This Art for a Change project allowed me to kind of express myself in a way. I think that everyone is a product of the world around them. The reason I think that I have developed my perspective on this issue is because of the world around me, my parents, my friends, teachers, etc. My stance is that I do believe that we should be allowed to have guns, but I also don't see things in black and white so I feel like provisions could also be set in place as well, but we won't get into that right now.
This issue is not all that present in my life right now, there is no gun abuse, or violence where I am. I am not sure about those around me because I am not too involved in that part of their lives. Of course there are people that, in their lives, it is present. Those that live in big cities like Chicago or even Minneapolis, may be presented with the threat of guns. I can most definitely empathize and understand those who want to get rid of guns. Others could be presented with violence and a problem, that is why they would want to get rid of guns. In my belief it isn't about getting rid of guns, its about increasing security, increasing awareness, getting people the help that they need, helping those communities that have gun violence around them. I don't believe that guns are a problem I believe that it is the person behind the gun that is truly the problem. |
I do not take offense to this image, I would understand why some people would, but I did not create this artwork with the purpose of being offensive. I think that it is truly alright for artwork to offend people because that means that the artwork is sending a message it means that they sent a clear message and stood for what they believe in. The only thing that I found challenging when creating this art was trying to find a way to present my beliefs strongly.
I wanted to emphasize a large group of people standing for what they believe in and fighting for what they want. Then there is a singular person on stage going against what everybody is standing for, in way that the government is close minded. I think the focal point of the image are the signs and what they say, it gives off the look of courage and the prowess of fighting for something. I think that shape and perspective are the strongest elements and principles that come into play here and truly sends a message.
I wanted to emphasize a large group of people standing for what they believe in and fighting for what they want. Then there is a singular person on stage going against what everybody is standing for, in way that the government is close minded. I think the focal point of the image are the signs and what they say, it gives off the look of courage and the prowess of fighting for something. I think that shape and perspective are the strongest elements and principles that come into play here and truly sends a message.
![Picture](/uploads/1/3/9/0/139060253/published/20220112-082609-1.jpg?1641998603)
This still life of my life project was one where I could demonstrate a few important things in my life, I chose to go with a more comedic route. The first part about this piece is the background that allowed me to create a sky-looking environment. The differences in shading and the texture in the corners along with the streaks of white, I feel, like creates the feeling of "in the air" like its surrounded nothing but sky. To play along with the comedy there is a random table that is floating in the sky along with a balloon that is holding something. I think this adds to the work because it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense and that is what makes it comedic.
The first object that I decided to paint was a spaghetti box. I feel like this is, humorously, a part of me. Pasta is a part of the Italian culture, being Italian I figured that I should represent it in a way. That way ended up being by a pasta box. I added a 3 dimension to the box along with some texture to add to its character.
The second object that I decided to add to the painting was the ice berg. This ice berg is important because it represents future plans. 2 friends and I are planning on an adventure to Montana, Glacier National Park. This beautiful park that you can see and look around. The object represents the time that I will spend with my friends before we are split apart by college. It will be an adventure that we will remember for years and therefore remember each other.
Last, but not least, is the can of root beer floating off to the side. This is more of a memory than a part of me. It reminds me of my childhood drink and all of the times that I would drink it, literally everywhere. When I think of my childhood I remember drinking root beer as my choice of drink, floating in the air as if it is floating away. It represents my childhood that is slowly going away and "floating out of the picture." I added some detail and dimension to the balloon and the can as well. The texture and dimension that was added gives the piece more of a realistic look to it.
The first object that I decided to paint was a spaghetti box. I feel like this is, humorously, a part of me. Pasta is a part of the Italian culture, being Italian I figured that I should represent it in a way. That way ended up being by a pasta box. I added a 3 dimension to the box along with some texture to add to its character.
