Concentration #3

Watercolor 

"Art Capacities" Reflection

Reflecting on my art capacities was actually quite difficult for me. I am naturally an indecisive person, and while filling this out I found myself second guessing my responses and changing my answers a lot. I had never really thought about how I viewed my work and my process. I think I am still finding myself as an artist and still forming my opinions on the way I create art.

I felt that the two things I am strong at are noticing deeply and searching for compelling images. To me, these categories go hand-in-hand. Everyday I observe my surroundings and always seem to notice the little things. I am interested in details and I enjoy finding beauty in things that are often overlooked. When viewing artwork, I enjoy analyzing it and attempting to pull out all of its meaning. Before starting a new piece art, I always search for images of inspiration. The more I am exposed to compelling images, the more ideas I have. For example, much of my concentration is a result of going out and experiencing nature and noticing its intricacies.

I think I need to work on connecting diverse disciples and taking action. Sometimes I am afraid to break out of my artistic comfort zone. Once I find a medium or image or idea that I'm interested in, I tend to stick to it. I need to work on branching out and taking risks in my art. I sometimes generate interesting ideas, but don't follow through with them because I doubt my capability. Also, it takes me a little more time than I would like to jump into a new project.

Rough Draft Artist Statement

In my work, I am interested in the fusion between humans and nature. I believe we as people should coexist with our environment and embrace its euphoric powers. By overlapping the human and natural world, I wish to capture the intricacies of the forest in conjunction with the beauty of the human anatomy.

Concentration #2

Watercolor

No. 89: Personal is Political

The phrase "the personal is political" originates from an essay by an influential member of the Women's Liberation Movement, Carol Hanisch. In the essay, she talked about women's hardships having less to do with their personal psychology and more to do with their "social condition as women." She also linked women with other oppressed groups. Through art, women dove into feminism and started boldly expressing there opinions about their gender in society. Installations like Judy Chicago's dinner party served as a tribute and celebration of powerful women. Eventually more women were represented in respected societal roles.

Although in today's society I feel that women are given virtually the same opportunities as men, I still can use my experience as a woman to fuel the meaning of my work. I could address the issue of women being objectified by men, but also how women objectify themselves. I could also draw attention to the "toughness" of being a woman, like having to experience and embrace childbirth (I'd like to see a man to that!). It would also be interesting to explore the different roles of women through documentary: the nurturer, the homemaker, the business woman, etc.

No. 79: Protest

In Birds passage about protest in art, he talks about artists using the power of their work to argue or make a statement about a certain issue. He mentions that artists must first "see themselves as being in a position to take sides," meaning that they should hold a strong opinion. A lot of protest art started as political critiques and anti-war images. Artists use the power of manipulating narratives to show their side of an issue. Protest art then grew into advertisements, documentaries, and memorial art. 

I think art is an effective and compelling way to speak one's voice because it is a universal language. It would be interesting to make a protest cartoon about something other than politics (i.e. society's pressure on women regarding body image). It would also be neat to make protest posters against budget cuts for the art departments in schools. Finally, protest art could be used to communicate generation gaps between a child and parent. 

No. 20: Icon

According to Bird, icons originated from Orthodox Christianity as "pictures of holy figures." The images were at times controversial in some religions because they took on a sacred aura and were seen as idols. Icons of holy figures were intentionally painted unrealistically, and "portrayed an otherworldly reality." As time goes on, artists use icons in their work in a different way. Andy Warhol, for example, depicted celebrities as icons and worshiped people.

In my work, I think I would draw inspiration from icons in society rather than traditional religions. I could explore what material things people worship. Do people of different ages "worship" different things? I could create images of people's "individual icons." What type of person do we strive to be like? Could I make an icon for different decades that are dressed in different ways? What does depicting celebrities or objects as icons say about religion?