Balance

   
Tuesday, April 19th

     This week, I painted on tree bark. I have a forest in my backyard so I went back and took a piece of birch bark off a tree to use as an impromptu canvas. This is a scene from my friend's cabin in Montana:

In class we were told to focus on the IB learner profile trait of balance, defined below:


Balanced: They understand the importance of intellectual, physical and emotional balance to achieve personal well-being for themselves and others.


     This in mind, I thought about what art in my life means to me. Art is a stress reliever, especially when it turns out the way you want it to. Many people see art and use it as an escape from their busy lives and stressful work loads. However, I tend to use art not as an escape, but as an enhancement.



     When I have a night of hard homework that will take me hours to finish (thanks teachers who plan together and put all my tests on the same day... just kidding☺), I take a break by painting a quick piece or sketching in my sketchbook. Doing this helps me achieve balance emotionally and intellectually. It's amazing how refreshed I feel after and it is loads better than taking a break to check my phone.


     That is another big belief of mine and it's something I try not to do as much. When I stare at my phone for more than 20 minutes, my eyes get messed up and blurry! That's one reason I don't like using my phone a lot, but another is that it distracts from real life.

     Art can be a reflection of your feelings, emotions, what you see, or a message you want to convey. Constantly checking your phone distracts not only from real life, but you are not as closely in touch with your emotions, making it much more difficult to achieve balance in your life.


Here is a simple pen and ink watercolor I did representing literal balance:

"Spring" Break

Tuesday, April 5th

     Spring break came and went this past week and I created a quick watercolor and took some photos on my trip to the zoo. The Toronto Zoo had many animals and I took so many pictures that my phone died. These 3 photos are 3 of my favorites because of the way vivid colors showcase the beauty of each animal. They are also interesting to me because each one is of an animal that does not typically make a lot of noise. In this sense, the photos convey a sense of serenity and intrigue.

Eastern Smooth Green Snake, Toronto Zoo

Blue Crayfish,Toronto Zoo

Jellyfish,Toronto Zoo

     Before we actually traveled to Canada, I made a watercolor at home. I had the idea after spending a night with my sister at one of my favorite little chill coffee shops downtown. She wanted me to draw her face, but instead I drew just a quick sketch of her eye. I ended up hating it at first so I vigorously scribbled it out. The dark lines showed my anger and after taking another look, I realized I could make something from my frustration! This is the sketch I made simulating my earlier scribbled out one:

 

    

    I wanted to work with a medium I don't use often so I chose to create a more finalized piece using watercolor and calligraphy pen. I used the eye of my little sister for this watercolor because she has green eyes. When I finished the eye, I was VERY reluctant to draw permanent lines over top of it, but I decided to follow through with my idea. I'm happy I did so... take risks, people! :o

     To me, the meaning of this creation was: 

     In life there will be confusion; there will be difficult times. The beauty comes when you are able to sift through the confusion and find your inner balance. When you are able to see through the rough times, you can find yourself alongside the good in the world. 

Something New

Tuesday, March 22nd

     In the past, I have been using mainly acrylic paints and doing faces of people. I saw this as a trend and felt the need to switch things up a bit. However, in my actual art class we were assigned to do ANOTHER portrait. I know it's getting monotonous, but I was really pleased on how it turned out so I'll show you a picture. I tried to incorporate a unique color scheme for a little more variation. Here it is:)

     Despite my success in my comfort zone with acrylics, I decided to make something in three dimension rather than 2D. While trying to decide what to make, I looked at the shelf in my room which is home to three of my favorite little succulents. Looking at the cacti made me think : "What if I could make those look even more artsy?"

     Making a pot would kill 2 birds with one stone. I could make my room look nicer with a small, homemade accent piece and I could get more experience with clay. 

     

     The pot I began to make this week is not something that is thrown on the wheel. It is more of a rectangular box. I started out by cutting each side, but had to start over and make a template after the edges were uneven. This was a roadblock as well as the fact that the pieces became leather-hard after not working with them for a week. Leather-hard is term used to describe clay when it is dried out to the point of having only about 15% moisture. It is able to be reconstituted in water, but isn't as easy to cut. I know, I know, boring....but that's why I decided to start over.

     

     After re-rolling and re-cutting each side, I beveled the edges and stuck the pieces together. This is done by scoring the clay (making scratches in the surface) and using slip (VERY wet clay) as glue. 

     Here's the box I'm in the process of finishing with the edges scored (far right):

     After this, you reinforce the inside edges with a coil of clay. This was hard because my fingers were too fat to fit in the box without messing up the sides. :-(

      Coil reinforcement before blending:

     To make it more intriguing, I am putting little embellishments on the side:

The box isn't done yet, but it will hopefully be fired and glazed by the time of my next post!

Frondescence

Wednesday, March 2nd
   
      This week I took some time that we had off of school to work on a self portrait with a little spin. This piece is titled "Frondescense" which is a French word describing foliage, or the time when a tree creates leaves and a flower blooms.
     I spent the whole day painting this which was at times tiring, but I didn't have anything else to do. I started off painting the base under my face with a peachy-pink color, then added the flowers on top. When I paint, I tend to not have a plan. This being said, I just sat there in my room thinking of flowers that would look interesting and then added them in different areas as the ideas bloomed (haha).
     My favorite part of this piece is the nose; I was avoiding it until the very end because I wasn't quite sure how to make it look decent. In this case, procrastination worked in my favor! (: The little rose bud paired with the hair as roots tied it all together.
     Another area of confusion I had was the hair. At first, I finished the painting and it was just a bald, floating head. After working on this for about 3 hours straight, I took a little break and when I came back, I realized that the floating head was actually super weird. I turned to my group of close friends and Caleb had the idea of making the roots as hair so creds to him.

Hello there

February 21, 2016
     As a person who doesn't like to show emotion all that often, I thought that creating meaningful art would help me to express myself to the world I live in. Taking time to do things to improve your inner balance is important to me as well.
     All this in mind, I decided to take 20% of my class time to make art pieces using a variety of media as well as using different approaches while considering the way my work could be interpreted.  My overall goal is to create at least 10 strong pieces that reflect my emotions and imaginative thoughts. I want to provide anyone who sees my art with an opportunity to be entertained, but to also be able to find their own meaning for what they see.
    I hope you enjoy what I create and the journey I have throughout!

Here's a preview of some work I have already created: