Question 1:
A) What did you know or understand about the ways artists use symbols before taking this class? Did you use symbolism in your own work before we covered it?
I knew a little bit about how artists used symbolism in art prior to taking Art 1. I knew that artists would use different objects in their works to represent an issue or personal connection. But I did not know the more in depth types of symbolism such as juxtaposition, placing two objects next to one another to create a deeper meaning, or allegory, using a series of symbols in a work, until we did the unit on symbolism. I did not use symbolism in too many of my prior works to this unit, except for in one simple drawing I did during some free time. In this work, I drew a little sapling growing out of the soil which symbolizes youth and growth. Then, since I drew everything in black and white, it symbolizes simplicity and almost innocence. Additionally, the black and white symbolizes a sort of inexperience and the unknowns a small and young thing would have. Color would symbolize the opposite, knowing a lot more. So, this piece is the only time I have used a basic example of symbolism before learning about symbolism.
A) What did you know or understand about the ways artists use symbols before taking this class? Did you use symbolism in your own work before we covered it?
I knew a little bit about how artists used symbolism in art prior to taking Art 1. I knew that artists would use different objects in their works to represent an issue or personal connection. But I did not know the more in depth types of symbolism such as juxtaposition, placing two objects next to one another to create a deeper meaning, or allegory, using a series of symbols in a work, until we did the unit on symbolism. I did not use symbolism in too many of my prior works to this unit, except for in one simple drawing I did during some free time. In this work, I drew a little sapling growing out of the soil which symbolizes youth and growth. Then, since I drew everything in black and white, it symbolizes simplicity and almost innocence. Additionally, the black and white symbolizes a sort of inexperience and the unknowns a small and young thing would have. Color would symbolize the opposite, knowing a lot more. So, this piece is the only time I have used a basic example of symbolism before learning about symbolism.
B) How has your understanding of the use of symbolism in art changed? Explain how you’ve use symbolism in your artwork, including what symbols you selected and why.
My understanding of symbolism has greatly changed since I began the first day. I used to think that symbolism in art was just adding an object into your art that means something, like adding a basketball into a self portrait to show your favorite sport. Now after completing the symbolism unit, I understand that there is a variety of different types of symbolism that artists use in their works. Types like juxtaposition, which is putting two or more pictures together to represent a deeper meaning, and allegory, which is putting a series of symbols together to make a symbolic narrative in a work of art, are just two of the main ones we learned in the symbolism unit. During and after the symbolism unit, I used symbolism a lot more often than I did before. During the "Artists Take a Stand" Unit, I used juxtaposition by placing the French and American flags together to show unity and empathy between the two countries in regards to how both countries have been victims of horrible terror attacks over the last two decades. Additionally, I used allegory in the Identity Project when I represented the theme of cyber identity. I put a multitude of images around the anonymous figure's head to make a symbolic narrative which is precisely what an allegory is in art. Such images are the social media logos to symbolize that in a very popular form of technology, people are not always who they say they are. Also, I put the question marks, a padlock and fingerprint to symbolize the theme of keeping your identity safe online. And lastly, I put the enter key on there to represent how when you put something out on the Internet or social media, it stays there forever and there is no way to permanently delete it. Those are the ways I have included symbolism into my more recent works since learning a lot about symbolism in this class.
My understanding of symbolism has greatly changed since I began the first day. I used to think that symbolism in art was just adding an object into your art that means something, like adding a basketball into a self portrait to show your favorite sport. Now after completing the symbolism unit, I understand that there is a variety of different types of symbolism that artists use in their works. Types like juxtaposition, which is putting two or more pictures together to represent a deeper meaning, and allegory, which is putting a series of symbols together to make a symbolic narrative in a work of art, are just two of the main ones we learned in the symbolism unit. During and after the symbolism unit, I used symbolism a lot more often than I did before. During the "Artists Take a Stand" Unit, I used juxtaposition by placing the French and American flags together to show unity and empathy between the two countries in regards to how both countries have been victims of horrible terror attacks over the last two decades. Additionally, I used allegory in the Identity Project when I represented the theme of cyber identity. I put a multitude of images around the anonymous figure's head to make a symbolic narrative which is precisely what an allegory is in art. Such images are the social media logos to symbolize that in a very popular form of technology, people are not always who they say they are. Also, I put the question marks, a padlock and fingerprint to symbolize the theme of keeping your identity safe online. And lastly, I put the enter key on there to represent how when you put something out on the Internet or social media, it stays there forever and there is no way to permanently delete it. Those are the ways I have included symbolism into my more recent works since learning a lot about symbolism in this class.
Question 2:
A) What is the most important or useful thing you learned in Art 1?
One important technique I have learned in Art 1 this year was how to add shading to drawings. We did multiple exercises with this technique. At first, I could not get the technique mastered and all my shadows and drawings did not really look three dimensional. But then after a couple more practices, I started to pick up on how to add value and shading to an object. I am still not very good at it but I feel I have improved greatly with this technique over the course of the semester.
A) What is the most important or useful thing you learned in Art 1?
One important technique I have learned in Art 1 this year was how to add shading to drawings. We did multiple exercises with this technique. At first, I could not get the technique mastered and all my shadows and drawings did not really look three dimensional. But then after a couple more practices, I started to pick up on how to add value and shading to an object. I am still not very good at it but I feel I have improved greatly with this technique over the course of the semester.
B) What would you add or change to make it a better learning experience?
Overall, I really, really enjoyed this class and I would not even consider myself an artist. It was fun to make such a wide variety of art and I substantially improved over the course of the semester. There is not much that I would change about this class. The only thing I would say that could be improved would be the structure of how we complete projects. I would like it more if it was the same process for all the projects. The process I liked best was when we took notes or watched a video or PowerPoint as an intro to the main idea, researched and brainstormed ideas of what to make, made a sketch or rough draft, created our final project, then made a blog post about it. This would help me stay focused on completing a project if I knew exactly what I had to do to reach my final output. But as I said before, there is not anything else I would change about this class and I thoroughly enjoyed taking Art 1 this semester.
Overall, I really, really enjoyed this class and I would not even consider myself an artist. It was fun to make such a wide variety of art and I substantially improved over the course of the semester. There is not much that I would change about this class. The only thing I would say that could be improved would be the structure of how we complete projects. I would like it more if it was the same process for all the projects. The process I liked best was when we took notes or watched a video or PowerPoint as an intro to the main idea, researched and brainstormed ideas of what to make, made a sketch or rough draft, created our final project, then made a blog post about it. This would help me stay focused on completing a project if I knew exactly what I had to do to reach my final output. But as I said before, there is not anything else I would change about this class and I thoroughly enjoyed taking Art 1 this semester.