“Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.”

Art has always been fun for me, but art classes with Mrs. Kiick are beyond a learning experience. With such a wonderful teacher, who not only helps, but truely cares, creative arts has a feeling of fulifullment. Throughout the year I have pushed my skills to reach the heights of my imagination. Once I begin a project I become stubbornly determined. Luckily, Mrs. Kiick is very understanding of determination and helped me through the deliemmas between my imagination and my action. Through the help, I have beome a better problem solver. My patience have also grown greatly, I have learned to work through things that require mulitple tracks to the solution. I wish I had discover art sooner to continue improving my skills of problem solving, patience, and artistc ability.

Art - slideshows

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths." -Walt Disney

       Have you ever heard a caged bird sing, a beautiful song that amplifies the curiosity in its heart? Squishy and El Fonizo sang back and forth to each other on a daily basis. They sang about an outside world of wonder, one they would like to visit. As they sang and sang the image of a beautiful pond flooded the listeners mind. It was a quaint pond in the middle of a forest. It was filled with lilies on lily pads that waltzed in the wind on the glistening surface of the water. The frogs croaked, the bees buzzed, and the butterflies floated from flower to flower. If they could only reach this state of purity, they would sing beautiful songs forever.

       Squishy spotted a big machine with four wheels just a little ways from the window. "I've got an idea! El Fonizo come quick! Do you see that thing the humans ride around in out there?" El Fonizo didn't squawk a word. He simply looked at Squishy with a look of praise and headed towards the door. Although their wings were clipped, so they couldn't fly very far, they got to the automobile very quickly. Luckily, the window was left open and they had enough humph to fly in. They pushed a button to start it and they both took one side of the steering wheel. Off on their first real adventure, they realized they didn't know where to go. They drove and drove until they came to a huge forest and decided their oasis was in there. El Fonizo turned the car off and they flew out of the window. What seemed like hours later, Squishy spotted something glistening off in the distance. El Fonizo quickly looked and squawked, "You have great eyes Squishy!" They rushed over to the glistening pond. It was even better then they imagined! An angelic noise began to over power the frog and bees. El Fonizo and Squishy were the happiest of friends and continued to sing breath-taking songs for the rest of their days.

“But the eyes are blind. One must look with the heart."

Self Portrait Blind Contours.

     This was something purely knew to me. The idea of an art project coming out good without looking at your drawing while it is being drawn did not seem plausible. I went through so many sheets of paper trying to get it to look somewhat human when I realized it just is not possible for me. I accepted the fact and started on the final copy of paper. I did two sheets of this. One was a full sheet of just one contour and the other one had numerous one's all over the page. I just started painting with watercolors to practice on the one that had mulitple drawings on it so I could get a feeling of what I wanted to do. I ended up liking it when it dried and used that one for my final copy. I plugged in my ipod and just let my hands go. It's coming out well and I already like it (which is unusual). I've noticed i've been becoming more accepting to things that are not perfect when it comes to my work. Who has set the standard for perfect? No one but myself and it is so unneccessary! On this page that will become one of my book pages I have included tidbits of information about myself. Also, I am expressing how I see myself through the painting as well. I am excited to see the final product. Here is what I have so far:

"There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures."

Cut Paper Laterns, My My My.
 This began as such an awsome project. I had a great idea for a holiday decoration. I found pictures online and I transferred them onto the paper we had to use. Then I realized I had to make it so the whole picture wouldn't fall out when I cut it with the exacto knife.
  ~And the fun began.
This part was very frustrating for me and I winded up kinda just going with the flow. Another challenging part was figuring out what to do with all of the empty space. My latern was about eight by ten and two of them. I want to put skewers on the ends so it can fold up and I can store it without taking up a whole lotta room. In the house I remember as my first, our fireplace was right inbetween two windows. Whenever it would get cold outside and we would light it the windows would fog up symmertically. It was an extoinardary sight everytime. It was a must for this project, it gives it a nice homey feel to me. We had to pick a season and I picked winter and narrowed it down to the Christmas season since I love the festivities. I am still not completey finished this project but I will finish it on Tuesday. =] I took it home over winter break to work on it and stuck it in a drawer to keep it safe from my cats and dogs and dontcha know, Murphy's Law, it ripped my Christmas tree. It wasn't that bad but it just figured. I wasn't having the greatest day when I discovered that and it continued to be that kind of day when I dropped the exacto knife and didn't realize it landed blade up on my lap so when I went to grab it I ended up getting stabbed. ~Just one of those day's when you have to laugh it off~ That day made it very easy for my procrastonation to get the best of me. Therefore I finished cutting it out yesterday and I got the glue dots and tracing paper on it today (FINALLY).
Overall, I think it is turning out really well considering all the delimma's it seems to have brought me. But then again, “Life is a continous exercise in creative probem solving."

