Artist Statement: Abstracty Motion. 

I choose to use very vibrant colors for this piece. I found that to me abstract meant bright and for that I used the brightest charcoal pastels I could. I started off with a simple drawing that I did not know where I was going with. It was simply just some circles and swirls never ending in pencil. That was my goal at first. I wanted the piece to at first show some sort of motion happening, without the traditional circle, black and white wheel that looks like is moving. Then I wound up taking those swirls and coloring them with black charcoal pastel. I did not like that very much, so the next time I tackled the project I had used black paint, turns out that came out very good. Some how a very brilliant idea came to my head and I just thought of vibrant, bright, and appealing. I realized that abstract meant vibrant, and striking to me so that is just what I did. This is my final piece. 

An abstract piece that shows motion in a very odd way. 

Artist Statement: Dandelion Dreams

I decided to freely draw something I just came across on Google when I was looking up flowers randomly. I studied a picture of a dandelion, it took my attention and I  tried to replicate it the best way that I could. I concentrated on the dandelion and on a 8 x 11 sheet of paper I drew it on paper. It turned out to be a simple drawing of a dandelion in pencil on a piece of brown construction paper. I know if I would of pushed my artistic thinking I could of been dead on with the dandelion and add color to the flower but all in all I still end up being very content with what I came up with. 

Artist Statement: Leaves

During class one day, I doodled in my book. Excuse me, I found a project I could turn in for Advanced Art however. I drew a leaf. A very pretty leaf, one that is of elegance. Haha. This leaf then bloomed into flowers of leaves. In my notebook I tried doing this in pencil and in pen. I personally felt more connected to the leaves drawn in pencil. That started this piece right here. I first started with one leaf and started making bunches of flowers all over the page with them. I loved the pencil so much I kept it just like this. Because I had chosen a yellow flimsy piece of paper to work on I wanted to add a touch of shading and smudging of pencil to fill in such openings. The piece turned out to be very good in my opinion. I loved even more how it came about just by the boredom of a class for me. 

Artist Statement: Leaves Part II

Apparently I like leaves, and as a fan of nature, I then turned this project into a project dealing with leaves as well. However I have also received this idea from a formally drawn sketch of leaves. I wanted to replicate my own version and this is what I came out with. It took me about two hours, a few differently sharpened pencils and a huge eraser to finish this.  I wanted the leaves to look like the ones you would pick up on the ground just walking by to school. I examined the photo, and took a mental note of the curves, crevices, and gentle lines and strokes. There is always room for improvement however I can say that this piece did come out the best of my ability. I say this because I was so focused on the leaves, that I forgot to really examine the stem that connected each of the leaves. I figured that if I was also to even attempt to color this in I would deter the image and be unpleased with the turnout. I like simple, modern, and plain - straight to the point things so this was a challenge studying the littlest details but on a good note this was a piece made by me and even has my very own signature. 

Artist Statement: Culinary Arts; Baking and Art

Even though, I was not marked off for the 25th of May for my Advanced Art Assignment, I still manage to create and whip up some art. I love baking. Baking is what I love. It is that simple. My Capstone Mentor, Ms. Carmen Castro allowed me to work with her on one of her cake orders for a regular customer of hers. Ultimately, the cake was a fisher man that was in his boat sleeping, not even realizing that he is fishing out the lake a whole car! The theme of the cake was just beautiful. As far as it pertains to art, I helped create the decor of the cake. I made a bucket, an S.O.S. life saver wheel, some worms, and the fishnet. I also made a fish that managed to not end up on the cake but that was okay. In order to do such things I used rolled out white fondant that I had to sculpture and mold into these various things. This indeed was a challenge, however I still managed to create artwork. For the bucket, I rolled the fondant into a ball and then simply stuck my finger in the middle of it to create an opening. I then shaped the fondant into a nicely shaped bucket. I then rolled an extra piece of fondant to create a handle to my bucket. Once that was finished I took some black food coloring and water and created the color gray to paint the bucket with the paintbrush. I did this thing with all of the things I created. For the S.O.S life saver wheel I simply rolled out a piece of fondant and took some red dye and place 8 strokes on it. Very simple and easy. The worms had to be my favorite to make. I ended up with five small pieces of fondant and I just rolled it, then swirl them to form the worms. Then I took the brown food coloring dye and brush some on the worms. I placed the worms in the bucket. AHHHH! Awesomeness. For the fishnet, I simply just flattened a piece of fondant and took a necklace of "Jerry Springer Beads" and embedded them into the fondant to make the print. Lastly, I have a fish. It didn't make out to be apart of the cake but I did make one. It is shown below as well. This had to be my favorite art project of the year. It included the elements of art and baking. Two things that are inevitably added to the career of my dreams... 

