Come at me, Finals.

Three weeks from tomorrow, and this semester will be finished. Our BDS project is going just swimmingly. We're still playing with paper. Which is fun, it makes me feel like a sophisticated five year old. I'm actually making decent progress though, still lots more to be done.
My drawing final was assigned yesterday. It's going to be a ton of work. Final Project: Pick an artist between the Renaissance and the 1940s. Create exact replicas of three of their pieces. Then, create three pieces that look like they belong to that artist using their same style, medium, and subject matter. Restrictions and requirements: Replicas must be done the same size as the originals. Pieces cannot use color. Any drawing medium is allowed. Artists may be more recent than 1940, depending on the artist and their work.
I chose Arshile Gorky. He got his start in the 1930s. He pulls from a variety of genres in his work. They are largely abstract drawings, with expressionist and cubist influences. However, a handful of his pieces have photorealistic qualities to them. He works with a lot of pencil and ink, which is right up my alley. As intimidating as this pieces is, I'm really looking forward to jumping into research and pushing myself to learn his techniques.

Here's a video

This is something I consider somewhat inspirational, it that's the right word.. If not, it's something I consider to be completely true. Spoken in the most honest way.
http://vimeo.com/24715531

May Thanksgiving Break Commence!

Break has officially started. I'm back home in Wichita. This whole break will be dedicated to obscene amounts of eating and arting. My project for BDS was completed and turned today. On Monday I turned in a final drawing - the one I did the preliminary monster cupcake for. It's on display right now, but when I get it back there will be pictures posted to prove it's existence. I've also learned how to crochet. Youtube is helpful like that. So I've taken up a new hobby. Almost like I actually have time for one. But let's not kid ourselves. I'm a workaholic and a robot. Free time doesn't exist.

Sneak Peak!

Starting a new project in my drawing studio - symbolic self portraits. Here's one of my first preliminary sketches that will be part of my final piece!

Final Photos!

Walked around campus and took photos of our word. Here's our final locations

Construction of our Letters

Our Team, and working photos taken during construction

Kaley. Sally. Sara. Fatima.

This is not BDS.

Here's something I did this morning in my drawing studio.
Abstract from a still life. Charcoal. 18"x24"

What Language Looks Like, Part One: Complete.

This project focused on teaching us typography. We all chose a word we wanted to focus on for this half of the project, and then began manipulating it first out of paper letters and then on the computer. Each collage we designed had to express some meaning of the chosen word. We took our top three designs and put them in color. After several rounds of testing color schemes and printing to ensure color accuracy, our final piece was three black and white collages and six colored collages that all measure 6”x6” and mounted on 10”x10” black mat board.

This project was an interesting experience. I’ve never had to play with typography before, especially in this manner. The paper collages weren’t easy, nor were the last five or so collages on the computer. But it was a good kind of challenge, and it really forced me to see what I could come up with. It was fun playing with color. I loved the lecture Margie gave. Color theory is one of my favorite things to study. However it did get difficult when trying to put all six collages into a cohesive set that made sense with my word, then even harder when getting them to print correctly. But overall, i found the assignment to be a really good learning experience.

These are my final six collages: