I feel good about my breath so far. I think that I have accomplished a lot in terms of exploring media. I definitely know that I would like to explore some of the medias I have worked with more, possibly for my concentration. I think that maybe I need to work  on a better variety as far as composition of my  pieces goes.  However, I think that in doing the breath, I have affirmed my concentration even more. I really can't wait for it. As a whole, I think that our class is doing amazingly well. I'm constantly impressed and inspired by the work of my peers and often take their advice and criticism to heart. 

Of my 100 things list, my most prominent theme was wildlife. Unfortunately, the majority of wildlife artist paint very boring things such as horses, dogs, and birds. (not cool birds boring ones). Fortunately, I found an artists that paints reptiles and other interesting things.  His name is Tell Hicks and he is also a reptile enthusiast. I think that the artist really uses the wildlife theme to his advantage because he is very knowable on the subject of his art.  I can draw inspiration from him by the pure accuracy in which he portrays his art. However, I think that in my concentration, I will incorporate more surreal images in my art, that he does not. 

Why not?

Max Ernst. The Temptation of St. Anthony. 1945

The Max Ernst piece I have chosen above is definitely one of my favorite works of art. I would be hesitant to say that it is my absolute favorite, because I'm not really sure that I have one.  I think this work is brilliantly imaginative and artistically perfect. My piece above, entitled ,Why not?, I would also be hesitant to call my favorite piece. Mainly because I don't think that it displays artistic skill very well. However, I like it anyways, probably because of the owl raccoons, lion rabbits, dolphin beavers, crocodile eagles, and Shark mooses.  I guess sometimes I value the content of an artwork more than the actual quality of the art. Qualities that make these two pieces similar is that fact that they both involve tings that do not exist, spread out in an elaborate way. I like how they display various characters in interesting ways. They're different in that Max Ernst has a more developed background, and brighter more elaborate colors, which has something to due with the fact that his is in oil, and mine is colored pencil. I suppose that they relate to my list in that I have a lot of animals on my list. I have a great artistic and scientific interest in animals and creatures, real or otherwise. I hope to use them more in my art. It seems like no one pays very much attention to shark mooses anymore...

Art Class

When I was in Grade school I don't remember being a particularly good artist, we were all about the same at that point. What I do remember is loving art class, in fact, treasuring it as fun and precious time. It was, and still is, the best part of my day. However, we were only allowed this sweet sweet privilege every other week.  The weeks without an art class were terrible mundane things, while the weeks with an art class were bright and hopeful. As a child, I could never get enough of art class, because they never gave us enough. In many ways it was like a powerful drug, something everyone wanted but couldn't have half the time. While others may have come clean of this feeling over the years, the addiction to art class is still with me today. 

Something Universal

Every summer, since I was about nine, my family has vacationed at Popham beach, in Bath Maine. This event comes from one of those  summers, when I was probably ten or so. Popham Beach is long and slopping at low tide. It's one of the few truly sandy beaches in Maine, and the water is usually moderately warm.  I remember playing in the surf, fairly close to shore, when for some reason or another, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a small blue speck, far off in the distance. It was a fairly unimportant speck, nothing about it was particularly interesting. It was just a blue dot amongst the surf, drifting in the waves, and it caught my interest. I'm not sure why I decided to swim to it, probably I was just bored, but I like to think it was a calling, not necessarily of a higher power but something from inside my me. I remember the water being very deep, over my head by the time I reached my destination. From about twenty feet away I could tell clearly what it was, and I was disappointed. It was just a blue piece of Styrofoam probably the size of my fist, essentially trash. However, at that point I wasn't about to give up and go back, so I decided to swim the last twenty feet, if only to not feel completely idiotic. When I came closer to the small blue piece of Styrofoam, I realized that the long swim out may have been worth it after all.  I remember not immediately registering what my eyes saw. The juxtaposition of it caused one of those rare moments when you question things, absolute things; foundations. It was so out of place, surreal and yet...fantastic. Upon that small piece of blue Styrofoam, bobbing in the Atlantic about 75 meters off the coast of Maine, was a spider, clinging to its make shift raft for dear life. It was about the same size as the styrofoam, so that all eight of its legs were centimeters from the ocean depths.  I had never seen a spider that looked as this one did, and I haven't seen one since. It was an inch or two in size, and was colored a reddish brown. It was also hairy, I remember that. If not for its size and location I would have thought it was a tarantula. I still don't know exactly what species it was. My first thought was to rescue this arachnid from its inevitable death by the crashing waves closer to shore.  I held the spider and his raft in one hand, and swam back with my three remaining limbs.  I remember wondering, as I still do, where did this creature come from? How did it get where it was? Was it perhaps the sole survivor of some distant shipwreck? Or maybe a drifter from a far away tropical island? One thing I knew for sure, was that this was clearly the luckiest spider in the world. It never would have survived the trip inland, as its meager raft of garbage would have been toppled by crashing waves. I remember walking back on the beach with the spider in my hand, feeling as though I accomplished something. I let the small creature go into the grassy dunes, watched as it scurried away into its new environment, looking free and somehow grateful. Before and since that day I have saved many spiders, from varying fates, but I don't think I'll ever remember any of them, most not even at all, like the way I remember this. It felt as though, by a purpose greater than my world and reality, that I and that small spider were part of something. Something simple and absolute, bigger than ourselves; mind and body. Something, Universal.  

Art

I view art as a form of expression. Something that is born from the inner mind. To me, art is a product of subconscious thought. I think that artists should create not reproduce. Paint what you feel, not what you see.  Reality is all around us, constantly. My aim as an artists is to create a new reality, something that is purely me. I aspire to be a surrealist, and to fully understand surrealism. My favorite artists are Max Ernst, Rene Magritte, and Salvador Dali. 

Many red devils ran from my heart

And out upon the page

They were so tiny

The pen could mash them

And many struggled in the ink

It was strange 

To write in this red muck

Of things from my heart 

-Stephen Crane