Haven't been on in a while

Haven't been on here in a bit.....I am in Massachusetts with my family for christmas. I have a very large family and there are currently 11 people staying in the one house, for about 2 weeks! If I didn't love them so much I would go crazy. I will try to set aside some time to keep posting while I am here, things have just been nuts so far!

RIP my Pups

This is the tattoo I designed that I will be getting after christmas, in memory of my grandfather. This is just the drawing and to show where I want to get it. My grandfather loved crossword puzzles, in fact I found this picture of him where he fell asleep doing one. That was a regular occurance for him. He was also a devout catholic, and I was raised catholic, so I found the cross shape to be fitting. The Isaiah 41:10 is a bible passage which says "Don't be afraid, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you with my victorious right hand." The dates are his birth and death dates, and then it says RIP Papa. Tattoos are still a very controversial thing. I find them to be another medium for art. I know everyone's opinion on tattoos varies. I love tattoos, in fact this one will be my 7th...(well my 8th if you consider the fact that one of mine was added onto 2 years later). I am very excited for this one, and it will definitely be the one I hold closest to my heart.

More watercolor

These are some more pieces from my watercolor class. The first was a practice in glazing, I forget what the exact subject matter for the second one was, and the last one we had to do a landscape from a photograph.

Quote of the day

"Good art is not what it looks like, but what it does to us." --Roy Adzak

Drawing 1 final

These were for my drawing 1 final...we had to set up a still life and then do 3 different drawings. Each one had to use a different medium, and be from a different perspective, and the differences had to be significant. The first one is pencil, the second one is oil pastels, and the last one is charcoal.

Practice practice practice

These are just some practice drawings I did. 2 are pastel, 2 are charcoal. The last one is my favorite.

Linear/planar 2d

This is a project I did in high school, where we had to take a photograph, and define the different areas of value into sections. From there we had to do a cross-hatch drawing, and then do a portrait out of construction paper.

Turtles everywhere

This is a portrait I did of my friend Sean.

Don't pretend to understand

It bothers me when people ask what I'm in school for, and I tell them I'm an art major and they either A) Ask me how I'm ever going to get a real job doing art, or B) Say "oh that must be easy." People don't realize how much time, effort, and brainstorming goes into being an art student. For every hour you are in class, I am in class for 3 hours. For every hour you spend doing homework, I'm putting in five hours on a project. I am not saying that art is any better than any major, just that it isn't any less significant. It takes a lot of guts to go into a career field knowing that it probably won't make you the most money, and you will most likely struggle. But to know that it is the one thing that will truly make you happy makes it worth it in the end.

Quote of the day

"What moves men of genius, or rather what inspires their work, is not new ideas, but their obsession with the idea that what has already been said is still not enough." --Eugene Delacroix

Faces

These are the first portraits I ever did using charcoal.

Stop

This is a link to a video compilation of all of our stop motion animations from my 3d design class. Mine is the first one in the sequence. Since I haven't been able to upload it myself, you can check it out on here. Everyone did an amazing job with their animations, so take a look!

3D Stop motion animation

Bags and bowls

This was a drawing I did for my drawing 1 class. Still life with paper bags, and glass bowls. Two of the hardest things to realistically draw.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder....as long as society approves.

This is a mixed media piece I did on my own, not for a class or anything. It consists of collage, colored pencil, acrylic paint, and pencil.

Fun videos

Here are 2 of my classmate's stop motion animations.... I am still working on getting mine uploaded to youtube, but because I have music in the background that is copyrighted by a band, youtube wont let me upload it without changing the music, due to copyright infringement. I am working on switching the music to a track that youtube has rights to, but it's taking me a little longer to find a track that goes with my animation. Anyways, for now check out these 2 videos my classmates made. They are awesome! The hershey kisses animation was done by Olivia Mendes, and the blob animation was done by Lisa Bella-Bryson.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4Kpo66QLAY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=navgsPyhtiQ

Ahhhh sweet relief

I love the feeling of accomplishment....just finished my last final for the semester, and I am ecstatic at how well I did in my 3D design class. By far my best overall grade ever! Today has been a great day!

Elmo and a heating blanket

These were also from my watercolor class. We had to do a painting using only warm colors (with the exception of black and white) and then a painting using only cool colors.

