HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy new year readers! I hope 2014 was a good year for y'all, if not, there's always 2015.
What are your new years resolutions? (Are they something you're actually going to work on? :P) I know in past years mine haven't exactly worked out..
This year I'm planning to get my shit together (excuse my swearing). I know everyone is like "You don't need a new years resolution to get your shit together, you can do that whenever." I know I don't need a resolution to get my shit together, but the fact that it's day 1 of 365 helps ya girl out. With college coming up and high school ending this year, along with finally being 18, I figure I should start acting like the young adult I'm expected to be now.

Anyway, this is an art blog, not a "complain about my life" blog. Let me show you some art.
I got another really cool thing for Christmas. It's a coloring book (how is that cool?) BUT not just any kind of coloring book. It's a coloring book of mandalas!

these things

They come in a bunch of different patterns and shapes, too. Obviously they aren't all going to look the same. But hey, they're cool, especially when they're colored in too. Here's the book I got, it's the cat's bananas:

Coloring them is so much fun too! The cover says that coloring these is for inner peace and inspiration, I was coloring some while I was babysitting on New Year's Eve (yeah I babysat on NYE..) and I was in a hugely bad mood. I was annoyed I had to be babysitting and I was fighting with a couple of friends, so I was pretty upset. I was tired and cranky and I kept overthinking things, as teenage girls tend to do. I just kept coloring, eventually my petty problems were nothing, because I was focusing on making the mandala I was coloring pretty. (And my colored pencils were starting to run down, I didn't have a pencil sharpener with me, so I was trying to save them.)

Here's one of the finished mandalas. After coloring it I felt so much better, it was very therapeutic. If you're ever feeling stressed I highly suggest googling these, finding one you like, printing it out and coloring it. I guarantee it'll make you feel 10 times better.

What are your new years resolutions?

Merry Christmas! (belated)

Hey guys! I hope you all had a great Christmas, I know I did. Or if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you had a nice holiday, or day off, whatever you'd like to call it I hope you had a nice day. 

So, those of you who know me probably know (or know of), my cousin Jen. She's my best friend, we're pretty much inseparable, and we're really similar people. 

We dislike and like much of the same things, like we both like Grey's Anatomy but we don't like Kanye West, but really only his attitude, and we're not a fan of his music.
PSA - I'm not trying to offend anyone by this I'm just voicing our opinion! We can't really hate someone we don't personally know!

Anyway, Jen is also very artistic like I am. She's more of a painter and illustrator and I'm more of a photographer and collage - maker I guess. Here's what she made me for Christmas: 

It's Kanye saying "I'm a creative genius." To which Eddy (from the kid's show Ed, Edd, and Eddy) jumps through a hole in a door and says "Let me tell you why that's bullshit." He's even got his pointer finger up, you know he means business.
Anyway, this was the best Christmas gift I've ever gotten and it made me laugh. I hope it made you guys laugh too. 

Introduction to Art Therapy

Over the summer I took a class called "Introduction to Art Therapy", it was one of the classes I took while at Lesley and it was definitely my favorite class.

We talked a lot about the practice of art therapy and how people today don't really see it as a big thing, partially because it is a really small field. There are only about two thousand (probably more now) registered art therapists in the United States, the majority of which actually being in Massachusetts.

Many art therapists don't have that title, we had people come in and talk to our class and one woman's job title is a "life enhancement coordinator".

Anyway, we had eight classes, and each week we made something new. Sometimes it would just be a poster, but each thing we did was a reflection on ourselves. The class itself was almost like a group art therapy session in itself. 

One week we made origami boxes and put our innermost thoughts on the inside and how people see us on the outside, it was pretty cliche, the whole "identity box" idea, but I went HAM with this one. I put all my insecurities on the inside and I put my case of "chronic bitch face" on the outside. When my teacher asked for feedback, nobody really liked the activity but I did, I told her I loved the freedom of it and the fact that nobody would read it or judge me on it made me so much more comfortable.

The piece I'm going to show you are my matryoshkas (pronounced mah-tree-osh-ka) or also known as Russian nesting dolls. (I bet you still have NO idea what I'm talking about.) Well here's what they look like:

Clearly these aren't the ones I made, I found this on google images. (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41nJ1z-WI6L.jpg) 

Our teacher bought us blank wooden ones from Amazon or Ebay or a similar website, and had us portray ourselves onto them. 

The biggest one would be the way others see us, our outermost layer, I guess is what you could call it. The next sizes would be us, how less and less people see us and eventually how only you see yourself. 

These are the ones I made, the biggest one is my outermost image. I have bright and happy colors surrounding me with a derpy smile plastered on my face, I figured that's how most people see me, as a happy derp. 
The next one is me with my family and friends. I picked purple because it is a happy color, but I made all the stick figures black because they all know there is some darkness where there should be light.
The next one is of my cats. I picked orange for them because it's a warm color, and they're always warm and snuggly. It's the best thing for when I'm upset. They seem to know and they'll come and be cuddly.
I picked blue for the next one because it's my favorite color. It's a very calm and serene color. I put books and little squiggly lines (they were supposed to be worms) because very little people actually know that I am a book worm. 
My last one, my favorite one, is how I truly feel inside. I made this one black because that's what I think my soul is. It's been a rough year and I feel that it has made me a cold person, so I put a face on it like ._. almost like a deadpan. I feel like I deadpan a lot. I put music notes on the little guy too (you can't see it but that's what the purple is). Music is my solace, it keeps me calm and less miserable.
I really liked this activity, it was really interesting to see how others saw themselves versus how I saw them, and I'm kind of intrigued to see how my readers see me now, rather than how I see myself..

pho-tog-ra-phy - noun.

photography

[fuh-tog-ruh-fee]  

• Examples
• Word Origin

noun

1.

the process or art of producing images of objects on sensitized surfaces by the chemical action of light or of other forms of radiant energy, as x-rays, gamma rays, or cosmic rays.

