1. How has your perspective about art changed throughout the process of organizing your own exhibition? After Convergence, I’ve realized there is so much more to appreciate in an artist’s show. It’s not just about the art on the walls, but what the artist learned over the time it took to make that art. The past three years of art haven’t made me an amazing artist; they’ve just made me more aware of art, creativity, and aesthetics. They’ve made me see, appreciate, and understand art so much more, and that’s what really matters. 2. What would you do differently if you had the opportunity to do it over? I made excuses to not bring three of my pieces into the show. Looking back, I now wish I had brought them. I think I was a little frantic throughout the whole process and didn’t think that through. I feel like I didn’t have enough art to show for the past three years of art I’ve experienced. I would also have established a clear vision with Mariah for our show and outlined exactly we want to achieve. I think that because we didn’t have a high, over-reaching goal, our show wasn’t remarkable. We did what any show would do and didn’t go above and beyond. 3. If you had unlimited time and resources, what else would you have done to complete your show? I would have finished the piece I’ve been working on since the beginning of the school year, made an installation, and gotten a mannequin for Slut. I would have gone the extra mile. I like working insanely hard and bringing something to the table that knocks the socks off of everyone; if I don’t do that, I’m not satisfied. The show went well, but it was not ‘holy shit that’s crazy!’ and that’s simply not good enough for me. I did the minimum, and I avoided anything that would cause too much stress. I feel lazy and embarrassed. 4. What was the value of this experience for you? I learned more about communication skills and teamwork skills. I can’t let my opinion get in the way all the time, and sometimes I need to push for my opinion a little more. Finding that balance is tough. It’s also important to establish a common vision; if not, projects won’t reach their full potential. Overall, this was a lesson for me on teamwork. 5. How could this process be enhanced for future Art 5 students? I think the walls need to be sanded in the future, but I know that problem is already being settled. I also think that it’s important to make sure other students take their art home sooner; Mariah and I would have started preparing for our show sooner if there was less artwork in the halls and less installations on the main walls in the beginning of the art hallway. Otherwise I don’t see any improvements to be made. The talk we had in the beginning really outlined what Mariah and I needed to do, and that was very helpful. |
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Au jour d’hui, je décide quels projets d’arts je veux faire. Je décide entre ses projets :
· finir la moitié de mon autoportrait · peindre des petites peintures « trompe d’œil. » · peindre des peintures inspirées par « Picasso » et par « de Kooning » · faire des vidéos que décrive le caractère des chansons Mais, avant de faire un projet, il faut que je fini mon peinture arabe, qui s’appellera Written Over (Écrivait Sur). Here is a progress picture (will photograph soon) of my latest work of art. I think I am going to call it Written Over, but it’s too early to say. Technique: Layer until I get a nice white base. Write in Arabic in a black oil pastel. Paint up to those lines with white paint. I am making intricate lines here, maybe .7mm in width (yeah, it’s extremely intricate and time consuming). May I remind you, I am working on a scale of about 4' by 2'. I wanted to make a bigger version of the last piece I made, called Jumbled. The thing about these pieces that make them different from everything I've done up to this point is the fact that I am not trying to say anything. I'm just doing this because it looks nice. I like to say that it "has to do with how I'm learning Arabic." I spent sooo much time out of class working on Jumbled, and probably 10 to 15 hours over spring break on Written Over (still not finished with it). This stuff takes forever. I deserve an A because of all the time and hard work I've put into this. This is the product of my obsession with ArtStack. If you check it out and make an account, go ahead and follow me!
This was my first attempt at wearable art. It's titled, Slut.
This piece was a focus on one of the ways growing up in the United States as a first-gen Lebanese American has affected the way I think. I come from a conservative Lebanese family (not all Lebanese people are conservative though, trust me on that), and, as a result, I dress more conservatively. No shorts higher than the knees, sleeves are mandatory, etc. It's reasonable to me. Why expose yourself? You'll bring unwanted attention. You'll degrade yourself. This makes sense. Growing up in a society that is okay with girls wearing the outfit above can be mind-boggling. I inscribed the words, 'slut' and 'whore' into the fabric, labeling girls for what I logically should see them as. Yet I don't see them that way. For some God-knows-why reason, I feel as if they're better than me (hence the color black, representing dominance). It's a weird complex that has always been hard to explain. At the same time, I'm proud of myself for finally understanding my thoughts and emotions. The words are hard to read, and people can sound out letter combinations, but they never read out the words 'slut' or 'whore.' I feel like this reflects how I can't read Arabic. I'm defined by my own culture, yet I can't even read it's language? Now, how did I make this? Let's begin with the fabric: It's not really fabric - it's paint. Let me explain. I took wood panels and fully covered them with duct tape. I put a layer of white house paint, let it dry, then put another thicker layer of white house paint into which I inscribed the words. Once that dried (it took a whole 24 hours), I put a layer of black paint. Then I sanded. The white letters revealed themselves. At that point I rinsed the dust off and put a layer of gloss. Then I peeled the paint off of the the duct tape. To my classmate's surprise, the paint came off by itself in whole as a sheet of fabric-paint. To make the clothes, I didn't do any sowing, as that would be extremely time consuming and unnecessarily difficult. I used duct tape and hot glue, which I think held better than string ever could. My classmates were really into the process and the end result, which is great. Along with being intrigued by the process, several people said that the end result looked like high fashion, and even more said that they could see themselves buying clothing with its fabric. On the other hand, they criticized the photography (does not appear professional), the pose of the model (what if it was sexual?), the craftsmanship (some edges need to be refined), the length of the skirt (too long, not revealing enough), and how my message was not effectively communicated. In the end, I agree with their criticisms. Time after time, I keep failing at communicating my message. How can I stop this trend? I don't know. I need to do more research to figure this out. If I were to redo this project, I would begin by starting a few weeks earlier. The extra time would really have helped me tighten things up. As I write this, I'm anxious to start my next project, yet I'm not sure of what I want to do. I think it's time for a nice week of exploring, researching, and brainstorming. ERB ✌ For this three weeks, I decided to give a go at the idea of insulting the audience in order to elicit an angry response. The piece above was my attempt at doing such a thing. I also can't forget to mention that this was a collaboration with Alex Turner.
