Word Project Research

This photo is a really good inspiration of what I want to capture for this project. I want my project to revolve around the idea that beauty never lasts. With that being said, for all of my final pieces I want to capture the decay or downfall of these once beautiful things. This photograph of a wilted and dead flower captures exactly what I hope to do in my work; the decay after beauty.

Ron Pope - Fireflies Lyrics

Above is a link to the lyrics of the song 'Fireflies' by Rob Pope. These lyrics are a good inspiration to the type of emotion that I want my pieces to give off. The song talks about young love and all of the beautiful things that never last for long. The song captures the downfall/decay of all of those beautiful things and does not focus on the actual beauty of them. If there was one thing that I want to accomplish with my pieces it would be to bring the emotion that this song has and have the viewers feel that.

Aging Father's Decline: A Son's Photo Journal

The link above brings you to a site with a very deep story. Just to summarize, a son photographs the aging decline and death of his father. Each photo is very moving but the main point of this as inspiration is that I want to create pieces with the feeling of these pictures. The idea that beautiful things never last (beauty being anything from emotions to true beauty).

Overall, all three of these examples are a great inspiration to what direction I want to take with my pieces.

Final Project 3

This photo is by far my favorite one of the entire summer. We had taken a super short 3 day trip up to Michigan for my Dad's job. On the way up there we came across this giant sunflower field! Naturally we had to stop to take some cool photos. I had never seen a sunflower field before but I had easily learned that they are one of the most peaceful and beautiful places on earth. This is one of my favorite photos shot there! I did a lot of editing on this piece to take out somethings in the background and jet trails in the sky but in the end I am super happy with how it turned out. I also tried to do an image transfer with this but it did not turn out so well so I decided to paint some acrylic over it, which also did not turn out so well! I decided to keep it thought incase someday I wanted to go back and turn it into something beautiful!

Final Project 2

This is my second final project. I took this photo on a photo shoot I had with my friends in mid August. It was a total blast and I had so much fun. It's hard to believe but this photo was not staged! she just started frolicking down this path and I was able to take some awesome pictures. Not only that but using Photoshops Lightbox allowed me to do some pretty awesome editing to it! I really love this photo because it shows the free spirited mood that this girl always has! The coolest part about this picture is that I also did an image transfer of it onto a canvas which I had explained earlier in a blog post. I have the image transfer here which I will be able to show you guys as well!

Final Project 1

So here is one of my final projects for my summer homework. The reason that I am posting this so late is because I found out today that photoshop was allowing a 30 day free trial download of lightbox which I was insanely excited about because I've always wanted to give lightbox a try! Anyways, this is a photograph that I had taken with a slow aperture to get the full strokes of the sparklers on 4th of july. After the big fireworks my family and I always come back and do fun things such as sparklers, snakes, stink bombs, ect. I really wanted to capture that fun moment of all of us together. The hardest thing was trying to hold the camera still to get the clearest picture possible but overall with all of the fantastic editing that lightbox allowed me, I am super pleased with this final product!

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Website

I did not know that there was a website for all of the scholastic art awards! It was super fun to look at all of the winning works of art but I especially narrowed in on the photography section because that is what I'm really interested in. Truthfully, every single one of the photographs were AMAZING and they all had inspired me to take something that ends up in there this year. I had no idea that there was a writing award either! Considering that I am super into writing as well, that is something I will definitely be looking into. Overall, just looking and seeing that all of these pieces were done by students my age really inspired me to do super good work this year and really get something to win an award.

http://www.artandwriting.org/student-showcase/award-winning-works/#subset=18&art=Photography&art_portfolio=false&writing_portfolio=false&year=2014&state=All&awards=All&grade=0

This piece is titled "Bed Bugs" by Alana Southwood from Fort Wayne, IN. I find this piece really inspiring to me for some reason. When I look at it, it really reminds me of the ending of a relationship with someone or being deceived by a loved one. The fact of the matter is that this picture really made me feel something and that is why I chose to share it. I hope that I can make something that can make others feel something this year.

http://www.artandwriting.org/student-showcase/award-winning-works/#subset=11&art=Photography&art_portfolio=false&writing_portfolio=false&year=2014&state=All&awards=All&grade=0

This piece is titled "Blowing Bubbles" by Derek Oliwa from Rockville, MD. I have always had a passion for black and white photography and this one really stood out to me. While a little kid blowing bubbles is typically something that should be happy and bright, this photograph really evokes the mood that it is something very dreary and unhappy. I really like that about this piece because it is not typical and the irony of it is super interesting. 

