Thursday, March 18, 2010

Influences Paper



























































































































For my Influences and Sources paper, I wrote about the following topics.


Influences and sources from the world outside of art:
Personal Belongings
- Why people own the things they do
- Objects can say a lot about peoples lifestyles, personalities
- Objects can create time lines
- Personal belongings create portraits
Domesticity
- Domestication of plants and animals
- People find it necessary to manipulate plants and animals to suit our lifestyle needs
- Give and take between humanity and nature
Nature/Science
- Meaning and possibility of life
- Where things come from, how they evolve

Personal influences:

My Father
- My natural talent comes from my dad
- He pushes me, gives suggestions and support
My Home
- Rural, wooded location
- Rich with life
Water
- Grew up surrounded by water
- Freeing, Fluidity

- Ink washes

Artistic Influences:
Susie Wright
Sol Kjok
April Gornik


Here is the link to it:
Paper

Saturday, March 13, 2010

Myers-Briggs Personality Test

For the Myers-Briggs personality test, I scored INTJ.

The percentages for my score were:
Introverted 56
Intuitive 38
Thinking 12
Judging 56

This personality type is described as having little understanding for small talk and flirtation. Personal relationships are supposedly difficult for INTJs because the self-confidence that they typically have can abandon them or mislead them. They are capable of caring very deeply for a select few people in their lives and are willing to spend a lot of time and effort on a relationship. As I mentioned self-confidence earlier, INTJs are said to be very confident people and can sometimes come off as arrogant. They are very confident in what they do know, as well as being able to admit and know what they do not know. They stick to what they do know because it is familiar. INTJs are idea people and can easily visualize what might be. Anything is possible to INTJs. To reach the product of an idea, step-by-step processing is necessary for success. They have very little respect for slackers and the un-motivated people of the world.

I would say that this personality type fits me very well. I am definitely not one for small talk. I usually only speak when there is something worth saying, especially in critique settings. My usual routine for critiquing is only mentioning a select few things that I find essential for others to know. I could improve how often I do mention the things I am thinking. There are definitely times in which I think of something important, but bite my tongue. The ideas that I do mention are usually confident in reply, because it is something I do confidently know. I would say that it is usually easy for me to visualize what could be. I am always thinking of possibilities, but only mentioning these possibilities if I feel confident about it being worth saying. I usually do not come across as arrogant, but I definitely have. I try not to come across as arrogant, because it is honestly easy for me to do so. I usually only come across as arrogant when I am very comfortable with the person I am talking to. These people I would be comfortable with are a select few that I care deeply about. This personality type is said to spend a lot of effort and time on a relationship, and I think this fits me well. There are a select few people in my life that I do care deeply for. An example of this would be my boyfriend of 4 years. If that isn't a lot of time and effort, I don't know what is. I would say that I definitely stick to what I know, especially in my artwork. I realize that it is good to step outside the box, though I usually choose not to. I highly appreciate familiarity. I choose subjects that I have knowledge of and materials that I am familiar with. The past two projects I have done had subject matter that was familiar to me. The first project involved the objects in my own room. The second piece I did was familiar to me in subject matter in the sense that I took Life Drawing last semester and loved it. I am very familiar with charcoal and would use it all of the time if I could. This is partly because of my familiarity with it, as well as the fact that it is simply my favorite medium to work with. I stick to what I know, and develop what I know in a confident manor. I develop my work through step-by-step process. My processes may be incoherent and abstract to others, but they work for me. Planning is always important in my process to get a successful result. Research including photos and sketches are always necessary.

Sunday, March 7, 2010

Project 2 - Ink, Family, Layers - Title = Roots


















The the two words I was assigned to use for the subject matter was family and layers. My first thought of family was a cheesy family portrait. I was stuck on that idea for awhile and became discouraged because I wasn't sure how I would represent family without it being cliche. After talking to Amy, she suggested that I should think about the meaning of the word family and how it can mean many things. The word family can have a meaning that involves biology and species, relationships, and familiarity. This brainstorming helped me come up with the idea to use the concept of mother and child. From this point, I thought about family trees and the circle of life, which I brought into this piece. It also talks about family roots with "Roots" being the title. As I drew this piece, I thought about the struggle of birth and survival in life.

The word layers comes into play with the layering of charcoal and ink washes. Ink was the medium I was assigned to use, so I chose an ink wash because I find them very freeing and loose in comparison to a tight, charcoal drawing.

During the critique, the class definitely had the right idea about what I was going for. People made comments about movement, motherhood, the circle of life, roots, and struggle. This is exactly what I was going for. One thing I was unsure about as I went into the critique was if I should have pushed the value more in the figure, or maybe if I should have done more with the background. I had the intention of making this piece soft in color and shading because life is fragile. This is also a very feminine piece and I was hoping to keep the colors light and soft for this reason. Now that it is finished, I wonder if it would look better if I had pushed the value a little bit further. It was mentioned by some that I should push it a little further, and some students liked it the way it was. This leaves me undecided for the time being, though I am leaning toward leaving it be since it was my original intention to keep it soft.