BLOG Welcome to my Blog - Updates About My Life and Artwork
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BLOG Welcome to my Blog - Updates About My Life and Artwork
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Hello once again! I’m back with an update on the Independent Project I’ve been pursuing for approximately six weeks now. In my last blog, I mentioned that I would be creating a series of painting landscapes out of acrylic and watercolors on canvas called Light Through The Seasons. I planned to create a total of four landscapes experimenting with the ethereal effects of sunlight on different landscapes painted in various seasons (summer, spring, winter, fall). Since I had a total of eight weeks to complete this project, I planned to complete each new landscape over the course of two weeks. So far, I’m on track with six weeks gone and three paintings complete: summer, spring, and fall. Check them out up close in my painting/artwork gallery! Summer Falls Spring Clearing
too vague. This requires me to be more observant of the natural world, I seek certain textures and qualities of things found in nature so I can integrate them into my own natural landscapes attempting to make them look more realistic. For example, when painting Summer Falls, I noticed that whenever sunlight hits a waterfall there seems to be a slight rainbow in the mist- because of the light and the water meeting (look at any afternoon photos of Niagara Falls). That is an incredible effect of sunlight on the water that people seem to disregard a lot because rainbows are very common. Somehow, adding the subtle rainbow completed the landscape and helped make it seem more real of a place- even though it’s only as real as my imagination.
Working off of my imagination comes with frustration sometimes as well, considering the image in my head may not translate exactly to the image on the canvas. I spent the most time on the clouds of Autumn Afternoon than anything else, because in my head I imagined an overcast that would light up specific parts of the colorful forest with sun streaming through the clouds. However, I began painting straight from what I believed an overcast looked like, and it didn't look even close to what I was going for. So I had to pull up some reference photos and realize what an overcast would look like on canvas to make this work. I still think the clouds are slightly heavy for this small of a canvas landscape, but I did end up achieving what I was going for. My biggest challenges overall have been working from my imagination and create something that isn't just a blurry picture in my mind, in other words, details. I want to capture a feeling for each season, something that is also beautiful. So it was a strain sometimes to answer these questions on Spring Clearing: How far away are those trees from the water? How much are they reflecting? How much sunlight is glittering on it? Is there a lot of ripples in the pond or just around the deer? Is it a windy day, maybe that would result in ripples… I asked myself these questions and more about every single aspect of this landscape, honestly, I couldn’t help my perfectionism. Even though there are a few parts I’d like to redo, and time I could’ve saved on certain parts of this painting, (as well as Autumn Afternoon), it’s all just a learning process, and I’m grateful to have experienced it! My successes would be how these paintings take a life of their own, close to what I imagined, but different. The final product is always exciting to see after so much work, sometimes I just want to walk into these landscapes to experience each piece of art even more! Stay tuned to see my final winter landscape to finish off this painting series. Thanks for reading, and until next time!
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Hello once again! I would like to update you all on the most recent, exciting event we have participated in for VAM Academy. As an assignment, we got to research different “changemaker” artists in history. I decided to research Claude Monet, a very inspiring man and the leading figure of Impressionism. We also had to create an artifact to go with our presentations that somehow related to what we researched- I created my own Impressionist style painting.
One presentation that stood out to me from CAPA was Theatre of the Absurd by Skye Keibel. She described how this theatre existed post WW2 and turned the angry, confused emotions people were feeling at this time and turned it into a piece of art. Skye then went on to perform a skit with Emily, and it made absolutely no sense (which made it hilarious)! It was an absurd theatre, and she performed a great example of what it actually was. Another presentation from CAPA I enjoyed was Theatre of the Oppressed by Victoria Granicz. This theatre, as Victoria said, was meant to bring light to oppression and exploitation in everyday situations. She then went on to have her actors perform a scene and asked if the audience wanted to stop it and step in, they could. This was another thing about oppressed theatre as it lets the audience become actors, and I consider it extremely impactful as oppression is still a current issue. Another presentation from CAPA that piqued my interest was Renaissance Theatre by Alessandra Bellotto. I am personally very intrigued by Renaissance art, and the theatre at that time seemed just as artistic with notable figures like William Shakespeare being the playwrights. This type of theatre was European Drama, and it was on the Elizabethian stage that produced works like Romeo and Juliet. Alessandra then went on to perform a section of Romeo and Juliet, where Juliet was on the balcony calling out to Romeo. I was impressed she could remember even some lines, as Shakespeare’s old English definitely isn’t easy!
