End of Trimester Post..

I think I've accomplished quite a bit so far this trimester. I used oil pastels for the first time ever, as well as cut paper, so that was interesting. Whatever I am lacking right now I intend to have completed by friday I think, so that's good. I've done quite a broad range of peices so I guess that's good, and I've used a several different mediums. I need to start thinking about what exactly I want my concentration to be, but I'm looking forward to starting it. As a class I think we've done extremely well. There are so many different personalities being demonstarted in everybody's pieces, and I definitely am able to get good ideas from other people and take their criticism because people really do give helpful advice.

One of my categories for the sketchbooks were animals, so, I found some artists that correlate with that. As a matter of fact, the artists are animals. And bugs.

The first artist, to the top left corner is Koopa, the turtle. Paint is set on a canvas for him and he walks all around on the canvas to make interesting works of art which for some reason I didn't post a picture of. His goal is to have one artwork hanging in all fifty states, and then one on all the continents excluding Antarctica. 20% of every purchase from one of Koopa's paintings gets donated to a non-profit organization that cares for sick, injured, and abandoned turtles. So far, he's raised over 10 thousand dollars for these rescue organizations.

The next artist you see, is one of two pigs named Van Snout and Bottabelli. The pigs owner says their work is comparable to a Jackson Pollock painting for its messy and loose design, and wild mix of colors which you can see on the top right picture. Each of their paintings are sold for 16 pounds and are put towards a fund for their Farm Crisis Network charity.

The last artist, is a man named Steven Kutcher. He uses moths, beetles, spiders, flies, honey bees, butterflies, grasshoppers, and Hissing Cockroaches from Madagascar. He dips them in paint a little and puts them on canvas to make interesting textured paintings like the two bottom ones up there. He said, “If a bug is sensitive to light, I can influence its movement on the canvas by controlling the lighting. Insects have different footprints and behaviors so I use both my entomological and artistic knowledge to create fine works of art.” and “I use water-based, nontoxic gouache paints which easily wash off. I have to take good care of them. After all, they are artists.”

I could be inspired by these artists by using similar ideas. It never occurred to me that creatures and animals could be used as tools for art. That's the neatest idea in the world. So, who knows, perhaps I will get around to trying something similar.

They don't really do anything that I absolutely would not do in my own art. I guess the most I could say is that I don't particularly care for the whole abstract art thing, but I mean, if it were created by animals then that's a different story.

Favorites

Well, I'm overachieving and doing this early..

It's hard to think back to every piece I've done but one that comes to mind is one I made last year of a picture I took in New York. It's a drawing of a bunch of buildings and some of them have interesting signs on them from Broadway shows and what not.
I couldn't decide just one painting that is my favorite so I narrowed it down to three that I really like. One is "The Walk, Woman with a Parasol" by Claude Monet. Another one is "The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles, at Night" by Van Gogh. The last one is "Frank" by Chuck Close.
I chose these pieces because for some reason they all stand out to me in different ways. I chose my particular drawing because it's one that I was fairly proud of and I liked the theme of it because it's more me-ish than some of the others I've done in the past.
My piece really doesn't have much of anything in common with the others at all. Monet does very realistic, pretty, nature-y pictures. Van Gogh does interesting settings with odd shapes and textures, and Chuck close does extremely realistic portraits. Mine is a drawing of New York. Not much in common at all. I suppose it has the most in common with Van Gogh because it is a place rather than a person or landscape or anything like that.
Qualities that make these different are first of all, the medium. I used pencil while the artists I chose used paint. Also, the focus; I did a building while they did people or landscapes.
These pieces relate to my list of 100 things because I love pretty skies and scenery. (Claude Monet) and I love bright and contrasting colors (Cafe Terrace). As far as "Frank" goes, it doesn't have much to do with my list but it's an awesome painting of a cool looking dude.

Jan C. Verhas

Jan C. Verhas was an artist born on my birthday, January 9 1834. He went to a Belgium school (Academy in Avers) and was considered a genre painter. After he finished schooling the government comissioned him to go to Venice to paint a painting called, Velleda et la Bataille de Callao. In the Paris Salon Exposition of 1881 Verhas got a second class medal for his paintings and in 1889 he got a gold medal for the Exposition Universelle. Verhas was elected Chevalier in the Legion of Honor in 1881. He died in 1886.

His paintings can now be found in museums in Anverse, Brussels, Gand, and Liege.

Some exciting stories from the childhood of Justine

Okay, here's a story from when I was like, seven or so. I had this dog named Daisy, and she was a shelty and really adorable. So one day me and my family were going to go get ice cream and I was sitting in the back seat (middle seat) with my older brother Craig and older sister Nikki. Our family friend, Shawn, was sitting in the passenger seat and Daisy was in that space between the two front seats, you know, where there's that gap.. So, Daisy was sitting in the gap facing me with her paws and my dad turned on the radio; it was this real peppy, pop sounding song with a keyboard. Shawn took Daisy's little paws and started making it look like Daisy was playing the keyboard to the music- getting all into it, and I think the best part of it was that Daisy's face remained completely nonchalant and bored the whole time. It was so hysterical that I started laughing really, very hard and peed my pants. Then, the fact that I had peed myself made me laugh way harder, and all the while Shawn kept playing with Daisy's paws. I'm laughing right now actually as I recall the memory.
Alright, so now a story about art. I used to draw this signature puppy of mine. I drew it everywhere, all the time. It was just an oval, with a circle on top, then ears and swirly nose which also doubled as whiskers, and then the paws on the tummy. And then one day somebody asked me if the paws were boobies, and I was like, "No! They are paws! Oh my god.. they're paws.." and I was embarrassed so forever after that I always put the paws on the side of his tummy.

deck o cards inspired collage

Post 1

One of my favorite artists that are a source of inspiration for me is Van Gogh, which is probably the most generic choice but I just really love his style. I like the way you can tell exactly what he is trying to convey in a painting but it also isn't perfectly realistic, he has a distinguishable style. That's the part that I really like. Also, another artist I enjoy is Hokusai because he has a really cool style that is unique to him as well. As far as art interests I really love cartoons. They are the greatest, it doesn't even matter what they are (unless it's anime actually..) And photography, photography is fun, I like playing with photos and turning them into something brand new.