final 2024-2025 art 3 assignment: fantastic four

Below are my four "fantastic four" pieces from my final exam, documented as they initially were on my gallery. I have moved them into a blog post format because I think my craftsmanship could have been a bit more refined, and I also see myself departing significantly from this theme in my senior work. As a result, I don't really want these pieces to take up such significant space as the first thing viewers see upon visiting my site. However, I do want to preserve them in this post to recognize the way they may play into the mediums, shapes, or themes I choose next year!

"Tangled": cut paper and acrylic; may 2025; theme: jellyfish (abstract)

"Afloat": watercolor; may 2025; theme: jellyfish

"A Naturally Occurring Cage": gouache; may 2025; theme: restraint/control versus movement/freedom

"Trapped Life": oil pastel; may 2025; theme: restraint/control versus movement/freedom

art 3 final post: reflection and planning

At the beginning of this year, I wasn’t super enthusiastic about my own art skills, and generally didn’t have a good perspective on my potential as an artist. I don’t see this as a lack of foundational skills or a lack of motivation, but a reflection of the fact that every class before this hadn’t given me an opportunity to work on large-scale, long-term projects in which I could truly showcase my work. I’ve never been a huge fan of drawing and am generally more interested in mixed-media, longer-term work that I can really spend time perfecting, which is definitely reflected in the differences between my art skill inventories – quick, 10-15 minute sketches – and my quarter-long projects. I don’t think what I’ve learned is specific skills like drawing or painting, although I did develop my craftsmanship; the bigger thing that I’ve learned this year is how to spend larger amounts of time planning a piece and work on specific pieces for long amounts of time without getting bored. I did definitely gain craft skills, though, from composition to oil painting to large-scale drawing to mixed-media sculpture to stained glass making. 

My largest growth has definitely been more of a mental maturity area than an artistic one, which I referenced earlier: I no longer become bored working on one piece for indefinite periods of time, and take more time working on things when necessary. I’ve unintentionally stumbled upon at least one branch of my personal style, not necessarily in theme but in color: my website gallery is oddly cohesive considering the general disjointedness of our projects throughout the year in medium and subject. 

I definitely want to improve on general sketchbook work leading into next year, and get a lot better at figure drawing. I’ve been interested in putting figures or portraits into my work recently but often stumble upon the issue of craftsmanship and even bravery; I am often scared to go into something that is so easily done incorrectly. I also need to think a lot about what theme I want to pursue in my senior portfolio over the summer, and brainstorm theme ideas, motifs, etc. to ensure that I don’t need to make a sudden shift at the beginning of next school year. Completely unrelated to everything I’ve discussed so far, I’d also be very interested in getting better at abstraction! I don’t see this as something I’ll do a lot of next year, but I do think the process can be therapeutic and would be fun to continue in the future. 

Next year, I’d like to focus on natural motifs in whatever theme I choose to do. I’m not sure that I want to always continue with my coincidental color scheme, and may veer into darker colors, but I do enjoy greens, purples, blues, and pinks. I don’t think my play pages were incredibly helpful in developing a theme, but they did allow me to think more about what I need to do over the summer to develop said theme, and led me to realize that I need more long-term planning to make sure next year’s work is cohesive. I definitely enjoy mixed-media works including mosaics, beads, glass, and ceramic, and would be interested in combining that with some sort of painting if possible. This could be done via beaded canvases or 3d embroidery hoops, ceramic mosaics similarly to what I did with my sculpture, and more. Although it may not be feasible at Maggie Walker’s studio, I really enjoyed working with stained glass and would absolutely LOVE to find a way to work that in if at all possible! One of my research pieces for my blog was an artist who made stained glass and then painted over it, which could be really fun if there is any way to do it. If not, implementing glass/ceramic/mosaics in other ways is definitely possible within the bounds of our school art studio, and I’ll definitely think about that over the summer!

lunchtime lecture reflection - rosalind koons

Although I couldn't initially attend the lunchtime lecture, I later looked into the recordings and Ms. Koons's online portfolio, and really enjoyed learning about her work. Her online artist statement is interesting because it details her medical motivations for using biological inspiration in her work, which features often-abstract forms that are inspired by nature. I specifically enjoy her usage of color -- the colors that she repeatedly uses in her work are ones that I personally love, like sage green, grey, and pale pink. I also really love the up-close shots of her work, which are typically mixed-media. I'm more interested in mixed media than some other forms of art, so I love seeing all of the differing materials and techniques that she utilizes in her work.