Natalie's Artist Statement Q3

Natalie Sanchez

4.8.11

Q3 artist statement

This quarter in our Art two class, our main focus was working with pencil and charcoal. We were assigned to draw a series of pieces, using these sketching tools during the course of thus unit. Though some of the students in the class found this entertaining and easy, most of us found it ridiculously difficult to capture our model objects in a real light.

  The most difficult part of this quarter for me was learning how to draw and shade correctly with charcoal, especially when I had to create a charcoal self-portrait. The first self portrait that I created was completely unrealistic and proportionally inaccurate as my head was too small, my eyes came out too little, mu mouth too tiny, and my nose too narrow. I drew everything too robotically and consequently, and ended up with a portrait that did not resemble me at all. On top of this, I had to use charcoal to draw this piece, and since I am usually not good at using charcoal, this process was made more challenging. In the end, however, I tried drawing this portrait again and letting go a little. I drew exactly what I saw and tried to be realistic when scaling the proportions of my nose, mouth, eyes, and face. The end result came out much neater and much more accurate than the first portrait that I attempted to draw.

The best part in this quarter for me was drawing my large glass charcoal still life because it was the first time I dared to use colored charcoal. I was inspired to use colored charcoal after looking at one of Emma Hoeinstein’s art pieces. It was a still life of a water bottle and it looked extremely real because of the different colors that Emma incorporated into the piece. In my drawing I used blue for the light reflected on the vase, pink and dark pink for the ribbon on the vase and the shadows cast on said ribbon, brown and green for the leaf that was placed inside the vase, and brown for the wooden table.

At the end of the quarter, the class still had a little time to finish one more project, so I decided to make a presentation about the surrealist artist, Frida Kahlo and her artwork. This project was very fun for me because I was able to find out more about an artist that I admire very much.  Through this project, I learned that Frida Kahlo lived a very painful life, and that, in every one of her art pieces, she incorporated a personal message. She would usually depict the pain she had to endure in a certain time of her life through her art pieces. I presented this information on a keynote.

All in all, this quarter was very productive for me. I was able to get all of the art pieces done on time and was satisfied with each and every one of them. I was also able to learn more about an artist I had only heard about briefly. There were times during this quarter where my talent was being pushed to its full extent. I felt very overwhelmed and frustrated during this process because I thought that I was not going to be able to complete what I was being asked to complete. In the end, however, I was able to develop new skills.  I was satisfied with all of my final products.   

Here is the Link to my Frida Kahlo Presentation.