Thursday, November 21, 2013

Collecting vs. Hoarding

There are several different types of people in this world. However, most people can be split in the category of how their homes are kept, as well has how they manage their surroundings. There are those who are super organized, yet keep possessions, those who do not like possessions and throw lots of things away, those who are not as organized, yet keep a few things, and those who are not organized at all, and live in complete chaos.

When it comes to collecting, people generally have seperate opinions. I personally believe that having a collection and being a hoarder are completely different. The technical definition of collecting is " To accumulate as a hobby or for study", and this is what I believe it entails. When someone is a collector, they collect one or two certain things that are meaningful to them, such as a rock collection or a model collection. When someone collects, the items have meaning, and are clean and organized in specific way, usually being displayed by the owner on a shelf or piece of furniture. Collectors homes are usually clean and organized, and they do not 'collect' clutter. 

A hoarder, in may ways, could start out as a collector, but let things get out of hand. Usually, a hoarder will begin collecting things after a traumatic life event, gettting emotionally attched to the things they collect. However, these things will get shoved away into corners, with the individuals usually forgetting they own them. In a hoarding situation, the owner cannot let go of anything, and their homes become a mess, with the individual usually living in filth.

Therefore, the difference between a hoarder and a collector is simply that a collector takes care of and organizes their collections, displaying them or storing them properly. A hoarder is someone who collects a multitude of things, lives in squaler, and cannot get rid of anything.

To referance a collector, lets talk about Portia Munson. She is an artist from New York who makes collections of things of a certain color. She is a collector, because even if some of her collections look like a hoard, she has them organized and on display. All her collections are considered art, not hoarding. Here is an example;

As you can see, the collection is organized into a work of art.

Collections

In today's society, people go through life in such a hurridly way that no one stops to, to be cliche, "smell the roses". There are prominent colors all around us everyday, but people, including myself, don't take the time to notice. In art class right now, we are modeling artist Portia Munson, building a class collection of blue items, as seen here:



Our class collection says quite a bit of who we are, collectively, as people in this world. We, as teenagers, are a mixture of personalities, with the collection modeling this. It has multiple random items, perfume, gum boxes, nail polish, paint, a football, even a globe. It shows how many of us grabbed the first blue things in sight (such as myself), but it also shows how many seemingly very different things can be arranged in a way that looks beautiful. This collection also shows the times we live in. The very random things are all relics from our homes, from cartoon characters to hats, to pillows and some beads. We are a generation that likes to collect random things such as these.

Here is some of Portia Munson's work, Looking much like ours :D



Thursday, October 31, 2013

Coloring Candy


Currently we are all in the Halloween spirit, and what better of a thing to draw during the Halloween season than candy! For our current project, we must draw the candy jar that has been placed on our tables - without pictures!

This has turned out to be quite difficult. To introduce us to colored pencils, Mrs. Kick gave us worksheets and showed us how to make certain colors lighter or darker- by using different colors! I am very new to working with colored pencils, and the medium confuses me a great deal, but it’s always good to learn something new. After finishing the color scale worksheet, I was reluctant to simply 'jump in' and start shading right on my sketch after only practicing on a worksheet, so I started experimenting on a piece of tracing paper.

 This is the tracing paper:

Yesterday, after a week of pure anguish, I decided to finally 'jump in' and start on my real drawing. After being terrified, this is how far I've gotten:



Hopefully it all turns out ok!






Graphite and Colored Pencils - Oh My!


Over the past few months our art class has undertaken one project and began another. Our first project, drawing a bike (as seen below), went relatively well, with little personal agony on my side of things (ha-ha). This is due to the fact I have been drawing with graphite my entire life, and it is one of my favorite mediums. I personally like the way graphite handles, and how the finished products look as well. I find it amazing how, by using just one color, one can make a simple sketch come to life. With my drawing, I feel I could have made the highlights a little better, however I love how the final piece turned out. My drawing has many different tones and shades created by using several different graphite pencils, my favorite part being the middle of the wheel.

The second project, drawing a still life of a candy jar, has had a much different effect on me. Being that the only other time I've ever used colored pencils to do a detailed drawing was two years ago (In this same class), The medium took me a little by surprise. It is very different from graphite in the fact that it has one dark color, and you must blend other colors to achieve highlights and lowlights. This whole concept has boggled my mind and somewhat stressed me out - but I keep plugging along. To add to the confusion of drawing with colored pencils, Mrs. Kiick threw in having to draw a JAR of candy, which is a challenge in itself! However, I’m glad she gave us this challenge, as obviously, if I ever decided to go into the art field, I’m going to have to know how to use several different mediums, including colored pencils. (Sigh) On a different note, even though I keep pestering poor Mrs. Kiick with questions, I actually like my drawing a little bit. Its amazing the affects two different colors can have when blended.

Here are my two works. One is finished; the other is a work in project.




Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Bikes


For years I have seen peoples illustrations of bikes everywhere; paintings in coffee shops, restaurants, in museums, etc. However, I never realized how incredibly hard and complex a bike is to draw! For our first project of the year, Mrs. Kick surprised us with a bike in the middle of the room set up on a table.  As surprised as we were, she through us a curve ball as well, and told us to draw the bike while using composition. My first drawings looked like this:



Thankfully, we were able to redeem ourselves when she told us we would picking an angle of the bike we would like to draw, and I chose this one:




And then, the venture of shading began to take place. As graphite is my favorite and most practiced medium, I jumped right in. I love working with the different variations of pencils, especially when you have to apply different amounts of pressure to gain the desired effect. Here is a short journey of the bike drawings progress;







Honestly, as challenging and irritating the bike was at first, I actually ended up enjoying drawing it in the end. I absolutely love the way it turned out, and I’m glad I took on the challenge of including lots of spokes and a not-so-easy angle, it turned out pretty cool!

Here is the finished product;



Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Hello Again!

Hello,

After taking a year off, I have decided to return to Art again in my senior year. I have changed a lot since sophomore year, and sadly did not concentrate on art, but rather my studies, taking hard classes last year. This year, however, junior year is over, and I can now focus on art again :)!

This year I hope to build and extend my portfolio as I prepare for life outside of high school. Although I   have no idea what ill be doing for my career, having a portfolio is needed if I decide to pursue art.

Follow me through my journey during my second, and last, year in Mrs. Kiick's class!