Working with Things

Today was the last official work day for the current theme of Objects, Artifacts, and Things You Leave Behind. It has been a delight to see the array of works that have been passing through our online gallery as students complete, photograph, and upload their work to Artsonia. 

Students really pushed themselves this time because they were asked to use a material they had yet to create with. This limitation opened up a slew of new opportunities for students and here are some of the highlights:

Alexis: In my artwork, I drew with a picture of a girl looking into a mirror and seeing a monster. I drew this to represent depression. I drew this to show that some people look in the mirror and see something that is a monster and they think they aren't good enough. But that’s not true because everybody is beautiful the way they are. Also, in my art, I drew the monster surrounding the girl as if the monster was a cage. In the background of my art, I drew hands pointing at the girl and I drew lips that are calling the girl names. If you look closely at the girl, you can see that she has no torso but instead it’s just a skeleton of a back. I drew this to show body image issues with some girls and I wanted to draw the girl this way to show how girls think they need to be as skinny as a skeleton to be pretty. In my drawing, I drew with drawing pencils, and graphite. I then erased parts of the pencil to give my artwork some highlights. My art relates to the theme because I feel like this is something left behind. I feel like this because this is a huge issue for many girls and I feel that people don't know how big of a problem it is. Also, the mean things that get said to you always stay with you, but these things are the underestimated problems that are left behind in your life, and you just have to let go and don't let the monster in the mirror get into your life.

Ana: In my comic story, I mostly used color pencils, ink pens to bold out the details, color sticks, also some yellow marker to make the necklace more bolded and noticeable. My work does show the art concept of Objects, Artifacts, and Things you leave behind, because my story focuses on this necklace that is lost and left in an unknown place for a decade before being found and returned. It is also a object and artifact because it is a necklace that is forgotten, and this boys find it and gives it to his girlfriend as a gift, but it had treasured by her when she was a young girl, what makes it so valuable and even more dear to her now is that her love was the one who found it and given it back to her. This story also seems to deal with fate like the necklace was meant to be brought back, but only to be brought back by the right person. My story kinda goes along with Mitchell Feinberg's art of the chocolate treat and it projects and deals with time, as my comic in the part where the necklace is lost in the trees to watch as things around it, leave and come only it's missing its owner or someone who has not come to bring it back. In the beginning it project a little girl with her missing teeth, so that indicates she about 8yrs old, when she playing in an open field, then it shows her with another woman going out of the park leaving the necklace behind that had seemed to be dropped. This is where the bird flies into the scene, picks the little necklace up and drops it in a tree where it show of the little blue bird's nest, as the weeks pass for the hatchlings have hatched, too coming of fall and winter, then months then years it has been hung up in the nest. On a faithful the lightning hitting that particular branch that held the necklace for those long years, which soon a boy finally found the necklace after the lightning strike then only to give it back to his girlfriend as a gift. Where this girl was the prior owner, the little girl in the beginning of the story.

Denver: For this particular project I decided to take a picture using my experience as a guide. I used the rule of thirds to make the photo more interesting. I also took the picture in a area were their was two lights one that made a reflection off of the plates and one that lit up the photo. This piece goes with the project because I took just an everyday item and created a piece of art by taking a picture of a broken plate against whole plates. I made a normal household object into something with meaning. This fallows Mitchell Feinberg the most because like me we both use photos to show the story.

Nick: To make this piece, I used a ton of gummy bears. The 3 triangles are covered in gummy bears, and there's a flashlight shining up them to light them up. The cylinder-like things are also made of gummy bears. I hot glued gummy bears on top of gummy bears to create them. Then I placed a candle in the middle to light them up. I then photographed it in my dark garage. On iPhoto, I edited the picture a little to make the candle lights seem brighter and to take a little of the glare off of the bottom gummy bears on the triangles. My work is similar to that of Janet Fish because of the reflective qualities it has. The gummy bears on the triangles are reflecting the light, which is why you can see them. If they weren't reflecting the light, they'd just be dark and they wouldn't show up. However, my work is also like that of Wayne Thiebaud. That is because both my piece and his have things that are repeated throughout the piece. The gummy bears in my piece are the repeated objects just like how the pieces of cake are repeated in one of his pieces. Finally, my piece is like some of Jim Dine's work because some of his pieces and my piece are both sculptures. Mine is sculpture made out of gummy bears, like his are sculptures made out of tools.