The question I had inquired for my Capstone was “Are you able to experience culture, simply throughout food?’ In future plans, I want to become a baker therefore making me want to take this aspect of cooking and add it to my Capstone. I’ve researched the seven continents looking for recipes that would best fit and it turned out that I had successfully found cookies/biscuits for each continent that also held history to each continent as well. With each continent some how, and someway I was able to finance the supply to make each from scratch. I have learned that you actually can experience culture throughout food and I’ve been able to do this just by making cookies/biscuits originated from each of the seven continents. 

The question I had inquired for my Capstone was “Are you able to experience culture, simply throughout food?’ In future plans, I want to become a baker therefore making me want to take this aspect of cooking and add it to my Capstone. I’ve researched the seven continents looking for recipes that would best fit and it turned out that I had successfully found cookies/biscuits for each continent that also held history to each continent as well. With each continent some how, and someway I was able to finance the supply to make each from scratch. I have learned that you actually can experience culture throughout food and I’ve been able to do this just by making cookies/biscuits originated from each of the seven continents. 

Lehmann supporting my Capstone!

Me explaining my Capstone to Mr. Miles.

Copy A Master

Artist Statement for "Copy A Master" Project

I choose a simple art piece that was created that I found to be very interesting. Here is the link to the original piece. Clearly the original was made with water based paints, however in order to create my copy I choose to use colored charcoal pastels. This piece was hard to actually replicate so I simply just chosen to put my own twist on it all. 

I started with the swirls of blues. I figured if nothing else the swirls should be the distinctive piece that stays the same. I then followed with the white piece of charcoal pastel to lighten up the piece. The colors of the piece are really bright so white always would tone those colors down. I for the most part chose to use my hands and cotton balls to make smear/smudged effects to piece. I seen it as a repeat of the original pieces's strokes that have been lead into the other colors of piece. It reminded me of it by doing so with my piece. I also chose to use different colors outside of the original piece as well. The hot pink and baby blue for example. I wanted the piece to be brighten up so adding those colors did that justice. 

Overall, I am content with the replica of the "Master's" piece and made sure that I added my own twist to make it my very own. 

200 Photos

Taken with the Camera from School with my peer Brittany Riggins, and I also used my iPod to take photos.

Edit Photos

Artist Statement for Edited Pictures

Playing with Photoshop, I learned to do some neat things. With each of the photos I have edited I created a unique creation. Some were simple such as my edited Birthday Cake that just displayed an explosion with the balloon holder top center piece and the edited picture I have of an artwork made from one of my peers here at SLA.    There were photos, however that I did completely change the manner of how they look. For each picture I had in mind of what I wanted to do to change it digitally for the better look of it. The tricky part was to actually make that happen with this application. 

As shown with each of the edited pictures, what I had in mind was actually succeeded. The functions of photoshop can be hard to find at first but once you find something that you need you have found the rest in a sense. 

The Five Photos I have Edited are:

A Photo of Myself, Two Art Pieces made from my Peers at SLA, An Exit Sign at SLA, and Birthday Cake that I've Personally Made.

For the photo of myself, the original photo was a picture I'd taken of myself wearing red lipstick. I have taken the neon glow function on Photoshop to create an alien looking effect on the photo. I then took pink to go over the shape of my lips and the eraser tools to put a dot in the pupils of my eyes. 

For the two art pieces that were made from my peers, I choose to make them pop with some more color then the original photo had. For the unique snake looking photo I changed the yellow background to a hot pink and made the black strokes to make the snake bright lime green. For the mosaic piece of art that was created, I chose to make the background of that grain like how televisions go when the alerts come on with the different colors, I also decided to brighten the photo and have a painted style stroke to the actual mosaic piece. It came out really nice and I must say these two were my favorite to edit because they fit my personality so well. They're both simple in a way but very noticeable.

