Many artists say that they were born to do art, that it was always in their blood and that they cannot remember a time that art was not a part of their lives. For me, this was exactly the opposite. I was always trying to do my best in science and mathematics and art was not even on my radar until I was a freshman in high school where I met my first inspiration for art, Zack Smithey. I was lucky enough to have Mr. Smithey as a guide for the start of my art career all four years in high school and he really pushed me to develop my portrait work. He helped me develop the foundation of my artwork, but at that point I was merely duplicating what I was seen and really had not developed an aesthetic of my own. For me, art was a challenge for me to …show more content…
try and master like learning a new code in computer science class, or memorizing how elements react with each other in chemistry. After high school I pursued a degree in chemical engineering and stopped doing artwork for a while. Then, a friend of mine from school committed suicide and I reevaluated what I wanted my life to be. So I decided that I wanted to do something that I enjoyed doing and started to pursue a degree in art where I found the next person who would change the way I viewed art. While I was still deciding which part of the vast art world was best suited for me, I found most of my inspiration from YouTube streamers and their websites.
My favorite at that time was Peter Mohrbacher who does fantasy paintings and his videos really pushed me into more of the digital style because it was easier for me to learn by making mistakes easily changed in my work. After I decided that I would go the digital route I went all out and was fascinated with all the different programs I could learn and from there I was hooked and at the end of the semester I decided that Mizzou's classrooms were too large for me to learn what I wanted to and at the end of the semester I started to look for other collages. But while I was learning the programs I never really stopped to think about what my style was and how I would choose to do my artwork until I stumbled across the YouTube channel, Draw with Jazza. It amazes me how so many of these digital artist will spend so much time answering my questions and how fast they reply. From Jazza I learned to develop my personal style and that made me enjoy what I do even more because now I have a goal to be the best at what I …show more content…
do. Over the course of my college career I thought of all the people who helped me get to where I am today and about all the other places I could be if those people were not in my life. As I looked back on these people, some who were still present in my life and some that were not, I started to think about how I could represent these people in my work. As I looked back, I realized my memory painted a different picture of the people who could not be in my life any more and so I decided to expand upon that for my thesis. I started to think about all the careers and people that I wanted to be when I grew up when I was a kid. This brought back many memories of being with the people that I care about and the nostalgic feeling that accompanied it got me thinking about how I could incorporate this nostalgic feeling in my pieces. Whether that be sitting on the couch with your dad watching old western movies pretending to be a cowboy, or watching a space shuttle launch and soaring around the room pretending to be one of the astronauts. The vision of my show then became clear that I wanted to display iconic figures or pictures of people so generic that they could be anyone in a manner that the viewer could see themselves in the subject's position. I felt that the best way of portraying these people was to be the simplest way possible using limited color in my pieces and using a flat illustrative style that could capture the character and also leave much for the imagination to fill. As the pieces developed I started to see how much of the character I could remove from the piece while the character still retained it's main traits that were identifiable. So when it came down to selecting the pieces that would be in the show I made sure the pieces were very visually stimulating while also having just enough depth to get the viewer interested. Some of the pieces had more details than the other. So towards the start of the show I went back into the baseball player and the astronaut, and I stripped some of the details so that the pieces would look more unified. I also started to refine which parts of the character I wanted to fade into the background and made sure that each piece felt like I was subtracting equal amounts from each piece. For the Archaeologist I decided to fade the rim of his hat and the shirt into the background because they felt acceptable without detracting from the form as I used implied lines to shape areas that I had deleted from the foreground. For the Artist I decided to fade the character's face into the background because the character's hair framed the missing element. As you travel down that piece you hit the collar of his shirt that also created some implied lines that frames the body of the subject. In the Astronaut there were a lot of tubes coming off of the original piece that I felt detracted from my message so I stripped the suit down to some bare essentials and left some geometric forms to spark interest in the areas where I removed the tubing. In the end I decided to remove the whole vizor from the helmet and fade that into the background; only using two highlight strokes to outline the rim of the helmet. The Baseball player's helmet was, by far, more complicated that any of my other pieces so when I went back over them I decided to remove some supporting colors and kept the bare minimum like in the Astronaut but different in that I decided to hold onto some of the finer lines and I felt like the piece held onto my message. For the Boxer I decided to take what I learned from the astronaut piece and add the thin Highlight line in the gloves and remove the main color while it keeps it's form because of how the shapes around it mold the viewer's imagination. When I got to the Chef piece, I got really frustrated because It was not so simple to choose what, if any, colors that I could safely remove.
