A Growing Creator

An advertisement I made for Corning Museum of Glass

Here is a memorial picture I made for my grandfather. All pictures I have taken myself, and a poem that was read at his funeral by my cousin.

I have recently read a book written by Freeman Patterson, who is a well known photographer and he inspired me to challenge myself a little bit. In his books, he has activites you can do that helps you advance in Photography. One of these activties were to take a picture every day for 14 days of an object you wouldn't normally take a picture of. Now looking for objects you wouldn't normally take a picture of is quite interesting and it allows you to view the world differently around you. Some of these objects can be abstract images in the photographs because you are looking more at the shapes and shadows that make them interesting, not of the objects themselves.

During my time at Alfred State, I had a professor who was one of my biggest inspirations. She taught me more than any other professor has about life, and about art itself. She really made me start viewing the world in a different way. Still today (2 years later) I find myself doing little habbits she taught our class to do while we were creating art pieces. She truely had corrupted my mind in the best way possible.
One of the most important lessons she taught me was about viewing the world around you. She had all of us go outside (she taught quite a few lessons outside when the weather was nice) and she had us each focus on a brach with leaves and start to draw it. We all drew these branches with leaves, which were very good, but she pointed out how inaccurate the distance between each leaf and twig was in our drawings.
She then told us to look at the branch, and instead of drawing the object itself (the leaf, the branch, the twigs) focus on the negative space between the objects and the size. Do not look at the object itself. This really makes you look at things differently. Like what shapes make up the negative space between objects, and it really helps you with porportions. The image you come out with is not going to look like a normal piece it will look odd, but it is very good practice and it will train your eye to look at every piece of a picture.

 

In elementary and middle school, we all have the art classes where we think what we are being taught really does not come in handy and it is all nonsense. I remember being handed a vocabulary sheet each year, with the same words on it ever since 6th grade. I never thought I would have to really hear those words again, and I figured they were just stupid. But as a college art student, those very words are now in my every day vocabulary. Each time I pick up a pencil, or a camera, or a paint brush, the list of vocabulary words even from 6th grade are running through my mind.
Abstract
Background
Composition
Focal Point
Foreground
Geometric
Landscape
Line
Midground
Modern
Portrait
Like I said, those were just the basic words I was taught at first when I was younger that I still use quite often, and going through the list making sure my pieces have good composition, an good focal point, good in a linear aspect, and other things I have been taught really helps me. I have been taught now that the arts have a language of its own.

This blog is about my journey of art. Ever since I was a little girl I have always loved doodling and drawing. I have some drawings from kindergarten I will share with you guys, and I have to admit even for then I am quite impressed with my skills from back then. You can actually tell what these little scribbles are! I grew up in a family where my father is a very artistic person, and my sister is as well. I would sit down at the kitchen table and draw with them at this very young age. I would focus on drawing cats and roses mostly. Which oddly enough, roses are in almost every single one of the pieces now that I draw. I guess old habbits never die.