Free Choice Write Up

For the first free choice project of the year I wanted to chose an topic that close to home: neigh a topic that IS home. The ever elusive inspiration for this past project was myself, or should I say shades of myself, for that while I wanted to do self portraits I also wanted to create unique beings wrapped around the common place aura that is Sam Knepprath. In order to stretch my ideas to the max and push myself in terms of concept and craftsman ship, I started researching chilling  paintings of the past and was astounded at the amazing works of macabre art by one painter Ken Currie, specifically his piece The Gallowgate Lard. Within this interesting piece of work is a multitude of intricate shades of white and purples which gives the encompassing composition an alien yet commonplace feeling of facial recognition through its insane amount of detail. With this painting in mind, along with the abstract works of Pablo Picasso, I began to create my two dissociative self portraits. Through the process of the project I used a mirror and various light sources to capture the essence of the pieces I was inspired by. In the end, I am very proud of the pieces I created within the time span of three weeks for that they do somewhat look like me which is a achievement in itself.

Field Trip Aftermath

This past Thursday, the AP Art crew went down to the Third Ward for a pretty creative journey of downtown Milwaukee for that besides the ever-enjoyable stores ad food surrounding the area, we got to visit the one and only Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. While visiting the university, we were assigned the task to find three works that truly inspired us. These are the fruits of the assignment:

The first two pieces of work that I found intriguing were based around the same project which described to me was to use up an entire pen on a single drawing. With such an odd project proposal, seeing both of these detailed and multi-textured works lit an inspirational flame for that I'm currently in the process of experimentation with pens. The things I like about these two pieces are that they are very rich repetition, value, harmony, and most of all texture for that the spaces are configured in very unique ways giving a eye grabbing effect. The other thing I learned from the fist two pieces, specifically the second piece, is the use of white pens for that the end result added a pop of vibrancy to what could have been an overall boring background otherwise. In terms of the third piece that I chose for this assignment, the reason for its selection was its confusing brush strokes and radiant color pallet unifies the ever challenging goal of achieving a level of abstractness without coming across as pretentious or throwing the term on art done lazily. Unfortunately both titles and artists were not displayed anywhere near these pieces, but if anybody knows either or for any of these pieces I'd love to give credit where credit is due.

Along with the trip to the institute, we were given a large block of time to roam free in the downtown area on a quest to find other randomly inspirational items. From this block of time I found the following:

The first two pieces were found in some of the galleries our class toured during our visit and stood out to me for various reasons. With the first piece "PB&J" by Darren Mauer called out to me due to the immense amount of detail brought out with simple paints. Along with that the overall color choice and use of simplistic backgrounds really help make the sandwich the main attraction. The second piece was one I was ready to purchase if I wasn't a lowly highschooler without a income worthy of high culture works of materialistic desire for that I truly am jealous of the skill put forth by artist Kenn Kwint through the Picasso-eque portrait. With this along with the physical texture is the radically sick and diseased color pallet which I'd love to incorporate in a later self portrait. While the final thing isn't a art piece per-say, it was a magazine that advertised and projected some amazing modern artists, including perhaps my new favorite artist Cleon Peterson. I don't know where Cleon Peterson has been all my life as a illustrator for that I love everything about his work from the cartoony yet realistic figures to the amazingly dramatic contrast that comes from the use of a binary color scheme. In the end, while only a simple magazine, the discovery of this artist made the whole trip an amazing success in terms of creativity and overall enjoyment.