Students in the second quarter 2-D Art Elective began by choosing a masterwork to replicate.
Modeled after apprenticeship practices, their goal was to get inside the head of a successful artist and learn through emulation of methods, materials, and techniques. Alongside this goal, students were to create one or two independent works of art depending on if they were in 7th or 8th grade. Lastly, a course conclusion paper reflecting on what was accomplished, created, and learned.
Modeled after apprenticeship practices, their goal was to get inside the head of a successful artist and learn through emulation of methods, materials, and techniques. Alongside this goal, students were to create one or two independent works of art depending on if they were in 7th or 8th grade. Lastly, a course conclusion paper reflecting on what was accomplished, created, and learned.
Felicity
During this 9 week course of art class, we had to do 1 masterwork re-creation and 1-2 individual pieces. This may sound fairly easy, but 9 weeks is a much shorter time span than I initially thought. I started the quarter thinking: “Oh! 9 weeks? I’m gonna run out of stuff to do in the end, I’ll get everything done super quickly!” and ended with “9 weeks? And we’re supposed to have 3 whole pieces done with paragraphs written?? What?!”
For my masterwork recreation, I did Everlasting Beauty for the Neverending Universe by Yayoi Kusama. She is known for creating the concept of infinity rooms, and is quite possibly Japan’s most famous artist.
I recreated this piece using pencil and acrylic paint. I drew the weirdly obscure shapes in pencil, later painting them in using over 20 different shades and colors of acrylic paint. The dots took me almost 10 hours total to complete, (with a crazy amount of concentration) but I’m really happy with the final product.
I’ve learned so much during this class, from mixing colors to knowing which brush to use, and the specific techniques required in order to get the result you wanted. I chose this piece because my main goal at the beginning of this quarter was to challenge and push myself to gather more skills in order to become better at art, which I think I definitely achieved. All in all, I’m very happy with how my recreation turned out.
I recreated this piece using pencil and acrylic paint. I drew the weirdly obscure shapes in pencil, later painting them in using over 20 different shades and colors of acrylic paint. The dots took me almost 10 hours total to complete, (with a crazy amount of concentration) but I’m really happy with the final product.
I’ve learned so much during this class, from mixing colors to knowing which brush to use, and the specific techniques required in order to get the result you wanted. I chose this piece because my main goal at the beginning of this quarter was to challenge and push myself to gather more skills in order to become better at art, which I think I definitely achieved. All in all, I’m very happy with how my recreation turned out.
For my first individual piece, I created 3 paint pouring pieces. The inspiration for this concept was entirely accidental. When painting my masterpiece, I accidentally poured some tempera paint into a small bit of acrylic paint. The tempera paint made the acrylic paint unusable, so I set the palette aside. When I came back to clean it at the end of class, I found that the white tempera paint had settled into the green acrylic paint and had made these beautiful little “explosions”, much like the dots in my pieces.
There is a certain level of science in this technique. The dots and pores in the pieces only exist because of the rubbing alcohol. When poured onto a flat surface with paint, the alcohol evaporates very quickly, separating itself from the paint and into the air. As the pieces dried, I could see the little bubbles of alcohol forming, popping and getting bigger.
There is a certain level of science in this technique. The dots and pores in the pieces only exist because of the rubbing alcohol. When poured onto a flat surface with paint, the alcohol evaporates very quickly, separating itself from the paint and into the air. As the pieces dried, I could see the little bubbles of alcohol forming, popping and getting bigger.
Sketches
For my second individual piece, our teacher Deb allowed us the opportunity to create 6 sketches, an equivalent to one individual work of art. My sketches consisted of six completely different items, all of which were completed in 30 minutes. A majority of these sketches involved shading, a skill I would really like to become better at. I think I have definitely gotten better at realistic sketching over the past 9 weeks, but there will always be room for improvement. My biggest challenge was finding the time to sketch and creating an environment where I could focus, both of which were often be hard to come by! |
Ava L.
