Forever Caring

Thank You For Raising Me

This is a recreation of an old photo that I discovered more recently. The child in the picture is myself and The adults are my grandparents who have raised me my whole life. I created this as a sort of gift for my grandfather and a thank you to both of them for everything they've done for me over the years. The style is obliviously more stylized than realistic but I have gotten a few comments from people who know my family telling me that they can recognize the woman is my grandmother right away because it looks very similar to her. There is a lot of color and value within this painting along with a nice use of space. You can see texture in some parts, mostly on the child. Repetition is used within the flooring and windows and the visible brush strokes give a nice sense of movement. Overall its a very balanced and unified piece.

All Round Van Gogh

Recreation of Starry Night and Van Gogh Self Portrait

This painting was inspired by one of my favorite artists, Vincent Van Gogh. I did another version of starry night, which is also on this blog, about half a year ago but this time I used different methods. For this piece I used cardboard and acrylic paint along with using a palette knife to do most of the background. I prefer this one to the other due to it being more vibrant and eye catching.  Overall this is a very balanced piece that moves your eyes easily through the painting. There is of course nice patterns through ought the whole painting, for example the swirls in the sky are a pattern. You can also tell that is very textured thanks to the palette knife which goes along quite well with the painting. This painting gives me the feeling of modern art mixed with Van Gogh's post impressionist style which is a very nice combination.

From leg to canvas

Tattoo Reimagined

This painting was inspired by my thigh tattoo, which I thought would be very interesting to bring to life. My tattoo is an anime-styled geisha that has a sakura branch on one side and waves on the other. I took the elements such as the hairstyle, robe style, and headdress from my tattoo along with adding red which is the only color that is in my tattoo. I wouldn't say the hues rival that of Venetian art but this is a very richly colored painting. It feels a bit chaotic, but there is an obvious emphasis on the geisha who is front and center on the painting. It's a bit balanced due to the pink in the water which balances out with the tree. There is texture that can be seen especially in the water and tree. I would have to say though that the face and sky art what captures my attention the most because they're both so beautiful and her face is particularly calm within this chaotic piece.

Egyptian Inspired

Eyes of The Scribe

This is the eyes of the seated scribe, an Egyptian sculpture of a scribe sitting down that was made for the pharoh to have to accompany him into the afterlife. The original sculpture does not stand out much by itself but if you look closely at its eyes you'd be amazed. Its eyes are made of rock crystals and are absolutely amazing in my opinion. This is one of the pieces of art have to memorize for my art history class and I have to say though it hasn't seemed like much it does stand out to me. The eyes are obviously the emphasis of this painting, standing out with its bright blue. They are nice contrasting colors the blue and red tint of the skin. There is also lots of movement within the face, the lines helping your eyes say focused on the focal point of the painting while also traveling through the face.

All Lives Matter-Black Lives Matter

Black Lives Matter

I would consider this my favorite by far. This mixed media painting using acrylic and pencil was inspired by an exhibit by Jane Vance that I went to while on an art field trip through my school. Jane Vance's work that I saw involved the hardships of those from other countries, especially Africa and most were huge mixed media. When I saw them I fell in love with her style and how she was able to express so much through her art. On the ride home I was already booming with ideas and eventually decided on doing a mixed media of black lives matter. Let's start from the middle of the painting, the eye of the storm. These children are from a photo I found online of a Black Lives Matter rally in New Orleans that touched my heart. Its to represent that there can be peace even in the messiest of storms because even though right now there might be problems that don't mean the future won't be peaceful, that equality is possible. The flowers they are passing are a sign of peace and love. Just below them in the middle is Mister Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He gave a speech about the injustices and how he had a dream, a dream that one-day whites and blacks could coexist in peace. That's why I chose to put him where I did because he had a dream of little boys and girls of different races being able to play, hope, and dream together and the picture I feel is a great representation of that dream. 

Now to the top right corner. The man is Eric Garner, a man who had quit his job ue to medical reasons and who had been selling untaxed cigarettes. The police had arrested him before twice that year and when they had shown up in July of 2014 he had refused to be frisked or detained so the officer, for the first time, let him go with a warning. Later that month, July 17th, the police officer came back with more a different police officer and proceeded to take him down to the ground and hold him into a chokehold. Garner's friend videotaped on his phone the police officers ignoring his eleven pleas for breath and his final words of "I can't breath" as he died right then and there. This was not a chance meeting but the choice of trying to "crackdown" on people like Gardner. They left him motionless there on the ground with no immediate aid, which was against protocol. Later the first police report just happened to be missing the part of the officer wrapping his arm around Garner's neck. After his death, there was a series of police killings that caught the nation's attention and struck debate on race and law enforcement. The picture of Garner is his senior photo that was used during the protest following his death. Eric Garner was thirty-four when he died, leaving behind a family and a daughter that later followed him into the afterlife after being declared brain dead.

