Push-Pin Painting

This is the progression of my push-pin painting from the pre-posted sketch to the finished product which is the painting at the bottom. I think it is a whole new way to look at a push pin.

Another Finished Altered Book Page

This is the progression of this page from start to finish starting with the sketch which I have already posted. The shiny petals were cut from pages of a book and painted over. You can't really see it in the picture but in person the words come through the paint a little.

My Artist Statement

Art allows me to be loud. If you know me, you know that I don't talk all that much. With art, I don't have to consider every word I say.  I draw what I want, and what I feel.  When I finish a piece I look back and expect to see a bit of myself reflected in the art.  I think it makes my art believeable.  I want people to see it and see real people not made up ones, and I want them to make a connection to my art.  Art is made for everyone.  I think that a lot of artists create pieces exclusively for other artists and when regular people go to a museam and look at it, they just walk by and don't give the art a second glance.  I want my art to jump out at people and I guess that is what I strive for in every piece that I make. 

I don't plan on making art my career.  I actually want to be an astronomer, but art has always come easily to me and it is something that I enjoy imensley. Even when I get old and grey, as we all eventually must, I hope to still be creating.  Art will always be a part of me and if I'm not drawing because I want to, then I don't want to draw at all. 

I am a perfectionist and art is always showing me how not perfect I am. But I've realized over time that nothing in art is ever perfect.  There is always room for improovement and that is something that I love.  I love looking back and seeing how far I've come as an artist, and I look forward to the future and seeing how much I will improove. I'm glad that my art isn't perfect. It it was then it wouldn't be real and tangible.

This year I want to master the art of capturing the essence of my subjects.  That is the special "thing" that captures the audience.  I want my art to tell a story and, like I said before, I want it to be believable.  When art contains that essence it doesn't need any intoduction or special show. 

Art allows me to be me.  I don't have to pretend, or wear any masks. Art doesn't lie.  Art speaks every language and eventually trancends words all together.  I want my art to speak beyond myself and that is my intent.  I want my art to touch something inside people and make them believe that anything is possible. 

sam

New School Work

This is a sketch I did today in class for a painting due on Monday.  It is the top down view of three push pins.  Pretty cool huh? The final product will be posted soon.

My Altered Book

All of the pieces below this post are pages from my altered book. Not all of them are posted yet but will be soon.

This is the newest sketch of one of my few remaining pages for my altered book. I will upload the final work when I finish it this weekend along with the rest of the remaining pages.

This is an acrylic painting of my dog. It is done in an almost fauvistic/cubist style.

This is how those two paintings will appear in my altered book. The below pictures are close-ups.

These are the two completed pages of my friend and I.  The faces are done in water color with details in water color pencils and the guitar details were done with acrylics.

These two pieces are sketches of me and one of my good friends reflected in our guitars.  They were the first drafts of the above pictures.

The picture at the top is the finished version of the two quartet pages for my altered book. Each member of the quartet is in a different medium. The bottom picture is a close up of me playing cello done in scratch board. It is a little hard to see in the full quartet layout.

These are sketches of two of my quartet members from last year. They are the unfinished versions of the above pictures.

The piece on the left is the first sketch of the piece on the left. I saw this picture in a catalogue and was inspired to draw this.

The top picture is the unfinished version of the first and last pages of my altered book, and the picture underneath is the finished version. While both halves are together in these pictures they will not be in my book.

Summer School Art

All of the art work underneath this post was done in my summer school class this year.

This was the crowing jewel of my summer school art this year. It a batik portrait of me.

This is one print of a stamp I carved this summer. The script on the right of it means "Live" in Arabic.

This was my first attempt at batiking, which is a wax resist-dyeing process.  It was a lot of fun and will make a cool fasion statement.

Past Work

All of the pieces below this post were done in my sophomore year in the Design and Draw art class I took that year. Sadly I haven't gotten to take another art class untill this year with A.P. Studio Art. But I have done two sessions of Summer School Art.

On the left is a contour drawing of pressed flowers, and on the right is the shaded version of the same flowers.

This was a painting I did of a sunset on the beach in Destin, Florida.

The drawing on the left is a still life that I drew in Design and Draw, and underneath it is a close up painting of the red marble from the still life in a more modern tecnique.

This was the first scratch board that I did.

This is one of my favorite scratch board pieces that I did.

This was the first piece of art I completed in high school. I call it: The Cellist.

Hello

Hey everyone, this is my first time blogging so be gentle. I will soon be posting some of my past and summer artwork. So let me know what you think.

sam