In art this quarter, I really tried to challenge myself, and try things I hadn’t done before. I mainly worked with paints and pencil, and tried to put more color into my drawings instead of just black and white. I also used acrylic paint on canvas, and worked on putting more texture into my paintings than I have in the past. I attempted to draw more realistic drawings, in hopes to improve with drawing realistically.
For my masterwork piece, I recreated The Wounded Deer by Frida Kahlo (also known as The Little Deer).
The Wounded Deer depicts a large male deer laying in the forest. The deer has the head and face of Frida Kahlo instead of a deer’s face. She has been shot by nine wooden arrows in her side and neck. When Frida Kahlo was 18, she was in a serious bus accident, which caused severe damage to her spine, pelvis, and legs. She was bedridden for more than a year. This accident most likely had a major influence on this painting. Frida Kahlo actually did have a pet deer named Granizo, whom she loved very much. This may have been reason as to why she chose to depict herself as a deer instead of any other animal.
I recreated this piece using acrylic paint on canvas, although Frida Kahlo used oil paint instead of acrylic. If I could change anything about my painting, I would make all of the background a lot cleaner, and have the face be more accurate to Frida’s.
The Wounded Deer depicts a large male deer laying in the forest. The deer has the head and face of Frida Kahlo instead of a deer’s face. She has been shot by nine wooden arrows in her side and neck. When Frida Kahlo was 18, she was in a serious bus accident, which caused severe damage to her spine, pelvis, and legs. She was bedridden for more than a year. This accident most likely had a major influence on this painting. Frida Kahlo actually did have a pet deer named Granizo, whom she loved very much. This may have been reason as to why she chose to depict herself as a deer instead of any other animal.
I recreated this piece using acrylic paint on canvas, although Frida Kahlo used oil paint instead of acrylic. If I could change anything about my painting, I would make all of the background a lot cleaner, and have the face be more accurate to Frida’s.
My first personal piece is a colored pencil drawing of a skull. I colored it using Prismacolor colored pencils (which I highly recommend.) This was my second time using Prismacolors, and thought it turned out mediocre. I don’t love the overall shape of the skull, or how the blending turned out in some areas, (mainly eyes and teeth) but I do like how saturated the color is, and the overall effect the colored pencils give.
To count as my second independent piece, I did four drawings that are halfway in between sketches and complete pieces of art:
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Overall, I had a good time in art, and thought I definitely learned some new techniques and skills that will help me in the future. I think I managed my time a lot better than in the first quarter, and was able to successfully produce two independent pieces and a masterwork this time.
Margaret
Chloe
My masterwork is called “The Loneliness of Autumn” and was created by Leonid Afremov. My painting is very colorful, and depicts a pathway with old street lights up and down the street and trees behind the lamps. The painting’s focus is a old wooden bench that is kind of antique. The elements in my painting are space, value, color, texture and a little bit of form.The principals in my painting are rhythm, proportion, variety and some harmony. My painting is made from acrylic paint with some pencil for sketching it out. I used an eraser, a stubby brush to make the palette like texture, and a small tipped brush for the small parts. I used a palette like technique with a stubby brush to create texture and volume. I wanted to do something more challenging for my masterwork so I chose “The Loneliness of Autumn” because I had never used that technique before and the painting was more abstract than anything I’ve done. I tried to express the same emotions that were in the original painting. My goal was to learn something new - like a style, process, technique, etc. - this quarter and practice it. I learned a new technique in painting. I liked how it turned out, but if I had to do it differently I would have spent more time on the street in the painting.
My second independent piece is called “Rose”. It portrays a red and yellow rose with big green leaves sticking out of it. The elements and principles in my artwork are form, value, rhythm, proportion, gradation and variety. My piece is made from regular pencils and colored pencils. I also used a kneaded eraser. I sketched out my rose than colored it in and finished by adding details in the colors. I always liked roses and the way they looked, but they were/are so hard to draw, so I thought I would challenge myself again by making a realistic and non-realistic drawing. I tried to make my rose very colorful, jubilant and vivid. My goal was to again learn something new and go out of my comfort zone and I think I did that in this piece and my masterwork. I liked how it turned out especially the way that there is different colors in the leaves besides greens, but they were blended nicely. Parts of the actual rose I would have done differently, but I was trying to get used to the different style.