Peppers

These are from a watercolor class I took. The drawing was the basis for my paintings, and it's on watercolor paper, so the texture is a little weird looking for peppers. We had to do 2 paintings from our drawing. Both had to be monochromatic, one using a warm color and one using a cool color. 

Quote of the day

"Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist when we grow up." Pablo Picasso

Since I just made a stop motion animation for my 3D design final, I was reminded of this artist who's animations are unbelievable! It amazes me to think that I had to take 400 pictures for a 40 second video, and this animation of his is 7 and 1/2 minutes long! Crazy! Check it out.
Muto by BLU

Quote of the day

"With the most primitive means the artist creates something which the most ingenious and efficient technology will never be able to create." --Kasimir Malevich

It was an honor for me to do this

This is a pencil drawing I recently did. The well is from my parents/grandparents front yard (they live in a duplex so their houses are attached). A family friend made the well, and my grandfather absolutely loved it. When he was going through with planning his funeral arrangements he wanted to have this well put on his headstone. My parents asked me if I would do a drawing of it that will be laser cut into his headstone. So I did, and I was very honored that a piece of my artwork will be on his headstone forever. He was able to see it before he passed and it made him very happy, which made me even happier. I feel blessed to have been able to give him that before he passed away. The process of cutting it into the stone takes a long time, and even though he already passed, it won't be ready until the spring. That's when I will take some pictures of the actual stone and put them up here too.

My bad :)

I realized how crappy my picture of my book project looks with all the distractions in the background. This one was taken quick for my scrapbook. Once I get a better one taken the right way, with a white background, I will put it up in place of this one.

Nan and pups

          

These are 2 prints I did as linoleum relief prints. They are of my grandparents. My grandfather passed away recently and I was able to show him the print of himself before he did. He loved it because I gave him his hair back.

Oh the places I have been...

This is a 3D design project I did. We had to take a book and modify it into a 3D sculpture object. I decided to use a Dr. Seuss book, called "Oh the places you will go." I folded the pages of the book to form stairs and then added paper to the sides to block it in, and colored the paper to stay with his style. I made the person out of paper and colored that with crayons as well. This was a very fun project to do. 

Just give me a pencil and I will be happy

This is a pencil drawing I did of my friend's sister. Pencil is still one of my favorite mediums to work with, and I love doing portraits

My story

Well, I feel like I don't even know where to begin....
Here's a bit about myself...I am a 23 year old art education student at Arizona State University, a.k.a. ASU. I moved to Arizona in January of 2008 from Massachusetts, so I have been here almost 2 years. I have a small amount of family here, but the majority of them are back in MA, including my parents and my sisters, who I miss greatly. I still get the chance to go back and visit, but not nearly as much as I would like. My family is extremely tight knit, more so than many I've met. Some of my best friends are my sisters and my cousins. I am very lucky to have my family, and they have become a big focus in my art work.

ASU is the third college I have attended. I started off at Westfield State College, in MA. I spent a year there as an elementary education, and then I realized that if I had to teach little kids all day I would go crazy. I also wasn't happy at WSC so I decided to transfer to a school a little closer to my home, which was Framingham State College, in MA. I spent almost a full year there as an english and secondary education major, but then dropped out half way through the spring semester. I realized that I was very unhappy there too, and although I love to read and write, english was not what I wanted to do with the rest of my life.

So that's when I had to take a step back and figure out what exactly it was that I wanted to do, and at 20 years old that's a pretty scary thought. I realized that the thing I love the most is the same thing that scared the hell out of me. I had this fear that I wasn't good enough to be an artist. That summer I decided to take a watercolor class at Framingham State. Being in a class with a bunch of people who were already art teachers was the most intimidating thing I ever felt. But I got through it, and I am proud to say that my work was actually just as good as some of theirs. That class gave me the confidence to continue taking art classes. I decided I needed a big change however, and made the choice to move to Arizona. I took a few more night classes in MA while I was saving money to move to AZ. Once I moved I took a semester off to get myself settled and established.

I am now at ASU and doing great. I am loving being an art major, and I now have the confidence to fully believe in my work. I have realized what I need to put into my work in order to make it my best, and I have not been afraid to put myself out there and put my emotions into my artwork.