Final Art 3 Reflection

Throughout the school year, I have learned various art techniques, and I have opened up to new plains of creativity. Too long have I stayed in the comfort of my haven of colored pencils and graphite, and coming into Art 3, I had yet to pick up a paintbrush or mold clay. This year, I have learned much, but the topics that have stuck with me most and that I hope to carry on in the future include gesture art and oil painting. I've always struggled with capturing movement and proportion in my work, but the figure gesture drawing activities we did with Tommy van Auken was really engaging. It has allowed me to learn how to add flow in my work and simplified the process of drawing poses. I also learned how to work with new material such as conte, and I personally find the medium freeing but also messy on my part. I particularly like capturing human figures, so I'm considering channeling this experience into some projects in the future. I enjoyed the self-portrait project, but I find that I prefer drawing other people when they don't notice (not to sound creepy, but it ends up turning out more natural).

Another major unit was sculpting which was personally not as gratifying. I learned that I don't really like working 3-D, and I sometimes lack the precision to gain a sense of likeness with clay. The process was interesting and I was able to work with many tools. While I applaud the great sculptors of art history, I could only but feel a sense of unnerving soullessness in my final piece... however, I think I wish to experiment with making little ceramic trinkets, but just for fun. This is definitely the area I need to improve in most- being more patient and precise. Creating texture was difficult, and I could have taken better advantage of the available tools. I would also love to learn crochet, but I cannot see 3D being my main focus in my future independent work.

In addition, I have also learned oil painting, which was generally an entirely new medium to me. I learned the importance of stretching and prepping our canvas, as well as several key terms. I also learned how to set up palettes and that turpentine smells more than less horrid. Color theory was prominent to this unit, and I learned how to create new colors by dulling them or mixing them. In this unit, I saw my greatest growth in learning what I want the subject of my art to be and how to create a better composition. I centered my painting on the theme of nostalgia, and I picked sentimental objects from my childhood. I saw the greatest growth here because prior to Art 3, I never really knew what I wanted to draw. I liked to draw characters and animals, but I never felt significantly attached, so working with oil paint, I not only learned how to go from an underpainting to a finished work but also what directions I want to take.

Lastly, we did our abstraction unit. I came into this unit with a few thoughts of "modern abstraction/art." As with many people, some of it felt ludicrous. I mean, a banana taped to a wall? A random line in the middle of the canvas? Typically, art evokes an emotion or interest in me that makes me want to look at the art more to explore its intricacies...but with abstraction, I stare at the painting and, rather wondering what the art means, I wonder what in the world the artist was thinking and what they were doing to reach that point. And that's when I understood that the point of abstraction is the process and the emotion or the meaning is the baffled reactions by onlookers who don't understand the context of abstraction. Contemporary art is often a challenge- like Dadaism after war... and abstraction takes us out of the same old dimension, the same old perspective of what art is. So, I learned that abstraction is a lot harder than it looks, and that it's meant to be pleasing to the eye of the artist. I learned that I need to let go and bring myself out of the rigid box- I need to allow myself to explore.

I will be using all I learned to influence what I want to capture in my future independent projects. This school year has taught me that I want to focus on 2D, but that I also really enjoy landscapes, human subjects, and working with lots of color. I also hope that maybe I can incorporate my ambitious in my art and put STEM and creativity together. Another major thing I learned about art is that it is a powerful form of communication, so I may use it to bring attention to different cultures or problems with society that needs to be more known.