Elizabeth
This quarter, I got 2D Art. I had done it in first quarter as well, and I was determined to enhance my skills and meet the deadline. The quarter went by very quickly, but it was fun as always and I learned and made so much.
Last quarter, this piece was something I was very interested in. This quarter, I finally got it, and I started working with lots of excitement. It started out great, but I realized some problems along the way… in the end, my piece turned out well, I love the colors and contrast in the art piece. The media I used was oil pastels on a wood surface. My technique was most smudging and blending, but I also learned about how to make certain colors stand out. This piece was a real struggle for me, but I think copying someone else's piece and focusing on the details of the picture helped me grow as an artist. Overall, I like how my piece turned out. If I had to do it again, I would not take any “shortcuts” and would really embrace the art work.
My art was partly inspired by the artwork of Japanese Artist Yayoi Kusama. She has may pieces with a black background and many, many, many dots. My piece has two hands that are “blocking” out many dots. There is a lot of color, while the hands remain untouched. For this piece, I also used wood. I used Acrylic, and Watercolor paint in different places of the piece. I also used dried out paint that had a plasticy feel to add depth. This art piece changed a lot over time, but I always had an image in my mind for what I wanted, and I think it turned out better than I could have imagined.
I learned a lot this quarter in art, how to blend better, some good techniques for painting and pastels, I also learned about time management and note taking. I would take the class again, and I think I got a lot out of it.
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Julia
Wade
This quarter differed from last quarter in several ways, most importantly the addition of 2D art to my art… uh… repertoire, I guess? I also am doing a significantly okay’er job this quarter, which is an improvement to my relative ineptitude last quarter.
My Masterwork for 2D was to finish the mural of Edward Hopper’s famous and excellent piece ‘Nighthawks’ outside the lefthand corner of the balcony side of the auditorium. The mural was about 65% done when I took over it, so all I had to do was paint in the dark areas, most of the bar, and one person. (the dude wearing white clothes who is bartending)
My Masterwork for 2D was to finish the mural of Edward Hopper’s famous and excellent piece ‘Nighthawks’ outside the lefthand corner of the balcony side of the auditorium. The mural was about 65% done when I took over it, so all I had to do was paint in the dark areas, most of the bar, and one person. (the dude wearing white clothes who is bartending)
My Independent piece is a drawing of a medium-sized plastic dinosaur. The dinosaur in question’s name is Captain Falcon. They appear to be some variety of parasaurolophus, sporting an impressive yellow head with a large crest protruding from the back, only marred by sexy black eye tattoos. (and, in my drawing, but sadly not in real life, a fashionable bowler hat) Captain Falcon is sitting down at a bar, one of their arms pulling up a stool and the other resting on the bar near a martini. |
David
The first piece I made was my masterwork. I selected the painting by R.C Gorman named “Daughter of the Moon.” I decided to recreate this piece by painting one of the chairs in the art room. I feel like painting the chair was tough because of the way it was made. For the Painting aspect I used acrylic paint and I mixed a lot of the colors myself.
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The second piece I made was a scene of the sun and all the planets gathered around it. I never really thought of a name for my independent piece. For the planets and sun in this piece, I used oil pastel, and for space I used watercolors because the oil pastel resists the watercolors. |
Mark
In this art class I did a masterwork project and 6 sketches for my independent project. For my masterwork project I did a piece called Sharecropper and for my independent project I did 6 sketches.
