Independent Project

My first independent project thing!

Artist Statement

My first experience with art was in kindergarten art class, and I have enjoyed it ever since.  I do not consider myself a "serious" artist, but art is great hobby for me.  It is a way for me to relax myself and let time fly by as I make my work.  I am an anxious person, so art is valuable because I let go of my worries for a while.  This is great because I find most of my ideas when I am not worried about anything.  My favorite thing to do in art is to play with colors.  I like to use oil and chalk pastels and blend different colors together to see how it comes out.  My experiments seldom end up as final pieces, but is more of a warm up so I can start to feel less self conscious.

If I were to guess, less than half of my work is on paper and the rest is in my head.  I spend a lot of time thinking and worrying about what I will do for my art pieces (or any other work).  I do not usually consciously brainstorm, but I will have my work in my mind as I go through each day.  Playing sports has the same effect on me as making art, so many of my ideas come when I am playing sports.  I have always enjoyed sports, so there is an area in the basement dedicated as my "sports area."  This is where I can hit or throw balls against the walls as hard as I want, and it somehow relieves my tension.  When I am angry, I can go hit balls in the sports area, and I will be fine again when I am done.  When I find myself frustrated in front of a blank paper, I take a small "sports break" to gather my thoughts.  I have a great memory when I want to (and sometimes when I don't), so this is far more effective than writing things down on paper.  Because my art is about calmness and focus, my process is way more important to me than my product.

Symbolic Portrait: Finished

If Stephen Colbert was a robot, he would look something like this :)

Process Reflection Two

This is me, upside down and working on my
weave thing.

You’ve been hard at work on your final project.  What did you accomplish in the last week?  What challenges have you faced?  What are the next steps?  What do you plan to do in the week ahead?  Include a photo of your work in progress or of you at work (see class site for pics).


This week, I mainly worked on my symbolic portrait and independent project.  I finally finished my Stephen Colbert "robot picture," and have been going through my sketchbook to find more project ideas.  Today, I finished two independent pieces using ideas from the sketchbook, and I am thinking of doing a longer one next week (maybe).  I had trouble drawing wooden blocks in a certain formation, and will probably ask you sometime on Monday how to draw them.  As you probably know, my challenge this week was to come up with something for Robot Stevie's "legs."  After about two hours of watching "art pictures" on a classmate's screen and scribbling out ideas in my sketchbook, I finally got it, and drew flamboyant "stars and stripes" pants.  As I said before, my next step is to ask you for help on drawing the blocks, and then making my own drawing of them.

It's a little off topic, but if you would like to see Stephen Colbert try out for the New York Knicks, click here.  :)

Art 21 Reflection Three

Imagine skating on that.  Really cool, right?

This time, I will write about Maya Lin and Tim Hawkinson.  Ms. Lin is an artist who clearly uses a lot of architecture in her work, as she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  She is shown making an "ecliptic ice rink," that has lights underneath it so it looks like the night sky.  She says her work "deals with naturally occurring phenomena" and is "closely aligned with geology and landscape."  Based on what I have watched and read so far (memorial and ice rink), Ms. Lin's work is about transforming the atmosphere around the art, or creating a "mood."  I think that the mood the rink creates is really peaceful, and creates a calm atmosphere for the people of the city.  I think it is great for Ms. Lin that she did a favor to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Her work is one of my favorites so far, and I even liked it as much as the gunpowder drawings.  Sometimes, it is hard for me to explain why I like or dislike something, but I just do.  I just like the idea that the piece of art will become a part of the community, like the library or the corner store is a part of a town.  These installations help the community be unique, and this one even includes a restroom!  I can not relate to making a giant ice rink project that took years, but I can't help but wonder how she came up with the idea.  It's like John and Joe's idea for the mural:  I still don't know where that came from (maybe they just wanted to throw something).  After I saw how Ms. Lin had multiple diagrams, those atlases, and all of those people working on it, I can appreciate how much work it took to complete this.

This is the "Emoter," a clever combination
 of "emotion" and "motor."  It moves, too!