I also have taken a picture of a exit sign at my school  and edited it in Photoshop. This was actually the first photo I played around with so the product was just that. I played around with the different filters on photoshop and this is how it came out and about.

Lastly, with the photo of the birthday cake I have made, that has been edited in Photoshop I actually sat and pondered how I would digitally change this photo. I didn't necessarily know how I exactly was going to do this but then I realized how the cake in the original photo has the top center piece that looks like fireworks, so for the editing I choose to give it a lightening and glow affect to make the top center piece look like an explosion and it actually did come out looking like that. That was great. 

Internet Sculpture

I found a website that created tulips, and I made a Paper version of that.

Artist Statement for Paper Tulips

Finding an internet sculpture to create was a bit challenging for me. There are a countless amount of projects one can get themselves into. However with much research I found myself intrigued with a particular website that make tulips. I decided to create my own twist to the project. 

For the paper tulips I have created, I used colored construction paper, (That are the colors of yellow, blue, dark pink, light pink, and green.) scissors, and tape. In order to make these tulips I simply cut out a tracing of my hand and folded it into a shape of a circle. Then with the fingers that are the petals of the tulips,  I brought them down and out and curled them with the scissors and taped them to hold. After the petals were done I decided to make the stem with green construction paper. I cut the construction paper in fourths and rolled the fourth up into a cylinder. Then I placed it inside of the petals and voilá there goes a tulip. I decided to make half of a dozen and place them in a vase that was made in ceramics class by one of my peers at SLA. (As shown in photo.) 

Many people have vases full of flowers in their home. I thought that coming across this project and making it seem as if they were real was really cool. Especially doing it in a manner of paper. I loved how all it took for me to make a tulip was literally some construction paper, scissors, and tape. This was a very neat project and I am very happy that I took the time to actually make these tulips. 

Glass Vase

Artist Statement for Large Clear Object

A more grandiose size of the clear object drawing I made from First Quarter, I decided to use similar methods to get to the product I have today. Again, the glass vase was more complex then what I believed it was. However, I did manage to make the glass vase appear to be clear on paper.

I used a very particular method of staring at the glass vase for several  minutes.  Then using the black charcoal to make an outline of what I've seen and smearing it with tissue to have a smudge affect. With shading, darkening spaces and erasing countless amounts of times I then found the perfect blend of color for the object to come out to appear as if it was clear. I did bump into some barriers while working on it such as the proportion. I managed to fix that by simply turning the paper around and making the one side the top of the vase and the other the bottom. As seen with the photo taken of the glass vase, it is apparent that the top is bigger than the bottom. Which would make sense looking at the vase at a eye level. 

I've grown to be very content with the clear vase I have created on paper. The amount of time put into making the vase appear to be clear on paper shows throughout this piece of art and I am happy for that.

For my Quarter Two Benchmark in American Government I choose the 14th Amendment; Section One in the Constitution and relate it to my life. Particularly my work life. I am employed at Rolling Thunder Roller Skating Center. There I must conform to the ADA. Meaning that people of disabilities are by law allowed to skate at the skating rink. The 14th Amendment also proves the ADA to be true. The 14th Amendment in a brief sense is an Amendment, giving all of the citizens of the United States equal rights. Therefore hoping for no discrimination amongst people in the United States. 

Citations: 

I’ve decided to come into contact with Ms. Maria Quiñones-Sáncez for this particular assignment. She is my district council member and felt that since she is connected to me in that since I should be comfortable enough to go to her. As well as being my council member for the 7^th district, (The district I reside in) she is the Vice-Chair of the Committee on Streets & Services, which goes hand in hand with my lobbying topic.

My plan for communication, initially was to send a letter to her office, but then I realized that a faster way of tackling my issues and concerns with sending my letter through a personal e-mail. I’ve pieced together the information and data that I have came across my past blog posts and made more sense out of it. I wanted to let Ms. Quiñones-Sánchez that I am up on my research as to what is going on and ask her for her help hands on. I noticed that for one, where the city council meetings are posted there isn’t an updated calendar for the year of 2012. Which concerns me, I want to know when I am able to stop by and one on one meet her and have the pleasure to talk things out to help the Philadelphia community.

