The prompt for my first piece was “Follow Your Heart.” In other words, we were allowed to create whatever we wanted. My original goal was to portray who I am and what I’m passionate about. However, in the process of making this, I went through changes in my life. School assignments really started to trickle in, and college applications, driving lessons, job applications, and my social life dogpiled me on all sides. I was sacrificing my time and energy faster than I could replenish it, and I lost myself as a result. I was so exhausted that my self image had transformed from one of carefree idealism to passive contempt and apathy. Because of all of these things, I decided to take my piece in a new direction. “Dogwood” is an honest reflection of how I felt at the time I created it. It embodies my struggle for control, motivation, and independence.
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My 2nd and 3rd pieces portray a traumatic event from a child’s eyes–in this case, a house fire. Our class was allowed to use any medium as long as we used them to elevate our ideas. I personally decided to use crayons to elevate my theme of childhood. Originally, I planned to draw messily and impulsively to mimic a child’s way of drawing. However, this fell through due to me becoming overly cautious during the drawing process and wanting the end result to be “gallery quality” and not have the appearance of a rough sketch. In addition, my teacher’s input helped strengthen my original concept–she suggested I draw in my signature “anime-like” style to give the pieces a childish touch. I also thought of portraying a serious topic in this style–in this case, a house fire–, juxtaposing fear and trauma with a child’s limited ability to process these things.
The pieces are arranged in chronological order: the immediate explosion coming first, and then the close-up of the child’s eyes. I wanted to bring a sense of whimsy into these pieces. Fire is associated with light, so I made the initial blaze appear more like starlight than flames. Additionally, the idea behind my second piece was for angels to arrive to douse the flames, comforting the child as she watches her house burn. I also used bright colors to capture her sense of imagination.
Recently, I’ve been looking back on a time when I was stuck in a cycle. I wasn’t really growing or changing, and I withdrew a lot into my own thoughts. I created a little world in my head and spent most of my time there. (Now I’m realizing that was probably a side-effect of the pandemic) (!!)
I didn’t see it at the time, but constantly retreating can be a dangerous thing! Self-reflection is one thing, but ruminating is another. It’s not good when you do it all the time. And I resorted to that a lot! I felt that in order to handle a new situation, I had to get my thoughts together first. That was actually just me afraid to get out of my comfort zone. (Or afraid to step out of my room, because of the pandemic, which um. Probably has more to do with this than I initially thought).
The focal point of “Tunnel Vision” is the mind, which was also my focal point at the time. I let myself be messier with this piece, one because it aligns with the theme (thoughts are very messy), and two because I needed to give myself a break from being perfectionistic. I really enjoyed piecing the colors together, and I think this is one of my favorite pieces to date. It’s interesting how the less I stress about my art, the more I like the end result.
I didn’t see it at the time, but constantly retreating can be a dangerous thing! Self-reflection is one thing, but ruminating is another. It’s not good when you do it all the time. And I resorted to that a lot! I felt that in order to handle a new situation, I had to get my thoughts together first. That was actually just me afraid to get out of my comfort zone. (Or afraid to step out of my room, because of the pandemic, which um. Probably has more to do with this than I initially thought).
The focal point of “Tunnel Vision” is the mind, which was also my focal point at the time. I let myself be messier with this piece, one because it aligns with the theme (thoughts are very messy), and two because I needed to give myself a break from being perfectionistic. I really enjoyed piecing the colors together, and I think this is one of my favorite pieces to date. It’s interesting how the less I stress about my art, the more I like the end result.
I thought of creating “Family” as a Christmas gift for my parents. Initially I wanted to draw all of us as children, playing together in a field. This idea was eventually scrapped for the piece I have now.
I was inspired by Anna Laura’s “blanket of stars” – I wanted to portray my parents as a source of light giving comfort to us in the dark of night. They’re showing me and my little brother the stars while firmly holding us in their arms. In the process of making this, I kept thinking to myself, “man, I’m so blessed to have a family this loving.” It’s a gift that I often forget I have and take for granted. Definitely one of the ways God has blessed me. The writing “you gave us the stars” was more of an afterthought. I wasn’t satisfied with the end result of my piece because I felt like something was missing. Then I thought of advice someone gave me to combine graphic design elements with my visual art pieces. I could put text into my work to enhance it. The phrase “you gave us the stars” kept popping up in my head, so that was what I ended up using. If you look closely, you’ll notice two tiny stars next to the phrase I wrote. Those stars represent me and JJ. They were the finishing touches. <3 |
Zine (work in progress)