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! :)

---

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 :)

---

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.

---

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.

---

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?) :)

---

July 17-23

---

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.

---

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