Animas High School
20091 HWY 160 Durango, CO 81301
School Main Office Phone: 970-247-2474
Blog
March 4, 2016
This week I have learned a lot about the endangered species in our world today. I have found excessive lists of species rated on a scale from critically endangered to least concern (see this website to view a list I have been looking at). I have found three main types of animals that come up on the list quite often; tigers/ leopards, elephants and turtles these are the main animals I want to highlight in my art pieces. All of these types of animals are currently on the critically endangered list and I believe my project should definitely go towards helping support them.
So far I have accomplished picking which specific animals I want to highlight in my pieces and researched my chosen species and organization that support them. I have also begun to sketch out my plans for each painting(see above), planned out and gathered what supplies I will need start painting next week and figured out the exact canvas sizes I will be using.
One challenge I have run into is this week is time I have been working hard every class period I get, but I still find myself wondering if I will be able to accomplish this in 5 weeks. We have already gone through one week and it seems like we have very limited time left. I know I will have to use my time very wisely and work outside of school if I want to accomplish this.
My next step of action would be to finish gathering all of my supplies and finish sketching out what I am going to paint. Hopefully over the weekend I can accomplish this so I can start painting on Tuesday.
March 9, 2016
This week I have started painting my first image. I have gathered all of my supplies and begun sketching out my paintings onto my canvases. This week I have learned more about the species I will be highlighting in my pictures through research. I have also looked into and talked to my mentor(Britt Gordon) about where and how to get prints of paintings made. I am interested in getting prints made of my final pieces so that I have as many as possible to sell. For the next week or two I will be working on one painting at school during our class time and one painting at home on my own time. Not much has gone wrong during this project except for funding, figuring out how I will pay for getting prints made. My next step of action would be to continue painting and hopefully finalize a painting by sometimes next week.
March 16, 2016
This week I have continued painting. I have been working hard on my painting at school and am sketching out my second painting at home. I have been learning much about painting and different painting techniques. So far I have almost finalized one painting and have two drawings already finished. I have decided to participate in Oakley's art show to display and maybe sell some of these endangered animal pieces this will probably be in april. Possibly after this project is over I will take my pieces to Arizona find a more permanent place for them where they will hopefully sell for higher prices than in Durango. Next week all of the Juniors and Seniors will be gone so I will have a first period where I can work on these paintings with my mentor Britt. Not much has gone wrong my only concern is how much time I will have to finish all of these pieces. My next step of action is to continue painting and hopefully have the one I am working on in school completed by the end of this week. Next week I will work on researching my selected species and create little information cards to be hung next to each piece. I also need to look more into getting prints made.
March 23, 2016
Since my last blog update I have completed my tiger painting and started my leopard painting. I have also be going around Durango trying to collect frames and matting to finalize my other three paintings/drawings. I have been doing lots of research on the species I am representing in my collection I will have little information cards next to each piece stating facts about each endangered species. The cards will also say information about the organization that I will be donating the profits to. I have not face any new challenges expect that there is no inexpensive framing and mating in Durango. My next step of action is to continue painting and researching. I still haven't looked into getting prints made but will try to get this done by next week. During our gallery walk today it was inspiring to me how interested people are in this project and how much all of my classmates have already accomplished. It was good for me explain my project and answerer questions people had for me.
April 8, 2016
March 23, 2016 Since my last blog update I have pretty much completed the part of the 20% project that I was planning on doing at school. I will definitely continue this project on my own because of my love for art, painting and animals. I only have a few more things to do before completely finishing this project for my school project. So far I have accomplished completing five pieces of artwork all part of my endangered animal art collection. I have also completed two out of the four information cards that are to go along with my pieces to give information about each species along with facts regarding where the profits from each piece will be going. Throughout finishing my art pieces I learned much about different painting and framing techniques many professional artists use. I had to learned how to mat and frame my pieces that were not on a canvas and I learned about techniques artist use to finish their paintings such as using a clear gloss gel over finished pieces to add texture and shine. I recently had two of my pieces in one of my fellow student’s art shows this was pretty much just to wrap up my 20% project for school, I intend to have all of my pieces put into a gallery in Arizona (possibly at Scottsdale Artist School or in ASU’s student gallery). I was not planning on selling these pieces at the recent art show but rather sell them in Arizona where I can much more for them. I still need to contact the places where I want to put my art and finish up my remaining information cards. I have not had any obstacles recently except problems in finding ways to sell my artwork. I am overall pleased with the outcome of artwork and excited for what I will be able to do with it.
April 18, 2016
Since my last blog update I have started my TED talk which will be wrapping up my project. For my TED talk I want to focus more on the research portion of my 20% project in the first part of my presentation and have it tie more into creating awareness about this issue. I want the second part to be more towards what I did to help this issue and how I designed my project. I have accomplished researching a lot about endangered animals to construct my TED talk. I have learned so much about how important all life is to our planet and done extensive research on what scientists call the sixth mass extinction. I have learned so much more than I ever imagined I would have within this project and I hope that this will show through in my presentation. The challenges I have run into consist of finding accurate sources and creating a presentation that is interesting and engaging. I am worried about my presentation in the sense that it's hard for me to figure out what information I should put in it and what information I should leave out. I feel like I might be babbling on at times boring my audience during my TED talk. Also it's difficult for me to figure out how to incorporate what I did for my project in an interesting way when it seems much more interesting for me to just make a presentation that creates awareness for this issue. I am pleased with the way this project turned out and glad I designed a project that I will be able to continue outside of school.
April 26, 2016
I think the biggest challenge I faced in this project was not thinking big enough. I wish I would have been able to create awareness among more people and overall have more of an impact on this issue. I believe I faced this problem because I did the art portion of my project first then did the more extensive research portion near the end of the project. If I would have researched more about my issue as a whole at first then moved into the art portion of my project I would have been forced to think bigger about how I could have an impact on this issue. When I started my project I focused solely on endangered animals when I researched more about this issue I learned about the impact of endangered animals and how much they truly influence us. I know I still have the ability to make this project bigger and influence more people.
One thing I learned in this project that I think I will remember 10 years from now it that art can make a difference. In the last part of my research I found a fundraiser that the World Wildlife Foundation had done to create awareness about wildlife crime through art. This proved to me that if I take what I am doing and inspire other artist and people I could have an impact on solving this issue. Looking at how much I have done as a Sophomore I know I will be able to accomplish even more in the future.
I believe schools across America should have the 20% project with this project I believe students will start creating and doing things we never even knew were possible. Students would have the freedom to follow their passion and study whatever intrigued them. If students needed structure you could still give them structure without repeating the same boring project over and over again.