Within the letter, I wrote about how the city of Philadelphia, according to resources is the second dirtiest city and the third most unattractive city. Which is not at all good. I figured that we should come to an agreement on that. So what I am proposing to Ms. Maria Quiñones-Sánchez is that we come up with some legislature to prevent this statistic to happen again.

I’m honestly not sure how the reply from her is going to be but I am sure that it will be good. I believe that what is said in the letter is fairly reasonable and manageable to do. Even if helping our community requires us to go out of our own pockets I feel like it should get done. Simply because. Finding the courage to even get my thoughts and opinions out to an authority figure/representative was a bit intimidating but I figure that not saying how I feel won’t help the situation that we are currently in with the trash accumulation in Philadelphia.

(Letter that was actually Sent to Council Member of the 7^th District, Ms. Maria Quiñones-Sánchez)

Dear Councilwoman Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez.

            My name is Johniera McClain, and I attend Science Leadership Academy. I am writing you today because I am aware of you being the Vice-Chair of the Committee of Streets & Services, and also you are my Council member for my district. I feel like I am more personally attached to you because of that. However, I am very concerned about the trash that is produced in Philadelphia and I honestly need your help. Would you be willing? Within the next few business days I will be coming into contact with you also about the scheduling of the city council meetings, where you may attend so that we could be in the pleasure of meeting one another. Actually, can you post that to http://legislation.phila.gov/calendar/Search.aspx being updated for the year 2012? You see I am an active lobbyist, although I am active it will be of great help that you join me. I know that you care about what is going on in the city of Philadelphia but there is always room for more improvement. As you may or may not know, according to sources, Philadelphia is the second dirtiest city in America, and as well as the third least attractive city in America. (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/11/08/most-attractive-people_n_780402.html#s177269&title=Least_Attractive_People

And http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/06/14/the-ten-dirtiest-cities-in-america-new-orleans-tops-the-list/ )

I am on a great strive to change that. There are too many people who reside in Philadelphia for us to live and continue on like this. Making a different approach on clean up days and actually getting more parts of the city to be active on changing their bad habits will indeed be hard, yes I know. However, excluding the fact that I am young and only of the age of eighteen I still want to be the one who helps out and turn this situation around. I suggest that we get legislature passed that will enhance growth in this weakened area. I do know about the programs that go on such as “Philly Spring Clean Up” and etc, but there should in my opinion be more forced and authorized versions of this.

For example, in the city of Minneapolis there are monthly fees for solid waste and recycling for the people who reside there. (http://www.minneapolismn.gov/solid-waste/index.htm) That actually sounds like a great idea. If Philadelphians were actually to pay for their trash, there may be a huge reduction of the trashed that is produced here. Which will positively benefit our city in ways more than one. I know personally a friend that has started a non-profit organization that was generated and runs on these goals to help the Philadelphia community. These very important goals are: Community Development, Community Clean-Up, and Community Empowerment. My fellow peer whom only is in the senior class, as I am of Science Leadership is the co-owner of a business. That definitely proves that as he is capable of helping out the Philadelphia community by setting up a whole organization, you in particular are capable of helping out the Philadelphia community in a legal view stance.

I want to thank you so much for taking the time to actually sit and read about my concerns and thoughts on the Philadelphia community in a perspective pertaining to trash. I encourage you to get back to me. It will be greatly appreciated.

THANK YOU.                        

Sincerely, Johniera McClain.

**Updates will be posted on subject. 

 The status of legislature pertaining my lobbying topic is not necessarily well this year. As for the people in council that supports the lobbying topic, there has not been much done and said that supports the issue that apparently is at hand. Honestly, if contacted possibly that would change because there even is a Committee on Streets & Services that hold Chair, Vice Chair, and Members that are dedicated to help support the streets of Philadelphia and also try hard to prevent an unsanitary environment. The opponents that may thwart the succession of my lobbying topic would of course be the people of Philadelphia. Sadly, they may be the biggest opponents that I have although, if more legislation such as founded before (http://legislation.phila.gov/detailreport/?key=9190) (https://docs.google.com/a/scienceleadership.org/viewer?url=http://legislation.phila.gov/attachments/9251.pdf) the City of Philadelphia and their Philadelphians would be more submissive to keeping their city cleaner.

