I created this project because it stuck out to me .  When I saw it I remembered I completed something like it in middle school so I wanted to try it again since it has been a while.   When I saw the project I immediately thought I wanted to make a beach scene.  I love drawing the beach and wanted to see if I could make a print of it.  I like to make the leaves really detailed and I thought it would look really cool on the print.  When I actually did it, it was hard for the leaves to turn out on the page.  I think my work conveys to audience hard work.  I feel this way because I have four different images and it shows how I tried a few times before I got it correct.  Something I feel I achieved in this project was patience.  I admit it was annoying having to go back and heat up the print and keep carving.  Also when I printed and it didn’t come out right.  I gained some patience from all of this.  This piece relates to past work I have done as I have drawn many things with trees like this.  I enjoy making my work have beach scenes.  I feel my art relates to contemporary art/prints because of the style and colors.  For example I found this print I pictured here below.  We both used red and black and the fine lines in the painting reminded me of the tree in my print.     http://fengshui-paintings.com/823-Wall-Art-Canvas-Prints-Koi-Fish-Wall-Art-Contemporary-Art-Modern.html   (link to the painting)

What I have created with two original characters that I have created based on one of them wanting to be something that they weren’t and bring someone else. They wanted to be strong when they are seen as weak. They other was strong but had weak points. That’s why I created it as a Yin & Yang type image.The overall vision is that people can be similar, but people just hide it well. You  can be seen as weak, but you have a strong heart or vice versa. I wanted people to know they we all have similar abilities but some are more prominent than others.  I feel as though people will notice the yin & yang situation and understand the meaning for it first but they won’t notice the meanings that I placed within the entire images like the flowers with their individual meanings that represent the characters.I think I achieved a story for the characters that I create for myself and for others to see. I also think that I achieved something relatable if I explained it to them.I feel like I pushed myself a little more than usually because I usually avoid drawing anatomy because it isn’t my strong point in drawing. It shows that I’m trying to push myself to improve and do better.With contemporary art, my work is similar to this artist  ( Rebecca Gray Smith ) because  they did a similar yin yang concept that it had as well as the message it portrayed.

When I started making this project, I struggled to create a final image and then I finally went to the yin yang idea because I wanted them to be opposite of each other almost. After that, I struggled to draw the bodies that are flipped on both sides because it was something I wasn’t use to. Once that was finished, I breezed through everything else.I reflects on how everyone can have similar things in common but it takes a lot of digging to find the attributes, personalities , etc., of another person. It reflects on how I noticed that a person can be viewed as one thing but with closer friends and family, they’re something different.I think it can influence people to not judge others as much as they do. They may not even realize that the two have something in common based off of the physical image, which is wrong. Of course, everyone judges, but to verbally express your opinion to their face isn’t right.I don’t think any of the techniques I used was really important to it because they techniques I used were little basic. I had used to hatching for the inner circle to create a more of a drastic effect on the drawing. I also drew thicker lines for the outlines of the face and thinner lines for the small details since a thick would mess up the work.I think I only learned how to create better anatomy for males which I appreciate because that it my weak point.

Overall, I think I did the best with this project because I pushed myself to do something different and something that I struggled with. I would never get better if I never tried to do it. I’m also happy with the fact that I had had created those characters in such a short amount of time and had created story for them that wasn’t only good, but how relatable it was to me. I still feel like people can connect with it if only I explained it so not everyone might understand it but the basic points, which I think is good enough.

flower reference

flower reference

body reference

Wesley White

March 14, 2017

Art 2 Artist Statement Quarter 3

I created this work because I was interested in carving out of the linoleum. I saw my classmates doing it last quarter, and was intrigued to carve something this quarter. My vision was to create a lion, not necessarily as cartoonish as it turned out, because the lion is my favorite animal. That was the main idea in my head, and I ran with that from the beginning. My work can be used as an encouragement to my viewers to be strong and always keep on looking forward. The fact that the lion isn’t perfectly cut out denotes that no one is perfect. However, you don’t have to be perfect to achieve your goals in life, you just have to be strong, and never give up. I achieved a sense of carefulness and delicateness because that is what this work required.

This work relates to my previous work because I looked at something I was interested in or I had just been looking at, and made it into a piece of art. Last quarter, I used a sandwich to create my artwork, and this quarter, I used my favorite animal to make a linoleum cut. This cut fits in with contemporary art because I can compare it with other modern linoleum cut artworks. One work I can compare it to is the Lion Linocut by Rowanne Anderson. Both of our works are of lions, and both are detailed with the tiny hairs that a lion has. Still, hers is more advanced because she completed it on a bigger piece of linoleum.

Adam Bennett - Artist Statement 3/20/17

Art 2

Ms. Hertz

This is an art piece that I replicated from Kanye West’s official Twitter profile picture, and I view Kanye as an inspiration to music. I created this because I wanted to show my appreciation of Kanye West, and what better way than to make a limited palette painting of his profile picture. Given that I don’t consider myself an artist in terms of drawing, I was hoping that I could recreate the picture using on three colors. I used blue, white, and red in the painting because the original picture has more of a blue background and his face is more like a dark red.

I think when the viewer first sees my work they might have the reaction of, “What in the world?” Besides that, to the people who actually know the picture they would actually appreciate the art piece. I think that I achieved my goal as to recreating the art piece using only the three colors I chose. Although I don’t think that I fully achieved my goal because some parts of the piece aren’t what I wanted them to look like. Regarding my previous work, I believe that I am pretty consistent as an artist compared to my previous work this work.

