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My inspirations for the physical style of this piece were the artworks of 20th century illustrators like J.C. Leyendecker and Normal Rockwell. Whereas they used their artworks to mostly glorify American culture, I'm using a similar illustrative style to comment on the less idealistic or positive aspects of American society during the 20th century. This artwork is a criticism of the traditional family dynamic during the defined time period and the issues that plagued them. My painting is meant to tell the story of this imperfect family because at first passing glance, you see a normal, nuclear family standing in front of a nice house. The viewers are meant to look around the painting and notice more and more abnormalities the longer they inspect it. A few of the things I’d like onlookers to notice are the "For Sale" sign, the blood splatter on the old little boy's clothes and hands, the bruises on the woman and the tears in her eyes, and the bottle nestled in the bushes' leaves.
At birth, she received the dress, and wore it the entire first day of her life. At this point, the dress was a blank canvas. Nothing but white cloth covered her soft skin. On her next birthday, the girl was placed in her dress, but it had gained a single flower on the shoulder. Her mother told her that as she grew, the dress would grow with her and she would receive a new flower on her dress. In her mid 20s, she noticed that the flowers were forming a sort of vine across the dress, and by 50, the entire front of her dress was covered in the vine. Although the dress didn't grow much after that, it was still embellished every year with a new flower. She put on her dress for her 100th birthday and the flowers had created a full circle around her dress, resembling a sash. She wondered where her next flower would go because her sash was complete, but mid-thought, she collapsed. Her daughter found her shortly after, but it was too late. At the funeral, the girl was buried in her dress.
The bond between mother and child is so fragile, yet also extremely strong. This auspicious ideology surrounding maternity is nothing short of absolute truth but in its entirety, it is the physical and psychological connection that binds a being to its biological offspring. It is something that is so natural and beautiful. I've given the mother an extremely neutral tone in this piece, further complimented by the lighting and the position of the face. The child, however, holds a rather curious tone, constantly wondering, yet still with the sensibilities of his or her mother to keep the mindset on a stable path. The inconsistencies in the colors represent conflict throughout the relationship. The composition of the piece portrays that maternity is never the centerpiece of a relationship but will always be a focal point.
I always love to find artsy things to do in my community and Compassion through Fashion was one of them. Compassion Through Fashion is a recycled material fashion show my city holds every year to raise money for the homeless. I am usually a model for a friend or just helping with a design, but last year I went rogue and created my own dress. So I combined my favorite craft and fashion design together and made a Pom Pom dress. Every Pom Pom and tassel is hand made by me. It took me about a month to create this dress and I had so much fun doing it.
My name is Veronika Mia Leath and I love abstract art! While in kindergarten, I created my own style. I do detailed artwork in vibrant colors. This painting is inspired by nature. I spend a lot of time by the ocean and that is how the picture, Ocean of Youth, was born.
My family and I visited the South Carolina State Museum and they had an exhibit called “Early American Face Vessels from the George H. Meyer Collection.” There were over 100 different face vessels from all over the south. Twenty of them were from South Carolina! When we came home, I decided that I wanted to try and make my own jugs, but I did not want them to be scary. The jugs are me and my best friend Dash, my 2-year-old cockapoo.
I love animals and enjoy drawing animals in their different habitats. I felt inspired to try and capture the special lighting from learning about polar bears around the Northern Lights. I used pastels to create shadows and show light bouncing off of the snowy ice setting. I love how you can use pastels to blend and really capture the layers of the mountains and the reflections of light. I wanted this baby polar bear to be the focus as she is stepping out to see the beauty all around her for the first time. I tried to create texture on her body to look like snow.
My favorite creature is the various dinosaurs I read about. My inspiration was those dinosaurs. I wanted to use my artwork to show a dinosaur with character.
