4th
positive art making
Positive Art Making Experience
When I took a class, “Advanced drawing Studio”, in Mod 7 of my sophomore year at CSW, I made a series of drawing with gesso, pencils, glue and ballpoint pens. It took me a week and a half to figure out what I wanted to make because I never took a class that does not give me any specific assignments. All I had to do was to make a series of eight drawings. Todd taught the class four techniques to make drawings such as crackle, sanding, staining, and bleed. After experimenting with the new techniques I learned and trying out different materials, I decided not to use those techniques because I was afraid of making drawings that looked like those of student who also practiced the disciplines.
While I was playing with different materials, I started thinking about a theme for my series. During the summer vacation after the freshman year, my friend in Japan and I started web log. Since then, I had been intrigued by one of my friend’s web log. His writings were more atmospheric, revealing and profound to me. He also made 8 mix CDs before I came back to CSW from summer vacation. I decided make art based on the feeling and inspiration I got from him. My theme was “Inorganic in Organic.” His words were very inorganic, but subtle, and was humane but at the same time, I felt the sense of inhumanity.
At first, I made 5”x7” squares in the middle of paper (8”x11”) with Masking tapes and then I covered the squares with gesso. By sanding the painted area, I made smooth surfaces. As a main drawing, I chose to trace maps because they look so neat, mechanical and systematical but still they are made by people. People used to walk and create maps. I first traced maps on papers with pencils. I traced two maps layered. I also traced maps on a plastic sheet with Elmer’s Glue I peeled them off of the sheets and glue them on to the papers that had maps drawings on it. Then, I started scratching a few lines of maps with color pencils. In every piece, I drew simple map drawings that had four corners and a street. I drew outline drawings of watermelon seeds with blue and red ballpoint pens. At the end, I made little bubbles of glue. On some drawings bubbles are making straight/round lines and, on some other drawings, bubbles are gathered in one area. I made those bubbled by dropping off a bit of glue and dried them up with heat dryer. Glue soon made a membrane, and inside of the membrane, glue boiled up and made a tiny bubble that has a diameter of 0.2 inches on a drawing.
My classmates were great artists so that I was constantly inspired by their work. Their art/their existence in the class also cultivated a feeling of competition. I wanted them to think I was a great artist as well. Being a boarder also helped me concentrate to work. Unlike day students, I had an access to art building/tools anytime of the day. I found myself being a better worker when I work alone. I barely talked with Todd. I think I had two or three big and deep conversation about what I was making but nothing more. I enjoyed working independently; I felt confident.
At the end of mod art show, many of my friends told me that they liked my drawings. A lady who worked in the development office that year told me that she wanted to buy some of my drawings. I could not stop smiling and skipping that day. Though some parts of the process got a little tedious and slow, at the end, all was good and I was happy.
