heyyy blog. its been a while...

Sooo i randomly remembered today that i had this blog, from Art 3, which hasn't been updated since my junior year of high school and i have not looked at since early 2009...ha i feel like it's time for an update. what i'll be talking about in this blog is art, music, or anything else that comes to my mind. hopefully you will find it interesting, but if not that's ok! :P
my first year at Columbia so far has given me great inspiration because the city, the school, and the people have shown that there is so much art and design that surround us in so many aspects of everyday living. i love art so much cause i feel it has the potential to change thinking from the most basic level of putting a smile on someone's face, to changing their perspective of how they might see something, someone, or even themself, and the place of each in the world. if an artist is able to shape or redirect someone else's thinking, they are making an impact with art only few people have the ability, or opportunity to do. it's great to be in art school now so i can take my art to the next level. i'm so stoked to turn my love for art into a career. an artist that has given me a ton of inspiration lately in terms of photography would be Tokihiro Sato-i find his work really unique because he mostly does nature prints and plays with the lighting in all of his images. to achieve this affect, he has long camera exposures that can be hours long and uses mirrors/flashlights to get a desired affect, such as below. v

i also really like the high contrast that he uses (extreme darks and lights). my photography class is all black and white flim and my teacher wants us to achieve high contrast as well. one picture i took is a self portrait below. it just had to be basic...i hate taking pictures of myself haha, but anyway this is how it turned out...i am still getting used to the film camera, since i am so used to everything digital. my first roll was a bit underexposed cause i'm still trying to figure out how to achieve good lighting...but i'm not gonna worry too much about it. i just need more practice with it. at first i was getting really stressed out about it, but i have become more patient with it. hours in the darkroom at a time definitely helps cause the more time i put into it, the better the final product turns out.

anyway, in terms of music...i can't stop listening to Dropkick Murphys...mostly because they have a new album coming out soon (going out in style) i'm sooo excited about that...! i posted one of my favorite songs by them, surrender. it's addicting, so def listen to it! but yeah, i also really love The Spill Canvas and Plain White T's lately. <- you can't really go wrong with any of their songs. both of them have a lot of meaning and great lyrics. oh! and in october i went to chicago's riotfest which was pretty much amazing. my favorite bands that i saw were bad religion, bouncing souls, circle jerks, and the lawrence arms. i might be missing some, but those were by far the best. they all bring so much energy to their performances and it gives you the best feeling ever...kinda hard to explain haha. i have shows i'm going to coming up this week, which should be great. i really gotta start searching for more shows, but i have been getting lazy about that lately since i'm busy. the local shows are good too, so i go to those more often than big events.

if you have made it this far in this post, then congratulations. you must be super bored! :P hahaha. but yeah i should really go to sleep now and stop rambling...it's 2 a.m. and i gotta get up early for a 3 hour long math class, then an art history exam directly following. ugh not looking forward to that! haha...cya
<3

Mission Statement

I feel like I have definitely accomplished creative problem solving and critical thinking skills throughout my artwork this year. I also think that I have worked collaboratively and independently. Art is really unique for learning situations because it allows us to be individuals and use our imagination. I feel like art is extremely important to our every day lives. The reason we have a mission statement is so that students are able to see goals that they should strive for/what they will hopefully develop in their classes. We will be better off in college by accomplishing these expectations because we will have gained a lot of skills. This can be put toward college and out future artwork. I don't really feel like these standards are being upheld in our school because I honestly had never read the mission statement until now, so I don't think that it is really brought to our attention.

Trimester 1 Breath

So far this trimester I have accomplished using a variety of media and using oil pastels for the first time. I feel I did pretty well but definitely need to work on pushing myself further with different subjects. For example I should work on drawing more figures/people instead of nature all of the time. A variety of subjects would add a lot more to my portfolio =] As of now I don't have a solid idea for my concentration yet. Looking at what I have done in the past has given me some great themes but nothing that I've decided on for concentration. I'm very excited for continuing AP Art and thinking of new works that would add a lot to my portfolio. As a class I believe everyone is really starting to define their own style and what they enjoy drawing. Trimester 2 would be a great time to start using my peers for more opinions/ideas that would benefit my artwork. Great job everyone and keep it up next trimester!! 

8 pieces so far =]

continued...

Topic Category- Artist

One of my topics was the city so I chose the artist Brian Simons from Vancouver Island, Canada. I had never heard of him until now, but really like his art. One of his main subjects is painting the city. He features a wide range of colors and value. I particularly liked his style of painting- it appears blurry because of the bustle of the city, but when you step back it looks different. Brian also shows many lights and reflections off of cars and buildings well. He definitely uses the city theme to his advantage by making his works so detailed, so when you look at his work you almost feel like you are actually there. I can use inspiration from his style and how he uses his brush strokes for my concentration pieces next trimester. He uses mostly acrylics and oil paints, but sometimes a combination of many medias. This is how he achieves a great value difference in his work. I probably won't be using oil paints in my work because I personally don't like using them as much as acrylics. 

-Digging Deeper into Themes

"Crows at Dusk" by Hana Firestone, 2008.

"The Flamingo" by Alexander Calder, 1973.

One of my favorite pieces that I have done in the past, is the watercolor piece from last year. The other two pictures are of "The Flamingo" sculpture that I took this summer in downtown Chicago. I like the angle I got on the first picture because it gives you an idea of how big this really is- 53 feet tall, 50 tons. I chose the watercolor piece because I remember I was surprised at how well it turned out considering hat I hadn't used watercolors in forever and I also love sunsets. The sculpture by Calder has been my favorite for a long time- I really like the shape of the archs and the bright red color against the black skyscrapers. It's also really cool to see it in person because the sculpture reflects off many nearby windoes. Truthfully, I don't see many similarities in these two pieces except the fact that they both include birds. They are actually VERY different in terms of color, shapes, value, and placement. The reason I like these differences is because they are both completely different and unique. I think the bold red is what really makes me want to look at his sculpture. My list of 100 items really reflect both pictures here, because it included a LOT of nature elements and colors, which reflects them well. :)