"Daisy" - Summer 2010

Mediums: Acrylic, Sharpie

Project 10 - Independent #5 - "Gears 5"

Mediums: Acrylic, Gesso, Yarn, Paper Tape, Spray Paint

Project 9 - Independent #4 - "Gears 4"

Mediums: Acrylic, Yarn, Spray Paint, Watercolors, Paper Tape

Project 8 - Independent #3 - "Gears 3"

Project 6 - Independent #1 - "Gears 1"

Project 7 - Independent #2 - "Gears 2"

Project 5 - Woven Paintings - "The Fountain"

The prompt for this project was to take an image, whether you were the photographer or not, make two identical paintings of opposing color schemes, and then weave the two paintings together. Like the last project, I got my hopes up from the very beginning because I thought I had an awesome and unique idea that would turn out great. However, I was disappointed when I realized that my idea would not work after all. My original idea was to make the two paintings mirror images of each other instead of being identical. My reasoning behind thinking this idea would work was that since the woman's body was curved and met up at her head and everything else was either greenery or part of a fountain, it would turn out looking cool. My plan was to make the colors of the woman's dress, skin, and hair the same on both paintings so that when I wove them, hopefully the onlooker would be able to tell what I had done. After realizing that this would most likely just look confusing, I decided to just weave one of the watercolor paintings with the picture I had printed out of the fountain that I had used for reference. I also found this to be a problem because the watercolor paper I used to paint on was much thicker than the printer paper that was used to print the actual picture of the fountain on. I then had the idea of scanning the other painting, flipping it, printing it in color, and then weaving that with the same printed picture. This did turn out to be a lot easier to weave, but for some reason, when the painting was scanned, something happened with the colors, as if the ink in the printer did not have the same color as was on the painting. After finally weaving the two printed papers, I had to go in with more watercolor to fix the colors a bit. I then took a sharpie marker and outlined the black and white parts of the paper that was showing and put gloss medium and varnish on top to make it glossy and get it to look more complete than it did before. Again, like the last project, I was not as satisfied with the end result as I would have liked to have been, but since this is the first time I have used this technique, I know that if I ever do this again, it will only get better.

P.S. Here is the original picture and one of the watercolor paintings which I am proud of:

Project 4 - Image Transfer On Textured Paint - "Hey, I Think You Have Birds In Your Hair."

Although I was very excited to start this project, the end result did not live up to my expectations. Acrylic paint and india ink were used.

Project 3 - Quick Charcoal Drawing on Masonite - "Layers"

I can only say I somewhat love this piece. I feel as if because I only spent one class period on the charcoal drawing it isn't worthy enough for me to say that it is the most successful composition I have done while having Brandt as a teacher. I have never been able to make a good piece of art in a short amount of time in my opinion. However, that was sort of the point of the project, to make a compostion quickly, as in making quick marks. Without time being taken into consideration, I do love it because everything seemed to make itself work. Although it appears as if I purposely spray painted the brick color in strategic areas or purposely made the brick column at the top slanted to help the drawing flow, I really didn't. They were both just "happy accidents", which is a continuing theme amongst my successful pieces.

Project 2 - Stick Drawing - "Book Man"

I'm not really pleased with the end-result of this project, most likely due to the fact that it was my second attempt at using a stick to draw with india ink. Despite that, I am somewhat pleased with some of the elements in the drawing and am really interested in exploring the technique further so that I can be happy with the end-result.

2010-2011: Project 1 - (Fake) Erasure - "Childhood"

After finally completing this piece, I still can not decide if it was successful or not. I wish i could have made the tires appear more realistic. As well, I wish I could have blended the background a lot better. I do however love the way the actual tricycle turned out. I also love the way my painting conveys the message I wanted to send, at least to me.