Lola and Marley are the names of my two dogs that have recently passed away. Lola is the brown dog on the left and Marley is the golden dog on the right. The two both passed away within 24 hours of each other. Marley was an older dog who suffered from nasal cancer, which caused her to have nosebleeds the last couple of months of her life. Once Marley passed, Lola let her unknown sickness take over and sadly passed away the next day. I went from having two dogs to no dogs. Coming home to an empty house expecting to be greeted by your pets and coming home to nothing hits hard. After dealing with the difficult stages of grief, I’ve decided to make a painting of both of them to honor their life and everything they’ve done for my family. This painting is a gift for my two parents who are still grieving over my dogs. My intent is to pass on something my parents can have to help with their loss as well.
I was born in Valparaiso, Indiana and my mom was born in Illinois. I remember our trips to Chicago and when we would go to the Cloud Gate. My uncle lives about 30 minutes from Chicago and when we go to visit them, we see our favorite baseball team. Go Cubs! I will always remember the day of my first Cubs game. My favorite view is to see the skyline from Lincoln Park Zoo and I chose to do a painting to represent that. My sister is moving to Chicago for a summer internship so I am planning to give this to her as a gift to decorate her apartment. She is so excited to put it up in her room.
This is a painting of my fantasy island at sunset. I used acrylic paint. I created a blend of purples for my sky and I made my water look like a reflection. I worked on this painting for several weeks. It took a long time to paint the leaves on the trees and to work on the clouds. I am proud of this artwork.
"Black Love" is a portrait of one of my older cousins and her fiance. I call them Auntie Dri and Uncle Dang. They are my favorites. They love me, my family, their family and each other so much. We all eat together, travel, laugh, learn, grow and have fun together. That's what Black Love is to me.
I was inspired by Ralph Goings work of classic American diners. The reference image used for this painting was taken in a small town of a two-in-one family owned diner/gas station. I was originally told not to paint this because it was above my skill level. In turn, I was very determined to create it. Overall, this piece took three months to complete and was one of the most challenging works I've produced. It is also the one I am most proud of.
Pride is part of a series of pieces I created where I explored the unique aspects and characteristics of women from different cultures. With this piece, I wanted to express the pride that this African woman has for her culture. Her posture is meant to show the strength that she has within herself and to show that she is steadfast and able to maintain her composure in the face of adversity. She wears a traditional gele on her head, a piece unique to her culture, and looks up to the sky, keeping her head and ambitions high.
Apollo is not a physical representation and it’s not simply a portrait. It’s an idea, a principle, it represents a way of viewing the world after going through a raw experience. In this case that raw experience was me coming to the dark reality of racism in my country. I think when faced with racism men and women of color turned back into that scared little boy/girl that just wants to be appreciated and get along and that’s why the subject of my piece has a childlike expression of confusion and conflict on his face. The crown of leaves represents innocence and the colors around and represent coming into adulthood and coming to terms with reality.
The drawing was created to show what I can do and to make me, along with others, proud. With the yellow of the tiny flowers and the large face lit, I feel that it shows something more than just a pretty drawing but the contrast in life with the light and dark, warm and cool. One of my favorite things about the artwork is the warmth and happiness I feel from it, and I'm proud to be a colored pencil artist.
Have you ever thought about how the world would look if everything was black and white? While watching some old black and white movies, I decided to try to imagine that world. I used watercolor to first create a picture of people in shades of black, white, and gray. The picture wasn’t very fun to draw because it didn’t have any color. The second watercolor was much more fun! I tried to make sure each person I created was unique, just like real people. A world full of colors and people is much more fun than one where everyone looks the same.
I love art. I paint anytime I can and it is my top priority. I admire the beauty of nature and that is why I painted the Tree of Paradise. I made this picture on my ninth birthday to make my family happy. When I grow up I want to become a professional artist!
My name is Jasper Corley and the title of my painting is Drunk Peacock. I was inspired by Jackson Pollock when we went to the art museum. My mom is an artist and inspires me to to paint everyday. I made this painting outside on a sunny day and threw paint on my canvas. I put my canvas on the ground like Jackson Pollock painted. I used spray paint, house paint, acrylic, water bottles, spray bottles, paint brushes, and sticks from the yard. I like getting messy while painting. It is my favorite way to paint! I created an explosion of warm and cool colors.