The second object that I decided to add to the painting was the ice berg. This ice berg is important because it represents future plans. 2 friends and I are planning on an adventure to Montana, Glacier National Park. This beautiful park that you can see and look around. The object represents the time that I will spend with my friends before we are split apart by college. It will be an adventure that we will remember for years and therefore remember each other.
Last, but not least, is the can of root beer floating off to the side. This is more of a memory than a part of me. It reminds me of my childhood drink and all of the times that I would drink it, literally everywhere. When I think of my childhood I remember drinking root beer as my choice of drink, floating in the air as if it is floating away. It represents my childhood that is slowly going away and "floating out of the picture." I added some detail and dimension to the balloon and the can as well. The texture and dimension that was added gives the piece more of a realistic look to it.
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Artist Statement
The Value of Words project was a project that allowed me to kind of express myself in a way. The first thing that I though of for this project was to use song lyrics, but I did not want to use random song lyrics. The first song that I used was a song called "Adams Song," which is a song about the feeling of loneliness and the feeling of being empty; depressed. The second song that I used for the outside of the heart is a song called "Fix You," which is a song exactly about what it says in the title, fixing someone, something, or himself. The theme I was looking for on the outside of the heart is the theme of loss, heartache, SAD. I wanted to use these words as a way to express the feeling of life without love. In this way I feel as though these words have a relationship with this work. I think that words can have a very intense and strong relationship with art, it can very specifically display a certain emotion or feeling, depending on the use of words. For my piece I decided to use a more depressing or sad emotion on the |
outside of the heart, then on the inside use a more loving, happy, engaged kind of emotion. In this way it creates kind of an "argument," in a way, between the two sides. That is the kind of relationship that I wanted my words to have in my work of art.
On the inside of the heart, as I stated before, I wanted to ensue a more loving and engaging emotion. Keeping with the lyric theme I decided to use the song "Beautiful Mistakes," which is a song about being with someone you love and keeping that connection. I wanted to include these words to maybe challenge the perception that people initially get. Including words on an art piece can challenge the perception of a piece of art because they give direct and straight forward meaning. If someone were to use the words depression, sad, tragedy, etc. the perception is going to more negative, and the same goes for positive words perceive a more positive tone and emotion. I feel like art without words leaves it up analysis and interpretation to ones own self. When words are added it challenges that perception by giving it a more straight forward meaning.
In this project I tried to take advantage of the use of shading. Inside of the heart the outside is a bold and dark shade and as it continues toward the center it becomes lighter. I really wanted this to symbolize a type of outer shell that some people put up. A wall that people use as a way to block out pain and not get hurt. As it gets closer to the center it gets less bold, lighter. To symbolize the truly deep nature of people, the love that people contain on the inside, no matter how deep; it is there. The way the shading flows into the center shows just how close that love and vulnerability is to the outside. I think that words form value in our life by connecting people. People use love letters, songs, poetry, etc. to express themselves to truly connect with someone. Words are a way to form this connection with people, I for one have most definitely used words to form relationships OR friendships, it connects everyone and creates these deep connections to people.
Continuing on with the shading I wanted to add a kind of fade, mist, or fog on the outside of the heart. There are random words around the heart that are all differently shaded. I wanted this to represent the love that can seep out of the heart, touch those who may be hurting around you. I believe that those who live by their heart and have love in their heart it seeps out and touches those around them. When looking at works of art, I do not believe that every piece needs a description. I feel as though they are left up to the viewers own thoughts, feelings, and emotions when analyzing the art. It makes it more personal for the viewer. It allows people to inject there own thinking into the piece, truly making it their own interpretation. Sometimes people interpret things they way the need in that moment. I really do believe that by adding a description takes that away from the viewer. When people interpret things in the moment it may be what they need to feel happy, or what they needed to feel in that moment, and I love that about art and the different interpretations that people can have.
