Symbolic Still Life

Opposite Project

End-of-term reflection

This course had many aspects to it that I enjoyed, but there were also some challenging projects. Although the still life assignment was the most difficult project for me, it taught me the most about myself as an artist. When I first began the project I did not believe in myself and did not think that I could create a good still life. I had some trouble in the beginning with drawing the simple outline of the dice, and was not looking forward to the project. Soon I was learning new techniques on how to draw lines and shade. Throughout this project I learned to push myself and take risks in my drawing. In the end, of was extremely proud of myself for the work I had accomplished. My biggest success this term was the opposites project. I love creating collages so I really enjoyed this project. In addition, I was able to come up with what I wanted the project to represent, and then execute it. Throughout this term I learned to take risks and do artwork in areas that I had previously struggled with, helping to change myself and grow as an artist. I opened up and became more adversed in other types of art that I had not previously been familiar with.

Language Project

My project is going to consist of text from songs covering all of the pages. They will be overlapping each other and will be in different fonts and colors. I will the paste movie covers and other well know images that represent community over the text. I am choosing text because I think I can create a sense of community through words, the pictures will symbolize this as well. Also with words, you can express many different aspects of community.

5/25
After completing one draft of this project, I decided to change my idea around a little. On the first attempt, the piece looked boring and you couldn't read any of the text. I then decided that I wanted to make the paper circular because that was the shape I thought related to community. I then wanted to cut the text so that viewers would be able to read it and I wanted the text the spiral in the same circular shape as the paper. Even though I was unable to finish the project it looks much better, and more interesting than my first attempt.

Planning for symbolic life project

In communities people do activities and hangout together. In a community you are never alone, so for my opposites project I decided to draw things that come in pairs, to symbolizes that people are always together in communities. I will draw a pair of socks, earrings, shoes, gloves, dice, and headphones. I am not sure how I will re-arrange my objects yet.

4/30
After I thought more about my symbolic still life project I decided to just draw pairs of dice. I decided to do this because dice symbolize so many aspects of community. First of all, all dice look the same- but on each side they have different aspects/numbers on them. Communities may look the same, but on the inside and are all different and have differing aspects to them. They do not all operate the same way. The second reason why I choose dice is because you never know what you are going to end up with. You can always end up with different numbers. In a community, you never know what it is going to be like. Like the dice, it is always a gamble with the types of people you are going to end up with.

Thematic Portfolio #2: Images from Images Project

Overall, I think my worked turned out nicely. I enjoyed making all three pieces, but in the end I liked my bonfire collage the most. I think it was the most interesting of the three because I incorporated different materials which made the piece stand out more. In addition, I think I worked well with the different colors of paper to make them flow. I do think that I could have added more to my earth picture, to make it more attention-grabbing because it was a little plain. I could have chosen a different note card to display underneath that could have made the piece more exciting.

Thematic Portfolio #1: Tiny Picture Project

Opposites Project- planning

For my opposites project I plan to juxtapose the communities in Boston and communities outside of the United States. I will be looking at the changes between the two, for example, big coorporate building in Boston and small farming communities in other parts of the world. I want to show how inside of the United States, although it is a community, people work together less and care more about themselves. Thorough images I have seen from magazines I have found that in other countries people work together more, and have a tighter knit communities. I will portray these images side by side so that people are aware and see these differences.

How does your theme connect to your life?/How does your theme connect to the world around you?

My theme, community, is very connectible to everyone. Each person has some sort of community, whether it be their neighborhood or school, they all have communities they can connect to. I am able to connect to my theme because of all the communities that I belong to and that I am apart of. I am able to do this by expressing my about towards my communities through my art work.

What kinds of images come to mind when you think about your theme?

When I first think of my theme, the most immediate image that comes to my mind is my neighborhood and town,which are my most obvious communities. I then began to think about the smaller communities that I was a apart of. I though of my temple, school and camp. I also thought about my childhood friends and how that became a smaller community.

Why did you choose this theme and how can you envision exploring it through works of art over the course of the term?

I choose this theme because it was something that I could closely relate to. I can explore this theme throughout the course of the term by drawing my physical communities, but also by digging deeper and expressing what my communities mean to me through symbols.

What kinds of art or visual information (advertising, tv, film) have you seen that relates to your theme?

You see different types of communities all over the media. Whether someone is with their family and friends, or is simply just walking around their neighborhood. All the t.v. shows take place and these people are exposed to different types of communities.

Blog #1

How do artists develop content and ideas for their work?
Artists can develop ideas for their work by items or objects that inspire them. Foe example, important life changing events can inspire artists. They can also generate ideas by emotions they are feeling.

What kinds of techniques, behaviors, and habits allow artists to turn their ideas into meaningful works of art that engage the viewer?
Putting their ideas into interactive art engages the viewer more. If the piece is exciting to look at, and the viewers can easily connect to it, then people will spend more time looking at the piece.