Comments, anyone?

Good morning children!  I just spent a lovely half an hour or so looking at your sites and posting comments (when I could) and sending comments (when I could) to each of you.  I'm not certain how often you are visiting this site but I need to have you make it a habit at least a few times a week.  I saw one comment from one of you to another but that was all.  I saw one concentration statement and know I'll see the rest by the 15th.  I am seeing some nice work but now I need to have you take a SERIOUS look at what you have up and ask yourself the most important question:  Is it portfolio ready?  If not, alter, re-work, re-think, remove and put up a piece that is.

The sketchbook you are all maintaining - that hasn't changed and the "Masterwork" chapters should be evident.  I would like to have you create, if you haven't already, a link to that sketchbook and I would like to see the work you're doing on your concentration pieces.  You can keep this as private as you like with only me seeing the link (I know you all know how to hide what you don't want the world to see!).

I also want to see/hear comments from ALL of you - I need to know you're out there working and listening.

This is going to be a great year.

...overdone, I know but relevant to all of us...

Keep looking:

Jenny Morgan portraits

Work to look at - Jenny Morgan.  While the eyes are definitely arresting and grab hold, not letting go (isn't that what art is supposed to do?), the treatment of the hands is amazing.  What about YOUR work grabs the viewer and doesn't let go?

The deadline for posting Breadth #1 and creating your AP blog is now one day late.  

Get on it, please.

Deadlines are serious things...

Your blogs are due on Wednesday.

Think.

Sometimes the questions are complicated 

and the answers are simple.

Aluminum plate monoprints on Rivas BFK by Eben Goff

What to post on your student site:

Thank you to the few of you who have created accounts and have actually posted on your sites.  I'm beginning to wonder why I didn't think of doing this a LONG time ago!  What a great way to see what you think (ha, if you thought I couldn't get in your brain, now you are SADLY mistaken!...).  Here's what I need to have you do with the blogs:

     1.  Post your work BY THE DEADLINES and include the title, size, medium, date, and a
          REFLECTION about the piece.
     2.  Tell me (us) if it is concentration or breadth.
     3.  Include research if you want to - you will be posting your masterwork sketchbook pages    
          eventually.
     4.  Do not use your site as another social media location.  This is for me, for you, and for the class.
          Period.  It may be hard to not put up everything you're interested in, but it makes the task of
          figuring out what IS your portfolio and WHAT IS NOT much more difficult.
     5.  Try to photograph your work as if it is the final piece you are submitting to AP College Board.
     6.  Post your comments to the other student sites and copy me, please, if you need to.

Have fun!

Just a reminder - concentration ideas you may have forgotten to think about...

Car part ads

Portraits detailing emotions

Portraits detailing odd body positions

Extreme abstract close ups

Extreme abstract close ups of nature

Normal things using alternate colors

What people throw away

Family heirlooms

Variations of one thing

Seasons

Recreations of famous art pieces

Close ups of person - abstracted

Designing shoes/shoe close ups

Portraits of things broken or ruined

Opposites (ie: something hot as cold)

Textures

Animals.insects in environment

Close ups of sports equipment

Close ups of art supplies

Distortion

Optical illusions

Where has it been? (ie: the dollar)

Items upside down or backwards

Items missing something vital

Images inspired by songs

Cause and effect

War and its effect

Landscapes: day and night

Perspective

Significant buildings

Accessories

Sunglasses and faces

Scenes from dreams

Scenes from books

Self portraits with traits exaggerated

Illustrate a story

Line drawings of objects

What will the future be?

Past and present

Modern and historic

Odd, interesting people

A day in the life of...

One object 12 different views

Technology

Different cultures

The Heavens (planets, stars, etc.)

