Final Exam

Laura Lewis is a contemporary artist who paints nature and landscapes. She has a unique style, and her imagery is inspiring. 

I love using acrylic paint to create landscape pieces. Every piece I created in Art 3 this year incooperated nature in some way, particularly trees. 

I love Laura Lewis' almost mystical style, and I enjoyed creating my own unique style of painting. I use vibrant colors in my paintings, much like Laura does to draw eyes to our work. 

These are my 2 favorite pieces from this year, and while they do look somewhat similar, they carry very different meanings to me. The first is of Naples, Italy, my dad's home town, and the second was based off of pictures from the Appalachian Mountains, a place that I find peaceful and inspiring. Laura's beautiful work helped me to stick to my own style and not to change what type of paintings I created, regardless of what others said. She shares my nature and landscape theme, and although some may see our paintings as repetitive, we see the uniqueness in each picture of nature we view. Finding an artist that had a similar taste to mine helped me to embrace my theme and stick to it. Her style is more realistic than mine, and I hope to improve my painting technique through practice and be able to also create realistic landscapes. 

NCMA

1. I loved this painting immediately because it's a beautiful landscape piece and it's a lot like the art I wish I was able to do. My own art is similar to this, but not as breathtaking and detailed. My favorite thing about this is the water and the clouds.

2. I didn't like this piece at first because it seemed too simple and not enough thought was put into it. But after I read the description, I realized it had more meaning behind it. The piece represents the way that children especially are forced into a sedentary, boring education. I can relate to this message a lot and I believe that most people who have gone to public school would.

3. 

I have no appreciation for this piece. I don't believe that it was well done, and it looks like it was a thoughtless work. I don't like the abstract feel because to me, it was not well done or polished. 

The description of the piece did not explain the artwork at all or its meaning.

Never Got A Chance To Say

I chose to do a landscape picture of Naples, Italy because that city holds great emotional significance for me. My dad was raised there, and my family still lives in Naples. I will most likely only get to visit a few more times in my life, and its significance to me will always be hidden away. I chose to do use acrylic paint on canvas because it is the medium I enjoy the most, and I wanted to have fun with this project. My print is a simplified image of my painting. 

Non-Traditional Materials

        Sugar, Spice, and Everything Nice

For my non traditional material project, I knew I wanted to do something with trees. It was fall and I was already thinking about thanksgiving and holiday food, so I got the idea to use spices. The woman is in a wedding dress to show her femininity. Her dress is made up of the sugar. Her skin is made up of an onion spice, and the trees are made up of nutmeg, pumpkin spice, and a few other spices. For the ground, I found that thyme leaves worked well and made it really look like dry grass. I used spray on glue to get everything to stick to the paper, and it was really difficult to keep the spices from spraying everywhere. I ended up having to redo the project once because I made the woman's dress out of salt and sugar first to avoid attracting ants, but the glue had a weird reaction with the salt and bled through the paper.

Post-Modern Principle Project

       Post-Modern Principle Project

I chose juxaposition for my principle because I think it allowed a lot of creativity. I put chickens behind the register at McDonalds and cows were the customers and I love how out of place this seems. The theme of money in the picture depicts the corruption of the food industry, particularly with the mistreatment of animals.

The Best Art Supply Store Doesn't Sell Art Supplies

The great thing about not using traditional art supplies is it leaves a lot of doors open. Potentially anything could be considered an art supply, and it's up to the artist to decide what to use. I personally don't like creating sculptures however, and most of the projects shown in the article were sculptures. I prefer using my creativity to paint and create 2D artwork and I don't feel that I should be considered less creative because of this. 

Here are some art pieces made from non traditional art supplies like candy and wood: 

This piece of art is really cool because it uses creepy doll parts to make a head. This project wouldn't be nearly as interesting if it was made with traditional art supplies.

This Marilyn Monroe was made with candy although r it may not look like it. It's so well pieced together that it sets it apart from all of the other mundane artwork done of her. 

This non traditional piece of artwork is really cool because it incooperates nature. Using rings from trees is a unique idea and are not available in traditional art stores. 

Here is another piece made from candy because making art from candy seems to be a standard for non traditional art. I like how the sweet candy contrasts with the deathly theme in this piece. 

It's sort of hard to tell in this picture but this is a sculpture created out of nails. I like this use of non traditional art materials because it's not clear what medium was used, and it seems that there is a reflection off of the piece that makes it look like feathers. 

Art without meaning is decoration?

To me, art is any expression of creativity. If art isn't meant to be looked at, what is it meant for? Art is meant to be seen, and appreciated, which makes most art decoration by definition. However, in cases where artists are poked and prodded into doing a very specific theme, the creativity in the work melts away, and it no longer is art; it becomes decoration.