Wisconsin Arts Board Website

I had no idea that there was a website out there that displayed as much art information for one state! I started to dig really deep into the website and found so many cool things such as the poetry out loud contest and quilting classes for kids. It was super cool to see all of the interesting and helpful actives out there. It is also awesome that some organization "nurtures creativity" because without places like these, our world would most definitely struggle. I want to use this website to enroll in at least one of their contests that they put out for high school students. I believe that applying for all these contests will most definitely improve my artist ability! Although there are really no pictures on this website to post, I must say that I was really inspired by all of the amazing events put together in Wisconsin just to keep art alive. It is something very near and dear to my heart and I am so happy that it exists!

http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/sublink.asp?linksubcat2id=2689&linksubcatid=3574&linkcatid=3728&linkid=1653&locid=171

This sculpture is called "backyard bee keeping" by Chris Watten. It is part of the Phantom Galleries. Personally I have never even attempted sclupture but there is something about this one that I really like.  It's super fun and makes me feel happy. Coming from someone who generally makes and loves art that pulls at my heart strings, I really enjoy this upbeat fun looking sculpture! 

http://artsboard.wisconsin.gov/sublink.asp?linksubcat2id=2691&linksubcatid=3574&linkcatid=3728&linkid=1653&locid=171

This painting is untitled by Kim Rahal. It was put in downtown Kenosha in empty store fronts to transform them. This was done with acrylics which really  intrigues me because the colors are so incredibly vibrant! I love how abstract this piece is and was really drawn in by the colors on it. I would love to know how she got her colors so vibrant and would love to try to create a piece like this! 

Portal Wisconsin Website

When first opening the website, I was a little confused at what it was all about but then I realized how awesome this website was! I love the fact that it is all about Wisconsin and the art that goes on in it. Another thing that I found super cool is the fact that you are able to submit your own work to be displayed on the website. I also really enjoyed looking at all of the local photographers and artists; it's super cool and inspiring to see all of the talent so close around you. Not only that, but another thing that I found super interesting was all of the categories of art you could look at! One of the main things I learned was how cool mixed media pieces were, I will definitly be using some of those ideas to enhance my artwork this year! I had also learned that woodworking was considered a form of art. although I always knew that sculpting and such was art, I had never really thought about wood. It would be super cool to try this year considering my Dad owns a wood shop. Lastly, I had learned about all of the opportunities for artists around Wisconsin! Seeing all of the lists of events and fun activities that artists are needed for is something i'd be super interested in checking out this year and that will be able to impact my artwork as a whole.

http://www.portalwisconsin.org/online_gallery_image.cfm?rid=40413&artist=975&sort=medium&i=1&medid=16

This photo is called "Consensus" and it was taken by Lary Dickerson. I love this photo a lot, mostly because it was taken in the Milwaukee Public Library and that is where I had my best photo shoot yet when I was in Photography 1. Not only that but I love the composition of how the hand rails and mantle is aligned. It almost makes the piece feel a bit abstract.

http://www.portalwisconsin.org/online_gallery_image.cfm?rid=40418&artist=975&sort=medium&i=1&medid=16

This photo is called "Whirling Girlish" and it was taken by Lary Dickerson. I also love this photo by him because it gives almost a non photograph feel. I am always stuck to thinking that my photography has to be crisp lines and high quality but seeing something like this that is beautiful and blurry at the same time, I really do love it! This makes me really want to try new things with photography this year.