Artist in Residence Initial Blog Post

 I really like the inclusion of mythology in this project. In particular, I am interested in Greek stories/myths because I have previous experience of learning about Greek mythology in middle school. In the group project, we created a sort of transportation system to the underworld so I want to build of this idea and be able to incorporate my own style on my project.
I found this piece of Luke's work particularly interesting because it empathized geometric shapes and lines. Because I have worked a lot with geometric shapes and drawings in the past, this piece combined my past work with the new concept of nature in this project. In this project, I hope to do something similar where I maintain my identity by creating something geometric or clean but also incorporating the natural and mythological aspects.
I found pieces by Goldsworthy and Olafur Eliasson to be the most inspiring and connecting to my ideas. I really like how Eliasson used shapes and color to create his hallway/room. I can relate to his process because of my last project where I, not on as big of a scale, used color gradient and overlapping lines to create a landscape scene. I also liked Goldsworthy work, partly because of the name, but also because he incorporated nature (twigs) into his piece and used these straight objects to create a circular image in the middle of the page.
In this project, I hope to use both Goldsworthy and Eliasson's techniques to create my piece. I want to incorporate nature as much as I can but also maintain the style I have used in the past of geometric shapes. Also, keeping in mind the mythology theme, I found both these creations to remind me of portals or a doorway. Janus, the god of doorway, can represent two different doorway that either look in separate directions or into the past and future. I want to create two doorways or portals using a similar technique to Goldsworthy while also incorporating color like Eliasson. I'm not sure on what the doors will represent yet, but I have a vision that the colors will reflex whatever the door represents. To create this project, I am going to need to find twigs or other objects to create the doorway. This also employs the concept of destruction/reconstruction. My vision is to create these pieces first, using the twigs or sticks, then painting them to represent either the past or future or whatever I decide them to be.
I am a little concerned with construction of the doorways because I am not the best in creating sculptures so I might need help or guidance when once I have my materials and I start to put everything together.

Project 4: Self Directed Project -- Final Blog

In this project, I found inspiration from multiple artists in books in the library. All these artists had similar looks in their art which focused on the use of lines to either fill the page or create abstract images with the lines. They also used color in interesting ways to create their pieces. Because I had a lot of freedom in this project, I started by creating 4 pieces of paper and experimenting with different ways of creating lines and incorporating color. I felt that I was able to create a piece that really expresses my intentions and overall is helping me create an art identity.

My final product changed significantly from my initial ideas. At first, I wanted to incorporate tape to create the lines but I found that it was extremely hard to create the lines I wanted and make the lines straight. I decided to create lines using a ruler to still get straight lines without the tape. With these lines, I began painting inside the lines starting with a dark blue on the top most lines. As I progressed downward, I began to form a gradient. At this point, I decided I was going to form a multi colored gradient that went from darker, cool colors to lighter, warm colors. As I progressed down the paper, the lines went from blue to green to yellowish. Looking at the final piece, I saw it had vague reminisces of a landscape. However, the lines and negative space kept it from looking to much like a original landscape piece. My piece also had a lot of negative space in the top half of the paper. I really like the piece with the negative space there but it also adds an additional intriguing aspect of adding an object or objects to compliment the lines. Since the lines were all very horizontal and straight, I was thinking of adding organic (circular) shapes to create a contrast between the lines.

I think my further work with geometric shapes and lines have increased my understanding of the process and hopefully has helped me improve in the formal aspects of my paintings. In the future, I will continue to incorporate geometric shapes or figures into my pieces and build off of that, for example finding geometric shapes in nature to use in the next project with the artist in residences.

In Progress Critique

For this project I was inspired by Bernard Frize who's painting of horizontal colorful lines intrigued me. Using a similar concept of lines I created vertical lines that crossed in various places to create an interesting look. About 1/3 of the way (going left to right) I decided to begin to paint in the lines to give myself a visual idea of what it would look like. While I was doing this I came across two ideas. 1. I didn't need to continue for the rest of the paper. The negative space looks very good compared to the blue I created. It also gives me options in the future to paint another figure in the white space. 2. I decided to make a color gradient from yellow to blue instead of just painting all the lines blue. I think this will add another interesting dynamic to my work and hopefully make the final product better.

Map Project Final Installation

Interim Map Post

• How your original intentions for the project have changed through the experience of creating the work
• As i began to work, I realized some of the material I envisioned myself using was not realistic. At the beginning, I was thinking of using sheet of plexiglass on top of a world map to draw the lines to location in the world that I have been. Now, instead of using the plexiglass, I taped training paper over a world map that I brought in. My orginal intention was to just draw lines connecting places in the world that I've been. Now, to further add depth to my project, I am drawing snapshots of scenes that I remember from that place. To help the drawing, I am bringing in photos of the location so I can make the drawing look more realistic. 

• What excites you about the process you are in at the moment
• I really like the direction that my project is headed in. I am proud of the idea that I came up with and now I just need to execute my conceptual intentions. I am really excited about how the final product could turn out. With the world map underneath the paper with the lines connecting all the cities I've been to will look really cool and interesting.

• Devise 1-3 questions to ask your interim critique group
• How should express the snapshot of the places that I've been to?

Self Study Intentions

For my self study project, I want to create a realistic self-portrait. I want my self-portrait to represent me both visually and conceptually. I want to work in either pen or pencil because I feel most comfortable using these materials. I also think that these mediums will also help me create a more realistic depiction of myself. I was also thinking to possible create many smaller pictures of myself but with minor changes that can create a different look or mood that the picture creates. Possibly put different emotions on my face.

Final Blog Post

1. I consider my artist emulation project my most successful project. I believe I was able to emulate Piet Mondrian successfully and I was very happy with the way it turned out. I think this was the first project that gave me an idea of what type of artist I want to become and what styles I want to focus on in the future. I think tape was an essential tool in my project because I was able to create straight lines and even lines. I wanted to create a simplistic feel about my project. I tried not to overwork my art because that was a trait that I saw in many of Mondrian's work. Putting too many lines or colors in the painting would take away from the simple feel and change the style that Mondrian had.

2. I think the ink project was the most challenging for me. I didn't like the style of using ink and I feel that my final wasn't the way I envisioned it. I liked my initial sketches but I didn't like how the ink final turned out. I struggled to create a good print because I used either too much or not enough ink and I also tried to combine two types of prints which didn't work out too well. I think my final work had a similar look as my original sketches which was good but lacked the detail and color that I thought made my original sketches good. I was stuck trying to create a perfect final work that looked exactly like my sketches when I needed to accept that it might not look exactly the same but I could make improvisions that would have made my final work better which is what I started to do, but only at the end of the project.

3. I think I've discovered that I work best in pencil/pen. I enjoy working in more detail, preferably in a small space oppose to a large canvas/paper. Also, I think that I have created a very geometric approach to many of my works. I hope to continue working in these areas next year and expand my confort zone to other mediums and styles.