I like butterflies because they are colorful. You see one and you can't believe all of their colors. Butterflies are calm and when I see them and hear the birds sing, it makes me feel calm.
By capturing their intense power and grace in the air, the fire-breathing dragons are my favorite subject to draw. The challenge with Winter, however, was drawing him- and the entire background- in grayscale. I am extremely pleased with the results, and I hope that he takes away the breath of everyone who sees him. Because for me, that delighted look, that "Wow..." Is what makes art all worth it.
I chose to paint an American Flag because I wanted to paint something special for my grandma. My grandma loves our country. Her whole house is decorated in red, white, and blue. I took the picture at Myrtle Beach one day last summer. There was a nice breeze, and it looked like a nice perspective to paint. When I gave it to my grandma she was so excited. I hope you like my painting as much as she did.
The Cherry Blossom Tree is a painting using acrylic paint in the colors of pink, white, and black. It is painted on a repurposed stainless steel 32in. X 24.in table top. The blossoms are in pink and the trunk of the tree is in black with accents in white. I used a small and large bristled paint brush to create this piece.
I painted this sea turtle because I like sea turtles. They are very colorful. They are very big creatures.
Change begins with an individual. As we as a society expand, more of our natural resources are being exploited in the face of industrialization. Trees are responsible for providing habitat for various animals, preventing erosion, removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and moderating the climate, but their importance is often overlooked. It is estimated that every second, one and a half acres of forest is cut down. In my piece, I used recycled wood to bring attention to this growing issue. I strategically lit the world map to highlight countries with extreme deforestation. Each carving in front of the map represents one hundred million people that choose to ignore the problem of deforestation and remain stagnant. The more evolved human in the center represents the individual choice to face the issue directly and work towards a change. At the current rate of deforestation, there will be no rainforests in just 100 years. Will you make a stand, or respond like the masses?
My inspiration behind this artwork is my best friend Maliyah. She has been behind me through thick and thin. I chose this angle of this artwork the way I did to show both pain and strength. Maliyah has been through a lot at home and still pushes through it all with a smile on her face. Maliyah helped me and laughed with me for about 4 years now and I can't wait for many more to come.
Kids do the weirdest things. They also make you realize they might be smarter than you think. My job is to help out the smaller kids with their reading, writing, and to help out the teachers once and a while. While my time as a helper has been short I've learned so much from them. I've learned to appreciate what I have now and what I had. Today, I walked in the classroom and the children were on the floor watching a movie, fully energized, and excited for us to show up. While they might have the obvious luxury of not having sleep deprivation from work, carelessness, and innocence, we have the perks of independence and saying restroom instead of "the potty place". We all miss those days and wanted to travel back to a time when we were babies and not have a care in the world again. We didn't appreciate all those naptimes and breaks and now they are gone. Don't make the same mistakes and appreciate things in your life now, be happy, and look on the bright side like these smiling kids.
I based my drawing on a photograph I captured of my jack russell terrier. I used hatching, cross-hatching, and stippling to make him look realistic. Pencil is my favorite medium to work with but I challenged myself with pen for this project. Overall, I was pleased with the final results.
I like to make art because it lets me express myself, it lets me put what I'm thinking of on a medium of my choice. I like using paper, canvas, and video to communicate how I feel. I really just want people to see my work.
This is my dog Dixie. Ever since she was a little puppy, she has loved to chase our used milk jugs around the yard. I wanted to make a painting of her in action chasing a jug like she loves to do so much.
I made a collage of a bowl of Russian eggs, that are from my grandparents house. Then I drew apples with oil pastel and cut them out. My favorite part was painting the plant because painting is really fun.
I like snow, and I was learning about penguins at school. I put a hat and scarf on my penguin because it is chilly when it snows. I had fun making it.