For my masterwork project I did a piece called sharecropper by Elizabeth Catlett. This piece was made in 1952. Sharecropper was influenced by the hardships endured by African American women. I was able to finish my masterwork project. For my independent project I made 6 sketches. I made sketches of a car, an animal, a fruit bowl, a hamburger, a person, and a building. I was able to finish all 6 sketches. My masterwork project is made of pencil, paper, colored pencil, and sharpie. My project is inspired by Elizabeth Catlett. My goal as an artist was to finish this project. I learned a lot about the art piece like that it had been influenced by the hardships endured by African American women. In this art class I was able to finish a masterwork project and 6 sketches for my independent project. I enjoyed this at class. Overall, I thought that I learned a lot from this class. |
Jane
I looked up different types of graffiti because I think that is a really cool way to make art. For my art I used watercolors and I tried to make it sorta blend together so it looks like a river of paint. I used paint, paint brushes and sharpie for my artwork. I wanted to explain my feelings about art and what I think art should be. My goals were to really spread the colors but at the end it didn't end that way. I like my independent piece but I wished I could have done more to it.
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Tate
Over the course of about eight weeks, we had to choose a piece that we want to recreate, and also do one independant piece. I spent a lot of time just coming up with ideas, and sketching.
I did my masterwork on “Blue Rhapsody” by Leonid Afremov. It is a portrait of a cello player that has a very colorful background. My partner, Leo, and I only had a short time to finish this. We did it as a mural on the wall of our school near the orchestra room (since it’s a cello). I am happy with the end result, but I wish we had more time to work on it. One thing I learned from making this, was how to make flesh tones with paint. I also learned a lot about impressionism.
My independent piece depicts a goat jumping through grass. There are sunflowers in front, and the goat is behind them. There is a barn in the background with some silos. I had to work on this at home, so I could do the mural at school. I did this with colored pencil. I tried to make the goat look like one of mine that I have. |
Overall, I am pretty happy with both pieces. To compare with what I did last quarter, I like my masterwork better this quarter, but I like my Independant better from last quarter. I just want more time in class to work on these, because we had a ton of other stuff going on, like I had to miss a ton of art classes because I had to go to orchestra practices.
Leo
My artwork depicts an abstract scene of an alien landscape with strange buildings and spherical, winged aliens gliding among walkways.
I drew it with sharpies and markers on paper.
The work is supposed to evoke an unearthly scene. The idea for my artwork came from my trying to envision a world with much less gravity than Earth, but still hospitable to life. The aliens would be winged, able to glide easily, and would have powerful feet to propel them through the air. Falling would not be a danger because, due to minimal gravitational pull, they would just drift to the ground instead. I also thought that the buildings would not need to have much support, hence the skyscrapers on “stalks.”
My goal for this artwork was to create an easily recognizable scene of alien buildings fading into the distance. I decided to make it abstract and less realistic because I was hard-pressed for time.
Overall, I think it turned out fine, and I learned some about capturing distance and space in an image, but could could have been a lot better. If I had had the time to make the buildings 3D and more detailed, it would have improved it. Hopefully in the future I will manage my time better.
*Leo also worked on the above-pictured "Blue Rhapsody"
Paloma
I recreated a of Inume Pass in Kai Province by Katsushika Hokusai with Julia K, Sophie L, and Kate A. We decided to do a mural outside of Joe Tomassi’s (the math teacher) room on the staircase. The recreated piece that we did was about 4 feet by 3 feet. We first started out sketching the painting in pencil, then we mostly outlined it, and finally painted it. We weren’t able to finish the piece, but we covered the majority of it.
I recreated a of Inume Pass in Kai Province by Katsushika Hokusai with Julia K, Sophie L, and Kate A. We decided to do a mural outside of Joe Tomassi’s (the math teacher) room on the staircase. The recreated piece that we did was about 4 feet by 3 feet. We first started out sketching the painting in pencil, then we mostly outlined it, and finally painted it. We weren’t able to finish the piece, but we covered the majority of it.
Avani
For my masterwork I recreated a piece called ky143 Pumpkin (1990) by Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi Kusama is a contemporary artist who mostly does sculptures and installations, but also does painting. I wanted to use canvas but there wasn’t one the right size so I decided to use wood instead but I really like the way you can see the lines on the wood. First, I sanded the edges of the wood. Then, I used red, purple, yellow, and white acrylic paint. When I was done painting I used black and green sharpie to make the dots and spirals. I added the big spirals in the background but I didn’t have enough time to add the lines connecting the big spirals. I really liked the way this piece turned out but I wish I had more time to work on the background.
