Friday, December 25, 2020

Merry Christmas

This Christmas I decided to make a card for my parents instead of going out and buying one. I wanted to try and make the card look vintage (with the oval frames and lattice in the background) but I’m not quite sure if I was successful in achieving this. For the center I was inspired by images of houses in the Bavarian Alps.

 


Friday, December 11, 2020

UMASS - Tinkercad

 For one of the assignments in my Visual Art & Human Development class we had to create our dream house in an online application called Tinkercad.  I had never used this particular 3D modeling program before, however I found it to be very similar to Maya (in fact, both programs were made by the same company, Autodesk). I tried to model my dream house on background buildings you might see in ‘Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century'.

 













Thursday, December 10, 2020

UMASS - Various Assignments 1

The following images are various homework assignments I completed for both my Visual Art & Human Development class and Graduate Seminar class. For many of these assignments I wanted to try branching out and exploring modern art, namely abstraction (the reason for which, I’ve never really delved into that kind of art before). In my exploration I learned about artists like Jonas Wood, Richard Serra and Julie Mehretu.

 

'Any Way You Slice It' (Inspired by
Julie Mehretu), Cut paper and Ink.

 

'Another Day at the Office' (Inspired by
Richard Serra's 'Verblist'), Metal binder clips.




'Self-Portrait' (Inspired by Jonas Wood), Cut paper and Colored pencil.


'Rolling on the Loop', Aluminum strip and Glass marbles.
 




Monday, November 30, 2020

UMASS - Concept Map + Lesson Plan

2020 is the year I chose to go back to school (University of Massachusetts Amherst) in order to earn a Master’s Degree in Art Education. Now, this might seem like an odd decision given the current restrictions of the Covid-19 pandemic, however it really worked out well for me because all of my courses were held online through programs like Zoom and Google Classroom (Google Drawing, Google Slide). Because I have never used these programs before and since all of my homework projects were art related I thought I would post some of them here.

The first assignment I've chosen to upload here is a mock lesson plan, concept map. Here was the assignment prompt:

"Write one lesson plan following the provided format and feel free to organize this format in your own way. 
First, work on the draft that emphasizes learning goals, “big ideas”, and the selection of materials and media; when brainstorming for your lesson plan refer to “Form+Theme+Context” article."

 

 

The next assignment was to create a concept map of everything I've learned in the Visual Arts and Human Development class.

Here was the assignment prompt:

"You will be creating a personalized visual concept map that synthesizes your understanding of what you’ve learned in class as an artist, educator, and professional."

 


Wednesday, January 22, 2020

Massachusetts License Plate Concepts

Recently I have become interested in collecting license plates from states I visit. Some states like North Dakota, Wyoming, Utah and Alabama have such beautiful plates that tell the curious viewer a bit about the state. However, my home state of Massachusetts has a boring license plate. There are no pictures or graphics just a white background. This standard passenger base plate was last changed in 1993. That means we’ve had this particular design for 27 years. We do have what are known as vanity plates, which is a special type of vehicle registration plate on an automobile. The owner of the vehicle pays extra money to have their own choice of numbers or letters, and pictures of sports team logos, and environmental trust animals. Now most states do have vanity plates but they also have some sort of picture or design on the base plate. Is it vain to want your state to have a recognizable license plate? No. That is why I decided to come up with some ideas for a new Massachusetts base license plate, one that would get a potential viewer interested in our state. Do you recognize the people and designs that are being used in each of the plates? Did any of the plates get you interested in learning more about Massachusetts? Please leave a comment below to let me know what you think.