My presentation was on the third day just before the brief intermission, and it was called A Different Perspective highlighting the life and impact of Claude Monet, the creator of the art of Impressionism. I feel when I was presenting I used my time to my full advantage and explained the life of Monet and the techniques found in Impressionism effectively. I had pictures and pointed to them when I talked about them, and I also integrated my artifact into my presentation- the Impressionist style painting is above and in my gallery. The only thing I felt like I struggled with was keeping complete eye contact with the audience, there was some lines I stumbled over that were very minor. Personally, I felt myself vibrating up there in front of the crowd, so I had to make sure despite my nerves I was loud enough for people to hear. I feel like if I had to change anything it would be the length of my speech, I would’ve liked more time to answer more questions, but my time was up. Through the process of working on this research presentation, I feel like I’ve learned a lot about myself. I found that I am an effective researcher, and I like to “over research,” (as I wanted to get many different perspectives on the same topic). When writing the speech I felt that almost all of my research was important to mention, because I understood the importance and depth of what I researched and wanted to express that with the audience. Alas, there was a time limit for my presentation so I had to narrow my speech down to what I definitely wanted to say about what I’d learned, and keep those fun facts to a minimum. While writing my speech, although seeing the value in every piece of information, I learned to narrow down the research to what was truly important and would leave the most Impression on the audience- it still wasn’t easy but it was something I learned. I also got the hang of doing in-text citations and began to see the importance and value of academic honesty while writing my speech. When presenting my work to an audience I made sure my determination to leave the audience with a lasting impression of me and what I learned overcame the nerves I felt when actually presenting. I just knew I finally had people’s attention, and I wasn’t going to waste my time or theirs, I was going to make it worth their while to listen to what I had to say. When I was done it was a relief because although there was some slip-ups here and there, I didn’t regret my presentation and my time in front of the audience. It was a great experience, something everyone should take advantage of, no matter the situation. That’s all for now, thanks for reading, and stay tuned for upcoming blogs of the Independent project I am pursuing! Hello once again! I would like to talk about a new painting series I will be pursuing for the next eight weeks. This series is called Light Through The Seasons and will be painted with a mixture of Acrylic and Watercolor paints. I intend to paint four, different landscapes in each of the four seasons (summer, spring, winter, fall), experimenting with the ethereal effects of sunlight on each landscape. For the summer landscape, I have a lit-up waterfall with distant mountains at sunset. For spring it’s the afternoon, with a blossom tree hovering over a pond. There’s an overcast on the wintery mountains as the sun rises between them on to a small cabin near a frozen river. The morning sun also spills through the autumn trees onto a path littered with colorful leaves from the trees above it.
I’ve always loved the effects of sunlight on real places I’ve been to, which makes me acknowledge the fact that if there wasn’t any light, we would have nothing to look at. Light brings life to everything we witness, and although these landscapes are from my own imagination I want to demonstrate how the sunlight brings it to life as the viewer journey’s through each season. I hope to evoke a feeling of warmth and nostalgia with each piece that will hopefully encourage viewers to be more considerate of the only world we have. To put it simply, if viewers can connect with my paintings in a personal way it will leave a lasting impact on them, helping people realize the uniqueness of our world and that we should be more thankful for the only home in this vast universe we have. I am certain that my series will leave a lasting impression, despite these places not being real. The truth is, the sun only shines on the life and beautiful places we have on Earth, and the compositions I mentioned for each season can only be found here and nowhere else. No matter where we go, or what we do to it, Earth will always be our home, and we shouldn’t take it for granted. Hello again! Today I'm going to talk about my experience on the VAM field trip to AU Arts and Artpoint. Overall, the experience was very fun! AU Arts is where we stopped by first on this trip. The university was fantastic! I didn't realize how much they did there, from glasswork, to "loom," printmaking, etc... I'm unsure if I want to pursue art as a full time career, however, it will always be something I enjoy (just maybe on the side). I was amazed by the diversity of AU Arts and all they had to offer. If I was going to make art my full time career (maybe I might), this university would be a fantastic option even just to try new mediums of art! Everything the tour guide showed us seemed so interesting, and if I were to go to the university I would take as many courses as I could just for the sake of trying something new! Our next stop after lunch was Artpoint, a gallery where a variety of artists can display their work, (even my art teacher has painting's displayed there). We met with a printmaking artist, she had a fun yet sarcastic attitude and personality while she went through the process of printmaking with us. I didn't fully understand what printmaking was until I saw it for myself from a printmaker. One technique I remember her doing was taking a small strip of cardboard (or paper) and sliding it into the color of paint she wanted for the picture on the small metallic etching. She took the strip of paper and slid the color flat across the square etching in her hands (rather than painting the color on with a brush like I thought she would). She also pointed out that you've got to clean the paint off the edges of the small picture, or else that will be part of your picture when you put it through the printmaking machine. The most interesting part of the process was probably when she put the picture through the machine (that was the part when I think everyone stood up from the ground to see). If I remember correctly, she first put the plate with the etching on the printmaking machine and then lined up a piece of special, off-white paper on top. Then she turned the wheel of the machine which pressed the painted plate against the piece of paper (the wheel made a startling noise when the plate went through the wheel). When she took off the "blankets" and the plate the piece of paper revealed the etching squished on it from the machine with the colors she put on the plate, (namely blue and purple). It looked really cool! There was a particular piece of art that I was very intrigued by from Artpoint, a painting of lillies:
That's all for my blog today, I hope you enjoyed!
