Artist Statement
For our last year of the Academy, we had to do an independent project, in other words, we had to come up with a project and work on it based on our own ideas. This year, I decided to create my project based on art history and to create a timeline of the same painting from the different art movements throughout history. For this project, I took one picture of myself painting, and used it as a reference for my paintings, the challenging part of the project is making each piece of art resemble an art movement in the past. I was planning to create a total of 8 paintings and lay them out in a timeline from earliest to latest. Unfortunately, because of Covid-19 and it’s spread, I had to compromise and only create 3 paintings, and present them in a different method other than a timeline. For this project, I decided to create these 3 paintings based on 3 different movements of art, Expressionism, Realism, and Cubism. One movement is an accurate representation of the original photo, one is a representation of my art style through Expressionism, the final piece is entirely different from my usual art style through angular and unnatural shapes.
Something I enjoyed when working on this project was experimenting with different styles and techniques! For my realism painting, I had to limit my use of vibrant colours, and use a new technique of painting called dry brushing, which prevented the look of harsh or unnatural lines. Cubism allowed me to use very bright and vibrant colours, I had to use a ruler to create all the angular shapes in the painting, I also had to use black paint to outline all these shapes to make them stand out. As my work usually has natural lines and brush strokes, creating angular shapes and harsh lines allowed me to really step out of my comfort zone, and try something new. Even though I learned and achieved some new things from this project, there were a few things that I could change or improve upon. Something I really needed to work creating the habit of working efficiently and effectively throughout the weeks. Because I put off this project for weeks, I didn’t have much time to complete my project, and found myself rushing and stressing to finish my project. Not only would I have more blogs and more progress if I worked throughout the weeks, but I would also have an easier time working, I would be less stressed if I had a balanced work ethic between this class and the rest of my classes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class and this project, even though I didn’t have the best work ethic, I got to learn new things and really step out of my comfort zone to try new things. I am still surprised that this is my final year at VAM Academy! Time flies by when you are having fun! These three years allowed me to do art during school, it gave me the opportunity to learn new things from photography to photoshop and online editing. I’ve learned so many things from this class, and I can’t wait to use these skills in the future to keep creating and inspiring others. This class has reminded me to keep working hard because hard work and dedication will always pay off in the end. The more time and energy you put into your passion, the greater the result and most importantly, the greater the journey! I am glad I was able to spend high school doing what I love, it has made school such a great experience for me, I met new friends and teachers in this class, and I don’t think I will ever forget academy and all the great things we did!
Something I enjoyed when working on this project was experimenting with different styles and techniques! For my realism painting, I had to limit my use of vibrant colours, and use a new technique of painting called dry brushing, which prevented the look of harsh or unnatural lines. Cubism allowed me to use very bright and vibrant colours, I had to use a ruler to create all the angular shapes in the painting, I also had to use black paint to outline all these shapes to make them stand out. As my work usually has natural lines and brush strokes, creating angular shapes and harsh lines allowed me to really step out of my comfort zone, and try something new. Even though I learned and achieved some new things from this project, there were a few things that I could change or improve upon. Something I really needed to work creating the habit of working efficiently and effectively throughout the weeks. Because I put off this project for weeks, I didn’t have much time to complete my project, and found myself rushing and stressing to finish my project. Not only would I have more blogs and more progress if I worked throughout the weeks, but I would also have an easier time working, I would be less stressed if I had a balanced work ethic between this class and the rest of my classes.
Overall, I really enjoyed this class and this project, even though I didn’t have the best work ethic, I got to learn new things and really step out of my comfort zone to try new things. I am still surprised that this is my final year at VAM Academy! Time flies by when you are having fun! These three years allowed me to do art during school, it gave me the opportunity to learn new things from photography to photoshop and online editing. I’ve learned so many things from this class, and I can’t wait to use these skills in the future to keep creating and inspiring others. This class has reminded me to keep working hard because hard work and dedication will always pay off in the end. The more time and energy you put into your passion, the greater the result and most importantly, the greater the journey! I am glad I was able to spend high school doing what I love, it has made school such a great experience for me, I met new friends and teachers in this class, and I don’t think I will ever forget academy and all the great things we did!