Concentration #9
This piece is obviously of New York. It is based on a few photographs I took while I was there. I wanted to make sure that I gave the city life while still maintaining some abstraction. I also chose to reflect the many colors of the city in the sky. I think I took risks in the abstraction I used with the people and cars. I also wanted to make the buildings huge so it would appear that the viewer was right there in the city. If I were to work back into this piece I think there would be some more thing I could do to really make the foreground stand out more..perhaps working with the cars some more? I do think this work follows along the idea of my concentration though.

Concentration Statement-Redo
The idea for my concentration stemmed from my experience growing up as a bilingual child, in which I constantly moved between the European and American cultures. I have grown accustomed to both the similarities and differences of the rest of the world to America and hope to highlight the beauty of both, in a concentration of landscapes. I began my concentration wanting to study contrasts of color, subjects, and environments in order to define what makes an American landscape. Ultimately, I decided that what I was truly capturing was my different memories of these places through painting, photographs, and mixed media.

Concentration #8

This work is based on a memory of Vienna. I remember the street performers who gave the city life and energy. It was suggested that I push the sky back by developing the foreground. I tried to bolden the colors or the tiles in order to do so. It was also suggested that I make the meeting point of the sky with the buildings more distinct so I outlined with marker. I took risks by not filling everything perfectly in. I hope that doing this will emphasize how it is suppossed to illustrate a memory. There are elements of repitition visible in the repitition of the buildings and the tiles. There is also movement by how the bodies of the dancers are placed. I do think this piece fits in with my concentration (although I need to change my statement-I will do that in my next entry). I really tried to create a more complex piece by adding the people in the front but hope that it doesn't vary too much from my other landscapes.

Concentration #7

This work is based on a picture I took in Costa Rica. I loved all the different colored boats in the water and how they seemed to portray the livelihood of the people who owned them. It inspired me to try and create a piece that symbolized the happiness that I saw. I tried to use Mrs. Danahy's suggestion to use paper to make the foreground more bold and to stand out more than the sky. I did this, but I think I may need to do that more. I feel like the boats seem sort of un-grounded or somethign and that the sky may still be competing. I like the repitition of the boats but may want to add more of them?? I do think that this work fits in with the rest of my concentration and embodies the scene that I wanted to create. I took risks by not finishing all parts of the work. I chose to do that in order to convey how not all parts of a memory of a place are always clear. Also, it is much smaller than my other concentration pieces so it forced me to work with a smaller scale. I do like this piece but I still feel like it needs something in order for it to be complete but am not sure of what.

Concentration #6

This image I did not take but it is of an American lighthouse. In this work I really tried to make values which were more varied as well as rhythm (perhaps the same shapes of the rocks as the clouds?). I used the suggestion of working on the waves breaking, making the man fishing stand out more, and working on my foreground. I went back over the man with more black but I'm not sure if I still need to be more bold. I referred to one of Mrs. D's paintings for the waves..I think it looks better than it was but it's still not exactly how I want it. I really tried to re-create how her colors varies in the water. With the foreground...I worked on it some more...but I'm still sort of unsure of how to make it better. I do think this piece works with the rest of the concentration. However, I'm wondering if I really am going to be able to do a comparison between the US and the rest of the world like it says in my statement...or if I should change it to be more about just memories of places around the world. I took a risk by doing a citra-solve of the lighthouse and house and keeping it black and white. I think I will continue with the citra-solve technique in my next works...I really like how it fits into my concentration.