New Media and Processes

While student teaching, I had the opportunity to try out some new processes in art. Ever since I went to the Springville Art Museum last year, I wanted to try doing a collograph. I made two templates, and a bunch of prints. Here is one of my favorites.Although this piece is non-representational, the floating organic forms kind of remind me of outer space. As I was creating it, I kept thinking about the band, Brave Saint Saturn, and their strange, ethereal theme. My favorite thing about collographs is the layers of intricate texture that can be created.

The other piece I created is an oil painting of my Great-Grandma Ruby who recently passed away in September. The painting is a Christmas present for Grandma Sally, Ruby's caregiver and daughter. It's just a copy of a picture of Grandma Ruby in high school, but it was a great starter piece to introduce me to oils. Oils are great because they take longer to dry, so each time I revisited the painting, I could just get it a little wet with turpenoid and pick up where I left off.

Since I used a monochromatic color scheme, painting Grandma Ruby was a great exercise in value. It's funny how our eyes deceive us sometimes. At first, I had some of the shadows way too dark, and then I had to go in and lighten some things up. I really enjoyed working on this piece, but now I want to try something that will challenge my creative abilities by producing a more conceptual piece.