My work fits in because it is a recreation of George Condo’s art for Kanye West’s fourth studio album My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy. He has that style of cartoonish and sort of realistic paintings, drawings, and sculpting. My process to create this work was looking for a clear image of the artwork. Once I did that, I had to pick three colors that stood out in the painting for my limited palette. Then, I fused the colors in a color template to create as many variations of the three colors that I could. This would be added to my final product once I started it.

http://www.vulture.com/2010/11/kanye_george_condo/slideshow/4/

N.p., 2017. Web. 23 Mar. 2017.

This artwork reflects the world today because today we see a lot of these styles around and I feel like since Kanye is still an inspiration today this piece matters. I don’t see connections to my own life nor experiences. My art could inspire people to look more at Kanye and appreciate him as an artist besides as a man with a huge ego. I learned a new technique called ombre to fuse the colors better in the background of the painting. I want to use this technique more in future pieces that I create because this really blended the blue in my background by using a big brush, and patting the colors so they fuse better.

I created this work because I wanted to make something that was kind of disturbing but also cute in a strange way. I think octopi are disgusting, but really rad so this was the focus for the majority of the piece and the human in there took a backseat to the overall image. I’ve been told my work is generally creepy but I also received comments like “that’s cool/cute”, so I hope it’s portraying as I want to be because it definitely seems so. This was mainly inspired by this piece (nudity), so if I were to say how it fits with contemporary art I’d say it was inspired by art of today.

The way I made this is not particularly different than the way i’ve made other pieces, I quickly drew a profile a female and then pulled up references of an octopus, and drew from those to get what I wanted for the piece. I used stippling and crosshatching all along the octopus to create the rough surface they have on their skin, and kept refining my linework until i got to the product I have now. The most important technique used here was stippling which took the majority of the time to do but i’m satisfied with the overall effect of it.

My art doesn’t reflect anything in my life or my experience or anything deep like that. I don’t think any of my pieces ever do.

The project I created was something similar to value line and text drawing. I ended up doing this because I wanted to do my own project , but I realized I could do what I wanted following this criteria.  I drew multiple drawings on one page for a total of three days. Those drawings represented whatever I was feeling and what was on my mind. I then put them all together in a thought bubble. At first I was going to put in a heart , but I couldn’t get the shape right. I just wanted it to be great. I feel as though I accomplished that and when people see it, they will understand what runs through the adolescent mind/heart. Artist today doing something similar to this aswell. Ginna albeny is famous for this as well She even said,”I make art for a few reasons. In life, we experience so much fragmentation of thought and feeling. For me, creating art brings things back together. Our process in making our art and the amount of thought put into this work is equivalent.  At first it took me forever to create something. It’s very hard to force myself to make art of what I am feeling. I don’t like forcing those sort of things so I’d try listening to music until I felt something. Other than that I would start by asking myself how my day was. I didnt’t even get inspiration from anyone. I usually do this alot so I decided I should do this so I can get stuff of my mind. This work reflected everything I was going through. The pressure of the outside world on my mind and how it effects me on a emotional level. The only way to really capture this is by really feeling the emotion. This is the most important technique. If not for the authentic feeling the drawing would be artificial. While doing some of the drawings I learned shading techniques. I think they helped bring alot of the drawings together. Overall,  creating art based off of what I am going through was very interesting.I think it’s very creative and different.It’s also very complicated to do.

I created a coaster out of clay because that is something I never tried before. I wanted to try something different. When I first started I thought of making a mug but it was a bit more difficult and we didn’t have much clay. So I wanted to go for something that would cause me to use less clay. I made it for someone so I painted it one of their favorite colors but I wanted it to be more shiny to before I painted it purple I painted it with a gel paint which make it shiny. I think my work communicates that it is exactly what I was trying to make. I think they if they look at it they can tell that it is a coaster. In the process of making this I think I achieved a better creative mind. My current work doesn’t relates to my previous work because this is the first time I actually made something like this before. I think my work relates to Sterling Ruby clay work because I feel like the structure of both of our work is the same. The only thing he did differently is the color options which is more dark colors.

   “ A work of art which did not begin in emotion is not art.” -  Paul Cezanne

I created this piece of work to test myself, and see what I will be able to accomplish. I normally don’t do projects like this one because it is out my realm. However, with this project I decided to take a chance and approach art in a new way for me: Mixed media Drawing. Drawing, painting, coloring etc was never one of my strong suits. By me doing a mixed media drawing I was able to open up to these techniques. I created this work to prove to myself that I am an artist in more than one way. My overall vision for my piece was for it to be refreshing, unique, and peaceful. When I first decided to make a tree I wanted this piece to feel like the beginning of spring when you saw it. I wanted it to have an impact on the people that see it, and make them happy by just looking at it. I want my work to communicate with viewers the idea of peace and serenity. When you look at the painting you see many colors that allows you to see a fresh, new , cultivating canvas.

I achieved a lot through this project. I was really excited with the result, and it surprised me because again I never did paintings, drawings, or sculptures before. I enjoyed trying and succeeded in doing a new concept. My current piece of work is nothing like my previous work. My previous work consisted of sewing, threading, and patching. This project took me a while to do because I had to use 3 new painting techniques that I had no idea of such as : Acrylic paint, watercolor, and pen.  The first thing I did first was paint watercolor onto my canvas and then I started using pen and Acrylic paint afterwards. This painting was also contemporary art. An artist that does work that was similar to what I did is Jane Frank. Frank uses a lot of different techniques and colors in order to capture the eyes of the viewer. I was truly inspired by her work, and that is why I decided to make this painting.