Creative Writing

Free choice is a very broad topic for art projects. For some, this may make ideas come easier and more freely, but for me, I find it more difficult to come down to specific concepts. All I had to consider for this project was what types of art I needed more of, causing me to come down to three main decisions: abstract, realistic, less color. In other words, I needed to think outside of the box. Unlike anything I’d done before. Finally, I was able to focus on three ideas, all of which involved one of the things I am most passionate about: writing. Writing is a huge part of my life and it is what I am hoping to do for the rest of my life, so it was pretty surprising that I had not considered using it in my art projects even more than I already had been. So even though these three projects I have created are each very unique in their own ways, they are each connected through my love of writing.

My first project started as a simple idea about a portrait of my dog, Mabel, but then when I considered adding a touch of writing into it, it blossomed into an entirely new idea. I decided that instead of simply coloring Mabel normally, I would use words to create the color inside of her. Since she is one of the happiest parts of my life, I thought it would only make sense to put happy words inside of her. Fortunately, I have a book that I read every night that is essentially just a long list of happy of things, so I took my favorite excerpts and added them into the color of her face to show that not only do I find happiness in my dog, but that there is happiness all around despite how often people fail to realize it. At first, I just painted the background of their piece normally with a pretty blue shade of paint, but then for the words I used these small fine-tip markers so that I could write the words so that they were still legible. I thought the overall craftsmanship of this piece turned out well, but I know that I could’ve pushed this idea further, especially if I had been given more time. For example, I wish I would have created a better composition rather than just placing my subject dead in the center. I also wish that I could have been more consistent with the size of my words in order to make the image look even neater. However, I am pleased with my idea as well as how it turned out, I just wish that I had been more creative and reached further in the process of creating it.

My second piece is an example of me trying to create a more realistic image. However, in order to do that, I needed to create it based off of a deeper concept. I have had an idea for this idea for a while, but it is not one that I have been willing to share and I am still unsure as to whether or not I will be willing to share it during the critique. It is about my ex-boyfriend, which is not someone I like to even think about because he put me through some pretty hard times and I still am scared to get close to people now because of this. Therefore, I wanted to portray my fear in this piece, showing people that you should never treat a person like that because it truly can haunt them for the rest of their lives. To begin this piece, I wrote down the entire story of our terrible relationship and decoupaged it into the background of my piece. Then, I painted myself as well as the dark background over top of the story, making it impossible to read while still providing an interesting texture to the piece. I had hoped the text would have been a bit more visible, but I actually like the method I took since it was sort of like a way to get my emotions out by covered this haunting story with paint. It made me feel in a way that I was truly free from my past. While I felt that I nailed the concept of this piece really well, it definitely could still use plenty of improvement. While I really did try to make this piece more realistic than the others, it did not turn out exactly how I wanted. The craftsmanship in my face could definitely be better, especially since the skin tone did not work too well on top of the glue in the background. However, I think it is okay if I do not completely nail the realistic side of art because I don’t believe that realism is my style at all. I have my own kind of art and even if it is not exactly what I had hoped I need to embrace. So while I am pleased with the concept and process of this piece as well as how I was finally able to come out of my shell, craftsmanship is still an area for me that definitely needs improvement. This piece has helped to show me many of my strengths and weaknesses.

My final piece is something very different from everything I’ve experimented with in the past. I decided that instead of painting on a canvas, I would create a more abstract piece through the pages of a notebook. Originally, I wanted to create my own book and paint on it, but then I found this notebook that I had decoupaged back in elementary school and I decided that I would fit perfectly for this idea. This piece is about the story of my life, but the way I chose to represent it is through different colors. Each page of the notebook represents a different point in my life and either use bright colors with a big pattern to represent exciting and crazy times or darker, simpler designs to represent times that were not as great. By flipping through the pages of this book, it is easy to see the progression of my life and how it has gone thus far. However, my life is still going, so I left some of the last few pages blank in order to signify the unknowingness of the future for me. Overall, I felt fairly good about this piece, but I still feel like I could have added more to it. Or more specifically, I could have spent more time on it. Certain pages are really appealing to look at while others look sort of rushed, I wished that I could have spent more time blending the colors better or just overall making it more appealing. However, I feel that this piece was a success and it helped me to expand my ideas better and think more outside of the box. All three of these pieces helped me to grow as an artist and I really hope that I can continue to grow even more with my future pieces.