This past quarter has taught me a few things; 1.) I definitely want to continue working with De'VIA (Deaf View/Image Art), because I want to seek further into my roots, my culture, and the history of my past. My ideas were inspired by many important people from the Deaf History, combined with my own personal experience, and other Deaf people's experiences that I find very significant to the meaning of the De'VIA paintings and my career as an Artist. 2.) I want to try to work with new medium such as oil or water color painting, because of you classmates, you guys have inspired me to try a new medium, so thank you for that. 3.) I also want to thank you all for your feedback during the final crit, I added a few things to this painting. This painting is about AGBell's domination of the Deaf community for many years. AGBell's education was largely received through numerous experiments in sound and the furthering of his father’s work on Visible Speech for the deaf. He was a determined man, he wont stop at nothing to succeed his father's work, so his work became AGBell's passion. He was an affluent man and he could do almost anything he wants. Unfortunately, at that time, Deaf people didn't have much of freedom or equal rights to go against him. My learning about the history behind this amazes me, makes me a proud Deaf person today and I want to share this story to the world. Because, I have a talent with painting, I can express my thoughts and feelings through art, and hopefully, that will impact on people who didn't know about the sufferings that Deaf people went through for a long time.

Water color, colour, co lore.

This quarter I really tried to do something new with Painting.  I feel like most days Painting and I get along.  With water colour I really tried to experience this medium for the first time.  Without preconceived notions of how I was supposed to do it.  To get better, you must fail at it somehow.  So through trial and error, I suffered through putting too much watercolor on a paper drenched with water.  Therefore ruining the texture of the paper making it look like a green artist.  I also used the watercolor too thick, making it look more like an etched print.  Through my fifty paintings, I went through a transition.

 I really started to enjoy the colours mixing as they were wet.  A brush that is just enough saturated with water and color, set down on a strong sheet of water colour paper, then dragged slowly across the paper with a brush of another colour. Drop an even wetter drop of white pigment and watch it spread.

This piece made me want to travel.  I felt like I was in a place of travel or I had to get somewhere.  An icy background with small doors of unknown places.  Perhaps a stairwell here... there.  This was the one I felt made the best transition.  

 I tried to work with that previous technique more so... These were based off of two blurred images.  As I continued with this, I wanted to explore using more watercolour using the saturated, dragging technique.  The being in the center of the page is where the saturated colours were merging and very still because of the puddle on the sheet of paper.  I had gotten a result that was unexpected.  Kind of like staring into space.

This one included layering of watercolour with some different brush techniques.

Above: For someone who who wasn't quite a big fan of the abstract... This one above really just captured the imaginative narrative side as I was painting and continuing afterwards.  To the Right: Model from Open Figure Drawing.  I became really excited when I started sculpting the form with circles.  Below:  During Class, I really enjoy how the transitions were possible even through the minimal graphite and water colour.

Below:  The key word here is minimal.  I used too much graphite and I realized this as soon as I put brush to the water colour paper.  For me this painting works even with the darker side of the face.  The confusing information of light and dark creates deeper thought.  However... I am going to create a darker background with smaller circles.  Perhaps then some eyes can see what I can see.

Co Lore.

This is my compilation of paintings from the quarter, i never showed the smaller studies because they did not relate to the fabric paintings but i may try to incorporate this tight style in the near future, it's really what I love to do. I would consider this quarter a success for me, personally. I set out with an idea of working with fabric and turning into something else and making something else in my eyes. I really enjoyed what I did and how I worked for the last 10 weeks, however, next quarter I would like to refine my ideas before starting so that I have a cohesive collection of work that I can start building upon for my senior show. Hopefully I can figure out a way to combine my love for material and fabric with my tighter style of painting. Thank for the great quarter everyone! Loved seeing all your work progress and the final outcomes!

Final Work

acrylic on cardboard

acrylic on canvas

This quarter was a busy one for me, hence I didn't have much time to spend on painting.  However, I am generally pleased with the two works I did create this quarter.  I was aiming to unite the theme of vines/ nature reclaiming man-made objects (which I focused on at the end of last year,) with a sugar skull theme.  For the first painting on cardboard I united the two themes in a very literal manner.  I also decided to paint it in a very flat, graphic style.  I love how the focus is on lines and the skull in this painting, without any distracting background (unlike the painting on canvas!)  The background in the second painting on canvas seemed to be a big tripping point.  The style of the bricks was a constant criticism point in critique, and looking back I wish I hadn't devoted so much space to a background that wasn't too critical.  However, in this painting I do enjoy how the stylized vines turned out, as well as the skull.  I believe they work very well as the focal point of the painting.  Perhaps I could have pushed the color in the skull a little more, but that's for another time!

work from this quarter...

Fall Quarter

I wanted to explore and experiment on linking two different styles, Abstract and figuration. I believe I have been successful with linking them, but I just need a little more work on some of them.

The tea cup painting was the most successful one, and my favorite. I dont need to work on it any more as I will ruin it if I do. I love the colors and the texture the shapes give to the tea cups. It gives the painting a more cozy feel to it. I love the details the figuration brought, and it actually makes me want to drink some tea at this moment..  That is my actual tea cup so maybe this is actually a self portrait.. haha

While I love the detail and the color of the ballet slippers, I feel that I need to push and take away some of the abstraction in this painting. So I will continue to work on this piece  It is a lovely painting and has potential, just needs some more work.

I feel that this piece needs more work in the abstract and figuration section. I tried to loosen up with the figuration, but I feel that it doesn't really fit me and feels forced. So I plan on going back to that and putting my personal touch in it, and working on the abstraction some more. I feel that this will be a successful one too; it just needs some more attention.

This is the one that came from my short story. I feel that it looks like the main character I envisioned, and I like the blues and greens in the painting and the simplicity of abstraction. I wanted to signify the ocean in there. If you want a better understanding of the story, its about a barmaid who dreams of sailing at sea and meets a captain that made her dream come true. It was taken placed in the 1800's. I took it in to get it framed and will just add some highlights, as I think thats all it really needs to balance it out. Then I will rewrite the story on the back of the frame. (I just hope I wont poke a hole in the back! haha) I really feel that this is a successful one also.

I had a fun time challenging myself with trying to link the two styles, and I believe that I will be succeed in it and I will continue to do it.

Artwork