Hello, again! Welcome to my first blog of V.A.M Academy 20-1. This post is going to be about my all-new SMART goal for another year in the academy. This goal is going to be accomplished before January 31st, specifically between November and December.
S: Last year in Academy, I was introduced to clay sculpting. We created and painted creative bowls, which was a lot of fun but I felt like mine could’ve looked better. There were cracks in some areas and the bowl was bumpy, which really unsatisfied me. So when we start sculpting again allegedly around November-December, I’m going to learn and improve as much as I can when it comes to clay sculpting. I find this goal important because it is a medium of art that I have yet to learn more about, something that I don’t understand that I want to understand. My art teacher, Mr. Gray, is going to be giving us a sculpting assignment sometime between November and December; he will be providing supplies. I will sculpt in school during the art class in the mornings. M: I feel like I will have accomplished this goal when I’ve finally created a smooth, strong, and recognizable sculpture. I’ll be able to know what tools work best for what tasks, and I’ll finally be confident in my sculpting skills. A: This academy goal will be easy enough to accomplish because the academy itself already provides many amazing opportunities. I won’t have to worry about supplies considering the fact that the school already has most of them. I will try to learn as much as I can about sculpting by asking questions to Mr. Gray, or some notably good sculptors from last years V.A.M 20’s. I also plan to watch videos and do research on the best ways to make a smooth, strong sculptor since many sculptors with experience give advice online. R: This goal does seem worthwhile because it’s something I don’t currently feel like I know enough about. Last year I did enjoy sculpting, however, there were some frustrating moments where I felt like the clay was drying too fast or falling apart and not turning out the way I saw it in my head. Even when I asked Mr. Gray questions, I found that it still wasn’t turning out as smooth as I wanted, compared to everyone else. So this time I want to be more prepared, to sketch out or plan beforehand and watch videos for different advice and opinions. T: I’ll pursue my search for knowledge and research at least a week or two before we actually begin sculpting. I’ll have achieved this goal by January 31st, meaning it will be painted and fired in the kiln before that time. The unit itself will begin approximately 2-3 months from now, in the meantime, I will spend the first couple of days, (or more), of each month researching and asking questions so I can create a sculptor to the best of my ability. I will be updating you all with a blog for how my goal progress is going, and when I’ve finally accomplished the goal. Thanks for reading! Hello again! This blog is going to sum up my year in V.A.M 10 and everything I have learned. I would argue the best part of V.A.M 10 was when we did our Independent Projects for 6 weeks straight. It was a lot of fun for me, painting to my full potential. It was also great to see everyone so engaged in their own projects. As an artist, I have grown a lot looking at how I started in V.A.M. When I first arrived I was mostly a painter, that still is my favorite medium to work with when it comes to art. However, learning different mediums and the multiple dimensions of art has made me more open-minded to the opportunities found in the world of art. Next year, I hope I will be able to take my newly learned skills to the next level.
I really loved taking photos when I arrived, however, I didn't know anything about how an actual camera worked- or even photoshop. I've learned so much about taking photos from a camera and how the digital world of art works this year. Although I still have a long way to go, I'm definitely going to apply my photography and photoshop skills in my future endeavours. Hello again! This blog is regarding my final thoughts after the completion of my Independent Project, as well as my journey along the way. My project is a triptych that displays mythical beings from 7 different countries. I created this project with the intent of exploring my passion of the world and the diverse people in it, while also hoping I could teach people to not judge a book by its cover. When people see a 3-headed white elephant or a person with the head of a hawk, their initial reaction tends to be, "this is weird." But I found that when you ask why these creatures or deities do or look the way they do, it in turn signifies where it actually came from. When you look at these beings from the perspective of the people who find them extremely important, the reason for their existence starts to make sense. I went through ups and downs with this painting, the most anxiety induced thing for me was the fear that I wouldn't be able to finish it. I left for spring break with no clouds and the entire third canvas empty, which pressured me to work every morning of the break to get it done before I went back to school. I achieved my goal despite my fears and I am quite happy with how it turned out. This painting took a lot of effort and time, although I have no regrets for even pursuing this idea because it is a complete display of what I believe, as well as what I am capable of.
