50% check

I plan to finish my second piece (dragonfruit) in school before the weekend, and I am halfway through my last piece. I hope I can work a little bit on my last piece at home and continue to finish it during the last few classes next week.

Museum Gallery Visit II: Seoul Metro Art Center

Over the summer, my mom and I were taking the subway in Seoul during vacation when we came across a small section within the station where there were a bunch of art pieces hung up on display. When we went inside to take a closer look, I realized that all the paintings were done by primary students from schools all over Seoul. I actually ended up enjoying this museum a lot more than I usually do in more "professional" galleries, and I think this is because looking at artwork done by little kids allowed me to go back to the basics of learning art and how important they are to making meaningful pieces.

The student that painted this work may not yet have learned about exaggerative perspectives the way that SAS students did in high school, but even at a young age, this person already knew that interesting perspectives can result in a more eye-catching painting. It's true that out of all the pieces displayed, this particular student may not have the best artistic skills compared to his/her peers, but his/her work was the one that caught my eye instantly because of the image she chose to paint. By having the hands a whole lot bigger than the person itself, it grabbed people's attention. Exaggerated perspective pieces, which I only learned to really appreciate this school year, can really give that extra uniqueness to an artwork. 

This is also another example of an exaggerated perspective piece that caught my eye, and with this one, I also really admired how much attention and patience the student must have had to really be neat and meticulous with his/her shape and lines. 

The next two paintings that I was drawn to were these ones. Both are really similar in terms of the color theme and painting style, but what I really liked about it was how much the students focused on the shapes of their painting, and particularly the contrast in the first painting. These kinds of paintings I have always admired because, up close, they seem really basic, simple, and quickly done, but from afar, they are one of the most eye-catching ones due to the strength in their shapes and clear lines. It reminded me of how I used to be a hardcore perfectionist when it came to the smallest details, only to realize that sometimes they are unnoticeable in the final picture and that I spent way too much time on them. Of course, details and being attentive about them are both still very important, but sometimes it's nicer to just focus on the big picture. 

With this student, I could tell right away that he/she is a very neat and patient person. Every line and shape was painted to near-perfection, which of course resulted in a painting that was very clear and clean-cut. When I looked at this artwork, I saw a little bit of myself in it because even since I was young, I have always been one to strive for precision. I could tell that this piece took a very long time for the student to do, and I really appreciate how even though he/she is only in primary school, he/she is already taking the time and patience to create meaningful art. 

The last thing I noticed as I strolled past all the artworks on display was that younger kids definitely played a lot more with their imagination and were more adventurous about expressing it than high school kids are. There were a lot of pieces where there could not have been a reference photo for the kids to look at––they just simply drew what they had in their heads, like the paintings above. This really stuck with me because I always liked having reference photos and making art from it by looking at every angle, shape, line, and shadow, but I am sometimes afraid to try being imaginative with what I want to draw. Coming up with a creative idea for a reference photo is still completely different from coming up with an idea that is absolutely new and only in your head, while also creating that art without looking at anything to guide you.

2D: Monoprints

Manipulation of Materials:

With monoprint, it was definitely a good decision for me to make a second piece with the knowledge of knowing what works and what doesn't from making the first piece. When I made the first piece (drawing of the dog), I didn't press hard enough for some of the lines and especially the shading within the darker areas, because I was afraid that too much paint would transfer onto the paper. However, I realized that, with a very thin layer of paint of the plexiglass, I really had to put a good amount of pressure to emphasize the lines. 

2D: Concentration 1

Problem Solving:

I had a lot of difficulty trying to figure out which colors to lay down when I was getting started. Because the fish had a lot going on, I didn't really know what I was doing when I followed along with the colors that I can see from the reference photo because some of the shapes were very vague. However, I realized that even though I didn't have a clear direction initially, the painting started to show through after a while as long as I had kept on going. 

Presentation and Quality: 

I was worried for a short period of time that the colors and shapes wouldn't be as prominent after the paint dried as it was when the paint was still wet. With acrylic, I noticed that when I blended too much, the paints sort of dulled out together when it dried. I had to keep reminding myself not to blend the paints too much so that the shapes and shadows would show as much as possible after it dried. As for the overall presentation, I decided to leave the background plain because there was already so much going on with the fish. 

Exaggerated Perspective 2018

Creativity:

With this assignment, because exaggerated perspective could mean zooming into an object closely and taking the photo with something smaller in the background, I wanted to focus on something with a lot of detail, hence, the pineapple. At first, I wasn't sure about what object would be in the background, but as I took a photo of my sister holding the pineapple, I made sure that I added the hand in the photo to make it even more exaggerated with the fingers taking up most of the frame. 

