Girl Reaching Out

This is the first painting I ever sold, to a man named Chris Benscer who works for the Australian Embassy- yeah, isn't that cool? Technically it was sold to Nathan Mick, the Economic Development Director, who then sent it to Mr. Benscer, but either way, my painting is now sitting in Washington alongside of collection of far superior work from all over the world. That's very exciting for me!

I was tickled to death when Mr. Benscer later sent me a long letter about how he liked my painting and if I ever wanted to tour the Smithsonian and Embassy, give him a call.

 It never ceases to amaze me, the way art reaches people. God makes everyone special, gives them something they are good at. Me? I'm awkward, clumsy, forgetful, and insecure..... but for some reason, people like my art, they admire it, and I don't think it's because of me. I'm hoping I'll be able to use art to really reach people one day, in a big way.

I designed this logo for the Garrard County Tobacco Festival- or the Cultural Heritage Festival, as they like to call it now. I'm not sure why they changed the name......

I did the line-work in ink, then scanned it in and colored it on Photoshop. I tried to keep the design simple, yet at the same time incorporate as many objects as possible that represent Garrard County culture. The tobacco leaves, barn, hay, and quilt represent some of the most popular farming/crafting activities, and the large hand represents the hard work put into such activities- it also gives the logo a feeling of support and community closeness, at least, that's what I thought when I drew it. I sketched out several other designs, but this is the one chosen by the committee members.

I received 200 dollars for this little logo, which isn't bad -laugh- I usually charge much cheaper.

Final Project: Acrylic Catipillar

This artwork took me the shortest amount of any pieces I've ever done before, once I got started on it. I think it's because I actually planned out what I was going to paint first. My classmates wanted to see more Alice in Wonderland, someone demanded a caterpillar, and all that was left was to pick the medium. I picked acrylic paint, of course. It's so versitile :)

I'll admit, when I first planned this one out though,  it was supposed to have a darker color scheme and more realistic details. But I like this, it's nice.... and girly.... and it was fun. I used pour painting for the back and foreground, and I glazed it to give it shine. Overall, one of my favorites.

Fourth Art Project: Eygptian Culture

 As i explained in an earlier post, the art teacher required us to complete to art pieces revolving around a culture,and I chose Egypt. Here's the first artwork I did. It's all very meaningful- the eye in the middle is the eye of Horus, the sun-god, symbolizing wealth, power, prosperity, health, and happiness. The sun in the background symbolizes the same thing. The snake and vulture touching the eye symbolize Egypt itself, which use to be divided in half. I'm not existed with this artwork, but it does its job.

This second piece I like much, much better, in the first one I used paint, which was traditional to ancient Egypt. For this second one, I water-colored the paper to make it look old, then I inked in the rest. Free-handed it, too, which is why I accidentally drew the subject a little big and his legs got cut off. This work represents the death god, Anubis. Easy to guess his meaning.  This work contrasts my earlier one in both  symbolism and color, which I think is clever. The hieroglyphics at the top tell you how to mummify someone.

Feather Ink

 Okay, I admit, when Mrs. Shaffer said we would be using ink, as in a quill and bottle, I was nervous. I'd never done anything like it before! And at first, I sucked at it. So I practiced. And practiced. And practiced. And by the time I actually started on a project, surprise! I'd become a lot better at it. In fact, I learned to love inking. The details you can make are amazing  : )

This first bird has a blue background, in case you can't tell. It came about rather randomly. I was sitting in class when I spotted this picture of a crane and decided I wanted to draw and bird. So I sat down with my ink and paper and newly acquired skills and this is what I came up with. It took a couple of days to finish, and I looooooove it.

For my second ink work, I decided to do a bird to match the first one, in the opposite position and with an oppositely colored background. It was coming along really well..... that is, until I split my jar of ink on it. I managed to save it, but some of the white is very obvious..... otherwise, I think I actually like this bird better. This isn't the best pic of it....

Pencil Project

Here's a picture of the first artwork I did for my studio art class. Mrs. Shaffer wanted us to give examples of our skills thus far. We could use any medium we wanted, and since pencil is the only one I'd really worked with, that's what I used. However, I did go out of my comfort zone a bit by drawing people. I'm big on cartoons and animals and stuff, but not people. I wanted my subject to look tough and edgy. Cool. I think it turned out ok, for a simple pencil drawing....

My Artist Statement

     It's hard trying to describe what my artwork is about, but if I had to stick a word to it, it would be feelings. Whenever I am working on a piece, whatever emotion I am wrapped in at the time goes into it, whether I feel happy, sad, hopeful, angry, or depressed. Often enough, I create a work of art when my emotions are at their most extreme with the sole purpose of letting them out. Safe to say, if I am working on a project for several days, the theme of it changes several times, and I work hard to finish each piece of artwork quickly, before I loose the feeling it is based on, and have to start all over again.
   My subjects are often inspired by other peoples artwork. When I look at a painting or a drawing, I see a million different ways it could be reworked into something new and different, and I usually start my artwork by taking someone's theme and combining it with the different elements and emotions I want it to portray until it becomes something completely different and uniquely my own.