Roman Martinez
El Corazon
Don QuoxiteComics got me started. No uncertainty there - since I was a little boy in my Grandpa’s comic shed (a tin shrine which he had constructed to house his accumulated illustrated fiction for 40 years) I would spend hours reading and re-reading those ten cent adventures in plastic sleeves. The stories were always pretty basic, but the images that unfolded these simple plotlines were what intrigued me most. When I decided to become an artist, I embraced the philosophy of comic illustration: why draw realistically when you can draw dynamically? (After all, who wants to see something they’ve already seen before?)
Because I’ve been raised in the suburbs, most of my art has to have been inspired by others works of art (as opposed to real life, which, to recite my comic book code, is very “undynamic”). Books, music, movies – exaggerations of the world we live in prove to be the most visually stimulating and truthful works in the world of art. I constantly traveled to libraries, museums, and theaters in search of new inspirations.
This love of seeking new sources of art brought me to an Art Museum in San Antonio Texas, where I was fortunate enough to see the works of Oswaldo Guayasamin. Immediately after staring at such well crafted, highly exaggerated artwork, I returned to my Grandparent’s house (where I had gobbled up comics so many years before) and began to paint “Las Manos de Don Quixote”. Don Quixote has always been my favorite book, and I continually think of new ways to portray such a complicated character. I had also recently discovered the medium of gouache, and It assisted me in creating a very narrative piece.
The painting depicts Don Quixote resting by a tree, his shoulders slumped against the base of it, holding in his large hands (representing his expansive creativity) a small tree (implying that he may have created the tree which he is leaning against in his mind). The fluidity of the lines I owe to Guayasamin, for his paintings are so expressive in their movement. The concept of blocking out the squares most likely came (surprise!) from my love for comic books. Framing images, I find, can inject additional meaning and visual interest in a piece.
It is because of this inspiration that I still find the piece interesting to look at today. Many times my art loses value in my eyes after I’ve finished it, like I’ve lost a vital connection to it, but this piece lives and breathes on its own. That, in the end, is what I aim for. Not to show you something you haven’t seen, but for something you haven’t seen (which exists in my mind) to show itself to you.
Breakdown of Happiness
Sarah Adam Artist Statement Lonely
I think art when looked at should be wondered about. I love personal art with hidden meanings. That’s what I was going for when I drew the Breakdown of Happiness. It is a charcoal drawing of a girl in a happy mask with the picture cracking. This piece I feel is a good reflection for how some people handle disappointment.
My inspiration for this piece mostly came from Salvador Dali’s pictures of people and the way he twisted their features in an almost creepy way. I wanted to show how people can hide their emotions and their sadness and how eventually you snap. I wanted to make this piece say that it was ok to be upset and you don’t have to hide your emotions. To show the unnecessary fake happiness I looked at Dali’s work and twisted the smile into a creepy and unnatural expression.
My piece uses value to give the work shape and form. It is in black and white with the majority of the highlights in the mask. I tried to even out the shadows in the eyes with the dark black of the cracks. And to make the piece a little more interesting I decided to continue the line of the cracks with the outline of the paper. I think the emphasis in the piece is the masks eyes. I wanted to make them look hallow to give the feeling of fakeness. I like my composition of the piece and I wanted to get a pretty good close up on the mask and I liked the way it turned out.
Recently the people in my life have been going through rough patches in all different ways. They have been trying to cover up being upset but eventually everyone snaps and can’t keep doing it anymore. I have been the lucky individual to experience most of this breakdowns and I know how painful they are. I made this piece in hopes that people see how painful it is to hold in the emotions and to make it ok for people to let go. You can’t be happy all the time and it’s important to know that.
I liked working on this piece because it’s a little different then what I normally do. I think when people look at it, it stays with you. I also hope that when someone to whom it applies to looks at it they get it and they think. I think this piece represents me well because I but a lot of emotion in my work and this is a very good example of that. I put about four hours into the piece and I think my craftsmanship is pretty good.
My biggest hope is that my work touches someone and makes someone see something in a new light. Despite the creepy look of picture it’s very optimistic and I hope that people see that.