Corrinne: The reason I chose to do this for this project is because I really like photography. I thought that since a camera is an object, and could be an artifact in the future, it would fit in this project great. The camera was an observational drawing from a picture on my computer that I traced over in pen. Then, I decided to add texture and crosshatch the middle with a fine tip Sharpee, a regular pen, and gel pens. Finally, the background is a watercolor of only primary colors, because the colors of gel pens I used on the inside were just those colors too. An artist that inspired me originally was Audrey Flack because her paintings looked like real photos. So, I thought I was going to do a photography project. But, then I realized I could spin it around and draw a camera.

Sarah: My piece shows the theme of how objects are left behind because in the story, the character named Piccolo has a hat that goes on an adventure to find another hat. This hat ends up finding a girl hat and they fall in love, but their human owners are lonely without their hats so they try to find their hats. In the end, they all find each other and live happily ever after. This is, in a way, like the artist Wayne Thiebaud, who illustrations mostly clothing, such as a hat or shoes.

Lilly: For my project I decided to make a necklace, because I thought that it was something that not a lot of people do, and I thought that it would be fun. To make the fringe on the necklace, I cut small pieces of brown wire do to size. Then I twisted the pieces of wire and left a loop on the top, so that I could slip it easily on to the black leather. To twist the wire, I just gripped the top with my fingers to create the loop, and then just twisted the wire. After I was done twisting the wire, I just cut of the excess and looped it on to the black leather. To make the necklace be able to be different lengths based on your preference, I made two slip knots so that you could change how far down the necklace goes. Some elements of the art are shape, because the fringe are a different shape than necklaces usually have. Another element is texture, because when you feel the fringe it kind of feels rough but smooth at the same time. Some examples of principles of design are unity, because of how the pieces of fringe look together. One more example of principles of design contrast, because of how the brown and black contrast each other. This piece of art kind of reminds me of Mitchell Feinberg, because in his artwork he uses the same objects, such as shoes, apples, and bullets. In my piece, I used a lot of the twisted wire to represent fringe. Kind of like how Mitchell Feinberg uses many of the same objects in his art.

Brody: For my art I think I used good texture with the things I took pictures of because you can see what I took pictures of and how the would feel. Also, I think I used a good variety of things I took pictures of because not one of them are really close to one another. One thing that I used for every picture was the camera because it took good pictures of things. Another tool I used was the brightness tool in Artsonia to make my art have more texture. I would compare my art to Jim Dines art because I took pictures of things and put them together to make my name.

Paige: In this piece of art, I used many different materials, including newspaper and oil pastel. I used the newspaper as the floor of the room, along with a white oil pastel to lightly color over the newspaper. I also used metallic pencils to shade in and color the different objects in the room. In my art, I can show the concept of this theme because it is showing food, drinks, and some other objects that a person left behind at a diner. When looking at the artist Wayne Thiebaud, I can compare my art to his because he had food in one of his art pieces, and he had some drinks in another one of his pieces that must have been left behind from somebody.

Kasey: Objects can represent many different things that we encounter in life or today's society. In Mitchell Feinberg's art piece that was made with shoe in the shape of a heart. Represents the Boston Marathon Bombing that happened a couple of years ago. Also in Jim Dine's art pieces he has tools that are outlined in black then has shadowing. This represents his life as a kid because his dad was an owner of a workshop.

Clay: In my artwork, Force Field I have a metal ball made out of wire. That could represent the force field. Then I have a have a person in their that has the colors blue, green, and red. He is hovering inside the force field. How I made him hover was that I poked a hole in both his hands and slit a smaller more bendable wire that I wrapped around one of the sides of the big wire. I did that on each hand. I had a lot of fun making this and I am pretty proud of it.