Monday, October 10, 2011


I am in love with shows like Cake Boss, or anything else that is cake decorating related. These cupcakes reminded me of those shows, not to mention that they were also delicious! These cupcakes are like mini works of art that are edible; they have to be decorated in a way that would attract people, which they most certainly do. When I saw these cupcakes a few things went through my mind. First, I wanted to eat one really badly. Second, I became really happy, because they were just so cute. Now these cupcakes aren't exactly original--I have seen cupcakes before, but none that were so professionally done. I chose to post an image of cupcakes because I think that they show a business that is somewhat influenced by art and because it reminds me of how good they tasted!


This is a picture of a few samples of handmade paper that were for sale at a shop. I love paper, because I like to scrapbook. I chose this unit of displayed paper, because of the flowers and colors. They make me happy and remind me of spring/summer. If I could, I would use these patterns as wallpaper for my room, but that would be quite expensive. I've seen paper before, obviously, but only the manufactured kind that's cheap. These are also a big part of art because it deals with the printing and design aspects of it. Next time I go into that store, I am going to have to buy a few sheets of paper. I am actually surprised I didn't buy a lot of it while we were there on our field trip.



The final "random object" that I decided to post is the old lantern shown in the picture to the right. I love history and for some reason, lamps like these remind me of the colonial era. They're delicate in a way because of the glass, yet durable because they're made of metal. I actually found these lamps in an antique shop so that just adds to their character. Just as I love Cake Boss, I am even more obsessed with the home improvement shows on HGTV, so seeing these lamps made me want to buy them and then paint them a different color to use them for our own deck. I have seen other lamps like these and every time I do I want to buy them but then decide not to. I think a cool art piece would be to have a few of these lamps that have different colored glass and then light the wick inside of them and somehow capture the effect that those different lights would have on each other.

This work of art titled Trek, was done by Robert D Cocke with acrylic on panel. I saw this piece when we were at the gallery as a class and it was a very small piece that was kind of put to the side. It was so realistic that I felt as though I was looking through a window. From my perspective, it was flawless. He used the fore, middle and background to create space and interest in those three parts of the piece. To create unity, he went with the rectangular shape of the panel by creating a strong horizontal horizon line. What made this stand out, however, was the saturation of the colors; everything was so....clear and bright. The value helped with that, but he kept it balanced. If I had the $2400 to buy this piece I would and I would stare at it every single day.

When we were in the shoo gallery, I saw this piece that at first I didn't really find interesting, but the more I looked at it, the more I began to love it. It was painted by Janet Roberts using mixed media. I like this piece because she created 3-D objects in a 2-D plane that looks like a postage stamp because of the edges and a towel because of the vertical stripes. Her figures look insanely realistic and are positioned in different ways to show their personality and creates interest. Although it's not visible, the stripes actually show through the women's skin and the water. I thought that was the neatest thing. She repeats the vertical stripe on the ball and pretty much only uses the primary colors. The strongest aspect of this piece would have to be her attention to detail; from the water to the boarder everything has a purpose. If there was a way to improve this piece, I would say to add an add from that time somewhere in there that may have some text on it. The name of this painting is, Girls' Swim Team.

The final work of art is a small strip of paper that a MIAD student did and although I don't know the artist's name nor the media used, I assume it was done using acrylic paint. This was an illustration and the painting style reminds me of the Trek piece, because of how saturated the colors are and because it is a long skinny rectangle. I like how the people are very realistic but at the same time are somewhat "cartoony." One of the strongest parts of this piece is the range in lighting, subject and composition of each square. It creates interest. The repeated square reminds me of the films from cameras. He also creates harmony by using colors that are next to each other on the color wheel; green and yellow as well as violet with blue. I think he could make this piece even better by working into the matting with some type of text or pattern.

Sunday, September 11, 2011

Word Project Research

http://www.art.com/gallery/id--b22914/jazz-posters_p6.htm
I decided to post this website, not only for it's content, but of how it is set up as well. I typed in my word and a variety of things about that word came up, but on the left hand side I could click on different types of that word to get more specific. The website also gave more than just paintings. There are music albums, posters and photographs as well which are different, but still artworks which I thought was more exciting/interesting.

http://www.apassion4jazz.net/jazz_styles2.html
This site was defining the different types of my word and I was surprised to find out that there were that many. I probably couldn't recite which types there were or how they differ from each other, but it was still interesting to find that my word isn't just one thing.

http://www.squidoo.com/jazz-images
I think that this site was the best, because it gave a brief description of what my word is and then had different styles of art with pictures based on my word. The abstract ones were especially cool!

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

I've come to realize that school officially starts in two days. Although I can't say I'm happy about that, I can say that I think I'm prepared for AP Art! My three paintings are done and ready for critique, but that doesn't make me any less nervous about the school year. I guess my main goal for AP Art right now is to just get stuff done on time- it took me an entire month to complete one painting, and I'm pretty sure I'll get about half that during school. It will be especially hard considering I have four AP classes!! Hopefully my brain won't go on mental overload! I think that's my only goal for right now, but I'm sure as the year goes on I'll think of a few more.

Friday, August 19, 2011

My mom and I went to the Historic Third Ward to visit some galleries and found one in the Marshall building. I have to admit it was kind of awkward, because no one except the three people that worked there was actually there. Well that was better than the single lady in the other gallery we went to...Anyway the paintings I saw were really good but very expensive. I don't know who has $2500 to spend on a 8x11 painting of a bird. I did see some artworks that were more modern which were really neat because of the precision and perfection of the colors and lines in them-they looked computer generated, but the sign specifically stated that they were done using oils.

Saturday, August 6, 2011

















Paintings/photograph are done by Sandra Lo, Idell Weiss, and John Sun.


I just got back from my California Mission Trip this morning! We were staying at a camp in Santa Cruz, which is covered in gigantic Redwood trees- some of which are close to 2000 years old! What is even cooler is that everything was on mountains, so the scenery was absolutely amazing which of course means that I have amazing photographs! I was able to finish my one painting before I left for this trip so my new goal is to finish 1 1/2 other pieces by the time school starts. I'm going to be super busy these last few weeks (sad face), so we will have to see how close I get to reaching that goal.

Since I don't have any of my own pictures yet I searched for local artists of San Fransisco who also "captured" the city. These three stood out to me the most because of their colors, their realism and their strong compositions. I would choose a favorite, but I love all of these!

Friday, July 22, 2011







Nothing really happened this week except for work, work and more work. However, I was able to fit in some painting time and start a new piece. I am trying to work on it a little every day. The only problem is that it is in acrylic. Don't get me wrong I like acrylic, but so far I've only used acrylic and water color this summer. Maybe when I finish this painting I will buy some drawing paper and actually draw using colored pencils or something. I have a picture from Canada that I thought about doing, but I think it would look better as a painting so I'll save it for later.

Monday, July 11, 2011



I just got back from CANADA!!! and there was inspiration everywhere there for me! I took numerous pictures of everything (which is mostly trees and water) so that I can hopefully piece them together and paint a really pretty picture :) During my trip, however, I was able to paint using watercolor pencils in my sketchbook and I actually love how they turned out! So here are two of them; one is of a crayfish claw that was a purple-blue color and the other is of a bobber because I spent 6 hours of every single day for a week fishing. It's sideways...I have no idea how to fix that.