I worked around this my sending small portions, in this case the buttons of the jacket, to the background on the lower half of the piece while on the upper half I sent the subject's main skin tone to the background using the hair lines to shape the upper half of the face and the lower background to shape the lower half of the face. In the Cowboy piece, I mimicked some of the features that I used in the Archaeologist because they shared some of the same qualities in the hat and the shape of the tunic on the cowboy did lots to shape the lower half of the figure without any other help. For the Marine piece I decided to remove the entire jacket from the lower half and just use the detail lines to outline where the jacket would be as well as using the buttons to add additional context clues. And in the upper half I decided to send the brass accent on the hat to the background because it was completely framed by the white part of the hat. Moving on to the Musician, I decided to fade the subject's hair to the background in the top half because the shape of the head fills in the shape and defines that widow's peak without having to add the hair itself and in the lower half I sent the undershirt to the background because that really was not the main focus of the piece and the jacket framed the part I took out. In the Pirate I used accent colors
of the jacket in the lower half so that I could send the main color to the background and in the upper half of the piece the top of the tricorner hat was sent to the background, again, using implied line to make the viewer see it as natural. The President piece background elements were sent to the back for the same reasoning as in the Artist because their faces are framed similarly and the collar naturally shapes the suit of the president. In the Spartan piece I got to work with some strong shapes in the helmet so I chose to take a small portion from the top half of the piece to send to the back but in the bottom half I chose to send quite a large portion of the piece to the back because I felt like the piece could frame itself using just the small guides that I placed within and around the tunic piece. In the Superhero piece I decided to take a more drastic solution by removing the whole suit and sending it to be part of the plane in the background and only left the hero's symbol and jawline to guide the viewer to the character's stance in the piece. And lastly, for the Viking piece I used the viking's beard and fur on the subject's jacket to frame the background to appear like the jacket was in the foreground. Going off the theme of Aspire, I decided to add some inspirational quotes to the pieces. In some of the pieces like the Musician and the President the quotes are personal, but I wanted these pieces to also have an impact on the people who attended the show. So in the other pieces I chose more general quotes to reach a larger audience even though this piece has a very personal connection to my past. The overall goal of the exhibition was for each viewer to have a personalized experience with each of my pieces. Because the facial features are removed from the pieces I wanted the viewer to use their own memories to superimpose an image in the missing portion ensuring that each person had envisioned something different, even if that is just by having an eyebrow slightly different in their mind. But by choosing nostalgic pop culture figures or famous figures I wanted them to connect to a childhood state and picture themselves in that role. When I was arranging the pieces for the show I wanted them to start at my Artist statement to somewhat guide their thoughts and get them in the right state of mind. And then they would move around around the horseshoe shaped area starting with heroes that stand alone like the Superhero and then it moved on to leaders who commanded or were part of a larger force directing their actions. The show then went on to fighters, weather they are fighting physically or against the masses with their words. And then my show finished up with creatives and adventurers who lead their lives on where their imaginations and ideas lead them ending with the Astronaut because I felt that it summed up the show by circling the show back around to the alien superhero at the beginning. After graduation I would like to work more on expanding and pushing the limits of minimalistic flat illustrations. Whether that is at a design firm, or an app development company I just want to continue to be challenged by new and exciting programs as I push forward with my goal to be the best at what I do. I do not think I will be returning to school because the classroom setting does not suit the way that I work that well, but I do intend to stay active with the design community I joined at Lindenwood. I feel like the connections I made here helped mold me into a better artist. Some of my peers are really great at what they do, which pushes me to do even better. Whether you aspire to greatness or just to be the best you that you can be, there is always room for growth. So I will continue learning and connecting with people in the design community as I advance to the next level and end my collage career.
From small stick figures, to cartoon characters, to more realistic anatomy and detailed work. This only happened because of my dedication and constant practice with a pencil and paper. Though I do not consider myself the best artist, I became proud of my growth and motivation that branched out to other aspects of my life. This habit of practicing led me to take challenging courses and pursue other passions, like music. Though music seems a little minor in my life, it runs through the family, and I could never be where I am without the practice time I put in both my passions. The small details I picked up from them have helped me immensely in school. From motivation to not give up and the extra effort to understand the material, I created a process of how to do things, and I found myself grateful for the times where I felt lost, and found my way back. Through art, I found my sense of self and the motivation to excel and challenge myself in everything I
When I was young, just like any other child, I loved playing with colors. Throughout my childhood, though, art simply meant doodling with crayons or creating some mess. I considered that as my true art. On my birthday, my father bought me one Japanese movie named The Future Boy Conan as a gift. Even though it was my first time watching a Japanese movie, I was enchanted. I developed the patience to learn to draw and continued to study more about arts. The more I drew, the more I felt like I found something, not only in the artworks, but in myself. Art is still my passion and is something that I take pride in. Moreover, arts education allows many individuals to learn about themselves, their cultures, and their community. Unfortunately, due to insufficient funding, many students in the future may not have the opportunity to experience the motivation that art education provides. Every student in America deserves a complete and competitive education that includes the arts. Therefore, art education should be taught in public schools, perhaps now more than ever. As the country becomes increasingly diverse and the workplace more oriented around creativity, arts education is the pivotal key to a successful public school system to ensuring students’ academic achievement, and enriching the positive social development of students.
