Reflection Post

Last year was my first real art class that wasn't just a twenty minute cycle class. Last year's art assignments did not come easy and only having little art experience I didn't have the knowledge that I have today. I chose to take art as an elective sophomore year because I found it extremely interesting, I wanted to learn how to draw, paint and create objects out of clay. I admire artist who can draw incredible things and I wanted to gain some knowledge on art itself. My artistic skills have improved a lot since last year and I am very thankful that I got too take art two years in a row to be able to show improvement and to gain a better understanding. Over the last two years I have learned how to draw objects and even myself, how to shade and paint correctly, how to make a collage, how to deal with metal,how to sew a book, how to create objects out of clay and then glaze them. I've learned so many interesting forms of art these past two years and I'm so grateful. I wouldn't have been able to learn these things without my amazing art teacher Mrs. Kiick, thank you Mrs. Kiick for everything you've done the past two years.

End of the year slideshow

Crystal - slideshows

Clay

Clay is by far my favorite thing our class has ever worked on. I loved it last year and this year I was excited to work with clay again. I was excited to work with clay this year and try new and more challenging things out because I had learned so much about clay from the previous year. The assignment this year is much different from last years. This year we have to make a bowl, cup, and plate from aspiration from another person. This place setting is going to be dedicated to a person who had played a huge important inspirational role or had impacted your life. The person I had chosen to dedicate my place setting to is my grandfather. My grandfather played a huge inspirational role in mine and my families life. My grandfather had fought skin cancer for many years and eventually the cancer had spread and took his life. It was mine and my families first time ever loosing a close family member and it was very hard for all of us. Loosing my grandfather showed my family and I the true importance of family and it had certainly made an impact on all of our lives. I dedicate my place setting in honor of his bravery and unforgettable personality.

Metal

Designing my metal piece did not take very long, but creating it was a very long process. You had to saw out each individual piece and if the certain metal was oddly shaped the process was harder and more time consuming. I created a metal piece before last year so the cutting and sawing the metal parts did not take as long as the it took the beginners. I like the metal piece I did this year more than the one I did last year. The copper turned out a lot better this year and I like the colors of the metal as a whole a lot more. 

Working with metal

Our last project this marking period involves making some type of design out of metal. We are sawing three different types of metal: brass, nickel, and copper. I had done this when I took this class last year, so I know what I am doing and how to saw out the metal pieces easier. The design I completed last year was very simple because it was my first time making a metal panel. This year I tried to think of a more complex design and I am currently in the process of sawing the shapes out.. Here is a picture of my metal panel last year.

Identity Collage

This marking period we were told to create a collage involving images that had a special meaning to our life. The photograph that I used to cover the cardboard was a picture of my family because they have the greatest impact on my life. I used several different images in my collage to symbolize that my family is the most important thing in my life. As I started my collage I liked how it was starting to turn out but then I added a couple things and I began to not like my collage anymore. It was hard to eliminate the edges of the images that caused the collage to not flow together. The top left corner of my collage was what I liked the best about it, it was a movie ticket and I worked into it with paint and color pencils. The movie ticket had good texture and the colors that I used made it pop out.

Pablo Picasso

There were many artist's that grabbed my attention when I looked at their art work. But when having to choose one that stood out to me the most would be Pablo Picasso's art. Pablo wanted to change the way people saw stuff and it clearly worked. In almost all of his paintings there's more than one thing going on and it's like Pablo makes the person looking at his art try and figure out what it means when it could possibly have several meanings. Pablo didn't just sketch pictures of other people, or plain objects with the same colors and texture, he used several colors and crazy disoriented things that came together to make an awesome looking photograph. All of Pablo's art work grabs my attention and I find myself looking at his work for several minutes trying to figure out what the piece is and the meaning of it.





 Pablo Picasso was born  on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. He was one of the most recognized figures in 20th century art. Picasso was a spanish painter, a sculptor, printmaker, and even a stage designer. Pablo discovered his talent at the age of 10. His family moved to Barcelona in 1895, and Pablo entered the local art academy. The family hoped that their son would achieve success as an academic painter, and in 1897  his painting "Science and Charity", that his father modeled for the doctor, was awarded an honorable mention in Madrid at the Fine Arts Exhibition. Pablo met Fernande Olivier, a Bohemian artist who became his wife. Fernande Olivier appears in many of his Rose period paintings. Picasso had affairs with many younger women and got remarried and married a couple times. Pablo had three children with three different women.  Eventually, as noticed in his work, Picasso began to realize his age and his attraction to younger women. Pablo Picasso died on April 8th, 1973 in Mougins, France. His final words were “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more." 

The two photographs above really interest me because not only are they filled with mixed color but they both have many things going on and different images that come together to make one. When looking at those pictures you can't fully understand what they mean because Pablo could have made more than one meaning or no meaning at all. They're fun to observe and try to figure out what the photograph really is.

What I find very interesting about Pablo Picasso is that his first word was "pencil".  He was clearly born to be an artist.