Final Project

Here's the two pieces I did for my final project in art. I did a pendant and a ring using wax butterflies that I molded from a plastic butterfly. I had plans to do a bracelet as well, but that proved to be too difficult for the short time allotted. I received a B, better than what I thought I'd get. I like butterflies, what can I say?

Artist's Reception

Last Saturday, April 26th, was the Artist's Reception for the 85th Annual Spring Show at the Erie Art Museum. I had a photograph accepted into the show, which was jurored by art critic Dave Hickey. It's been awhile since I've submitted pieces or gotten into shows, so it felt nice. I drug my sister Laura along since my parents were out of town but will see the show soon. At other artist's receptions, I had to wear a nametag but this time no nametag so no one had any idea who I was or why I was there. I didn't really talk to anyone except my jewelry teacher. It was nice to see her there. There were some interesting items, it's a pretty good mix of everything. The two men (pictured) in the orange hats were funny and talking to everyone- they tried to enter themselves in the show but I don't know if that worked out. They looked like they belonged in Seattle!

There's a gallery around the corner from the museum that is fun to wander through...I bought myself a small handmade glass butterfly as congratulations. I didn't win anything at the show, but we'll see if someone buys my photo. It's fun having a lot more opportunities for these kind of things.

Birdhouse in Your Soul

For this assignment, you had to find "visual" song lyrics and use them to create a piece. You had to create ambiguous space using several methods and you had to have several color schemes. After all that, you had to write an analysis of your work. We were being graded quite a bit on the actual analysis. I used "Birdhouse in Your Soul" by They Might Be Giants. I posted the entire lyrics awhile ago, but the lines I used were:

• "Let me be the bee in your bonnet"
• "Leave the nightlight on inside the birdhouse in your soul"
• "Blue canary in the outlet by the lightswitch who watches over you"

I spent a lot of time on this piece and on my analysis (I did the analysis in Photoshop, printed it in color- made it look professional and my teacher was impressed) and got a bit frazzled. I'm glad to report that my critique today went well- my teacher was very pleased with my piece and my analysis. I expect a good grade. I think this is my favorite piece that I made all semester.

I couldn't believe how many other students blew this off- there were a lot of poor pieces and several half finished ones and some didn't have one done at all. A lot made poor analysis', too. This is the final! There were only 4 pieces at the most that I thought were good. It's scary when we've been talking design and color all semester and many students still just don't get it- they still don't know their color schemes or elements of design...and they expect to get jobs in the art world!