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For my first independent I drew music notes and watercolored around them using green, blue, and red. When I finished that I thought the page was too white so I made other stripes of watercolor going around the paper. I wasn’t very happy with how it turned out so Deb came up with the idea to cut out around the watercolor and then put a piece of black paper underneath. After that I thought it looked a lot better. Next time I would to use less colors because I think they mixed together too much and made a gross color in some areas.
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For my second independent I made a collage. I was going to make a bookmark but I decided to do a whole sheet of paper. I started by cutting out inspirational phrases and words. After I finished cutting those out I realized if I wanted them to overlap you wouldn’t be able to read the words so I cut out cool images I liked, mostly of nature, and put them in the background then but the words on top. I used mod podge to glue them onto the paper. |
Anabelle
For 2d art class my master work was a replication of a piece by Audrey Kawasaki called Solitude, Audrey Kawasaki is is a Los Angeles-based painter who is known for her paintings on wood of young women. I choose my piece because I really liked that it was on wood and the shading on the young woman's face. First I sketched in my notebook then I got a piece of wood from the classroom and sketched it onto that. I painted the background of the piece black like in the original. I used prisma colored pencils for the face and the eyes I used green watercolor paint. This piece didn't turn out the way I had hoped but that's okay it still looks relatively fine. I spent a lot of time on this piece in class, working on smaller details.
My independent piece is a cactus painted onto a piece of paper in a plant holder. This was a very last minute piece but it turned out okay overall. I made the thorns on the cactus black dots. The cactus itself is a dark green color I spent most of the time shading the cactus using lighter green paint in the middle of the leafs/petals.
It doesn't symbolize anything for me really.
Zoe
For my masterwork piece, I painted "The Harriet Tubman Series (Panel #4)" it was painted by Jacob Lawrence in 1940. Jacob Lawrence was an African American painter and storyteller. He depicted African life in his work, and won a scholarship to the American Artists School in New York in 1937. He also painted “The War Series” and “The Migration Series”. To remake this piece, first I painted the background, (the sky and the ground) then the tree branch. Next I sketched the people and painted them. I painted on canvas with acrylic paints. It was hard to get the spacing of the tree branch and people right, but eventually I got it pretty close.
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For one of my independent pieces, I used a slab of wood, watercolors, and acrylic paint. First I painted the background with watercolors. I did not have any particular pattern or design in mind, I just used a variety of colors to make a colorful background. After that dried, I sketched and painted the word “οικογένεια”, which is Greek for "family", with black acrylic paint. When I was done, Deb had to saw off part of it because it was not perfectly centered. My family and I are Greek, and even though we don’t speak Greek at home, it’s a word that my parents used when they were kids, and my whole family knows, so it is a special piece for my family.
For my second piece, I used the scrap wood from when part of my first independent was sawed off. I kept the colorful background, and used sharpies to write "luh bjuh" in a cursive caligraphy font. Most people do not know what that means, it means "love bjuh", "bjuh" is my sisters family name. It is almost like a family language that we use at home, most words have "uh" at the end of them (luh, duh, bjuh, muh, wuh?) I am not sure how it started, but now we use it everyday!
Marley
For my masterpiece, I chose “Hirari Hirari” by Audrey Kawasaki to replicate. She is a Los Angeles-based painter known for her paintings of adolescent women. She was born March 31st, 1982. To do the painting, I started with a basic sketch in my notebook. After I felt confident with that, I started on a piece of wood. It didn’t turn out the way I expected. I made it too small in proportion with the size of the wood. Next I began to paint the background black. Then I used watercolor paint (opposed to acrylic) for the pathway. To finish it off I outlined the details on her face and body with a fine point sharpie. I initially wanted to do this piece because I thought it looked cool but as I went on with working on it I started to realize the technique that the artist went through to get the contrast was very interesting to recreate.