Everyone says "The sky is the limit.", but I just see it as another barrier that I have to break to find my true potential, to reach new heights. I want to be the best I can be at what I love to do. When I started planning for this piece, I wanted to push into a realm of advancement in my art. I wanted to create beyond what I have already produced. My teacher, as she always does, pushed me outside of my comfort zone. She said all artist need a self portrait at some time. So I decided to create my self portrait, but using the stenciling method like Banksy. This took me about two weeks to do all the cutting for the stencils, and because of my prior knowledge in the medium about two hours spray paint. This work of art is my result of my stepping out of my boundaries and hard work.
James Charles is an inspirational Youtuber and artist. I chose to draw James Charles because he is funny and creative in many ways. For my portrait, I used realism because I love the different texture and movement used in the style. I drew this portrait using charcoals and different shades of pencil and chose a purple border for a pop of color. I chose to draw James Charles because he is inspiring, funny, and creative in many ways.
In class we created a sun and a moon face to represent the warm and cool colors. We could paint it however we wanted as long as we had all the colors we talked about in class.
Within this self-portrait, I am exploring the complexity of my seemingly simple thoughts or daydreams. I am contrasting my outer, bored expression with the chaotic, whimsical doodles in the background that symbolize my daydreams. This goes to show that even when I look unengaged on the outside, my brain is thinking a surplus of thoughts and ideas. I enjoy both technical rendering and free doodling, which is why I decided to combine them in an interesting way in this piece. This contrast between the two techniques, furthers the contrast of my expression and my thoughts.
I was inspired to create "Self Reflection" when I opened a kitchen cabinet in my house and was met with my reflection staring back at me. The clarity, but also distortion of the image intrigued me, so I decided to translate it into a work of art. I photographed myself holding the silver cup and then meticulously recreated it using colored pencils, making sure to include as much detail as possible. For me, this piece was an exploration of something very familiar to me, my reflection, from a new and different perspective.
In my piece, I tried to incorporate net neutrality and how it affects some of us. To me, the internet is like another life that I can go to whenever I like. It is an escape to reality and I can peek into other people's lives. Taking that away might as well take away half of myself. The internet is growing and getting more complex every minute; like me. The internet is how I learn to connect with people and learn new things that I'm unable to learn in school.
This little Eurasian kingfisher just flew about his daily routines and found his catch of the evening. This drawing represents it in the water clasping its beak around its fishy meal. Nature and the water have always been a big part of my life which is why I drew this king of the river, the kingfisher.
I really love animals and I think that lions are beautiful. I was trying to paint a lion who didn't look too fierce, but had a wise face.
I like mountains and lakes. I like to paint beautiful things that are everywhere.
My inspiration was my cousin Kristina as she was getting ready for prom, and was taking pictures outside.
My art, "Lady In Red" is a 3-D piece of a woman opening a door. I used house paint to create my background and woman. Then, using different types of fabric such as quilting fabric and tool, I fluffed my dress up and then covered it in a red fabric. Her earring and necklace is made with real jewelry that has been cut. She is painted on a door to look like she is opening it. I wanted to show my girl opening a door so instead of just painting a door on a canvas, I decided to get a door and paint the girl on it to look like she is opening it. I used gold leaf to emphasis the girl on the background.
For me, art has always played some part in my life. IÕve always been connected to it in one way or another. I used to be an inventor and I would take things apart. My father always says that I have a very clever way of thinking. I make art because it has capabilities of occupying me for hours at a time combined with music or making music. This piece symbolizes a part of being in high school and how shoes are like armor for the feet. You can customize the way they look from a combination of plastics to fabrics to even things like aluminum and metal. Some of my thoughts that were put into this come from my previous brainstorming of how to attach the sole to the upper sole. Sometimes I do research on how these things are made to help with my art. The reason I make art is because it keeps me cool at times when I want to fidget. I also like to see the outcome and put my artwork on display in my house.
I like horses. My cousin melted crayons over a bottle and I liked the way the bottle looked. This is why I chose to melt crayons over my horse drawing instead of coloring or painting my horse.