Recycled Project

1. I made a wallet out of plastic bags.
2. I flattened out plastic grocery bags, placed them in a stack four high, giving eight layers of plastic, and ironed them between two pieces of paper. The plastic melted and the bags bonded to form one piece of "fabric." I cut and folded the plastic into the form of a wallet, and ironed again to bond the seams.
3. I used plastic bags, paper, and an iron.
4. I was interested in seeing how usable the plastic fabric was and whether or not it was easy to make.
5. One funny thing about the process was during the ironing. The paper I used did not entirely cover the plastic, so i let the handles hang out and did not iron them. The ironing caused the plastic to shrink, and so did the handles. They got pulled beneath the paper. It appeared as if the bag were growing in the wrong direction. Like a time lapse picture.
It was difficult to find a reliable method. One time I did not have the iron on hot enough, so the plastic failed to bond, and another, I turned the iron up too hot, to the plastic over shrank and developed holes.
6. I did what I set out to do and I learned along the way.

Contrast is important in my wallet. I used Safeway bags, so there are three colors: white, red, and black. A pattern developed, too. The plastic was not perfectly aligned, so when I ironed it, all of the Safeway logos showed up in different places. I did not think very intentionally about the aesthetics of my project. I was more interested in getting a scattered, random feel. I just wanted to see how it would look. I did what I set out to do. I probably won't iron plastic bags again, though, since it releases gross fumes. I just reuse them as bags.

Q2-Places

I think the Portland Art Museum is a great idea. We could ride the Max downtown some Friday after school. The museum is open until eight on Fridays. School group tours are free, we would just have to reserve a time.
http://www.portlandartmuseum.org/

Powell's Books. It may not directly relate to art, but I think it would be a fun place to go and relax. It's free, of course. We probably could do the same Max riding after school deal.
http://www.powells.com/

We should take a day trip and go check out the Picasso exhibit at the Seattle Art Museum. $18 per person to see the special exhibit, Picasso, and nine dollars for only general admission. We may be eligible for an educational discount. This just in, second Fridays are free for teens from five to nine p.m. with Picasso being discounted. We could easily pile on a bus after school on Friday and get up there well before five o'clock. We'd probably get back around midnight.
http://www.seattleartmuseum.org/visit/visitSAM.asp

Art21: Identity

Bruce Nauman is a strange man who apparently spent time growing up in Wisconsin. His studio is a mess but he claims that his mind is efficient. His work that stood out to me most was the uneven staircase. Each step was a different height and was not perfectly flat. He wanted to make people think about something that they don't usually think about, such as a staircase.

The main theme of Kerry James Marshall's work is his black figure. The people he paints are actually black and not brown. His latest project is a comic strip that incorporates traditional african figures as the heroes. He seemed to me to be the least eccentric of the four artists.

Maya Lin is best known for creating the Vietnam Memorial. The project she was shown working on was her renovation of a park in urban Grand Rapids, Michigan. She created an ice rink that had lights beneath it, so that it looked like a starry sky from above.

All of the works that we saw by Louise Burgeois somehow incorporated disembodied hands. She cast her own hands by submerging them in plaster. She was the oldest of the artists.

I think for the most part people try to hide their identity from people. I know a lot of times I put up facades in order to present a certain image of myself to others. Maybe that is why people resonate so strongly with art. Because we have forgotten who we are. So then a self portrait would be any and all artwork that a person creates. It's interesting to think about.

Five Artists

1. Fountain by Marcel Duchamp

I like this because it's unexpected. It's not something you would think of as art at first.

2. Day and Night by M.C. Escher

I especially like the geometric nature of Escher's art. I am particularly interested in tessellations and geometric designs.

3. Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

I like the way Van Gogh used his paint brush. This painting makes me sigh and I think it is beautiful.

4. Migrant Mother by Dorothea Lange

I especially like this photo because it captures the emotion of the mother so clearly. Her face is saying so much about how she cares for her children and how desperate her situation is.

5. Stravinsky by Pablo Picasso

I like how Picasso chooses to exaggerate little things and somehow makes the whole look more real, but not in the sense of what we see with our eyes.

Three Videos

     The first video contained interviews from people that looked smart. They were worried about whether or not traditional art students would be able to find a place in the ever evolving world of technology. I think that the artistically inclined people will not have a problem adapting. They are probably the ones who are pushing things forward creatively anyways.

     Video two seemed a bit new-agey to me. It started out scientific like, but then shifted to this whole "the earth is our mother" sort of thing, which is fine. Whatever floats your boat. However, I thought the experiment they mentioned about the monkeys learning something and then observing that the next generation seemed to have this knowledge innately was fascinating.

     The last video was pretty silly. I don't think the people who created it really knew what they were talking about. I didn't think they showed the difference between the two halves of our brain very well. The host duo was weak and underdeveloped.

What did I learn from each drawing exercise?

     The first drawing was a self portrait. The only thing I have retained from any art class I've taken ever is this: a person's eyes are halfway up their head. So the first thing I did was to draw the head shape and the eyes right in the middle. I found that it really is quite hard to draw what you see. I would want to just draw an eye instead of my eye. I found that getting shading right is difficult. Because there's more to my face than just the shapes. There is depth and color. I don't think i got any of the shading right.

     I was pleased with how my hand turned out. I think I improved from the first to the second drawing. I took more care to observe the shapes and curves and angles. I tried to draw a hand that looked alive. I found that it helped to figure out where one part of the hand was relative to another, so that the hand looked proportional when I finished. For example, I noted that my thumb nail was directly across from the corner of my wrist and right below the tip of my index finger.

     I decided to draw a full person for my person from memory instead of just a face. I drew my grandfather. I found out that drawing clothes is difficult. It's hard to get the grooves right so that it looks actually like clothing. I learned that you really have to take your time and draw carefully, because I can tell which parts I hurried through and which parts I took time on. I found that when drawing from memory it is even easier to just draw an eye, than to draw the eye "symbol" you have in your head.

     I did not have time to finish the Upside-down Portrait of Stravinsky. I had fun with this. I enjoyed just copying random lines instead of trying to copy a representation of something. I learned that I need to judge sizing better, as my Stravinsky, if finished, would not fit on the paper. I also learned that if I concentrate to hard, the drawing just ends up looking worse so I need to learn to "flow" better.