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            Crocheting has been a hobby of mine since I was six years old. My great-great aunt Stella taught me how to do simple stitches. After I mastered the basics, I moved on to patterns and she showed me how to follow them and how to make my stitches tighter. After I got more and more practice, I became better at making my rows even and my stitches neat and tight. My goal was to make beautiful doilies and table clothes like my great-great aunt Stella made using thin, fine thread.  I’m not quit there yet but I will someday learn.

            I am in the middle of constructing a patch quilt afghan. I had to decide if I wanted to make this afghan a solid color or multicolored. I chose multicolored because I saw that I could make different patterns throughout the afghan by using different stitches that could only be noticed if I used different colored yarn. I am switching up the pattern every time I switch a color. I am either crocheting stitches that go, single, treble, single, or single, double, single. Both patterns I am using follow a A B A B pattern which means after making a row that consists of treble, single, treble or double, single, double, the next row I crochet will only consist of the single crochet stitch. I chose to make these patterns because when I am done the afghan, these different stitches are going to be very noticeable and it will look very neat. Using these stitches will also make the afghan thicker, therefore warmer.

            When I crochet, I feel like I am spending my time wisely because I am getting a task accomplished, even if I am sitting on the bus going to school. It is achieving a goal and keeping me occupied anytime I just have time to sit down and relax.

            Crocheting has been a hobby of mine since I was six years old. My great-great aunt Stella taught me how to do simple stitches. After I mastered the basics, I moved on to patterns and she showed me how to follow them and how to make my stitches tighter. After I got more and more practice, I became better at making my rows even and my stitches neat and tight. My goal was to make beautiful doilies and table clothes like my great-great aunt Stella made using thin, fine thread.  I’m not quit there yet but I will someday learn.

            I am in the middle of constructing a patch quilt afghan. I had to decide if I wanted to make this afghan a solid color or multicolored. I chose multicolored because I saw that I could make different patterns throughout the afghan by using different stitches that could only be noticed if I used different colored yarn. I am switching up the pattern every time I switch a color. I am either crocheting stitches that go, single, treble, single, or single, double, single. Both patterns I am using follow a A B A B pattern which means after making a row that consists of treble, single, treble or double, single, double, the next row I crochet will only consist of the single crochet stitch. I chose to make these patterns because when I am done the afghan, these different stitches are going to be very noticeable and it will look very neat. Using these stitches will also make the afghan thicker, therefore warmer.

            When I crochet, I feel like I am spending my time wisely because I am getting a task accomplished, even if I am sitting on the bus going to school. It is achieving a goal and keeping me occupied anytime I just have time to sit down and relax.

November 5, 2010

Artist Statement

There are situations in this world that people are not aware of. The affect of plastic bottle caps in our environments is one of them. For this art project art was just a way to raise awareness in this situation.

I do this art because it is one of the most compelling ways to communicate you expressions or situations to people. Even if you feel as though you aren’t the best artist, there shouldn’t be a reason that you are afraid to show people how you feel. Art is a creative way out of stress or anger. There might be times when people judge your creativity but it isn’t your job to focus on the negativity. Let them observe your work. I don’t think there is something called constructive criticism towards artwork because it’s how you feel.  Even people who don’t have an admiration for art can be affected positively by it. I wouldn’t doubt that it happens everyday.

This bottle cap project that we have done in art class has exposed to me how badly the world is negatively affected because bottle caps aren’t being recycled. After realizing the how bad are environments are being affected by this, I have made a more conscious effort to play my art in recycling bottle caps. It’s very evident by how we all could make a difference if we pay attention to what’s happening around us. There are so many ways that students in school illustrated the plastic bottle cap effect. There were many creative projects made out of bottles caps and other types of plastic.

Instead of recycling, people do things like throw there not only plastic by all of their trash anywhere such as oceans or even on our own street. In art class I was able to see how badly plastic has ruined animal species in the ocean. Sea animals such as fish eat the plastic that we throw in the ocean. Without even caring about what these fish have consumed, we catch these fish and eat them ourselves. Now we have plastic in our bodies and no one even notices. Other animals also eat the plastic and they end up dying from the lasting effect from having plastic in them or they suffocate from plastic such as bags.

            My project was a poster trying to communicate with the school community to recycle their plastic. I really wasn’t looking for people to be wowed by what they saw in my project. I believe that there are very creative projects that people have made but their projects do not speak to people in terms of motivating them to make an actual change. I started off pretty ruff doing this project because I was so focused on how I could wow people and make them want to look at my poster first. Being as though I am not always that fond of my artwork, it was hard for me to except a project that I didn’t think was 100% perfect when it came to design. The poster that I have now was not the on that intended of showing but because of some difficult I had to make an entire new poster. I hope that my poster is worth a look and it makes people want make a difference.

When I was younger art used to be apart of my everyday life. I used to have a wild imagination of characters and future worlds so I constantly sketched them while in school or in the car with my mom. My earliest drawings were sketches cartoon movie posters ie: Space Jam , Toy Story , and The Lion King. I always began drawing by just looking at the picture and draw whatever I can. I didn’t notice until years later that my drawings were pretty advanced compared to a lot of kids I knew around my age at the time.