For my masterpiece, I chose “Hirari Hirari” by Audrey Kawasaki to replicate. She is a Los Angeles-based painter known for her paintings of adolescent women. She was born March 31st, 1982. To do the painting, I started with a basic sketch in my notebook. After I felt confident with that, I started on a piece of wood. It didn’t turn out the way I expected. I made it too small in proportion with the size of the wood. Next I began to paint the background black. Then I used watercolor paint (opposed to acrylic) for the pathway. To finish it off I outlined the details on her face and body with a fine point sharpie. I initially wanted to do this piece because I thought it looked cool but as I went on with working on it I started to realize the technique that the artist went through to get the contrast was very interesting to recreate.
Kyan
For my masterwork I recreated a peice by Jean-Michel Basquiat called "Bird on Money".
The original piece was created in 1981. My attempt to recreate Bird on Money took a very long time. I think it looked pretty close to what Basquiat created and I think you can tell which one of his paintings it is supposed to look like but there are many mistakes I made. I used a canvas for my attempted recreation. The canvas I used was significantly smaller than the one Basquiat used to create this piece. I used paint for my entire piece and I’m pretty sure Basquiat used crayons for some parts of his. My recreation is made up of a lot of different layers of paint. My goals were to recreate this piece with little to no mistakes. I really misjudged how much space I had and actually ran out of space to put a section of the painting. After my poor attempt of creating this piece I learned that it is very hard to recreate Basquiat pieces if you don’t have a lot of experience making recreations of art pieces.
For my individual artwork you were given the choice of making six sketches for one individual and with all my time being consumed by trying to recreate Bird on Money and conveniently missing a day where I could have gone to the school and progressed more on Bird on Money I decided to just make lots of sketches.
The original piece was created in 1981. My attempt to recreate Bird on Money took a very long time. I think it looked pretty close to what Basquiat created and I think you can tell which one of his paintings it is supposed to look like but there are many mistakes I made. I used a canvas for my attempted recreation. The canvas I used was significantly smaller than the one Basquiat used to create this piece. I used paint for my entire piece and I’m pretty sure Basquiat used crayons for some parts of his. My recreation is made up of a lot of different layers of paint. My goals were to recreate this piece with little to no mistakes. I really misjudged how much space I had and actually ran out of space to put a section of the painting. After my poor attempt of creating this piece I learned that it is very hard to recreate Basquiat pieces if you don’t have a lot of experience making recreations of art pieces.
For my individual artwork you were given the choice of making six sketches for one individual and with all my time being consumed by trying to recreate Bird on Money and conveniently missing a day where I could have gone to the school and progressed more on Bird on Money I decided to just make lots of sketches.
Sophie
Billie
Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist of 88 years who primarily works in sculpture, installation, and paint. She has been creating visual art since an early age, and picked up poetry at 18. Kusama’s childhood years were rough, shaped by an abusive mother and a father who had countless affairs. At the early age of 10 she began to experience vivid hallucinations which she described as “flashes of light, auras, or dense fields of dots.” In other illusions flowers spoke to her and the patterns of fabric emerged from the cloth to envelope her. These phantasmagorias ultimately became one of the main sources of inspiration for Kusama’s work, and started her long held obsession with dots, pumpkins, and flowers.
At the age of 27, Yayoi Kusama moved to New York to pursue her great interest in Western and European artwork. This appeal was born out of contempt for the greatly conservative society she had grown up in. Kusama still creates incredible and immersive installations around the world, usually yielding 5,000 to 10,000 visitors.
At the age of 27, Yayoi Kusama moved to New York to pursue her great interest in Western and European artwork. This appeal was born out of contempt for the greatly conservative society she had grown up in. Kusama still creates incredible and immersive installations around the world, usually yielding 5,000 to 10,000 visitors.
The Kusama piece I chose to recreate was “The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended Into the Heavens.” In this installation she has painted a room entirely in a rich, egg-yolk yellow, and covered the walls in black dots of varying sizes. In the center of the room lies a large box almost the height of the space it is encompassed in, coated completely in mirrors, except for one square hole on the side. A set of three stairs lead down from (or up to) the box. Originally featured in a 2015 exhibition at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark, this installation was a part of the major exhibit “In Infinity,” among some of her other works.
