated that Richard Prince wasn't new at all to the art of appropriation. His entire career is built on it!

On the debate if his work is controversial or just a way of expression I would think its a bit of both really. I think he may of started of his career as an artist as this being a way to express himself but eventually as he rised to popularity it may have slightly turned controversial. Being an artist and having that 'untouchable' status when it comes to your artwork is like invincibly. He can do what he wants and use appropriation on almost any artists other work. This tweet he made May 28, 2015 shows his controversial side.

The people in the photos he used had mixed feelings. Some okay with the idea and others completely outraged by it. He's been taking to court and sued - a lot. But somehow he finds ways to surpass the laws of copyright and get free from being sued - partially because of his riches (from what he's made off his appropriated artwork). You may be thinking right now "hey if this guy can do it, why can't anyone else?" Wouldn't that be amazing to make $100,000 off of someone else's photo? That's not the thing though, we all know anyone could do this but the thing is why would anyone by your work? Richard Prince's name is very well know across the artists universe and to own one of his pieces people would pay a lot of money - obviously! Yeah sure we can all be upset about this incident but as long as he isn't breaking any laws what really can be done?

I think I would be angry as an artist to know that someone was stealing my work and distorting it only a little bit and then making profit from it. What would especially make me angry is if someone used my work without asking any permission at all. Unfortunately there are people who do this, like Richard Prince. I feel like originality is pretty important when it comes to art. Everyone has their own originality within different styles of art. Like for example many people can create something within the style of abstract and all of them be different. This is one thing, but taking someones work that they worked so hard on and created is absolutely wrong.

Wall mural update

So I have been working on this thing a lot! Here's the progress I have made with it so far! I have finished the pastel circles, painted on a black border, and started the mandala!

Series part 3

So for my final part to the series I decided to do something different then originally planned. I wanted to do something that didn't involve a paintbrush or paint, wire, clay, etc. I wanted to use photography. I think photography is a beatiful form of art in which the artist is able to capture a moment and be able to cherish it forever in just one photo. As everyone knows, my cat is probably one of the most important things in my life and therefore I get the nickname of the crazy cat lady. So on a nice day I had gone outside with my handsome cat and had gotten some photos of him! Fortunately he was in a good mood so I was able to get photos that didn't look like they were forced! I decided the best place to take photos was in a place that made him the centre of attention and the main focus of the pictures. So with him being a black cat I decided on a place with lots of dandelions as the yellow made the black stand out lots. Here are some photos I captured! 

Isn't he just gorgeous?

Out of the photos above #4 & #5 have to be my absolute favourite.

Here are more photos with another colour to contract with his black fur.

Wall mural in the classroom

So being a senior graduating this year, I wanted to leave my mark on my favourite place in the high school - the art room. So with saying that, I get to paint almost a mural type thing on the wall! So for the past half week I marked off a rectangle, primed it (twice) and today I started my process. I really had no idea at all what I wanted to do so I got some colours ready and I started to mix a magenta with white to form a pink. Just from doing this and making a pastel pink and idea formed in my mind. I would sponge on the wall pastel colours in a sort of pattern and overtop do an intricate black design. Here's from today's work:

But Is it Art? Responce

So after reading this post i got really interested in it and i wanted to download an app so i could cube-ify a couple of my posts. Unfortunately there is no such app that has a cubism option!! So instead i had to connect my phone to the computer and do it through that way. So when first looking at this Kubist web application i had no idea whatsoever on what i was doing. I started off by uploading my picture cause that's probably the first step you're supposed to do.

This is my cat August

So no after i uploaded it it turned into a bunch of blobs of greyish/black colours. I had to play around with the point/circle/border sizes for a while. I put the picture at 1000 points to make it the most clear it would get. I choose to do the triangle style as it showed the picture a lot more clearer than the cell one did. I didn't know what the circle size exactly was (i do now) so i put it to 5 and i thought there wasn't much of a change. Only when i went to save the picture to make this post did i realize a problem.. THERE WERE WHITE DOTS ALL OVER MY PICTURE! so me being blonde, had to take a couple minutes to figure out that the circle size was indeed the white dots and i put it back down to 0. This is my final product.

cube-ified

In my opinion i don't really like this style of art because its not very clear. I like to see the fine details in art and to be able to recognize what it is. To me i think of cubism like this as a picture someone had taken that would've been an excellent photo, but they moved their arm or something causing it to blur to the extreme.

Scratch and Mix Project Responce

My first impression of the exhibition was that it is a great thing to do as it shows the artists' experiments, achievements, their stories and their challenges. I think by showing all of that through art is powerful way to convey how the artist feels, as each artist has different styles and techniques, as well as different pasts and stories. I looked at some of the artist’s websites that showed their work and I found all of them unique and interesting. For example, one of the artists named Oluseye has a style where he creates people in monochromatic colors with almost a geometric look to them. He uses materials like acrylic paint, pastels, charcoal, wire and graphite pencil on canvas. Overall, his work I find very unique and interesting. Looking at some of the artists' work that were put in links under their description i saw many different types of art. There were photographers, painters, etc. And what was most noticeable was how everyone had their own significant style. The exhibition is a wonderful idea, and the chosen artists' have amazing work that deserve to be shown to the public about their achievements, lives, stories and challenges!