Sarah Calderon

Ms. Bjork

Graphic Design B3

1 November, 2016

Alternative Art~Artist Statement

Modern artists have found new and creative ways to use materials, sometimes even creating their own media. In our latest project for AP Art, we were asked to be just this: create art unlike anything you’ve ever made before. Overall, by using the alternative media of leaves with a variety of art materials and techniques, such as collage, stamps, pastels, charcoal pencils, watercolor pencils, and paint, I was able to create a unique piece of alternative art.

When thinking of my concept, I was really inspired by the colors of fall. Fall is my favorite season, but this fall has been very different. I’ve moved, switched jobs, gone through a breakup. Like the leaves of the trees, this is a big change. But it’s also a beginning. Leaves fall, reminding us that a new year will be blossoming, one that is hopeful. I wanted to portray the happiness of the season compared to the person, so I created a vibrant background collaged with bright colors. The profile of the girl is black and white, however her eyes are fall colors. I did this to show that while the season is happy and colorful, it is inspiring her to be more hopeful.

Overall, I believe my drawing of the girl and background were very successful. I really like how different this piece and it’s color scheme are than anything I’ve done so far this year. Despite my successes, I believe I could have improved on the leaves. With all the different medias, the leaves got a little messy, however the path is well defined. I think it will be interesting to see how the leaves age and what that will do to the piece; the leaves will die as the year fades away

MIAD Reflection

These are my sketchbook pages and photos from our MIAD Trip. I chose to draw the artwork I saw and than later added the actual photo of the work. Each of these works inspired me by their uniqueness and amazing realism. For my second page, I focused on when we were able to walk on our own, which included eating at a beautiful Chinese restaurant (I was really surprised, from the outside it looked like just a hole-in-the-wall restaurant but it was actually pretty nice) and just observing the old and modern architecture in the area.

Sarah Calderon

Ms. Bjork

AP Studio Art A3

29 September, 2016

You Pick 3- Artist Statement

Expressionism is a style of art in which the artist “seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world”. Although I’ve seen expressionist paintings such of Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” and Marc’s “Blue Horses”, I was very unfamiliar with how to painting in this style. In the end, by taking inspiration from these paintings as well as using one of my summer photos as reference, I was able to successfully create a work of art in the expressionist style that incorporated both color and asymmetry.

After finishing 10 works in a week, having only 1 work in a week was a relief; however, that didn’t mean it didn’t have its challenges. I attempted something similar to expressionism in one of my 10 works by using loose, heavy brushstrokes, but it hadn’t had the overall effect that I was looking for. This week, I looked back at my past painting and spent more time figuring out how to paint in an expressionist style. What I came to notice was that expressionist artists tend to paint objects in two ways: free-flowing strokes or geometric shapes. I thought the best way to combine the two would be to paint some type of architecture. One specific building that stood out to me was Holy Hill.

During the WAT Trip this past summer, Holy Hill was essentially the biggest obstacle we faced. It was the tallest, longest, steepest hill that we would have to bike up. While we knew there was pie awaiting us at the top, it still took a lot of perseverance and strength to make it to the top. In my painting, I attempted to capture the feeling of making it to the top by using bright colors and movement.

Overall, I believe I was successful in capturing the expressionist style through the use of bold colors, as well as incorporated a lot of texture through the use of thick paint, tissue paper, and burlap, depict it not being a style of painting that I’m used to. Although I felt that my painting was successful overall, I believe I could improve some of the muddiness of the colors. In some spots, I used so many colors that the paint looks more brown that I would have liked.

Sarah Calderon

Ms. Bjork

AP Studio Art A3

21 September, 2016

10 Works Artist Statement- Spurious

10 works in a week? Sounds a little crazy (and it was), but I think all us AP Art Students can say it helped change us for the better. Not only did this project help us manage my time better, but creating 10 pieces in a range of medias, sizes, and styles based around my word, spurious was a good way to experiment with what worked and what didn’t.

When brainstorming, I first created a list of synonyms for spurious: false, fake,bogus,  sham, fraud, forgery, phony, simulated, deception, etc. After visually journaling a whole page of words, I finally landed on the word “Misconceptions”, things that are believed to be true but are ultimately false, such as the idea of “Happily Ever After”, politicians’ promises, the emotions behind emojis.

Overall, I think I was successful in creating better, more complex compositions than my summer pieces, as well as created pieces that had more meaningful to me. By really stretching my definition of my word, as well as incorporating my own opinions and views, it was more fun to create my pieces. Also, working with different media helped me improve artistically; I feel my best pieces use at least 2 different medias, whether it’s calligraphy (india ink) on book pages or my charcoal and pastel drawing.

Regardless of my successes, there’s always a way to improve. For me, I believe that some pieces

that could be improved were my pieces focused of wealth versus poverty. I was trying to work in with

blurry, heavy brushstrokes, however with how much time I had, trying to change my style didn’t work.

Overall, just improving my craftsmanship would help bring my pieces to the next level.

    

Post a final summer reflection about the body of creative explorations you created during the summer.  

• Include 3 photos of your 3 best  creations.  
• Explain in the post how you met the criteria for the summer homework.
• Explain what portfolio  you think your work will be best suited for and why. 
• Explain the concepts you explored with your artwork during summer.
• Explain the media and techniques you explored during the summer. 
• How did this work influence the direction you may choose to go? How did you establish what your path will be?
• What resources did you establish that may be useful for your development as an AP Studio Artist.  (These could be Pinterest boards, lists of books, Flickr resource images, movies, images etc.)  