The woman right beside Garner is Logan Browning, an American actress who attended the protest wearing the "I can't breath" tape over her mouth in representation of his death and last words. She has starred in a Netflix series called "Dear White People" that is about inspiring black people to know they can go to college and they can go into the ivy league schools and make it through even though the schools are prominently white. 

To the left of them is simply a representation of one of the many protests Black Lives Matters does to get the justice that black lives in America deserve. The fist in the air representing unity and is called the "black power fist", it is generally associated with black nationalism.

The bottom right corner is Atatiana Jefferson, a twenty-eight-year-old woman who was killed just this year in Texas. She had been taking care of her nephew, who deeply loved her, due to her sister recovering from major heart surgery. The night of her death, she and her nephew had stayed up late playing video games to help relieve the thoughts. She had opened her door that night to let the cool autumn airflow through her house. A neighbor, concerned that there had been a break-in, called an officer who showed up. Body camera footage from the police officer shows he did not follow protocol about announcing his presence but instead chooses to walk around the home. Inside Jefferson protected her terrified nephew form what they thought was an intruder outside. Eventually, the officer shined a light into the room screaming "put up your hands! Show me your hands!" and still did not identify himself. Within seconds of his commands, he shot through the window killing Jefferson within minutes of the bullet entering her body. The officer had said he perceived a threat but Jefferson was licensed to own and carry a firearm, having a right to have it with her if someone was lurking around her home. Thought it was later revealed that her firearm was not involved in this incident. The background of the officer who shot Jefferson is not a good one. He has many incidents of not listening to authority and willing to use lethal force. He was also charged in his past with inappropriately touching a female friend while he was in college. What if it had been the boy rather than Jefferson standing there that night

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Now to the left corner, a female by the name of Alicia Garza, American civil rights activist. She is a co-founder of the Black lives matter organization. I found the quote I put in of hers very fitting because Black lives matter is not an internet movement but a very real organization that constantly fights for the rights of black Americans to have equality and to transform society.

Lastly the background. The colors black and yellow, which are on the sides and lower part, are the colors of Black Lives Matter and the flag obviously represents America. In this, I am showing that one day there will be equality and it will blend together.

Abstract Buffalo

Home of the Buffaloes

This was a commission I did for one of the teachers at my school. She asked me to paint something to give life to her small classroom since the walls were very barren and white. She did not ask for anything specific but instead told me to choose, but at one moment in time when we were talking she had said something about maybe showing school pride so I took that idea and ran with it. Our school mascot is a buffalo so I looked online to try and find inspiration and I came across a more stylized buffalo and decided I would do similar but in my own style, and she loved it. Though blues and oranges aren't the school's colors I thought that it would look nicer since they are complementary colors and our school's colors would make a little bit too bland of a piece in my opinion. I like the use of texture I used on the head, its as if you could reach through the screen and be able to feel the puffy fur of the buffalo, it is personally one of my favorite parts of this piece. Even though the same colors are used throughout the painting I feel the composition is good enough that the buffalo doesn't blend into the background but rather your eyes go straight to the emphasis of the buffalo, especially with it being the only emphasis of the painting. Which leads me into the unity. The piece doesn't have anything that directly leads your eyes to stay in one place but rather flow through the entire piece. And of course, we can't forget my use of value to create the depth of the piece, so the buffalo isn't left looking flat.

The Girl With The Pearl Earring

Replica of Vermeer's Famous Painting

In honor of Vermeer I replicated his "Girl with a Pearl Earring" or more well know as "The Girl With The Pearl Earring". I remember being a child and seeing the movie based off of this and being so amazed by it, which has kind of given me the motive to replicate this beautiful piece. I believe I did pretty well on the overall composition of the piece. I think the added blue and brown of the background completed it pretty nicely so it wasn't bland and I really enjoyed how well I did the clothing and the earring. Though, I feel the skin and the lips could have been done better, I feel it just doesn't live up to the beauty of the original in that area. My peers particularly liked how I did the clothing, I even had one peer say that it looked really realistic. And I agree, I feel the clothing is my favorite part of the piece. I feel I did pretty well with the portions, though I feel the eyes are a little off. And I love how the dark background emphasis her well. Over all I believe it has great harmony and is a wonderful piece.