I will post an updated picture when I am completely finished but until then here is what I have done so far :

~Dear Ms. Kiick, for some reason Blogger is not letting me upload photos... I've been trying for the past hour and a half...=[

A Grassroots Movement to Help End Hunger

 

       

“Volunteering is the ultimate exercise in democracy. You vote in elections once a year but when you volunteer, you vote everyday about the kind of community you want to live in.”

-Marjorie Moore

 

 

        The Empty Bowls Dinner Haddon Township High hosts has enabled me to be apart of a wonderful cause. It unbelieveable the amount of hunger in the United States of America. Statistics have shown that in 2011 50.1 million Americans lived in a household with food insecurity: 33.5 million adults and 16.7 million children. All of these people can not rely on a dinner every night. They go day to day, meal to meal hoping there will be enough to sustain their lives as well as their families lives. This is a problem no one should have to live with. This is my first empty bowls dinner and it has opened my eyes to a world unknown. I have experienced first hand the excitement and hardship of fundraising and working towards a bigger cause due to the past three years of lending my hand to the Susan G. Komen 3-Day for the Cure. It sure is not an easy task but is extremely rewarding. Volunteering is an astonishing service that is a must if one has hope towards living in a better society. There are so many foundations out there that are in need of a helping hand. Everyone who looks will find a cause that is near and dear to their hearts and will enjoy being apart of.

 

        Beside the reward of being apart of something bigger, this experience has been a ton of fun! Our art classes have been deciated to forming bowls and platters out of clay and recently been glazing them so they are not only food safe, but also beautiful to look at. There are so many different styles to choose from! There is a gazillion different glazes and glaze combo's and an unlimited amount of shapes, which makes this project all the more fun. Everyone has come together to help finish these bowls in time for the dinner and it is coming along fantastically! There is this one bowl I came across that someone made really neat by putting stars on the inside of the bottom. When I saw this I new I had to glaze it because of my deep passion for the galaxy. It took me a few days to finish because I made the stars a golden color and the sky around it a black with a touch of violet. I sure hope after it is fired it looks as good as it does in my head! Stay tuned for a picture of the outcome of this beautiful bowl.

 

 

Below I have provided the links that will lead you to the project and the mothering foundation along with some statistics that will astound you.

 

Empty Bowls Project

 

Feeding America

 

 

 



“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”

“I perhaps owe having become a painter to flowers.”
                              ~Claude Monet

        Flowers, such a natural beauty inspired one of the greatest artists of all time. Claude Monet was born in Paris November 14, 1840. He was raised in Normandy, France and wanted to become an artist while his father wanted him to work at the family's grocery store, which required great bravery. Pursuing his dream, Monet became known for his charcoal caricatures quickly and shortly after started painting. His landscapes chart journeys around the North of France and to London, where he escaped the Franco-Prussian War. Claude Monet worked directly on large scale canvases outdoors, then reworked and completed them in his studio. In his series paintings, he would work on mulitple pieces at a time so he could record how as the light changed, the appearence changed as well, demonstrating how at different times of day the sun could produce numerous beautiful scenery. Claude Monet died at the age of 86 in Giverny. He was a key figure during the impressionist movements and he transformed French painting forever.   
        The beautiful paintings of nature quickly captured my attention. I enjoy how he captured the same scene at different times of the day to make it look completely different. Also, I find it interesting that he was able to do something so simple such as record the different lights and made it into beautiful unique masterpieces.  He incorpated his family into what he enjoyed most of all, which is always a deliate to see.
Overall, I think he was a wonderful man and a fantastic artist.

Inspiration for some of his series paintings

 

 

 

 

 

 

Reflection

This marking period has been nothing but a learning and growing experience for me. I've learned a bunch of new techniques to develop paper and how to make a collage. I've already used the art of shading outside of school and i'm excited for the new project, cut paper laterns! Looking forward to a new and exciting second marking period in art class!