High School Art

My major goal in life is to become an exhibiting artist and to make a decent living off of that. This is a difficult goal to achieve, seeing as more artists tend to be of the "starving" variety. In reality i'll probably to keep at least a part-time job in order to make ends meet but, ah, I can dream can't I?
Even that is getting ahead of myself however, as I have yet to even have my art hung in any gallery! I had one piece in a coffee shop once, but that's not what i'm talking about here. I'm hoping that by the end of the year I can have my art hung in a gallery, it's my dream! How amazing it would be to attend my own opening~. Why haven't I been featured yet you ask? Well, I have currently no finished pieces.
I've been in an artist rut for about two years since graduating high school. I haven't been able to finish anything. It's mainly my supreme procrastination that is responsible for this, since in high school I had my teacher to command me to stop being so lazy!
There's also a lot I need skill-wise before I can become successful in any form. I love the drawing part and I think i'm quite decent at it, but I still think I need some more practice when it comes to coloring. The easy answer to this? College! Of course! Why haven't I been in college these past two years? Well, I did attend, for a semester right after high school. I completed the Advanced Placement Studio Art program in high school, which caused me to win the Scholastic Gold Key Award for my portfolio. I then went on to win the top Art Scholarship from my high school and the top Art Scholarship from my college, resulting in $3,000 in scholarships. This all sounds impressive yes, but I really live in a very artsy city, so let's just say there wasn't much competition. So great, i'm all ready to go to college with lots of experience under my belt, too bad I hated it. I just didn't really feel the college I was going to, and I had issues understanding what an Art Degree would do for me, after all, you don't need a degree to hang your art in galleries!
So anyway, flash forward two years and I am now back in college and more dedicated to my art than ever. It's a good thing, i'm glad. For now, i'd just like to share with you some of the silly stuff I did in high school.


Acrylic on stretched canvas. At the time I had taken an interest in collage art because of my friend, Jessica, who was also doing the A.P. studio art. I found her collages very inspiring so I purchased a book from Micheal's full of how-to's and tutorials for that delicious deconstructed look. I don't know how successful I was in this attemt. I applied manila tape for the texture, then I did a layer of acrylic followed by some drizzling of dish soup which was then quickly run under the faucet. I think it's a nice effect, I may try it again sometime. As for the blood oranges... I had just heard the name and immediately thought it sounded cool. It was only just this year that I tried some, they are delicious.


Mechanical pencil on textured posterboard. My original concept for this piece was for it to appear really grimy and filthy, however my laziness got in the way of actually bring that concept to life. The idea of rats and dirt just has a nice excessive dirty feel to it. I used reference pictures that I found online to draw the rats with, even though they look more like possums.


Watercolor and fabric on watercolor paper. I guess skeletons in a field of flowers is a cliche concept by now, Allison Schulnik has done it, The Grateful Dead have done it. Still, it's a somewhat beautiful idea, for what i'm not quite sure. I used the classroom skeleton model to draw this piece with and it was quite enjoyable. I love drawing bones, so pretty! However the hips do look a bit like an angry koala bear if you ask me.


Acrylic and knitting on canvas paper. I used a reference for the skull of this piece but not for the body, that's probably why it looks so wonky. I did the knitting myself though! Again this was inspired by my friend, Jessica's collages. I don't really know if there is much meaning behind this piece, but I like that teacup.


Mechanical pencil on drawing paper. This is one of the pieces that I still really like. It surreal and dark like I like, but still somewhat whimsical. I used my own raccoon skulls as a reference. I would like to do more pieces like this.


Watercolor, acrylic, tissue paper, newspaper on watercolor paper. The other piece that I still like a lot. I love the surrealism again, and the collage elements. This is the one that I had hanging in a coffee shop.