Drawing and Painting 3
Cherie Sandoval
Cherie Sandoval Artist Statement
I wouldn’t consider myself an artist in the meaning of a draftsperson or painter, but in the meaning of a draftsperson, writer, and music artist. I was born in Denver, Colorado but spent three years of my life living in San Diego, California, and I moved back to Denver after my dad left the Marine Corps. I didn’t start drawing untill I saw some of my dads’ pieces he did when he was a teenager, and some of his works that he has done throughout the years. There were always photos in the houses I lived in, but seeing my father’s drawings made me want to be able to tell my story through drawings. I would have to say I have kind of taken on my some of my fathers’ style of drawing, but I have created my own.
My drawings are my story. They are chapters of my life that I don’t want most people to know. Some of those chapters from my life could be growing up in downtown Denver, raising my little brothers, having a baby girl, being kicked out of my home, being baptized and so on. They explain how I really feel, and even the deepest feelings I don’t know that I’m feeling but are there. In one of my favorite drawings I have done this year has to be my-self portrait. It is my favorite because I don’t do many self portraits. I do but I always seem to make sure they don’t look like me. I do have reason for that, and that reason is I only see my past, and I don’t see what the world sees. But I have grown up and seen what the world sees, and I’m proud of what I have become. My-self portrait is of me, but like always I made sure it didn’t look exactly like me. In this drawing I have two roses that are viewed from the side and they just pop out. The roses that I drew take up most of the space in my drawing. One rose covers one side of my face and the other just takes up space on the bottom of the page. This piece is one of my best because most of my drawings have always represented a darker feeling in me and it shows a lighter, happier feeling in me. Some of my drawings have always been with a candle that is a heart melting and is covered in so much wax it doesn’t even seem to have a shape of a heart. Other drawings have hearts melting and being griped by claws, flowers with an anime eye in the center, and spider webs.
In my most of my works it’s just not my feelings that come out, sometimes I’m listening to a song that just so happen to match my mood. For example when I was doing my-self portrait I was listening to Crush by David Archuleta, and my drawing was just inspired by what I was feeling from the song. I really don’t plan out what I want to draw because what I see in my mind doesn’t come out how I want it to be. But when I just listen to what my heart is feeling, and if I have music with me I will wait for the right song and let my work create it-self. What I feel really makes my work come alive is how I just combine most if not all the element and principles. Some of the elements and principles I use are color (mostly black and white) shape, value, space, balance, movement, harmony, and rhythm just to name a few.
Natalie DeShazer Cityscape
The piece I selected is Cityscape. I chose this piece because it really shows how I like to take a realistic images and add abstract elements. I used oil paints in this painting. The colors worked really well with this image and the blending worked in my favor for the background. It was hard to define lines because all the paint blends so easily. The different layers all run smoothly together so the painting flows very nicely. The Dimensions of this piece are 18 x 24. I had plenty of space to fully show the creativity of this painting. My inspiration comes from my love for Denver. I love being downtown. I wanted to express this in my art piece.
Being in art allows me to have time to myself and I am able to fully express myself. I turn to art when I’m stressed too. Art is a good way to release energy and stress. I would like to continue my path in art to further my skill still. There are so many things I still need to learn and so many different techniques that I am still to learn.
I Incorporated line into the painting because the lines in the buildings are all defined. The colors blend nicely and create a good mood. The positive and negative space in the painting creates flow. Texture really shows the movement of the clouds. The painting has asymmetrical balance and there is no particular focal point. There is emphasis on the buildings and they stand out a lot. There is pattern because all the buildings are the same general shape and color.
This painting is not really supposed to give any kind of message just shows that \you can use two different ideas in the same painting and make it work. If any feelings were to come out of this I would say that the one would be peace and calmness.
To be honest this project was my least favorite to do ever. I have never done something so time consuming. This medium requires a lot of patience which is something I don’t have. I am more of an instant gratification kind of person and I really dislike how much I had to wait during this project. I do like the final results though because they work really well with the theme. I worked very hard on this piece and put in a lot of time and effort.
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