On the inside of the heart, as I stated before, I wanted to ensue a more loving and engaging emotion. Keeping with the lyric theme I decided to use the song "Beautiful Mistakes," which is a song about being with someone you love and keeping that connection. I wanted to include these words to maybe challenge the perception that people initially get. Including words on an art piece can challenge the perception of a piece of art because they give direct and straight forward meaning. If someone were to use the words depression, sad, tragedy, etc. the perception is going to more negative, and the same goes for positive words perceive a more positive tone and emotion. I feel like art without words leaves it up analysis and interpretation to ones own self. When words are added it challenges that perception by giving it a more straight forward meaning.
In this project I tried to take advantage of the use of shading. Inside of the heart the outside is a bold and dark shade and as it continues toward the center it becomes lighter. I really wanted this to symbolize a type of outer shell that some people put up. A wall that people use as a way to block out pain and not get hurt. As it gets closer to the center it gets less bold, lighter. To symbolize the truly deep nature of people, the love that people contain on the inside, no matter how deep; it is there. The way the shading flows into the center shows just how close that love and vulnerability is to the outside. I think that words form value in our life by connecting people. People use love letters, songs, poetry, etc. to express themselves to truly connect with someone. Words are a way to form this connection with people, I for one have most definitely used words to form relationships OR friendships, it connects everyone and creates these deep connections to people.
Continuing on with the shading I wanted to add a kind of fade, mist, or fog on the outside of the heart. There are random words around the heart that are all differently shaded. I wanted this to represent the love that can seep out of the heart, touch those who may be hurting around you. I believe that those who live by their heart and have love in their heart it seeps out and touches those around them. When looking at works of art, I do not believe that every piece needs a description. I feel as though they are left up to the viewers own thoughts, feelings, and emotions when analyzing the art. It makes it more personal for the viewer. It allows people to inject there own thinking into the piece, truly making it their own interpretation. Sometimes people interpret things they way the need in that moment. I really do believe that by adding a description takes that away from the viewer. When people interpret things in the moment it may be what they need to feel happy, or what they needed to feel in that moment, and I love that about art and the different interpretations that people can have.
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Artist Statement
The Anatomy of Technology project was a project that I was able to think pretty hard about. It allowed me to think about another perspective combined with my own. Figuring out an idea for this project was extremely a little difficult, but the first thing that you think of when you hear the word "anatomy" is the inside of the body, at least for me. I decided to pick the skeleton for my anatomy, more specifically, what is behind someone's face. I chose to make the main part of my drawing a half face, and half skeleton because it really shows the anatomy of what is behind someone's face. It also made it easier to show just what the term of technology truly means to people. That it can be a way to pass time, entertain one's self, but it can also just be a distraction from the outside world. I used head phones as my form of technology. Some people use headphones or music as a way to escape from the world, to be somewhere better than where they are right now. I connected a blood bag to the |
headphones to show that sometimes people just need technology, or music to get by. It shows the control that this type of technology has on people. Which can also be a negative affect of technology. People tend to rely on technology almost too much to where it can even become an addiction. The right side of the headphones are converted to bones, creating a cage over the ears, in a way trapping his ear to the headphones and keeping the technology connected. Along with the blood that enters through the headphones to keep this person alive.
I chose the song Easy On Me, by Adele because this specific song shows the type of pain that certain people try to cover up with technology. People could be severely affected if technology were to just disappear. They would be affected by this because it would, in essence, take away their way of living, their way have, pretty much, just being okay. I chose bones as the background because it gives it a dark an ominous feel to it. To show that technology is not always just a positive thing, but it truly can affect someone negatively. The last thing of my project are the colors that I chose for the background. Relating to the positive and negative feels that technology can bring on, I chose the color purple because it is generally viewed as the color of fear. It is to show that it can be fearsome at times. The color yellow is generally referred to as the color of happiness, this is to show that it can be positive, not only be positive, but bring positivity to people's lives. They are wavy flowing in and out of each other, almost in a battle. It shows the difficulty of weighing out the negatives and the positives, and shows that however technology affects someone, it can be different for everybody.