 I tried to farther my art skills in 3^rd grade when I signed up for sculpting classes at the Free Library in Germantown. When I was younger Play-Doh used to be my most enjoying activity. I enjoyed making people and cars specifically out of play-Doh , so I think taking the sculpting class at the library was something that I had a passion for. After a year in sculpting class my passion for art wasn’t the same as before. I some how stopped sketching and drawing suddenly and I didn’t notice that I’d stop drawing until my 9^th grade art class at Science Leadership Academy when we had to sketch a portion of our hallway. 

When I was sketching the hallway my passion for art began to grow rapidly because I was reminiscing about the times when I was younger and all I wanted to do was draw in class. As much as I love art now , I was never a fan of painting. Painting in my opinion is one of the hardest methods to perform in art because it all depends on the brush strokes. I think if the brush strokes aren’t precise then it can ruin the entire drawing. So in any of my art I would never paint or color it , I’d normally just leave it and outline specific details with a dark pencil. 

My favorite material to use in art is modeling clay. Most of my drawings in my younger years were characters that I’d created and being able to sculpt them allows the characters to come to life. I’ve never specifically used a tool in art besides a pencil and my hands, but between the two my favorite tool to use in art are my hands. I can honestly use my hands to do just about anything from painting if I have to, to making precision lines on a sculpture, and adding distinct details to my art. In my 12^th grade year at Science Leadership Academy , this is my second year having an art class since 9^th grade so I was excited to see what has changed over the span of 2 years. Our first project was to create a poster advertising the collection of bottle caps. The bottle caps collected will be recycled because if they aren’t , they’ll possibly end up in rivers and/or oceans which can harm the environment of sea orchids. Since the theme of this specific project was partly recycling, I immediately thought “Go Green” or Saving the p trees. So I decided to cut green construction paper and align it at the bottom of my poster to have the appearance of grass. I followed the grass with a large sun flower rising from the grass with a bottle cap replacing the Anther of the sunflower. I sort of used figurative language in this aspect or figurative art because bee’s take the nectar from the Anther and recycle it to another flower. So instead of recycling the nectar, they can recycle a bottle cap. I created a sun to add more vibrant colors to my poster and the sun was made of orange and yellow bottle caps. I made the sun out of bottle caps because the Sun’s Solar Energy is often recycled and converted to power electrons. So recycling the bottle caps is a symbol of the Sun’s recycling solar energy.  Previously said I chose the colors orange and yellow because they made the poster more vibrant. When constructing a piece of art I always think about the color of the paper or background because I want everything to blend together neatly. 

My favorite colors to use together are burnt orange , brown , and a neutral orange color. For our next project we had to create virtually anything out of recycled material or something that represents the method of recycling. My idea for this project was to sculpt a large sized tree surrounded by the city of Philadelphia, which will be made out of boxes and Styrofoam.  The city is going to be placed in front of the tree and in back of the tree I’m going to create the Franklin Institute. There is no specific reason why I’m going to create the Franklin Institute but it’s only because I wanted to involve our school in my project some how and the shape of the Franklin Institute is easily recognized. I’m then going to wrap a vine around the tree and it’ll connect to the city. This will symbolize that going green can power the city , and to make this more notable I was thinking of placing small light bulbs and batteries inside of the buildings so they can illuminate. 

I’m very excited that art is apart of my school life again twice a week because it allows me to be creative outside of the technology, which is the basis of our school learning.

My Bottle Cap Poster: Recycle Your Caps!

Trying to sculpt the centerpiece which is my tree. The modeling clay was so thick that I had to cut through it with a steak knife. 

The several buildings.The last two are painted cardboard boxes.The first one hasn't been painted yet.

Painting one of the several buildings out of recycled milk boxes.

The photo below is a picture of the vine I made out of clay. I used the classic rolling method until the clay grew longer and resembled a straw. Then I painted it with dark green Crayola paint. As said before the tree that will be sculpted will be wrapped with a vine made of modeling clay. The green vine will look as if it's powering the city which signifies going green.The clay was still soft while taking this picture so I can wrap it around the try I was sculpting. 

Sketch of final product. This is what my final will resemble with the Franklin Institute in the back , a tree in the middle, and the city of Philadelphia surrounding the sculptures. The image above was photoshopped. 

Trial and Error:

Originally I wanted make my tree by wrapping clay around a shampoo bottle and stick tree branches around them. However after a day or so the clay which was hardened broke apart. So that's when I decided to make the tree from 100% modeling clay.Below is a picture of the shampoo bottle after the clay has fallen apart. They white particles on the bottle are pieces of clay that were stuck. 

Before using the recycled cardboard boxes I wanted to use bottles as the buildings.But later I realized how dull it looked because the buildings in Philadelphia are all different, sousing bottles was out of the picture.

