"Emotional Week" - Time as an Element Project

Artists create original art.

Every day we wake up and come to school or work and ask each other, "how are you doing?" I came up with the idea of showing how other people felt throughout the week by asking them to draw a sketch using the lighter or darker color set out for each specific day. Some drawings/markings were goofy and light hearted, while others seemed deep/nervous/sad.

The day before we started this project, we had done something similar at my church at the end of the service. They set out three canvases with two colors of tempera paint for each, and asked everyone to come up and make a marking with their fingers that represents they are a part of the church community. When all of the markings were done, the canvases were filled up with different elaborate markings and showed how we were all united together. This inspired me to do something similar for my piece, and show on one page how throughout the week we go through similar feelings and experience the same emotions.

Artists collaborate.

Instead of asking for feedback on my project, I had other students help me create a collage showing their emotions throughout each day. After a week, I was able to fill up the whole page and got a bit of an insight into the pattern of emotions teenagers feel everyday. 

Artists communicate through their work.

This piece is intended to show that everyone has their good days and their bad days, and all experience similar emotions throughout our lives.  At one time or another, we all feel like we are alone in our own little world where nobody understands how we feel.  What people need to realize is they are never alone and even if someone has a different lifestyle than you, they can still relate to you in some way and help you through whatever roller coaster of emotions you are having.  I love this piece because depicts what people around me are like and what type of personalities they have. 

"Lightning" Bugs - Appropriation Project - Final Snapshot

Artists reflect.

I had a lot of fun doing this piece but didn't really take a step back and look at it as a whole until I had the "lightning bugs" completely done in Photoshop.  It is easy for me to imagine things like this project in my head, but I find it very hard to explain them until I finish the entire thing.  I am so tedious with certain details that I repeatedly find myself going over any mistakes I may have missed, and attempt to fix them no matter what.  Other than some of those slight bumps in the process, making this type of art work was a lot of fun.

Artists take risks.

I never used Photoshop very much other than at the beginning of another art class.  I was not sure if using this medium was such a good idea, but after tweaking a few parts of it, I knew this was going to turn out great and there was no going back.  It was a bit risky using all the still life you can see in the piece because there was an extremely high probability that I could scratch or damage the photocopier while working.

Artists solve problems.

Just like any other artist, I ran into a few dilemmas that slowed me down, but I never let them ruin my entire piece.  One major issue I had when editing was making the colors a bit more vibrant and look like they are glowing along with the lightning bugs. It seems like such a simple fix, but when one looks into it, it is extremely tricky to try and have it all flow together.  I had to add a bit of an ambient glow to the lightning bugs and inside the lantern to make it look more realistic, and a few times ended up putting a glow that was too strong or not the right color. Even though I struggled with that, I learned that handling technology requires patience and a good eye to make sure you don't leave anything out. 

"Lightning" Bugs - Appropriation Project - Snapshot 1

Artists create original art.

When we were coming up with ideas after seeing other examples of appropriation, it was difficult to come up with something clever and different from what we had seen. I had watched a television show the night before that had incorporated lightning bugs into the story line and an idea just popped into my head: why not make literal lightning bugs?  

Artists collaborate.

When developing my idea and helping other people at the table around me, we all had a chance to give ideas on how to improve our pieces and what would work best for other people. I tried doing a bit of watercolor at first but thought it would be nice to do different mediums and ended up choosing mixed media/technology. Another art teacher had attempted to use the photocopier and still life to make a few projects before, which inspired me to attempt the same thing and go all out with many different layers of copies.  I loved what she did to make the artwork, and her technique really helped me come up with great new ideas on a non traditional piece.

                                      

Artists develop art making skills.

I learned that when it comes to Photoshop and editing, patience is key.  More times than one I had to go back and fix something, or wait for the computer to load because the program would work very slowly. I needed a bit of help from classmates and my teacher with figuring out Photoshop at first, but once I got the idea I found it to be really fun and I was proud when everything came together in the end.  I didn't use too many familiar materials, but we had done some Photoshop edits on things from past art classes, and I had to learn new techniques for using the computer and photocopier so I could make more layers.  I learned many new things about Photoshop I never knew before, and now it is one of my favorite programs to use.