            This summer was quite the adventure: biking 80 miles on the WAT Trip, moving into a new house. I've overcome a lot of obstacles this summer, included this AP Homework. I'm not going to lie, I am an awful procrastinator so the idea of drawing every day scared me. Miss a couple days, and you're behind. Although I fell a little behind at times, a believe completing all the sketches, final pieces, blog posts, pictures, etc. help not only improve my skills as an artist, but as a student.

           I focused on a painting/ drawing portfolio type mindset for my sketchbook, experimenting with a wide range of media from India ink to oil pastels to simple watercolor to even collages. These 3 pieces I feel best reflect now only my style, but medias that I enjoyed using over the course of the summer; with that, I also explored different concepts, from literature to things around my home to objects or quotes that inspire me. I've found that though this process of creating art, I've begun to think more creatively and more quickly establish a solid concept and composition. I have Pinterest to thank for helping jumpstart ideas, but I ultimately feel that this summer I've discovered ways to make my pieces much more unique.

So I had been keeping weekly updates on my art, I just realized I didn't add that on here... Here's my summer posts :)

August 21-31

Well, we’ve reached the end of summer; I’m kinda sad I can’t sleep until noon anymore but I’m excited to see my friends everyday and meet my new teachers. Plus, I have a lot of art classes this year, so I’m excited to get back and start working in the studio again. Cya soon! :)

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August 14-20

I feel like I’ve improved a lot from the beginning of the month; I’ve started kind of developing my style and finding materials I like (acrylics, watercolor, ink, etc). Call me a dork, but I really just want to get back to school :)

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August 7-13

Not much happened this week, but I’ve started remembering past projects we’ve done in Drawing 1 and how to incorporate those in my sketchbook; I’m working on value with the balloons and also tried figure drawing again.

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July 31-August 6

For AP Lit, we’re reading In the Lake of the Woods by Tim O'Brien; if you know Ms. Woods, you know that she loves motifs and this book is FILLED with them. However, despite my crazy amount of post-its being used to take notes, I’m starting to really like this book, especially the mirror motif. The photo on the left is my “Lake of the Woods” inspired piece (I plan to show it to Ms. Woods when school starts up again). Other than that, I’m still trying my hand with ink.

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July 24-30

My camping and I went camping this week in the Wisconsin Dells; I took my sketchbook but unfortunately didn’t have much time to draw. However, I’m starting to really like watercolor. Plus it’s super fun to just mess with- I keep inviting my friends over to do watercolor haha. It’s fun and I’m doing my homework (killing two birds with one stone, am I right?) :)

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July 17-23

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July 10-16

I’ve started shopping around for new art supplies and feel like now that I’ve  started making art everyday, I’m thinking more creatively. This week, I drew a lot with ink pens as well as created this collage of a city skyline; it was inspired by Minneapolis, as I want to go to college there in the future. Whether it’s an art school or not, I want to continue to pursue art in college.

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July 1-9

My goal for this summer is to learn to draw more realistically and find new medias that interest me. As of right now, I mostly just used colored pencil/ pencil for my sketchbook assignments.

The last few weeks of June were really busy for me (WAT Trip, mom moving, etc…) so I forgot to write a blog post for those couple weeks

Scholastic Art Awards

While I was amazed by all of the artwork presented by the Scholastic Art Winners, these two really caught my eye. These pieces from Anika Washburn and Lillian Solheim are both completely different styles, yet both won the same award; it goes to show that when it comes to these awards, the judges aren’t looking for anything specific, just successful works of art.

I learned from this site that Scholastic offers opportunities for winners to exhibit their work and even earn scholarships. They also have more examples of artwork that earned a gold medal,  which are a great resource in seeing what is expected of these pieces, since it’s hard to simply imagine what would determine that piece from a silver medal, honorable mention, etc.

University of Minneapolis: College of Design

This is a college I plan to apply to, so I have been on this website before. It has a gallery of student work (an example seen on the left)  as well as pages for different majors offered by the College of Design. The one I’m most interested in, Graphic Design, also features examples from college students. The example shown is a design of a packaging of peppermints; I thought this was a really cool way of showing how students’ work could be presented in by businesses. Lastly, the site has links to different courses and programs offered to students and to the community, a good resource if I chose to go there.

Wisconsin Arts Board

Similar to Portal Wisconsin, this site contains a lot of links and information about art events taking place throughout the state. Because this in an Art Board, there are also a lot of information about grants awarded to local artists pursuing different subjects (folk art, woodland indian art, etc.) as well as available art programs. While searching around this site, I found that they feature an artist in their Lobby Exhibit, the example on the left being from Wisconsin artist John Emil Stevenson; the website includes a short bio of him, providing yet another source for learning about local artists.

I found that the Arts Board also releases a daily newsletter that provides tons of information on events and programs taking place by WAB and other art organizations, which could be a great tool in finding current art opportunities close to home.

Portal Wisconsin

I’m really intrigued by all the artwork posted on this site; what I especially love is that these are all local artists and that their work looks like it could be in a museum. The photos I chose to include here are from Kathryn Wedge of Neenah, Terry Emmrich from Madison, and Terry O’Neill from Muskego. Each has a unique style that I discovered when looking through their galleries, so the pieces shown here were ones I felt best expressed their styles.

I also learned that along with the gallery, the website also lists current art related events or upcoming events in the state, as well as can connect you with teachers, organizations, etc. for subjects that interest you (this could help access other helpful tools and tips from other local artists). There is also the opportunity to submit your own work to the site and join the digital gallery.