This piece took about eight hours of photoshop on my part (and about two from Alex). This project renewed my interest in photoshop, and I have been experimenting with it ever since. In the future, I definitely want to use photoshop as a medium. The main idea with this piece was that girls who wear revealing clothing are idiots. It's a harsh statement that leaves a lot of room for argument. The problem is that my message is not easily interpreted, and the word 'Idiotic' is not harsh enough. A more offensive word would most likely have done the trick. Even more than that, my audience did not consider the bikini in the photo to be revealing. I find this extremely interesting, because (to me) bikinis are the epitome of revealing-clothing-gone-unnoticed. Bikinis cover the same amount of space as undergarments, yet are totally normal to wear in public. In the end, my audience did not get angry with me. Rather, we had a big discussion on our society and what it considers revealing. One girl said, "This is so weird to me. As a little kid, my mom would put me in a bikini and we'd go to the pool, and it was completely normal." Bringing a new perspective to my peers made me very happy. I've learned that in order to elicit an angry response, you have to hit close to home in a harsh way. Because opportunities to do that kind of a thing are hard to come by, I don't think my future works will be based off of the idea. I want to make my next couple of pieces about things I research, like I did with my summer works. On top of that, I want to incorporate art history. I want every element of my next piece to have a meaning, and I want the meanings to tie up and create one whole idea. I think work like that will be much stronger. For the second 10 works 2 weeks, I decided to make a bigger version of the piece to the left. I titled the newer one Debbie after a friend of mine. Unfortunately, I cannot upload a picture of it. In the piece, I unleashed my deepest thoughts about Debbie, using harsh and inappropriate language. Even though I pretty much bashed her in the painting, we're closer than we were before. It was a wake-up call for her that something needed to change and a gust of fresh air that cleared up a lot of miscommunication between the two of us. When I began working on Debbie, I fully intended it to look very similar to the piece here (titled Teenage Vexation). After two weeks of layering and sanding, I learned that layers = lyfe. Or maybe, (x)Layers = (x - 5)Success. The more layers you have, the better! I put eight layers of paint on Debbie, whereas I put upwards of thirty on Teenage Vexation. In the future, I will work on the same scale as Debbie (4' x 2.5') but use several more layers. This piece was taken well by the class. I think the fact that I made an abstract painting took them back the most; I've never really done that. The reason I was successful on my first and second try at abstract painting is that they weren't my first or second try. I had been experimenting with abstract painting on Teenage Vexation’s canvas for months. I would put layers and layers of paint, thinking I had made a masterpiece, only to look at the piece an hour later with fresh eyes and realize that my masterpiece was really sub-par. I would toss the canvas aside until I was hit by another shard of inspiration, repeating the process again and again. Months went by. I emptied bottle after bottle of 97 cent acrylic paint; the canvas became heavier and heavier. Long story short, I failed a lot, which also means I learned a lot. If I had never experimented with abstract painting on the side, I would have never reached this point. In the future I plan on having multiple experimentation canvases as side-projects so that I can fail and learn rapidly. The thing I like most about Debbie is that I channeled my anger (an abundant and renewable resource) and made it productive. I turned something negative into something very positive. I brought my friendship with Debbie closer, made a piece that people can appreciate, and gave myself pride and happiness. These great things first coming from failure and anger are a testament to the greatness of art. Three of Deep Run’s finest artists, Joanna Gray, Alex Turner, and Jinny Kang, produced JoAlJi, the first show of DRHSART’s hallway shows this school-year. Upon first entering the hallway, people are typically taken aback by the sizeable collaborative ceiling installation. Jinny’s paper cranes, Alex’s artificial flowers, and Joanna’s black strings descend from the ceiling and mingle with each other to create a somewhat magical atmosphere. The walls are adorned with all-black murals of simple cartoon-like illustrations. Intermingling is one of the stand-out characteristics of this show. Instead of parceling one wall to each artist, their works are displayed amongst each other’s. The majority of Joanna’s works are representational portrait paintings. Oil paints, colored pencils, and toothpicks are her main tools of choice. She typically paints her friends in vibrant colors with stylized techniques. Joanna puts distinguishable amounts of color like magentas and yellows in the skin to make the portraits more visually stimulating, and she applies the paint with a toothpick to create texture. Alex contributed a lot of cryptic photographs to the show. If you try to figure the photographs out, your brain will explode. Why are those girls standing there? Why is this girl's hair in her face? Why is this person’s face censored? You’ll have to give up when Alex explains to you that his photographs have an infinite amount of meanings. One thing I especially like about his photographs is how mossy greens and light blues dominate them. I find that they add to the crypticness. Jinny’s works are also representational. She mainly draws with graphite, charcoal, and pen. Her standout piece has to be her charcoal portrait. The angle from which she drew herself (from above) is what makes it most interesting. Her face and eyes are large in the drawing due to the angle, so it’s easy to get lost in her eyes. You also can’t forget her pen illustrations of large imaginary scenes that tell a story about the environment and Mother Nature. The details are tiny and crisp, and you can tell that Jinny drew them confidently. They're impressive with meaning and technique. Scholastics are coming up soon, and, by the looks of it, these three will win big. |
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