Hello again! Today I am writing about my semester so far as well as my progress on my Independent Project. When this semester started we began painting portraits of people from a picture. Whether it was someone we knew or from a picture, we had to put that picture through a filtering app and then paint that picture. Personally, I've never painted a portrait before, or any realistic human for that matter.
However, I do believe this was a great new experience and in a way, it challenged myself as an artist. I learned that when you want to paint something in real life, or from a picture you have to be quite observant. I had to restrain and remind myself not to stray off and do my own thing or else the painting would not look like the picture. With practice, I achieved the results I wanted as well as a great mark on my skill/content. For my Independent Project I decided I wanted to express myself and my views a bit more to the public. I am painting mythical creatures/beings that came from different countries, seven of them to be exact. However, I am painting them all over 3 canvases that will come together in the end to form one picture. This project and idea is quite different from everyone else, since most beings are in the same canvases together. I am excited to see what people think when I finish, but I'm worried about not finishing in time. I believe I'll need to start estimating exactly how much time each creature takes to paint, my problem is that I start getting very detail oriented and forget that there's a deadline. Hi! Today I'm going to talk to you about my semester in conclusion, and how much I've actually learned. As an artist so far I believe I've learned many things about the different mediums and kinds of art, and most of all I've had fun. Many things Mr. Grey offered us as projects posed as a challenge sometimes, because I couldn't imagine how I would be able to do it. But with some creativity and a few deep breaths I found a way around the daunting projects. When I finished I was pretty proud, and found that they didn't seem so bad after all. For example, I was especially nervous to start vector graphics and photoshop since I'm not very good at digital art. Starting out seemed impossible, and most of the time I didn't know what I was doing. However, I found that once I got the hang of it trying and trying again it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Of course, I have a lot to learn but now I'll go in trying not to be super intimidated.
My SMART Goal was to learn as much as I could about photography and spread the art I create with the people in this city. When we started photography I had trouble working the camera sometimes, especially with lighting. Sometimes I would constantly forget what certain buttons did. But as we moved forward in the photography unit and made our way to Big Hill Springs I found it easier to work the camera. It was fun when I managed to take pictures of things that seemed insignificant, and made them into something beautiful through photoshop. For my second goal I volunteered an awful lot in this community offering to do henna and getting a lot in tips. I did the Festival of Lights, the Empty Bowls Festival etc... I even learned how to paint a bowl (the eye in the garden platter) for charity! My goal for next semester would be to learn and improve more on digital art/vectors, since I'm still pretty bad at it, I would specifically like to know more about the helpful tools on the sides and how to use them properly. I would also like to improve my skills in photoshop. That's all for today, see you next time! Hello again! I'm here to blog about my experience at the celebration of learning on December 17th. I thought the art show went very good, people were passing by looking at my art. Many came up to me and complimented me on my trifold and artwork. I thought I was also put in a reasonable spot in the art room, and I also loved how the trifold's were set up. I don't know if the way it was all set up was intentional or not, but it sort of seemed like a maze that everyone could easily walk through. I liked how people could easily marvel at all the artwork at the same time. For the whole academy I thought it definitely helped us out having a gallery for a couple reasons. One of them was that we got to show people what we do, and they found out more about all the different types of projects we create as well. We got to put ourselves out there, and that was definitely beneficial to our academy.
Although the events leading up to the art show were definitely stressful, I believe it all payed off seeing as the art show itself went very well. It was really sad that we had to take down our trifold's after just a day of keeping them up, there was a lot of work that went into putting them up. We didn't have space, so we couldn't keep them like that. The only thing I would really change about anything is the way the art show was put together. The art show itself was fine in the end, but everything seemed very "last minute" when we were putting everything together. We were late on a lot of things, and something that I thought was very unfortunate was the fact that we didn't finish our bowls in time to display them for charity. I hope in the future more things will be done beforehand and we'll be a bit more organized and prepared for the show. |
Blog DescriptionHi there! Thanks for stopping by. This is my Blog and I'm going to be posting here about my VAM experience as well as my life and improvement as an artist. Hope you enjoy! Dua JunaidI am a 17-year-old girl who's passionate about art and anything that has to do with art. I really love drawing, painting, photography etc... |