I chose the song Easy On Me, by Adele because this specific song shows the type of pain that certain people try to cover up with technology. People could be severely affected if technology were to just disappear. They would be affected by this because it would, in essence, take away their way of living, their way have, pretty much, just being okay. I chose bones as the background because it gives it a dark an ominous feel to it. To show that technology is not always just a positive thing, but it truly can affect someone negatively. The last thing of my project are the colors that I chose for the background. Relating to the positive and negative feels that technology can bring on, I chose the color purple because it is generally viewed as the color of fear. It is to show that it can be fearsome at times. The color yellow is generally referred to as the color of happiness, this is to show that it can be positive, not only be positive, but bring positivity to people's lives. They are wavy flowing in and out of each other, almost in a battle. It shows the difficulty of weighing out the negatives and the positives, and shows that however technology affects someone, it can be different for everybody.
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Artist Statement
The Identity Collage was a project that allowed me to express things in a "non-direct" or in a specifically symbolic way. The first thing that was extremely difficult when construct this piece was figuring out what I should put as a the background of the portrait. I knew that it was meant to be something that was important or special to me, but I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to use many things or have one designated item for the background. I decided on using music notes that I found in some old magazines all of the music are from old songs, but that isn't specifically the reason I used them. I used music notes because is genuinely a pretty large part of my life whether or not it is playing music or just simply listening to it. I would like to think that I am capable of reading musical notes as if I were reading a book. I also cannot go a day with out opening Spotify and listening to some kind of music The next hardest thing about making this portrait was finding the skin to put on |
my face. As I was finding the skin to put on my face, I had to use other peoples faces. Being able to use the faces of other people to use on mine, I realized that if I truly wanted to I could manipulate my face to look anyway that I want to. I had complete control and free will to make myself look like anything I want. When someone is creating a self portrait, it doesn't necessarily mean that they are trying to influence how someone sees you. When you are able to re-create yourself you are able to, not take away things, but add things that one might not first perceive of you. I was able to add notes and add hints of nature to my creating to show people things that they wouldn't naturally see at first-glance. When I spent hours looking at my picture and portrait, I realized that, as I was trying to show things that were apart of that people don't normally see, there are things that I don't see in other people right away. Creating this portrait made me change the way that I perceive other people because it showed me that I have things that people don't naturally see. That also means that other people have things that a person doesn't naturally see in them also. I was able to change my perceptive and not have a set view of a person until I get to know them a little better.
When I was creating this piece it made me realize the value of creating a portrait rather than just taking a picture. I was able to symbolize things that I wouldn't have been able to show in a normal picture. It made me more familiar with my face having to look at it for hours on end to try and create something that was similar to a picture, but one can not perfectly recreate a picture. We might as well just make it the way we want instead of replicating something. One other thing that I had to figure out was what to put as my clothing, should I make it the same color as the picture? Should I make it my favorite color? Do I make it something else? I decided that I should symbolize my love of nature in this piece, so I decided to make my shirt field of flowers to not only symbolize the beauty of nature and my love of nature. If you look closely you can see that my pupils made out of wood. I thought that this was a nice way to symbolize nature and how much I love just sitting, watching, and taking in the beauty of it.
When I was creating this piece it made me realize the value of creating a portrait rather than just taking a picture. I was able to symbolize things that I wouldn't have been able to show in a normal picture. It made me more familiar with my face having to look at it for hours on end to try and create something that was similar to a picture, but one can not perfectly recreate a picture. We might as well just make it the way we want instead of replicating something. One other thing that I had to figure out was what to put as my clothing, should I make it the same color as the picture? Should I make it my favorite color? Do I make it something else? I decided that I should symbolize my love of nature in this piece, so I decided to make my shirt field of flowers to not only symbolize the beauty of nature and my love of nature. If you look closely you can see that my pupils made out of wood. I thought that this was a nice way to symbolize nature and how much I love just sitting, watching, and taking in the beauty of it.