Artist Statement

The work that I do is to challenge myself. I mostly dive into projects headfirst and gradually discover what I am capable of. My attitude towards my art is similar to my personality. I am impulsive and as a result things either work out- or they don’t. Moreover, I am not scared to ask for help or to explore different aspects of art.

I make decisions based on beauty and sensibility. I am not the most experienced artist, so there is no ‘one’ technique I tend to sway towards. I use what I can to get the deed done. If I know I want to paint, I use paint and a brush; there is no need to complicate things.

Through this project, I wanted to demonstrate originality and act on inspiration. Although my work is nowhere near spectacular as Colleen Moore’s fairy castle, the thought of creating a dollhouse out of recyclables was pleasing. Trying to restrict my materials was challenging. I made the dollhouse furniture out of recyclable materials such as packaging bubble wrap, cardboard, and old gift-wrap and paper. Furthermore, I experimented with architecture throughout this project. I found it challenging to find ways to hold the dollhouse structure stable.

.:Artist Statement:.

In our senior art class, we were exploring the topic of recycling and the environment, primarily focusing our attention on bottle caps. For my project I choose to make flowers out of bottle caps. Unlike plastic bottle caps, beer-bottle caps can be recycled. Beer-bottle caps are made from steel, as evidenced by their attraction to magnets, and steel is a recyclable material. I wanted to make flowers out of the bottle caps, because quite frankly I think real flowers are a waste of money-they’re beautiful for about a week and then they die. So this bottle cap flowers last for as long as you want. You won’t feel bad about throwing them out either because they can be recycled. My dad helped me with the cutting and flattening of the bottle caps, because he didn't want me working with power tools...but I glued and tied the red bottle caps on the big flower and the medium one.

The pictures above are the less flattering pictures that I first took of my art project. When I started to get such good feedback and complements on the pictures from my classmates and Mrs. Hull, I decided that I should take an individual picture of each flower, since they're all different.
I picked a black background, because I've always loved photographs like that. I think that when the background is black, and there is a flash on the camera the it brings out the subject in a really pretty way.

I decided to make jewelry because I am very interested in fashion and design. I think that much of what you wear resembles your personality and/or the mood that you are feeling that day. In my personal style I like to fuse girly and preppy with things that are more edgier and hard. This jewelry represents both aspects of my style. My grandfather was an engineer and still likes to build things around the house. He has a garage full of old bolts and other odds and ends. I aimed to use his old building materials to create something creative and wearable. The only item that I bought was gorilla glue. 

The first piece I created used nails and metal circles. I used the glue to connect the nails to the metal part, and used old fishing wire as a chain. The second piece I created used an old fish hook that I connected to my dogs old vaccination tag. 

I do this work because I feel like the world is becoming more and more trashy.  I believe we can work together to make the world a clearer place for the animals and ourselves. Every day I see people Littering and not knowing they are killing the animals and affecting the air we are breathing.  There are trash in the north pacific gyre that about the size of the state Texas. my question is why  so many trash  in the middle of the ocean? that show how we as a whole are not civilize. My goals are to get this message through everyone and make sure they understand that they are affecting the world and all living things in it including us. It wouldn’t hurt to put trashes in the trashcan.

My project is on a green bored because I want people to be greener to the world and shows how greener our world can get by not littering. I draw my world map instead of buying the map because I feel like is better to draw it because I’m showing that i cared about the world and to also show how art have a part in this project. I draw the map with a black crayons because I want people to see the outline of all seven continents.

My current work I do them because I had to do them and I do them with out trying to send a message through it but this one I’m trying to get people attention and understand the message behind my art. Art wasn’t always my thing because I thought art had no purpose and you can’t express yourself with art like how you can with words. I was wrong because I’m expressing how I feel about the world and how seeing the world like this affects me.

For our first project we collected bottle caps and we also made posters asking people to collect bottle caps. We collected bottle caps to give to a artist Aurora who does bottle cap art. She created many structures using plastic bottles and there caps. That to me is a way of making people aware of the plastic problem that is now plaguing our world and it shows people how they can do something with there plastic besides simply throwing them away. Which brings me to my project, I like doing things that make people aware and may eventually cause them to get involved with helping, or making things that simple make them think deeper into different things. 

For my project I created a globe and in the water section of the world I put bottle caps in it to show how the plastic is going into our ocean. I then put animals around it with them saying little things asking humans to stop all the plastic littering and explaining how it is effecting them. To do this I used a ball, paper mâche, paint, glue, bottle caps, pencils, a box, and paper. I paper mâcheed the ball once the paper mâche dried I drew shapes to show where the land is, I then painted the ball green and blue. I got a box and painted the box black, the box is being used as a platform for the ball to rest in and that is where I placed the animals. Once the paint on the ball dried I glued the bottle caps on but only where the water is. 

I really hope that when people see my project they will take into consideration the effect plastic is having on our world and on us in general. Because our individual actions are effecting our world as a  whole. I hope that this will inspire people to take action and get together and find other uses for the plastic that we have in this world because it isn't going anywhere and we have to live with it forever. 

"Is this water sanitary? It looks questionable to me..."