I used the corner landing of a staircase in our school as the platform in which to recreate this. I started by mixing the yellow color and trying to match it exactly to Kusama’s. Over the course of many weeks I began extending the yellow paint across the staircase corner. Having less time than expected, I was not able to cover as much of the wall and surrounding area as I would have liked, and could not complete the project. I have faded the edges of the yellow out, as to make it look more finished, and added only a few of the black dots. I intend to keep coming in at lunch and working on it (as I have been doing for about a month with that and other projects), even if I am not doing it for a class.
The piece of art and location I chose were largely guided by my own interest in the mundane and the focus of the general audience. For both the murals I have made in art this year, I have chosen to paint them in places where attention is rarely given. As someone walks up the stairs, they’re glance will shift to this yellow wall. They will wonder. Why is it yellow? Who painted it? Why is it in this spot? This wondering, this questioning, can make you reexamine the space you are in. It can draw your attention to places and things that you have never once noticed before. It can make you think.
The piece of art and location I chose were largely guided by my own interest in the mundane and the focus of the general audience. For both the murals I have made in art this year, I have chosen to paint them in places where attention is rarely given. As someone walks up the stairs, they’re glance will shift to this yellow wall. They will wonder. Why is it yellow? Who painted it? Why is it in this spot? This wondering, this questioning, can make you reexamine the space you are in. It can draw your attention to places and things that you have never once noticed before. It can make you think.
There is a cello in our art room that is broken beyond repair--missing all the strings, the top of the scroll, the fine-tuners, the bridge, and the endpin. I have had my eye on this mangled instrument for the entirety of the year and knew that I wanted to do something with it, but I wasn’t sure what. Near the end of last quarter I had an idea to paint cacti overlapping across the whole front face of the cello. I then would remove the back of the cello and drill holes in the front so that I could embroider-in the spikes of the cacti. Knowing that I didn’t have enough time to do it then, I put it off until this quarter.
Cacti, and plants in general, are meaningful to me. To know that something can live off of purely water, sunlight, and rich soil, is fascinating. In a sense I believe that humans could do the same with water, food, and shelter, but we as a species have deeply diluted the meaning of the word “living.” Things that are solely wants, become needs in our minds. Things such as art, music, dance, and even electronics are seen as necessities in the contemporary age.
Although I had previously thought of this idea as fully fleshed-out, it was far from that and required a great deal of meticulous planning and preparation. I started by practicing sketching cacti in my notebook, as I haven’t really drawn them before. Then I drew the overlapping cacti over the majority of the cello. This took me multiple weeks. The many different shapes got very confusing and ended up being difficult to start painting. At some point along the way I decided that I wanted to make the cacti unconventional colors. Due to the short time frame, I—again—was unable to finish the project. All I could complete before the end of the quarter was a pink cactus and a yellow cactus. I hope to be able to complete this work in the next quarter.
Cacti, and plants in general, are meaningful to me. To know that something can live off of purely water, sunlight, and rich soil, is fascinating. In a sense I believe that humans could do the same with water, food, and shelter, but we as a species have deeply diluted the meaning of the word “living.” Things that are solely wants, become needs in our minds. Things such as art, music, dance, and even electronics are seen as necessities in the contemporary age.
Although I had previously thought of this idea as fully fleshed-out, it was far from that and required a great deal of meticulous planning and preparation. I started by practicing sketching cacti in my notebook, as I haven’t really drawn them before. Then I drew the overlapping cacti over the majority of the cello. This took me multiple weeks. The many different shapes got very confusing and ended up being difficult to start painting. At some point along the way I decided that I wanted to make the cacti unconventional colors. Due to the short time frame, I—again—was unable to finish the project. All I could complete before the end of the quarter was a pink cactus and a yellow cactus. I hope to be able to complete this work in the next quarter.