             Definitely the skateboarders in this issue would be the people of the Committee on Streets & Services. (http://www.phila.gov/cityCouncil/streets.html) Closer to me would be of course be the Vice Chair (Maria D. Quiñones-Sánchez). She is the councilwoman of the 7th district in which I do reside in. She indeed would be someone that I would and need to move that would be a decision maker. The issue that I do have with the city, I believe is not necessarily a controversial topic. I think it is reasonably fair and agreeable. I do not think I would have many or even at all any allies.

             A peer of mine that would definitely be someone I could possibly coordinate in this issue would be a dear friend of mines names Rashaun WIlliams.(http://phreshphiladelphia.org/Phresh_Philly/Phresh_Philadelphia.html) He is one of the founders of Phresh Philadelphia. Phresh Philadelphia is a non-profit organizations which is developed and motivated behind three very important goals; Community Development, Community Clean-Up, and Community Empowerment. Rashaun is someone as well that I do know that is passionate about the similar issues at hand in Philadelphia.

           I can and in dire need to influence the people of PHILADELPHIA. With that, some things that I should do is go to the city council meetings and go right to them and get suggestions on what I could possibly do to help with the public contribution of Philadelphia, cleaning wise. Hopefully that may spark some ideas with legislation and help move people in authority engage on my lobbying topic. As of currently there are a City Council Meeting that can be attended on December 7th at 10:00 am that is the meeting of the Whole Council. (http://legislation.phila.gov/calendar/)

        There are not any specific time frames, although I know personally I will get some information that I gather and present it thus forth at the meeting of the whole council at their next meeting. 

  The glass cup was more complex then what I actually believed it was. The goal I had was to make a clear object appear on a white paper. Although it was challenging, it was done. With shading, darkening spaces, and erasing. 

I first started by taking the black charcoal piece that I had and lighting scribbling over my paper. I then drew a outline of what I imagined the cup to look on paper. Heigh wise, the roundness of it... everything. Then by looking at the size of the paper, I realized that the proportions were off. I then made another attempt at the glass cup. I figured it was too dark for what my goal was to be so then I finally got it right and made my master piece. 

I made sure that there was lighting and the shape wasn't a black outline because evidently a clear object isn't black, it's clear. Over all the final product that was made, I was very content with. 

I decided to shape the model's body how she can be seen in person. She had on a hoodie and some jeans with her belt sticking out. As the kept going on I decided to add in the small details such as the knee shading and leg stance. I made the weight that she was putting her body on noticeable. I found myself making the head smaller than the body so I tried to adjust that by rounding out the strokes heavier and making the chin and neck thicker. I choose orange for the shirt under the model's hoodie because I believed that that well suited the color orange. 

In my future drawings of life size figures, I will choose to focus on even more lighting and shading. I also will continue to draw what I see in person. 

Quarter Three Benchmark Reflection

The topic came across by my history teacher bringing up the Native American boarding schools when we suggested that we wanted to do an odd/unique topic that not many people speak upon. Slavery within races is talked about in many ways and under many lights but it is rare for it to be on the slavery of a Native American. That is one of the main reasons that this topic was chosen.

The group documentary as the type of presentation that was selected for the format of presenting this project was decided based upon the fact that it would be convenient for us to transform our papers into something visual for the audience to view. It was something that we knew that the main primary sources would be easier shown than explained. The abuse and Americanization of the Native Americans are shown through photos, and interviews.

The trouble that was caused by trying to do this project was the time management. The mishap of procrastinating tripped me up when it came around for the project to be almost due. I believe if I could have a good week to just still work on the project, it would be so much better than what it is now. Although I cannot sit here and say that I am not proud of the work that I handed in, because I’m definitely content to what the project blossomed to be.  As of now, I think that if I had to the whole project all over I would probably instead of turning in a group documentary I would do an individual paper or a group performance.

