Totem Pole Story, Sunrise

 The cold weather was continuing to brew last year. Almost everyone impatiently waited for spring to hit. On one of those freezing days, my dad, my sister, Iris, and I declared we all wanted to do something exciting, and not lounge around indoors. We all suggested an activity to do, but nobody could agree on a idea. One thing led to another, and soon enough, we agreed to venture off to Cape May the next morning to watch the sunrise.

 At around 5:00 in the morning, we left. The sky was dark, not a cloud in the sky, scattered with glittering stars. Being one of the only cars on the highway, we got to Cape May a lot faster than we intended. Iris was asleep in the backseat, but I couldn't fall asleep, even though I was tired, because I had been looking forward for the adventure. From the beginning, I had loved the idea of going off and doing something exciting, and I especially liked the idea of sharing the experience with my family. As soon as we arrived on the beach's border, we jumped out of the car, and made our way to the sandy shore.

 The wind was strong, and everything was cold. I assumed before we went, that the beach would be a lot warmer, but since it was the morning, and the ocean's wind was strong, I assumed wrong. Bundled up in coats and hats, we watched as the blinding, bright, orange sun lit up the sky, and began to lift. The moon was just along the way, and the ocean's waves continued to crash onto the sandy shore. The ocean's waves drifted all the way to the end of the beach, opposite of the summer, where the waves would only come up a short distance.

 I hadn't only captured the memories in my head, but I was also able to capture it on my camera, where I had taken hundred's of photos. The bright, yellow sun was continuing to rise, until the sky's darkness faded, and wind had become less brisk. When the sun had finally rose, Iris and my dad had finally made their way to the car, but I wanted to glance one last time at the sun, that was shining blindly in my eyes. Taking one last picture, I followed my family to the car, longing for a nice breakfast, and warmth. We continued to venture off to the different sites and scenes of Cape May, creating more memories together.

Fortune Cookie

 This project lead me to becoming stumped. I had no idea what to do for this project. So I picked up a magazine from the library called (I think) Art News that I was hoping would give me more ideas. Looking through the magazine, I saw a lot of Japanese artwork. Fortunes cookies are an Asian tradition, so I knew I wanted to keep researching different ideas on Japanese culture. Knowing that there are a lot of cherry blossoms in Japan, I searched it up on the internet. Cherry blossoms mean that the beginning of spring has started, so based on my fortunes, I decided to base my whole fortune cookie project on "New Beginnings." Later on, I soon started thinking about how birds can symbolize letting go to the past, flying away, and starting something new. The corners of paper symbolize the material left from the past. 

Art x 3

  This composition for the Art x 3 was not my favorite. It was difficult for me in a short amount of time to turn other people's work into something else. At the end, I ended up with this piece. To me, instead of symbolizes fame, they used a lot of famous people. I remembered hearing a song about how fame can be a downfall, but it's important to be a good role model because teenagers now a days look up to those people. I splattered the red paint on the piece to show how everything isn't always a happy ending with being famous. Angry and stress is a concern with fame, and I tried to emphasize that. "The Bling Ring" was a movie that showed teenagers who robbed celebrities houses because they wanted to look like them, and be like them. I thought this was a good addition to the piece because fame was a common theme throughout the movie. Lastly, I used "in the wild" to show that some people will do anything to reach to the top of the society food chain. The life lesson I learned from this art experience is that if you put all your thoughts together with just one common thing, you can come up with tons of ideas you never thought you would've come up with.

Pop Print

 Honestly, the Pop Print project was my favorite thing we did this marking period. I had to brainstorm what I had at my house that was blue, and I found a book that I remember loving last year, about a boy who lives on imagination. Drawing it was the easy part, but carving was the most difficult for me. I noticed I left some carvings on the stamp by accident, but I kept going, and I realized that it looked interesting. I also realized that not putting enough paint on stamp was a good mistake, because in my head, it symbolized that reality can sometimes be a struggle for the imagination, so the paint on the pieces symbolizes imagination, and the lack of imagination symbolizes the fading paint. I know it might sound dorky, but this is what the pieces symbolized for me. My overall reaction to this project in general was not how I pictured it my head, but it turned out better.

The Blue Collection

 Blue. A color that normally symbolizes sadness. Our art class choose this color to use for a collection. In the collection, we have a lot of different blue item's that could show that kind of person we are, or it could say something about our past. Blue, like I said before, also symbolizes sadness which could link to our past. Blue is a very important color, because of course, it's a primary color, but it also has a lot of meaning behind it.

 In Portia Munson's collection, she has a pile of things that are pink. I believe this brings a light, happy feeling, to her art work because all of these item's are pink. I think it also gives a little bit of a girly, childish feeling because it's a little messy, and it's very cheerful and light. This ties into our blue collection which I find interesting because our class was able to bounce off ideas from important artists. Portia Munson's collection shows that art is anything, any color, shape, and size. Some people probably think that this is just a pile of junk that's all the same color, but with an artistic view, it shows the emotion behind the art and even the artist.

Collecting vs. Hoarding

 Some people wonder if there is a difference between collecting and hoarding. I think that collecting and hoarding have many differences, and aren't the same thing. In my opinion, people who get carried with collecting might be hoarding. People might also think that an artist like Song Dong hoards, because of his vision of what he considers art. I mean, honestly, I was stunned when I saw this structure of his collections. It kept me wondering how he can keep something like this organized and tidy, but art is art, some people have a different perspective on what it is.

Learning Expereince

During this whole experience, I learned many things. Something I learned was that the letters and numbers of thinness and thickness of a graphite pencil. It goes H as the thinnest, F in the middle, and B as the thickest. I also learned about how to incorporate reflections into colored pencils. I enjoyed using both of these materials, but learned that the letters and numbers of a graphite pencil was my favorite part of this experience out of the two materials. Even though this work was challenging, I really enjoyed drawing in this class.