Tim Hawkinson is an artist who seems to generally make giant installations of kinetic sculptures.  The moving sculpture featured in the episode is called the "Emoter."  From what I can tell, this is a picture of Mr. Hawkinson's face, with movable features that move automatically depending on what's on TV.  He says that he often starts with his own image, but by the time he is done with it, he doesn't identify with it anymore.  His art is about the human body and how it experiences the world around it.  I don't think art has to have deep meaning to it, so when I look at the Emoter, I see a complex machine that the artist probably explored for a long time.  I don't know how Mr. Hawkinson did it, but he clearly sees things differently than the rest of us.  I like his work because it is different from what many of us consider art.  You might say, "You didn't like Mr. Baldessari's work.  How is this any different?" but I really don't know the answer to that, so please don't.  I just think that the Emoter (and the "Drop" machine too) are interesting and innovative designs, and I don't see a moving face machine every day.  The best way I can think to relate to this is those "Rube Goldberg" machines (I really like those things).  I did a group project of that in seventh grade, and enjoyed them a lot.  They required us to be creative to find out how to make something work, and I bet Mr. Hawkinson's experience was similarish, but way more in depth.

Here is a video of one of those Rube Goldberg machines, in a Honda Commercial:  This one's really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qUjrMtMec

Art 21 Reflection Three

Imagine skating on that.  Really cool, right?

This time, I will write about Maya Lin and Tim Hawkinson.  Ms. Lin is an artist who clearly uses a lot of architecture in her work, as she designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.  She is shown making an "ecliptic ice rink," that has lights underneath it so it looks like the night sky.  She says her work "deals with naturally occurring phenomena" and is "closely aligned with geology and landscape."  Based on what I have watched and read so far (memorial and ice rink), Ms. Lin's work is about transforming the atmosphere around the art, or creating a "mood."  I think that the mood the rink creates is really peaceful, and creates a calm atmosphere for the people of the city.  I think it is great for Ms. Lin that she did a favor to Grand Rapids, Michigan.  Her work is one of my favorites so far, and I even liked it as much as the gunpowder drawings.  Sometimes, it is hard for me to explain why I like or dislike something, but I just do.  I just like the idea that the piece of art will become a part of the community, like the library or the corner store is a part of a town.  These installations help the community be unique, and this one even includes a restroom!  I can not relate to making a giant ice rink project that took years, but I can't help but wonder how she came up with the idea.  It's like John and Joe's idea for the mural:  I still don't know where that came from (maybe they just wanted to throw something).  After I saw how Ms. Lin had multiple diagrams, those atlases, and all of those people working on it, I can appreciate how much work it took to complete this.

This is the "Emoter," a clever combination
 of "emotion" and "motor."  It moves, too!

Tim Hawkinson is an artist who seems to generally make giant installations of kinetic sculptures.  The moving sculpture featured in the episode is called the "Emoter."  From what I can tell, this is a picture of Mr. Hawkinson's face, with movable features that move automatically depending on what's on TV.  He says that he often starts with his own image, but by the time he is done with it, he doesn't identify with it anymore.  His art is about the human body and how it experiences the world around it.  I don't think art has to have deep meaning to it, so when I look at the Emoter, I see a complex machine that the artist probably explored for a long time.  I don't know how Mr. Hawkinson did it, but he clearly sees things differently than the rest of us.  I like his work because it is different from what many of us consider art.  You might say, "You didn't like Mr. Baldessari's work.  How is this any different?" but I really don't know the answer to that, so please don't.  I just think that the Emoter (and the "Drop" machine too) are interesting and innovative designs, and I don't see a moving face machine every day.  The best way I can think to relate to this is those "Rube Goldberg" machines (I really like those things).  I did a group project of that in seventh grade, and enjoyed them a lot.  They required us to be creative to find out how to make something work, and I bet Mr. Hawkinson's experience was similarish, but way more in depth.

Here is a video of one of those machines:  This one's really cool!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_qUjrMtMec

Name Drawing

This is one of my name drawings.  It's a crane!

  

This name drawing is of a star!