Miniature Metal Panel Progress

When we were first introduced into the metals unit, it looked difficult and time consuming.  Watching the slide shows Mrs. Kiick showed us, I was thinking, "How did these people come up with these designs?"  I would have to say, that coming up with an initial idea was by far the hardest part of this metal unit.  But I really do like the design that I came up with, and am having fun cutting it out.  The actual saw blade we use is so small, that I have no idea how it does what it does.  But, not to jinx myself for next class, I am proud to say that I have only broken one saw blade.  At first, I was stressed by the sawing process, but now I find it relaxing.  Although I do get fatigued fast while sawing, and my left arm kills after class, I can't wait to go back to the next class.  Stay tuned for a finished metal piece post in the near future.  Wish me luck!!!!!

i.d.entity Collage

Originally learning about what we would have to do for the i.d.entity collage, it didn't seem like much fun to me.  I was thinking that I wouldn't be able to pick the right things for it, I wouldn't know what techniques to use and where, and most importantly, that I probably wasn't going to like it.  Well, in the end, I guess I sort of surprised myself.  I had originally put down three pictures: two of me, and one of me and my brother.  I surrounded these pictures with words that meant a lot to me, such as: family, believe, beautiful, etc...  Well, I had no intentions of doing anything else to it, but I covered the whole thing up with tissue paper.  I didn't really like that, so I covered it up again.  And I didn't really like that, so I added a sort of mountain chain creation.  I was really into that, so I painted it with all these pretty colors, and I did the same to the regular painting.  I then painted a big basketball in the corner, that being what's most important to me.  I finally added some painted buttons, just to top it off.  Below is a picture of what the finished piece turned out to be.

Self-Portrait

Self-portraits were definitely not my favorite part of art so far this year.  First of all, I can't draw, and so I knew drawing something living let alone myself was going to be a challenge.  When we would gather around the tables and watch Mrs. Kiick demonstrate the different techniques we would be attempting that day in class, she made it look so easy, so instantly I was like I can do this.  Actually trying to draw a big sketch of myself, and then have to paint it was hard.  Painting it brought some pain, because after all the hard work you put in to make it look real, you had to put black ink over.  After that dried, we had to "rinse" our paintings over the sink to create a retro feel.  After we let them dry, we used colored pencils to bring our paintings back to "life" and complete them.  Below is what my final, big self-portrait turned out to be.

Norman "Percevel" Rockwell (1894-1978)

I personally like the artist, Norman Rockwell, because he painted realistic settings in an everyday person's life, that may be almost hidden behind the scenes, or not appreciated.  These scenes are not necessarily considered "interesting" to the average human, but yet they still continue to intrigue us because there is something familiar in them to us that we can't quite place our finger on.  I also really like Norman Rockwell because he had a good reason and influence for every last painting he made, so there is history behind the history of the painting itself.
Norman Rockwell was born in New York City in 1894.  At the age of only fourteen, he transferred out of high school to Chase Art School.  He continued to pursue his art career at the National Academy of Design, and finally onto the Art Students League.  His first major art breakthrough came when he was eighteen for Carl H. Claudy's Tell Me Why:  Stories About Mother Nature.  He was married three times to three different women: one of which he divorced, another who had died of a heart attack, and one he had until his own death on November 8, 1978 of emphysema at the age of 84 in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.  He had three children.

The image to the left appeals to me because, obviously, I play and I love basketball.  However, it also it sort of a funny picture because everyone is pointing a finger, blaming everyone except for themselves.  This picture really makes whoever is looking at it think.  It makes you wonder, and make a guess at who is right, even though there is absolutely no proof to see if your guess is correct.

I really like this picture because it is a self-portrait, without it being a self-portrait.  I like how you can see Rockwell from three different angles, with three different techniques.  The details he also includes with famous former artists such as a picture of Albrecht Durer attached to his drawing canvas, is something you can really respect by him making the extra mile to make something really personal to him.  Even though not everyone who sees the painting would notice small things such as that, it is still really cool that he included them in his paintings anyway.








Something I found really interesting about Norman Rockwell, was that during World War I, he wanted to enlist.  At six feet and 140 pounds, he was not allowed to enter because he was eight pounds underweight.  So one night to make up those pounds, he completely gorged himself on bananas, liquids, and doughnuts.  He finally weighed enough to enlist the next day. Unfortunately, he was given the role of a military artist and did not see any action during his first tour of duty.  I really enjoyed reading this, because I respected that he wouldn't take no for an answer, and that he did whatever he had to in order to be able to accomplish whatever it was he set his mind on.