Junior Review

Since being held back in my art major, I was self absorbed with my skills as an artist. I felt I had more art experience, and that was the only thing that kept me sane through my stay at Boston Arts Academy as a 2014 student. Now that I accepted my graduation date, I can look at my art for what it really is; I can use this as a genuine experience to look back at where I’ve been, and question where am I going. 

Ever since the “Seasons” assignments last year in Studio 2, I feel I have a tight grasp of color theory and how to render with color. This years’ pieces that serve as examples of rendering include “Azealia” and “Ethnic Mona”
 

 The summer of 2012 was the summer I transitioned from an art student into an artist and a designer. Interning in a real design firm gave me motivation to continue making designs, and that motivation then transferred into my studio work outside of school. I continue to explore the design world and different watercolor techniques. (insert Business card, society, album cover)

 Whether I’m painting a portrait or designing an album cover, my process is the same. The process will usually start with a wacky idea for an art piece or a designed piece. At this point, I would either make thumbnails and choose the best composition, or I would go straight into making the piece with all the confidence in the world. For me, making the piece calls for me alone in my bedroom, a room filled with jazz or neo-soul music, and hours passed my self-given bedtime.

I take risks in my ideas more than my techniques.

Junior Exhibition - ReHistoric

My job for the exhibition was to design the fliers. I feel I did an good job as the designer, due to the fact that asked asked for feedback from the class and Ms. Marsh to be sure the was a good representation of the show. For the most part, the whole class helped in the creation of the exhibition, and that teamwork was a very positive and fruitful. The exhibition itself went well. The environment was chill and relaxing, which made it more inviting. I feel the making of the "frames" could have went more smoothly. Some people could have had more control with the paintbrush when making the frames. Also, there was a misunderstanding when it came to the look and feel of the frames; the original look was to be more ornate instead of blocky. My only complaint for the actual show is that the food ran out. Other than that, the show went well.

Or Not To Be

Being a young and black musician, I feel it’s important that the people who made it in the music industry set an example for people in my position. Looking at the Black men in the industry nowadays, I see a great deal of negativity in their music and actions. For this video, I wanted to explore how Black men in the Hip-Hop/RnB music industry are perceived through the eyes of aspiring young black men who are musicians. I interviewed local young artist and asked them questions about what they thought about black musicians in the industry. I wanted a variety of perspectives, so I got three different people who are in different roles in music: a poet/singer, a bassist, and a DJ/Producer. After the interviews is a poet’s interpretation of Black men in the music industry. I wanted this video to be simple when it came to editing. If this video was over edited, it would take away from the content of the video. I didn’t use a cross fade from scene to scene so that the dialogue would continue smoothly rather than having awkward pauses. I wanted to have have different angles for each interviewer to have variety. I integrated verses of the poem “Wake Up” to add further content in the video to get the viewer thinking how the poem connects with the topic before it is heard later in the video.

Gender Exploration Video.

Future Perfect: Creating a Utopia

Term 2 in Design 2 was all about perspective & creating believable spaces. The big end of the Term project was to create a Utopia or a Distopia using perspective techniques.

A big challenge for me was creating lighting in the spaces that abide to the rules perspective. I needed a ton of help creating accurate or closer to accurate lighting.

Learning how to apply perspective to a space to make a piece helped me understand how to make a space look more realistic. It also adds a new dynamic in terms of contrast.

As a growing designer, this unit help me understand how perspective can add to the composition, value, form, etc. Also as a growing designer, I realized how important time and planning is. Thumbnails, sketching and writing out ideas. If I took more time to plan and get more ideas out, I might have been more successful in my pieces and more confident in them.

Mr. Edwards, my design teacher, was a big help as i was getting the big picture of perspective. He expects more from me and he makes it apparent. The fact that he pushes me to do better work makes him a great teacher.

Term 3 Reflection

To communicate through visual language means to convey a message through the medium of art. The message can be made through the use of color, the composition of the whole piece, and the usage of line. The mixture of color by itself can convey a message through visual language. It can create emotions in the audiences mind by itself. Line also can do the very same thing. The composition of subjects on the picture plane can create a story.

I knew little about the color theory. I now understand that there is sort of equation to making colors. certain ratios of primary are need to make specific colors.

This term, we created art that was connected to my life. For example, we dyed cloth to create a visual story of our lives. In my personal cloth, there are symbols I made that help tell the story.

I'm proud of the different cloths I made during the term. All of them I had fun making, and I really like almost all of how they look at the end. I spent a long time waxing, tying and at one point painting the fabric, and the hard work, as I believe, paid off.

I struggle to get the perfect picture of what I wanted exactly. For example, the wax wouldn't make a straight line, and my picture would be altered.

Stamp Making

In Studio 1 class, we took up stamp making and making prints with the stamps we made. The stamps were made out of a rubber block, and we had tool specifically made for carving the rubber. The designs we made could not be very detailed, but very simple and blocky due the fact that the rubber was very mailable and easy to break if thinned.

The actual making of the stamp was strenuous at first, but once I did it more, then it became more easy and almost relaxing.

I did not like the outcome of some of my stamps. Once I strengthen my stamp making, I will be better at it.