Aerial views

Stages of growing up

Things whole, broken up

Surrealism paintings

Real to life with surreal background

Hands doing things - different media

12 different parts of a face, together creating a whole face again

People who are angry (happy, sad)

Buildings

City scenes

People in motion

Innocence

Nature scenes

One person, portrait young to old

Areas of concern in America

Old photographs

Polaroids

The act of protest

Shape (altering with diet/weights)

Triumph

Using trash to create

Teenage life

Monochromatic (life?)

The game of life

Childhood mementos

Family vacations

Family members

A friend’s different moods

First day of school pictures

Elderly

Playgrounds

Door handles

Bathrooms

Scenes from a music video

Beach scenes

Undersides of desks and chairs

Insides of things

Jewelry

Zippers

Metamorphosis

Close ups of favorite foods

Sweat

Beauty of hands - how they are used

Generations

Things we desire

Love/friendship

Vulnerability

Change

Hope

Appropriation

Helping others

Picking up after hard times

Newspaper headlines

Natural disasters

Human emotion

Leaving things behind

Adventures

Nonconformity/individuality

Conformity 

Sameness

Comfort zones

War and peace

Diversity

Beauty in simplicity

Where have you been?

Forever young

Evolution of objects

Light

Sound

Motion

Abandoned buildings

The smallest parts of a whole

Media impact

Parts of the body to represent different emotions

Necessary objects

Communication tools

Different scenes through broken glass

Famous speeches (...to be or not to be...)

Photographs telling part of a story

Windows/mirrors

Fire

Water

Earth

Wind

Comic strip

Parties

Skeletal structure

Wood

Walking on the ceiling

Through the eyes of animals

Life as a napkin

Life as a paperclip 

Life as a ____________

No skin, just the inside

Negatives

Pure line

Overconfidence

Fashion designs

Illustrate a book

Night scenes

Opposites

Same place, different time

Decades

Fruits inside and out

Produce

Sleeping people

Patterns

What is art to you?

School life

Your surroundings

Refuge

Current issues

Death

Abstraction of every day life

Different rooms - what makes them interesting

Hats

Fear

Poverty

Interiors and Exteriors

The figure in space

Abandoned houses

Deterioration - the body, a structure

Morning rituals

Shadows - extreme

Reflections in surfaces

Interpretations of one object

Creating a drawing for every line of a song or poem

Decaying objects

Illumination with candle light

Drawings/paintings in different artistic styles

Daily Routines

People and their pets

Jobs

Horses

Trash versus treasure - who decides?

Bedrooms

What’s in your closet?

Child labor

Poster events (rodeos, carnivals, etc.)

Homelessness

Unfinished things

Assemblages

Boxes

Boxes as a metaphor

Stages of Life

Paths

Unusual environments

Colors as influences

Seeing color where others don’t

Chairs

Art and text

Illustrate Shakespeare

Illustrate a famous historical event - (JFK assassination, Harvey Milk and SF gay rallies)

Body language

Drawings of reflective materials

Dolls

Drawing over time (one setting adding a new element every day)

Drawing in each color scheme (warm, cool, analogous, etc.)

Pop Art analyzed personally

Organic materials used non-organically (clothing? transportation?)

Changing landscape (Monet)

Emotions through abstraction

Temporary art - graffiti, sand on sidewalk, dust on car windows)

Toast

Clouds

Light fixtures

7 Deadly Sins (lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy, pride)

Kitchen objects

Focus on Vermeer (friends set up in famous positions)

Fauvist style landscapes of favorite places

Human influences on environment

Close up of machines

Emulating artists’ styles

Braids

Interior of moving things

Unusual landscape alteration

Portraits with your mother

Portraits with your art

27 dresses

Concentration - "moving things".

I have never spent so much time looking - REALLY LOOKING - at art than I have this summer.  It used to feel like I was cheating, looking at instead of doing art, but I have come to realize that so much of my inspiration in the studio comes from bits and pieces I have gathered in my visual brain.  I'm excited about the year and can't wait to see what you all have produced this summer and the wonderful ideas you have come up with.

See you in a week!