Last Day of Workshops

Friday was our last in school chance to work on our projects, and I knew going into it that I wasn't going to finish. There was just so much for me to do and I had to continuously paper mache it over and over again using the tiniest strips that it seemed like no end was in sight. paper mache can get quit frustrating especially when working on such a small and detailed level, I had to make the strips so small that I could hardly hold them. Of course just like I predicted, I didn't finish my project. But I did bring it home to finish over break, so maybe I'll update my blog more on it when I finish because theres not much I can say about it at the moment.

I loved working with Margaret, she was very down to Earth and even when I started having doubts about my own project and not wanting to finish she kind of pushed me ahead to work harder and finish it the way I imagined it to be in the first place and not just settle for anything less than what I truly wanted my project to be. As much as I wanted to at times she wouldn't let me give up and I'm glad she did because so far it's coming out pretty good.

Workshop Day 4

We're getting close to the end of the workshops and it's really crunch time. I have a lot to get done and very little time to do it. On Friday I started paper mache-ing my project even though I'm not completely done with all my figures yet. I figured I might as well get as much as I can done in the workshop because crumpling newspaper and painting would be much easier (and cleaner) to do at home rather than paper mache would. I can't really tell how its going to look just yet because most of my detail will be added with paint instead because of how small each figure actually is. It would be impossible for me to build everything I wanted to with newspaper so painting it will have to do. I'm a little nervous for this week because I know I have a lot of work ahead of me and not very much time. We'll see how it goes!

Workshop with Margaret Day 3

Today ran a lot smoother than Friday! I'm not sure why but I felt a lot more relaxed and confident in what I was doing. I had my idea down and I could just move foward with no problems. I was able to get 4 out of the 7 deadly sins done (well not completely they still have a lot of work that needs to be done) and so far so good. Since my figures are so small I decided to worry less about the structure and I'm just going to paint them more detailed than others would. It was an over all fun day in the workshop, we listened to music, and bonded with Margaret about the show "Dexter." We don't have many days left with her so I'm going to try and get as much work as I can done at home before the next time we meet because I want to move onto papermachie-ing as soon as possible.

Workshop with Margaret Day 2?

Friday was my first day in the workshop because I was unfortunately absent on the real first day. I knew what to expect though because I had been reading other peoples blogs, so I had time t come up with some ideas before coming in to school. I was a little nervous going into it at first because I still hadn't met Margaret and I thought I would be really behind in my project, but I really had nothing to worry about. Margaret is very down to earth and generally nice, not intimidating at all! Also, I wasn't very far behind because I already had some ideas on object I can make to represent the 7 deadly sins. I didn't spend much time sketching because I didn't want to fall behind so I just pitched my basic idea to everyone and jumped right in. As of right now I'm making things up as I go, and it seems to be working pretty well. I'm not one for planning, planning leads to over thinking and over thinking leads to making something that won't ever come out the way I want because of the image I have in my head for it. So for now, I think going with the flow will have to do.

Margaret DeLima

Surprise, surprise. I'm sick again! I'm pretty bummed about not being in school today, I was really excited to do the workshop Luke had planned but I woke up this morning and it just wasn't possible. So instead I sit here in bed with the light from my laptop as low as possible writing this and maybe, if I gather up the courage to get up, watch some old cartoons from when I was little.

But ANYWAY,
(I'm going to try to include as much information as I can without getting sidetracked, which is something I tend to do a lot in these blog posts)

I love trying new ways of creating art because just drawing on paper gets boring sometimes, Margaret DeLima does something that I have never tried or even witnessed before. She was trained with clay but uses paper instead (I could go into more detail about what she actually does but at this point I'm not even sure, sorry I guess I'll just have to wait and see). She takes personal experiences and makes them into works of art, which actually happens to be something I want to learn how to do because often in my artwork I find myself just drawing things that I think is pretty and nothing that actually means something to me. She's a psychogeographical artist that documents her life. She takes photographs of things that happen daily and she creates a bank of images showing how she sees her world (sounds a little bit like a 365?) The thought process of making art is really what interests me when it comes to Margaret, she takes her thoughts and sometimes others ad creates art that lets their voices to be heard. Even though a lot of it looks like harmless childhood art, I feel like a dark side to them can be seen, but even though being a kid can seem pretty great looking back its easy to forget that there can be a dark side to every childhood that is translated through art. Or maybe I'm just seeing things, who knows?