Tryptic with statement

Anthony Kuenzi Tryptic Artist Statement

            These drawings are done with generic ball point pen for the line work, Prismacolor alcohol markers for the value, and Copic alcohol markers for the reds and yellows. I originally choose to use ball point pen because I was inspired by what Annabelle and Sierra were able to do value wise with it. I quickly discovered that is not an easy thing to do. So I tried the alcohol markers because I had experimented with them briefly in the past and I liked how they looked. There isn’t a particular reason I used this medium. I had hardly any experience with it and I just enjoy trying new things. The markers gave the drawings a unique style and forced me to keep things simple and concise.

Now why did I choose to do a bunch of heart trees? When we’re first thinking up ideas for the tryptic I had been doing a lot of sketch book drawings of trees. But I couldn’t figure out how I could make trees unique, interesting, and meaningful. I started kicking around ideas and I thought about one of my goals for this class. I wanted this class to help me express myself. There are phrases that people use when talking about expression like “baring ones heart” or “wearing ones heart on their sleeve”. So what better way to show my desire for expression than to put an actual heart at the center of my drawings?

The middle tree is my symbol for healthy expression and the other two are my fears of expression. The left tree doesn’t have a heart because it’s my fear that I actually don’t have anything to express. The right tree is sort of paradoxical. It’s the destress that comes from not expressing myself due to a fear of expressing myself. It doesn’t make any sense but it comes back around to the fear of not having anything to express.

Is the content I created effective at communicating what I intended? Obviously I hope it is. But I haven’t seen anyone’s response to it out of context so I’d be interested to see what they think. In any case I think the fact that the pictures have hearts hanging in trees will illicit some kind of visceral response. If I manage to make someone stop and question what this is supposed to be that is enough to make this project successful for me.  I set out to challenge myself to make something that was completely original and to explore where this kind of art could take me. I enjoyed myself along the way which to me is the most important part. So yes, I would say this project was Effective.

 

 

 

Paper bag still life.

Unconventional project

Artist statement: I couldn’t think of a name for this piece beyond The scratches that make us who we are. That may be a long title but it fits what this piece has come to mean to me. The reason as to why will hopefully become clear by the end of this statement.

This piece to me, was never about what I was doing to the surface. It has been about why. I asked myself that question right from the beginning of the project. While throwing this table down the street. Riding it down some steps. Throwing and rubbing it on trees and rocks. Throwing table legs at it and gradually building up marks and scratches. I asked myself why?, why am I doing this?, what does this mean to me? I didn’t want to just make up some candid cliché meaning about some problem with society. I wanted what I was doing to tell me what It meant. So I all but avoided thinking about it.

My drawing teacher suggested that I play with the lighting of the piece and take some photographs. When I was setting up to take pictures is when It came to me. These scratches are nothing if you just look at one of them. It’s only when you take all of them and the bigger marks together that the piece starts to form. The marks are like events in our lives. One little scratch might not have much over all effect on your life. But when You have a thousand little scratches. Things start to change. When you add in the bigger events. We become who we’re today. Everything thing has changed and formed us. Every happy moment, sad moment, every moment of great accomplishment, and those moments of failure. They all are important and make us who we’re.

I could go a thousand directions with this piece. This whole project has helped me to understand that meaning can be found in anything. even if you don’t try to find it. I honestly have no idea what an artist statement is supposed to be. This was just some of my thoughts. I just wanted to try to put them into words. Even if this isn’t what an artist statement is supposed to be. I learned from writing it, and I’m sure it will be helpful when the time comes to write a formal statement.

 

Self portrait and inspiration

Self portrait almost complete

These images were part of my inspiration for this piece. I found them through google images, so unfortunately I could not find the original artists.

Gesture and atmosphere drawings

Interior and exterior perspective drawings finished.

Interior and exterior perspective drawing update.

Midterm self assessment

          Letter grade assessment: I think I’m a B for numerous reasons. First of which is where I see my skill in relation to others in the class. I’m not the best by far, and I’m not the worst either, I’m just middle of the road. The next reason is where I see my current skill in relation to where I want to be. The third reason is how much improvement I’ve had so far. I have improved a lot since the start of the semester as evident by the difference between the still life projects that we’ve done so far. I’m sure I could have improved more if I had more time to work on projects but unfortunately I’ve had so many projects for other classes that I haven’t been able to put as much time into this class as I would have liked.

Personal assessment: One of the goals that I made during the start of the semester was to bring my best to class, no matter how I felt. I think I’ve done pretty well with that so far. I’ve come to class sick, tired, stressed, and I still enjoy it. Even if it does get frustrating trying to figure out how to do something new. And it’s nice to have three hours set aside twice a week where I don’t have to worry about any other homework. It’s just me, a giant piece of paper, and a challenge to overcome.

The other hope I had for this class was that through it I would come closer to being able to express myself through art in the ways that I want to. I don’t know if that makes any sense. Basically what I mean is I want to be able to draw what I want, when I want. I understand that isn’t going to happen in just a few weeks. But even in the few weeks since class started I have seen my self improve, I feel I am a few steps closer to where I want to be with my drawing skill. I also know that when I get there I’ll still want to get better. Because we never truly can be as good as we want.

 

 

 

Midterm projects update

Dream house perspective drawing. Still far from finished but this is where I am at the time of writing this.

First still life.

First in class cross contour

First cross contour at home.

Second cross contour at home.

First at home still life measurement drawing.

Second? In class measurement drawing.

First outdoor measurement drawing.

First charcoal value drawing.

First out of class perspective drawing.

Sorry for the low quality photos. The lighting wasn’t very good when I took some of these.

Midterm sketch book pages

I chose this page because it just seems to have more charm than everything else in my book. And it’s the only thing that even approaches a finished piece in my sketch book.

I like this page because I was actually able to almost draw what I wanted on all of these

I chose this one because I’ve always enjoyed drawing plants. And I’ve definitely seen an improvement when drawing them.

I chose this page because it is one of the first pages in my sketch book. And because it sums up my learning style, I just do the same thing over and over until I can do it.

This page again shows off my learning style. And I just like these space helmet things.