I enjoy cacti as a (heavily clichéd) metaphor as well. The cacti possess something that is wanted (and sometimes needed) by others. It understands this and in turn produces small pricks guarding it’s exterior. Although these spikes can hurt others, it knows that if it were to lose them, it would be devoured. As dangerous as they may be, these miniscule prongs provide a wall of protection that a cacti cannot live without. They are one of the aforementioned necessities.
Tyler
Fiona
The masterwork I chose is “Carry On” by Audrey Kawasaki. It’s a picture of a girl on a dull background surrounded by swimming fish. The piece gives off a sort of otherworldly, sullen, vibe, with the girl frowning mildly and a rather dull color palette.
The piece is made on a panel of wood using colored pencils and paint. In my recreation, I also used wood for the background and colored pencil, but I left out the paint because it was so subtle I couldn’t even tell what was paint and what wasn’t, so just colored pencil was enough. To draw it, I made a sketch on newsprint then transferred it onto the wood using the carbon transfer method. I then colored it with prismacolor pencils.
Audrey Kawasaki is a Los Angeles artist whose style consists of paint and pencil on wood. Most of her subjects are young women, painted with unrealistic but aesthetically pleasing proportions. Her art often looks surreal or fantastical.
My goal was to create an accurate replication, and I think I did that fairly well, although some parts were off, like the head shape. Overall, “Carry On” was a really fun piece to recreate, and I think I learned a lot from it.
The piece is made on a panel of wood using colored pencils and paint. In my recreation, I also used wood for the background and colored pencil, but I left out the paint because it was so subtle I couldn’t even tell what was paint and what wasn’t, so just colored pencil was enough. To draw it, I made a sketch on newsprint then transferred it onto the wood using the carbon transfer method. I then colored it with prismacolor pencils.
Audrey Kawasaki is a Los Angeles artist whose style consists of paint and pencil on wood. Most of her subjects are young women, painted with unrealistic but aesthetically pleasing proportions. Her art often looks surreal or fantastical.
My goal was to create an accurate replication, and I think I did that fairly well, although some parts were off, like the head shape. Overall, “Carry On” was a really fun piece to recreate, and I think I learned a lot from it.
For my first independent, I had a collection of sketches I made at home. I chose this because almost all my time in class was spent on “Carry on” so doing this was an easy alternative. I do a lot of sketching at home in my free time anyways, so this was overall the easy option.
For my second independent, I did a digital piece. The picture resembles a yin yang symbol, with sun and moon themes replacing the black and white. I would have liked to make it more intricate, but I was kind of short on time so this was the best I could do.
I’ve been experimenting more with digital art lately, so this was fun to try out. I used a digital program called IbisPaint to do it, using a simple stylus pen. Getting perfect symmetry with the two sides of the yin yang was probably the hardest part, and they’re still kind of uneven, but overall I like how it looks. I think I learned a lot about art this quarter. |
Kate
Allison
For this quarter during 2D art my masterwork selection was “Poppy Flowers” by Vincent Van Gogh, which was created in 1887.
My artwork looks like a vase with mostly yellow flowers with accented red. My artwork is made from layers of acrylic paint. My main goal as an artist is to explore different mediums and techniques, and during the creation of this painting I got to use acrylic paint and canvas for the first time. I also learned that making the correct shade of brown is very challenging.
This quarter during 2D art I created a masterwork along with an independent.
This artwork looks like rainbow stripes with gold and silver accents. The artwork is currently unnamed. My artwork is made of acrylic paint, and it doesn’t really have a personal connection but when people see it I want them to feel happy. My main goal as an artist is to try new media’s and techniques and in this artwork I got to try out acrylic paint and canvas for the second time ever. During the creation of this artwork I learned that you can’t use watercolor on canvas. Oops!
This artwork looks like rainbow stripes with gold and silver accents. The artwork is currently unnamed. My artwork is made of acrylic paint, and it doesn’t really have a personal connection but when people see it I want them to feel happy. My main goal as an artist is to try new media’s and techniques and in this artwork I got to try out acrylic paint and canvas for the second time ever. During the creation of this artwork I learned that you can’t use watercolor on canvas. Oops!