Asylum: The 10 Works

Time management and concepts have always been a struggle when I create art. My ideas tend to be basic and not developed, and I always seem to nitpick too much, making me take too much time to do anything. This assignment allowed me to work on these two aspects along with creating strong compositions. It may have been a rough week, but in hindsight, I’m pretty sure it was worth it.

After choosing my word, Asylum, I immediately had many words coming to my mind. I documented them through visually journalling in my sketchbook. After looking at them all, there were two main themes that seemed to be evident. One in which the dark aspect was more prominent. The idea of crazy people or those in a mental hospital is what I worked with in the majority of my pieces. Some of my art, however, focused on the other definition of the word of finding a safe haven or a place to show light in the darkness of someone’s world. I then created ten thumbnails for each of these works.

Starting with the pieces that focus on the safe haven aspect, I wanted to show how religion can be an asylum for people with problems. Thus came the two pieces that focused on a Church and a Mosque. The two pieces are collages, using different materials. The Church piece, especially, came out really well since the texture of the piece made it stand out. The Mosque piece turned out quite well, since the contrast of the dark painted sky and the shiny gold paper emphasised how religion was the light in the surrounding darkness. The final piece dealing with this definition was the array of light bulbs. I created this with my thin sketch markers and colored pencils. The different sizes of lightbulbs and lines across the piece make it my strongest piece in terms of composition. The overlapping of the objects make it strong as well. The details I put in such as “Help Me” in the lightbulb itself made the details just as important. However, if I created this in a different media, then the piece may have stood out more.

I created six pieces in the dark and crazy definition of asylum. I focused mainly on the people and their figures, since that had been one of my goals for this school year. I created four acrylic paintings. The monochromatic painting of the melting lady and the figure with the snake are my favorite pieces since they are the most completed. The craftsmanship is very neat and make the pieces have a look of their own. These two stand out the most out of the whole portfolio. Although the compositions aren’t complex, the execution and the concept speak more in comparison. I focused three works of art on the scratching on walls and overall mental side of an asylum. One piece was created with paper, colored pencil, markers, and also pencil shavings. I tried to create texture with the pencil shaving and the cuts and red marks were made to look like rips and scratches in a wall. The painting of a hand scratching the wall is decent overall. I painted all of it using a palette knife, and this made the texture and look of the painting more dark and scratchy, since none of the lines are perfect or that the colors aren’t blended. The final painting on this mini idea, was the perspective piece. I used one point perspective to create a room with multiple writings and symbols on the back wall. This showed the mental aspect because of the satanic references. Although the execution is quite poor, I think the idea behind these works were much stronger than what ended up on paper. The final acrylic painting is my strongest in terms of concept. The sword that comes into the canvas at a dramatic angle along with the above and underworld coming out of the sword is quite strong. The idea that asylums are located on the outskirts of populated cities, make the city both an underworld along with the city that it is. My composition is not very bad since the color and dramatic line of the sword make it pop. The final piece I created for the assignment was also based on mental patients. This was created on paper, where I burned some of the edges to show that these people are so distraught. The red eye and face were to mimic blood and how that’s all this person thinks about. And the addition of a single pupil, with now actual eye makes the piece more creepy, which was the intention.

Overall, my portfolio as a whole had its ups and down. Some pieces were very strong, whether it was concept, craftsmanship, or composition, while others were not up to par. Although, I wasn’t focusing on my art elements or design principles, many of them showed up throughout my works of art. Whether it was color in the monochromatic or complementary paintings, or line and movement in my sword piece and light bulb piece. It turns out that many of my stronger pieces were strong because of the way I utilized the art elements and principles, and I guess I did it all subconsciously. And you can see in my lesser pieces, the elements were missing.

This assignment as a whole really prepped me for working hard, while working fast, while
creating interesting and complex works of art. I believe my portfolio is strong with the exception of one of two pieces. I feel accomplished and satisfied in what I created. My works show the word in many forms and many of them have very strong aspects. Through this assignment I was able to grow in terms of stretching my concepts and creating complex works of art. So, now that I’ve gone through this massive project, I feel ready to take on anything AP Art throws at me.

Here are my works, and please forgive my formatting.

 

 

 

Artist Statement - Summer Art

My summer was full of great experiences and firsts. I traveled the majority of the time, whether it was in the country or out. There wasn't a weekend where I was able to relax or just do nothing. Thanks to art, though, I did have something that kept me occupied, but still calm and in a relaxed mood. Maybe because of the hecticness of my summer, my artwork wasn't up to full potential. But, I did try to do my best in a style that I was and am developing.

I first started out by doing the online work, going on the websites, finding new artists, and reading the articles. I, however, didn't post one of the research posts until later in the summer, since I hadn't quite finished it before I left. Over the few months, I tried to post as often as I could. Whenever I was traveling, I tried to post every week or every ten days. This then became my posting schedule, where I simply update my journey throughout the months.

Once I got back from my trip, my first priority was the final works of art. I was quite rushed since I only had a few weeks to develop and create my ideas. Since the beginning of summer I knew I wanted to focus on creating characters and working in a stylized comic style (if that makes sense). Instead of normal cartoons, I wanted to create people who were different and represent all walks of life. Which I intend to do for my upcoming portfolio. My character painting was a good start to this. The accented features with the blue paint, make my style unique, it's not just a comic. My craftsmanship is the best in this piece. My goal was to make it look like a digital painting and very smooth, and I think I executed that part very well. My composition, however, could've been more elaborate. I can take this to the next level. As I said, this painting was a good start to what I hope to create in the near future.

The next two paintings are abstract works that fit in with the aesthetic and overall series of the girl. The use of similar colors makes it look like a set of paintings, which is what I wanted to create. Except, they are quite underwhelming. My work is usually more complex, whereas these two are very simple. My compositions should be more thought out. I do however, like some of the simplicity that is portrayed through these works. The craftsmanship is also one of the positive aspects of these paintings. I really love how the brushstrokes played out. The paintings have a clean look to them which I appreciate.

Because of the style I worked in, the most prominent art elements and design principles would be line, color, balance, and movement. Line and color are quite obvious since I worked with cartoons and the geometric shapes along with the brushstrokes of the blue gradient piece. The character and blue gradient piece are balanced somewhat evenly, whereas there is more weight to one side on the geometric piece because of its asymmetry. Movement is seen in the blue gradient because of how I painted the brushstrokes. It's also evident in the character piece with the blue highlights on her neck as well as the direction of her hair. In terms of these elements, my pieces are nice. But they are not great.

Overall, my pieces are decent. They have so much more potential and now that I'm back into the swing of things I have more ideas. From these pieces, I have learned that I am capable of creating people and that my ideas can be developed into complex works. My goal for this year, based on these paintings, is to create art that is not only calming like these, but also have a lot of meaning. I want to create art that is impactful and deals with subjects I care about. I have many ideas in my head and I hope to execute them as great as I can imagine them. I'm now very excited to grow in terms of my vision and execution throughout this school year, because my summer art was just the beginning of a great and highly awaited journey.