My Strengths as an Artist
I don’t really consider myself an artist. I like to think that I am very good at drawing from reference pictures, and I can make them look just like the reference picture. My favorite medium is colored pencil, pencil and stippling. I have learned to shade and use relative sizes to care about the proportions, but I still have a lot to learn. I also think it takes more than replicating to be a true artist. True artists take things that exist and manipulate them to make them into something that communicates.
History of Art in My Life
I loved art as a child. I loved to draw, to paint and to fold origami figures. My mom saw how much I enjoyed creativity and art that she signed me up for an art class for kids. I don’t remember much of what I did there, but I do know that I took it. Art was probably my favorite subject in elementary school, middle school and high school. I took a few art classes at another school during the summer; they were Drawing and Painting, Drawing and Printmaking, and Ceramics. I loved those as well. I didn’t have many electives in high school, but I took Drawing and Painting 1 & 2 when I did have the opportunity to take them.
3 Goals as an Artist and Arts Educator
1. My goal as an artist is to broaden my understanding of what art is. In turn, I hope to challenge myself to go beyond mimicking in my artwork. I feel that if I will be teaching art in my classroom, I shouldn’t be doing so with a narrow understanding of what art is. This will inhibit not only my teaching, but more importantly the understanding of art that my students will develop.
2. My first goal as an arts educator is to create an environment that encourages students to experience the arts. I believe that the learning that occurs is greatly influenced by the environment in which it takes place in. Therefore, this environment must be one in which students have the freedom to take risks with their artwork and are accepted for them.
3. My second goal as an arts educator is to teach in and through the arts in a way that fosters positive attitudes and feelings towards art in the students. I understand the power that teaching through the arts has, but I believe it cannot be effective if students have negative feelings towards art.
2. My first goal as an arts educator is to create an environment that encourages students to experience the arts. I believe that the learning that occurs is greatly influenced by the environment in which it takes place in. Therefore, this environment must be one in which students have the freedom to take risks with their artwork and are accepted for them.
3. My second goal as an arts educator is to teach in and through the arts in a way that fosters positive attitudes and feelings towards art in the students. I understand the power that teaching through the arts has, but I believe it cannot be effective if students have negative feelings towards art.
Steps to Achieving the Goal
1. In order to expand my understanding of art, I will look to my fellow cohort members as examples. Many of them have great appreciation for art and the ability to find it in everything. I will do my best to imitate their art attitudes and practices.
2. In order to create an environment that allows art to thrive, I will take note of the environment that is created in this course. I will brainstorm about rules the environment I’m looking for and will apply them when I teach and give art talks to my field classroom.
3. In order to foster positive attitudes towards art in my future students, I will look for articles about this subject so that I may gain a better understanding of the root of negative feelings and how to address them.
2. In order to create an environment that allows art to thrive, I will take note of the environment that is created in this course. I will brainstorm about rules the environment I’m looking for and will apply them when I teach and give art talks to my field classroom.
3. In order to foster positive attitudes towards art in my future students, I will look for articles about this subject so that I may gain a better understanding of the root of negative feelings and how to address them.
Artifact 1: Clay Family Members
These items are clay figures of me and my family members. I sculpted them and painted them at the art class my mom signed me up for when I was a kid. I made one of my mom, but I couldn’t find it. The pink and orange star-shaped figure was supposed to be me. The baby with the diaper was supposed to be my younger brother who at the time was still in diapers. I’m not sure why I didn’t make a figure of my dad, but these are the only ones that I know I made in the art class. I chose these items because they are some of the earliest pieces of my artwork that I have. I think they represent how my interest and exposure to the arts began when I was young, and was not limited to the arts education that I received at school.
Artifact 2: Actual Family Member
This artifact is my mother. My mom took art classes in high school and continued to take them at the college level. She even wanted to add art as her second major but did not because she was unable to spend that much time doing art. Her favorite form of visual art is watercolor painting. I chose my mom to be an artifact because I believe that she has had a great influence on the arts in my life. She shared her love for the arts with me by showing me all the art projects that she kept from her classes, allowing me to take arts classes outside of school and buying me art supplies. She also spent lots of time watercolor painting or drawing with me, while teaching me all she knew about it. I have really enjoyed those times. Her presence in my life has definitely added arts to it as well.
Artifact 3: Transformation Project (Daisy-Penguin)
This artifact is one of the first projects I had to do in the Drawing & Painting I class that I took in high school. We had to choose two different items and transform the first one into the second one through a series of pencil drawings. I chose this item because I really enjoyed the creative thinking that this project required. I had reference pictures for the penguin and the daisy, but the drawings in between were all done freely. This item also represents the impact that taking art class in high school has had on me as an artist. It has given me the confidence to tackle art projects while finding enjoyment in it at the same time.