Random Ukulele Madness

I gave my ukulele a makeover a couple weeks ago. I guess this would be a personal slide?

#6 - Fiber Arts

   No, I didn't make this.  I found it on Etsy.com.  I was so drawn to it because it looked so much like a painting, but it's actually felted.  Felting is a process where fibers are added to a fabric using felting needles.  It's been around for a very long time, most likely having it's origins in Asia (from what I've read).  It was originally not something we would call art, but here it has become fine art.  It's so similar to a painting that just glancing at it you might think it actually was one.  It looks like an alien landscape, with huge green clouds.  This piece isn't small either, it's 25x48 inches.  The artist is Irina Kozlovskaya.

#5 - Self-Portrait

  After the last collage, I'm still in a collage mood.  This is a self portrait, and it's one of the scariest things I've made.  I didn't intend it that way, though.  I wanted to do something totally different, so I took a picture of a charcoal self-portrait I did a few years ago and went crazy.  I cut out and added back in what makes me.  I also added script into the hair, but it's kind of hidden.

#2 - Two-Handed Drawing

   So I had to draw something using both of my hands at the same time.  I decided to draw my ukulele, because I just love my ukulele.  I left out the strings because it would have been frightening.  I hated doing this, because I'm terrible at drawing with my left hand.  It didn't take very long, but I found it to be very obnoxious.  I feel like my left hand is only good for helping the right one, not doing things by itself.  I mean, look at the left side...it looks like I was drawing it on the bus.  This really stretched me, and it felt so awkward.  I won't be doing it again. Ever.



(This was supposed to be post 2, hence the numbering in the title.  Sorry for the out of order thing.)

#1 - Notion of Home

   In the drawing lecture, there was a particular artist who seemed to subvert the idea of home, and frankly, I didn't like that.  I very much enjoy anything that has to do with my home, especially considering this is my first time living away from it.  So this (above) is my idea of home.  This is where I grew up and my family.  These are the places and people I enjoy.  These things make me feel like I can be myself.  This is home.




(By the way, this was supposed to be the first post, but I got out of order.  That's why I numbered it as 1.)

#4 - Found Materials

This past week our lecture was on sculpture, particularly sculpture that uses unconventional materials.  For many of the artists the materials they used were an integral part in what they were trying to convey.

I felt kind of disconnected this week, being a primarily two-dimensional artist.  I'm also still in the stage of discovering who I am as an artist.  So this week I took a bunch of things and experimented.  I ended up taking a ramen box and wrapping it with tissue paper, then painting on it in acrylic using a feather I found the other day and the month old heel of bread I found in my fridge.  I call it Flight.

These materials feel overlooked, like they would end up in a pile of garbage in some back alley dumpster.  At the same time they can create another image sometimes overlooked: the view from your airplane window of perhaps birds flying over the water.






Artist Blog - Found Materials

#3 - Self-Exploration

   I love traveling.  I could do it all the time.  So naturally, I feel like the places I go influence my life and make me a different person.  They are a big part of what makes me who I am.  This leads me to my first project for my online class.  The instructions for this post were three lines long, so I was really at a loss when it came time.  I like lots of directions, so three lines isn't much.  So I took things literally and this is what I got:

   The idea was mapping your life.  According to the instructions, "[The artist] had her participants create their own map of their lives, histories, and how the different paths overlap. I want you to explore this idea in your artists' blog."  I thought about how I would do it for a while, then I took the words map and overlap and ran.
   Unless you're like my friend and you totally figured out what I did the second you looked at it, you're wondering what traveling has to do with this post.  I basically took the outlines of the states and countries I've visited, marked with cities and important sites I've been to, and created my life's version of Pangea.  I'm going to need a bigger piece of paper for future travel.  Seriously.





Artist Blog - Self Exploration