This year was interesting. There isn't really another way to describe it. Having done virtual school for over a year now, I am worn out. But I still managed to push through and make art during what will most likely go down as the worst year of school for everyone in the education system right, and good art at that. I learned a lot about myself through my pieces and my experiences in art this year, such as how much I really enjoy installing artwork in a building. I wanna explore a way I can continue doing that outside of school next year, because I really believe that it is something I am good at and enjoy (as silly as that probably sounds). This year was very different for art, as I only have myself to motivate me instead of an art class full of people, but it showed me what I am truly capable of. I believe that I really tied things together in the end and I am very proud of how the senior show went. The pieces I chose, the lay out, my artist statement, and my art talk were, in my opinion, extremely successful and I am very proud of how everything went.
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With the opportunity to explore an online gallery, I knew I had to explore the Museum of Modern Art. It is my dream to explore the museum in person, but for now I will take what I can get.
I admittedly had the most fun with this piece, because it changed so much throughout my process. I used a lot of new techniques, such as painting with paint on a crumpled piece of paper and using a brayer on the canvas, and was a lot more bold with my marks. In the end, I was not afraid to cover up the majority of my piece and just leave an arrow. For my first time making a piece like this I don't hate it, but in the future I would not push all my marks in one direction and I would be sure to follow the rule of thirds more.
We, as Art V students, have heard the phrase 'Wabi Sabi' before. In this lecture, that phrase was broken down and we learned the real meaning. Wabi is the key aesthetic beauty principle in Japan, based on the Shinto belief system. Basically, they wanted to have the natural look with all the dimples, cracks, etc. This was a very different belief to many Western aesthetics that valued perfection in everything. There are three main aspects to Wabi
1. simple/unpretentious (one of poverty and disappointment 2. imperfect/irregular (to be incomplete is more beautiful than to be complete, a deeper beauty in the blemishes) 3. austere/stark (a desolate cold winter scene) Sabi is the lonely beauty that is tinged with a sadness or melancholy, and refers to ability to have the capacity to be aware of your surroundings and have an experience with them. We also learned about Yugen, which was an important Buddhist idea. It refers to a sense of mystery or depth into feeling and before you are fully aware it moves on. Tanizaki, an important Japanese novelist, was also discussed. In many of his works he juxtaposed traditional Japanese men and women to the traditional men and women in the west. He was quick to respond to what was occurring around him, which was a lot considering it was a war period. He responded to the question, "What makes us unique as Japanese people?" with his works. He often wrote about vulgar topics and compared them to the classic aesthetics and glorified them. Japanese aesthetics have always been very interesting to learn about. I feel like there is not a similar subject to compare to in American art history which makes the topic very intriguing. I feel like most of this lecture was review, but it is always nice to get an art history refresher from the beginning of my art career at Maggie Walker. I messed around with more layers on the foreground and background, but I still want to try to break some of that contrast. I think that the change to a bigger canvas was not as difficult as I expected when it comes to scaling up my techniques to fit the larger canvas. I think for my next project I still want to make two pieces instead of one because working on two pieces lets my mind create more ideas for composition, color, and mark making. Being stuck on one piece feels like its limiting me in a way.
No two tattoo artists are the same. Tattoo artists all specialize in different types of pieces, whether that is based on style, size, subject, or area of the body. These artists are placing permanent works of art onto their customers skin by injecting ink under the surface of the skin. The most popular styles of tattoo are traditional/old school, realism, tribal, new school, neo-traditional, blackwork, and illustrative tattoos (all pictured below). Some tattoo artists have 100s of pieces already made for customers to chose from, others are known for making custom pieces. Often, customers will seek out a person who specializes in the style they desire and will reach out to them to get a custom piece done. Part of a tattoo artists' job is to make sure all the equipment is properly sterilized due to the number of pathogens and diseases that can be transferred through blood. A tattoo artist also needs to be educated on the proper aftercare of tattoos to make sure the tattoo holds its color and line work properly and does not cause any injury to the client. A tattoo artists' daily schedule often looks something like this:
It is not common for a tattoo artist to attend university. Most will have taken art classes in college, and art and/or business classes at their local community college in order to learn more art skills and the skills to potentially open their own tattoo shop. I lightened up the center a bit and filled in with white. I like to fill in with white a little early on because it always creates new colors that I like to incorporate back into the foreground. I love how the texture built up along the edges of the canvas and throughout the white background. I still think I need to add more to the center to blend things together, and make the contrast between the foreground and background a little less aggressive.
I decided to use the thick medium with the base because I felt like it is more to accentuate my marks than to create a thick texture I cannot paint over. I don't like how the base color is so uniform, so I am planning on going over it more next time.
For my RVA Art Talk interview I had to the chance to talk to the well respected Caesar McGann (known as 1500 studios). I've seen his murals and signs all over Virginia and it was an honor to get to talk to him about his career and history as an artist. Click here for the link to the video!
I absolutely fell in love with Keith M Ramsey's personality from this interview. His outlook on life and art is amazing and one that many people should follow. For a little background, he went to VCU and ended up getting a job in graphic design (more to make money and keep making art but not really what he wanted to do). Eventually he was fired from the job and took that as the chance to make what he wanted to. He started producing practical work, such as railings. Now, he gets clients that trust his vision and he gets to make whatever he wants. The one thing I loved most about his approach to art is his 'why not me' mindset. He works with so many different mediums and materials because when approaching a new project or assignment he says 'why not me?' Why can't he be the one to make it? He said his girlfriend says he has "creative ADD" because there are so many things he can do, which I thought was a really accurate way to describe his work. He approaches all of these materials because he loves trying different things, says 'why not me', and also has so many things he wants to say and he wants to express them. I love how he takes every opportunity that comes to him and just tries to see if he can do it, without much planning ahead of time. I also loved his enthusiasm for objects like a rusty nail, saying that you can never find something with that texture, age, and color. Hearing him describe his found objects was truly refreshing. I learned a lot from his outlook on art and opportunities.
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Julianne
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