Manipulation of Materials:

Because its supposed to be 18x24, I chose oil pastel to really be able to emphasize more on the overall product rather than the small details of the photo. Also, since the pineapple had really bright yellows and greens, I wanted to oil pastel to help bring out the contrasting colors of the fruit. 

Problem Solving:

Surprisingly, I had more difficulty working on the hand instead of the pineapple. I think this was because the pineapple, though it had a lot going on, was really simple and bold in its colors, while the hand was more vague and its shapes were less defined. I had to really emphasize on the contrast of the light and dark tones of the hand so that it wouldn't look too bland, and so I made color differences a lot more distinct on the piece than the way it is in the photo. The beige oil pastel was also a lot harder to work with because for some reason, it didn't lay down on the matteboard as well as the other colors. 

Museum Gallery Visit I: Chihuly Garden and Glass

 During the summer, my family and I visited the Chihuly Garden and Glass Art Museum in Seattle. The museum is dedicated to artist Dale Chihuly, who is famous for his work with glass sculpting/blowing. Prior to visiting, I never knew that glass, a material that I've always considered to be rigid, could be manipulated in the most interesting ways to produce beautiful sculptures.

The most ordinary kind of material such as glass can still be turned into an unexpected work of art. Because most of the art I'm exposed to is at school, I'm only aware and have only really thought about types of three-dimensional art that are more common such as sculpting with simpler materials like paper or plaster. It was really interesting for me to be able to learn that glass, a material that is, although common, very fragile and quite dangerous, can be sculpted and shaped into any kind of form (but only when it's extremely hot and right out of the oven).

Seeing an artist's process of thinking are sometimes more intriguing than his/her's final work. After Chihuly became an expert at glassblowing through tons of practice, he was finally able to start brainstorming his creativity with what he wanted to do with glass. I especially loved how the museum even included Chihuly's sketches and idea boards so that we can see what was going through his mind before having a structured idea of how to shape the glass. 

Sometimes you need science to help you be able to produce unique forms of art. After watching documentaries of Dale Chihuly working, I noticed that the process of glassblowing requires so much time and effort in terms of trying to figure out the right ways to do it. Before Chihuly was even able to get creative and colorful with glass, he spent so much time of his life initially figuring out the right temperatures, timings, and methods to be able to produce stable and smooth glass shapes. 

Putting nature's art and manmade art together in the same space carefully can help them to compliment each other. Towards the end of the gallery, we were guided outdoors to see the glass structures presented with neatly trimmed plants and flowers. Purple glass structures were placed thoughtfully around purple flowers, and taller red plants were surrounded with tall and slim red glass structures. 

Created Surfaces 2018

Manipulation of Materials

I wanted to use this specific created surface because I liked the way it turned out in the end after randomly placing the paper on acrylic paint in the sinks. Because the colors of the acrylic paints were already really strong on the paper, I didn't want to make the piece too colorful by using a medium of choice that is too bright or colorfuly specifically for this surface. I also thought that the detailed parts of rapidograph would be a good contrast to the soft, watery paint. 

Problem Solving

At first, I was debating on whether or not to add something in between the two hands because I had initially thought that it looked too plain and empty. I was thinking about adding either a string, a ribbon, or even an object (like an apple), but after asking for advice, others said its best to leave it blank to really show emphasis on the connection between the hands, as if they were reaching for one another. 

Creativity

With this piece, I really wanted to incorporate the created surface into part of whatever I decided to draw instead of just drawing anything I felt like on a piece of paper with color on it. Because the created surface turned out to form in a vertical shape, it looked as if it could emphasize a form of connection of whatever I decided to draw, so I decided to do hands. This was also partially because I had always disliked drawing anything related to body parts, so I decided to challenge myself a little bit by drawing hands without a reference photo and contour-lining from life. 

Manipulation of Material

I had initially only wanted to use watercolor as the medium of choice for this piece, but after I finished watercolor painting the juicebox, I noticed that there weren't enough emphasis on the lines and shapes of the drawing, especially since the shapes of the food on the actual paper bag were outlined clearly in black lines. Because of this, I decided the add the lines in black onto the contour line of the juicebox to give it a more "pop art" look and work better with the shapes on the actual found surface. 

Problem Solving

I had a problem with the paper bag in that I thought it was too small to draw on, so I decided to cut it up into different parts and pasting them carefully on another piece of watercolor paper. 

Creativity

With this piece, I had originally just wanted to draw on the Marche paper bag, but I realized that it was too bland, especially it was almost entirely white with only a few black drawing lines, which is why I decided to add red ink onto some parts of the paper, which would also help with complimenting the bold red color of the juicebox.