I spent most of my high school career depressed and anxious about everything. I was lost alone and some days it was it was hard to get out of bed. I was happier with my friends that was only a temporary satisfaction. I found myself through Art: writing, poetry, or short stories Art help me express myself. My art screamed more than I could have ever said. Art give me the confidence in the person I convey through right. Being creative lowered my anxiety and maybe feel like I could be myself.
I work in multiple mediums, primarily painting, collage and photography, often combining them into mixed-media pieces. Photography has always been a part of my work, playing many roles from inspiration, to source material, to an end in itself. In recent years, I have expanded my photography based work to include the construction of digitally assembled photographic collages.
Throughout my life, I have loved to draw. Due to my love of drawing, I decided to take a career in something that has to do with art. A few things have happened in my life that has caused me to take this path. Three people that I have interacted in some way, are the reason for my choices.
When you love to do something, you want to do it every day, all the time, till you get sick of it. Even then that excitement and devotion to do it is still there. That is how I feel about art. I have a great passion for it. It is a form where I can express myself in a way words can’t.
When my family and I were going to New York for my first time, I was only about 6 years old but I still understood that I were about to fly over the atlantic sea, From Stockholm to New York I was so enthusiastic, Mom and Dad had told me how great the city was, I can not do anything but agree. During my stay I was introduced to several new things . But what caught my interest, believe it or not was the metropolitan museum of art, or as the yankees call it “The met”. It was from that moment that art became a big interest of mine.You are probably wondering how a 6 year old could find artwork like a monet appealing? Well to be honest I am not sure why, but the art simply inspired me. Nevertheless, after some of the classic sightseeings, including
In times, we often see things, but we don't really capture what is beyond it. In some cases, there are people who are artistic and are prone to see what other's cannot visualize. Every individual has a talent which can be expressed and processed differently. Something you see can mean entirely divergent things to someone else;for example, some may see thing's that may seem simple, but in the eyes of an artist, it can be perceived with a whole new definition, dimension, and a potentially new discovery. As a photographer, my view of the world, can be skewed towards looking at everyday objects as potential art, but it wasn't always like that.
Everyone has a talent but some talents show more than others and defiantly impact your life more than others might. My talent that has greatly impacted my life is music and public speaking. These talents have greatly impacted my life because this is a part of my career and they will change my life forever so the fact that I enjoy it makes my life that much better.
Art classes throughout kindergarten and up to my junior year in college have taught me so much about expression, performance and making a statement. Learning and practicing art introduces a new way of processing information, and approaching problems. In my
Everything that I do has an artistic side to it, whether it be looking at a picture on the Internet or seeing a cookie dish. I look at what it took to make and how could I possible recreate it. Every time I go into a store I go straight for the home decor section to see if there is a pot that I want to recreate or a painting that I want to create. I have a large passion for art that will never go away and can only be tamed by learning more and sharing my knowledge about art. Art is the only way that I show my creativity and is the only way I can express myself, which is why I feel it is the best career for me.
The genres I consider myself most literate in is art. I would consider myself literate in art because it is the genre that I am completely and utterly in love with in life. My obsession with art started in the ninth grade after I completed a drawing for a project. After getting praised for my drawing I started to recognize that I was actually talented. This lead me to enroll myself in art classes in my high school. In taking these classes I started to fall more in love with every aspect of 2D art. My love of art traveled with me into every aspect of my life. In high school, my life became even more stressed and completed than ever before. To deal with these newfound stressors I turned to art which became my one escape from daily life. When
Traveling and seeing new cultures and capturing every moment of it. Photography has to do with creativity and the practice of taking and processing photos. I chose photography because it matched my personality and all of the things I wanted in a career. Photography is the best career choice based on the work environment, education and training, important qualities needed, salary, and job outlook.
I think about art often. My father is an artist as well as my sister. I grew up surrounded by art either in paintings, dance, or art performances I attended at my sister’s high school, the arts academy. My desire to create art must have a root in my childhood, where I was constantly involved in beautiful creations of the human
The arts have influenced my life in amazing ways. Throughout my life, art has been the place I run to and my escape from the world. As I’ve grown older, art has become so much more than that. Every piece of art I create is a journey into my soul. It’s a priceless way to deal with my emotions and my struggles. I create art not only because I enjoy it and because I want to, but because I have to. Somewhere deep inside there is a driving force, urging me to put my heart down on paper. I become emotionally attached to each of my pieces because they are like dashes on the wall marking my growth. Each one is the solution to a problem I have dealt with and overcome.