A subject in which I excel in is art. I find art fascinating, and any form of it; May it be drawing, painting, clay, photography, dance, music, theater etc. I've taken a year and a semester of jewelry (levels 1 and 2), a semester of jazz dance, and two years of sculpture (levels 1 and 2). My creativity and my talented teachers have attributed to my success. Out of the three art subjects I've taken, my favorite is sculpture.
I have kept every project I've made: best and worst. I keep them in a special designated place in my room where I proudly display them all. Even if I make a piece that I am not very fond of, I don't discard it, but keep it. It's nice to see the evolution of my work. I feel that with time I've gotten better and more creative. I can recall the first year of sculpture, and one project in particular that I worked very hard on and Mr. Shearing didn't want to accept it. After manually sculpting and perfecting the shape I thought I was done. I thought it was great. I thought it was perfect. That it was the best thing I have ever made. I went to put it on the table with the rest of the finished projects thinking mine was the best. I told Mr. Shearing I was done. He looked at it, and evaluated it from different angles, and asked if I thought there was anything else I could do with it. I said no, and that I thought it was fine. He told me to take it back and to see what else I could do to make it better. I was annoyed at first because I thought it was just fine, that there wasn't anything else I could do to make it better. It was great just how it was. I still had all class to work on my project but decided to do nothing and just talk to friends.
Before school ended I went back to class to take my project home to work on it during the weekend, since next class all projects were due. The clay was leather hard and once that happens, it is very difficult to work with. I had to soften the clay with water to get it to where it was manageable. It was a long process because I was using a lot of clay. I over did it with the water and the clay was becoming runny and way too soft. The top was getting heavy and it was slowly descending. The base became distorted. I became discouraged and was considering starting over. Weeks of work were reduced to nothing. How could I make a good project in 2 days when we worked weeks in class to complete this one assignment? I stared at my sorry looking project thinking- how can I possibly save what is left? I laid it flat on its side and worked on it that way. I started to etch zigzag lines all over it to give it a broken/ cracked look. It reminded me of a when you crack and egg- some lines being more defined than other, while other smaller cracks are very soft. I really like the effect. I stood it up thinking the clay was now dry enough. Turns out it wasn't and the project was slowly coming down. It was a good thing it did, because the "distorted look" made it more interesting. I warped the side to make it look like it had a spiral flow. When I got it just how I wanted it, I took a hair dryer and started to blow dry the base working my way up to get it dry enough to where it can stand on its own without sagging down.
My project was complete! I was so happy I got a chance to work on it more because the finished piece, even though not symmetrical or perfectly straight, was so much more appealing and interesting too look at than how I originally had it. I understood then, that how I had it before was kind of dull and boring. I needed the perspective of Mr. Shearing to tell me there was more I could do with it. Thanks to him I was able to make the project livelier. When I brought it to school, my friends were amazed to see how well it turned out. I received a spate of compliments, and Mr. Shearing approved of it and commented on the nice form of movement, flow, and shape of my sculpture. I was proud to receive an A in the class.
(How well did i answer the question?? feedback, advice is very much appreciated!!)
I have kept every project I've made: best and worst. I keep them in a special designated place in my room where I proudly display them all. Even if I make a piece that I am not very fond of, I don't discard it, but keep it. It's nice to see the evolution of my work. I feel that with time I've gotten better and more creative. I can recall the first year of sculpture, and one project in particular that I worked very hard on and Mr. Shearing didn't want to accept it. After manually sculpting and perfecting the shape I thought I was done. I thought it was great. I thought it was perfect. That it was the best thing I have ever made. I went to put it on the table with the rest of the finished projects thinking mine was the best. I told Mr. Shearing I was done. He looked at it, and evaluated it from different angles, and asked if I thought there was anything else I could do with it. I said no, and that I thought it was fine. He told me to take it back and to see what else I could do to make it better. I was annoyed at first because I thought it was just fine, that there wasn't anything else I could do to make it better. It was great just how it was. I still had all class to work on my project but decided to do nothing and just talk to friends.
Before school ended I went back to class to take my project home to work on it during the weekend, since next class all projects were due. The clay was leather hard and once that happens, it is very difficult to work with. I had to soften the clay with water to get it to where it was manageable. It was a long process because I was using a lot of clay. I over did it with the water and the clay was becoming runny and way too soft. The top was getting heavy and it was slowly descending. The base became distorted. I became discouraged and was considering starting over. Weeks of work were reduced to nothing. How could I make a good project in 2 days when we worked weeks in class to complete this one assignment? I stared at my sorry looking project thinking- how can I possibly save what is left? I laid it flat on its side and worked on it that way. I started to etch zigzag lines all over it to give it a broken/ cracked look. It reminded me of a when you crack and egg- some lines being more defined than other, while other smaller cracks are very soft. I really like the effect. I stood it up thinking the clay was now dry enough. Turns out it wasn't and the project was slowly coming down. It was a good thing it did, because the "distorted look" made it more interesting. I warped the side to make it look like it had a spiral flow. When I got it just how I wanted it, I took a hair dryer and started to blow dry the base working my way up to get it dry enough to where it can stand on its own without sagging down.
My project was complete! I was so happy I got a chance to work on it more because the finished piece, even though not symmetrical or perfectly straight, was so much more appealing and interesting too look at than how I originally had it. I understood then, that how I had it before was kind of dull and boring. I needed the perspective of Mr. Shearing to tell me there was more I could do with it. Thanks to him I was able to make the project livelier. When I brought it to school, my friends were amazed to see how well it turned out. I received a spate of compliments, and Mr. Shearing approved of it and commented on the nice form of movement, flow, and shape of my sculpture. I was proud to receive an A in the class.
(How well did i answer the question?? feedback, advice is very much appreciated!!)