Throughout doing this project, I learned that Native Americans really are settlers and that a government has stripped their morals and values that really are not at all the people whom have founded this place. The Native Americans have been conquered by a government and been placed on special places that are considered to be theirs, when really all of it is theirs. It’s a shame, that the United States government has degraded a people that have done nothing but be good to them and manipulate them to a place where they were considered to be as low as a savage.

The government can civilize and Americanize a group of people that were here on this soil first and brain wash them to become a group of  people that is of what now to be American like. 

At Science Leadership Academy, the Juniors in Earth and Water Streams had to do a project for both English 3 and American History. The basis of  the project was to build a story about a building in your neighborhood and the person that the building is named after. For my project I decided to use Clara Barton Elementary School for the building, I then told the story of Clara Barton and Clara Barton Elementary School.

(P.S. Philadelphia’s Margaret and Orthodox Station needs a clean up, badly)

WARD: 42 DIVISION: 6

POLLING PLACE:

Wyoming Library

ADDRESS:

E Wyoming Ave & B St

Philadelphia, PA 19120

Voter #1 Gentleman

Interview Questions and Answers

1. What motivated you to come out and vote?

It’s a change. “I want to keep (one of the political parties) out of office.”  If my vote makes a difference, then yeah for sure I will come out and vote

2. Do you vote in every election?

“Yes I do!” It needs to be a change.

3. What changes do you hope to see in Philadelphia as a result of this election?

The streets need to be cleaned up, there is too much killing and I really would like to see the cops stop being “crooked”  “Just let justice be.”

4. What impact do you feel that your vote will have on the election?

I hope it has a big impact. The (one of the political parties) are being ridiculous, I don’t like that, them telling us what to do and all.

5. Did you learn about voting in school?

I learned about voting in the streets, and catching on to what was going on around me.

Voter #2 Neighbor/Close Friend

Interview Questions and Answers

 1.What motivated you to come out and vote?

I want to have a say on what’s going on in my country.

2. Do you vote in every election?

Yes.

“I know that all changes can’t exactly be mad because of the fact of it being so many changes needed to be done, but just one would be mad. I cannot say exactly what because there is just so many, but as I said one change would satisfy me “

4. What impact do you feel that your vote will have on the election?

“I’m going to be a winner. I’m a senior so I’ll get something good, I know that its going to count. If I get what I want, that’ll be great.“

Of course, in school we would have like a play example of the presidential election and there we would be able to vote. Also in my house, I grew up with parents who thought of voting as a must; to have a say on what you thought in the country and what was going on.

.

Voter #3 Woman

Interview Questions and Answers

1.What motivated you to come out and vote?

 The negative adds on television made me want to come out and vote so that can be changed.

2. Do you vote in every election? (How regularly do you vote?)

Almost every election, some reasons on why I don’t wouldn’t vote depended on the whether, how I felt, work.. etc Although I have been in general regularly voting since 1976.

3. What changes do you hope to see in Philadelphia as a result of this election?

I’m hoping that the mess in Philadelphia will get cleaned up as well as with the economy that needs to get “cleaned up” as well.

4. Did you learn about voting in school? If yes, did that impact your willingness to vote today?

Yes I did learn about voting in school, although no I do not think that, by that happening it has a impact on my willingness to vote today..

Reflection:

All right, so after my first interview, I had an altercation with the judge of elections, he found out about the assignment and asked me how old I was, I told him my age and he immediately responded to my answer with a stern “No you cannot be under the age of 18 talking about political subjects.” He then took my paper and said he was to call his DA and ask them about it. I honestly within that moment of time pondered on the statement. Being as though I’m not 18 I cannot have speak on political subjects? That’s very interesting, I actually feel otherwise. Why shouldn’t I have a say or speak upon political subjects? I do live in this country… I mean it just makes sense that I should, if in history class we speak on the subject of voting, which is a political subject, when I come to just ask a voter a few questions on the importance and meaning of voting to them, why would I have to be 18 to do such? Anyways, when the judge of elections, went to call his DA, his DA simply felt that it was all right, just to do the assignment I was sent out to do, in which in that case I finished interviewing some voters. I understood that it is never okay to ask a voter on whom they have voted for. That is just impolite, and I would never; that is personal and morally wrong. The assignment wasn’t to question any voter on whom they voted for, but for the voter to know their rights as a voter, and for the voter to be informed on the importance of voting.