       2. cinematography. 

3. Christina's favorite thing in the whole wide world.

Hmm.. I wonder how that got onto dictionary.com. 

Just kidding, but I do really like photography. I like taking pictures of pretty much anything, not just "selfies" contrary to popular belief.. 

Moving on. I take pictures of the cool things I see everyday. Developing them was something I didn't know how to do until the summer. It would be really complicated if I didn't learn how to do it from the teacher I had. He was the cat's bananas.

Kallitype photography development is one of the easiest types of development for beginners. It's also an alternative process. It's really easy, its just about remembering the steps. 

DISCLAIMER: Kallitype development uses silver nitrate, a chemical that WILL stain your skin and clothes (it'll eventually come off of your skin) but it is PERMANENT on clothing. PLEASE BE CAREFUL. It's also very bad to ingest or get into the eye area, contact poison control if you do either of these things.

Here's what you'll need... 

• rubber gloves - like I said, it WILL stain you
• an apron - it WILL stain your clothes (or old clothes you don't mind staining works too).
• liquid measuring tools - like droppers
• printing paper
• photo negatives (find a way to take a photo and print it as a negative)
• a paintbrush
• water & trays to rinse out your print
• a hair dryer to dry the paper
• containers OF and FOR the liquid solutions - you're mixing chemicals
• a UV light source (like the sun lol)

You can find kits for these developments online, Bostick-Sullivan is a known company for photography developing kits, particularly alternative process kits. They are pricey but it's worth it because you get all the chemicals you need and instructions, although I would suggest finding someone who has done this before rather than trying it for the first time on your own. You'll have to do it in a dark(ish) room as well, you're working with light sensitive materials. 

This was my favorite alternative process to do. It's really easy and it makes your print look super cool. Here are some of mine: 

Disclaimer (another one) - the really big print is not a Kallitype. That was a platinum palladium development, different chemicals, different process.

Do you wanna make a book?!

In response to this title, I really did want to make a book, which is why I took a class called "Art of the Handmade Book". Corny, I know, but it was a GREAT class. There were four other girls in my class and the teacher was this little old lady, needless to say it was a bit old-fashioned.

We made books, as if the title didn't give that away completely. At first we started out with really easy accordion books, just a book that opens up like an accordion, obviously. She taught us how to do the basic steps with these so it made the more complex books easier to do.

We started making what is called a flag book. We took a sheet of paper, it was 16 inches one way and 3 inches the other way. For the cover pages we folded them over at the ends so they would be 4 inches each. The middle piece was folded into eight accordion pieces that were 1 inch each.

Making the cover pages was easily the best part. We cut out pieces of cardboard that were 4 x 3 inches, so they would match up with the cover paper we already had. We took liquid glue and painted the glue onto the cardboard so it could attach to the paper. While one side was drying I went and did the other. To make the cover pretty we could glue other paper to it, so I did once I measured it a little bit longer than the cardboard and cut the edges off.

Now, what's 4 divided by 3? 1.33333... lots of 3's. She told us to cut out 12 slips of paper that were 1/3rd of the height of our books, 1/3rd of 4. Once those were cut she told us to start gluing the slips of paper to the folds. On the first flap, there was only supposed to be one flap in the middle. On the opposite side of that flap, two more slips were glued on each side of the first slip. We had to repeat this for the remaining three flaps.

Constructively, the book was completed. My teacher told us to put whatever we wanted to put on the inside in there, whether it be a speech, letter, anything. I found something on tumblr that I really liked so I put it in there. It was called "one of a kind" by typicaltreatment,tumblr.com, I would paste the link in here BUT I can't find it. Oops. Anyway, here is my finished result.

What's this supposed to be?

DISCLAIMER: I created this piece over the summer.

Seriously, what is this supposed to be? I really don't know.. The inspiration for this piece did not come to me until after I thought I was done with it but I realized that just because the paint is dry, doesn't mean the painting is actually done. Although sometimes it does, a contradiction.

I started with a blank watercolor canvas. Just plain, white, and clean. I spray painted the blank canvas with yellow spray paint, I had to wait two days for it to completely dry.

I took blue painter's tape and made a line down the middle of the canvas, the long way. I took blue acrylic paint and started painting the bottom half of the canvas. I added more coats to the left part of it and slowly let the paint run out, causing a fade in the paint. I had to wait for this to dry, so I waited another two days.

Once that was dry I took pink spray paint and did the same thing on the right side of the canvas, but it was easier to fade the spray paint because I could just loosen the pressure on the nozzle. The pink paint leaked a little bit onto the strip down the middle, under the tape.

After that dried I left it alone, the infinity symbol came later. I didn't know what to do with the top part so I asked my teacher, an odd man, for ideas. His response: "Are you really asking me what to paint? Guys, she's asking me what she should paint! Is she kidding?" Everyone laughed. "I don't know kid, paint some stripes or polka dots or squares, just paint. You shouldn't have to ask what to paint."
Oh Mr. Wright, you were so right. Painting wasn't really ever my thing, I can't even paint a still life.

I took his suggestion and grabbed and orange spray paint can. I kept making large polka dots and let that dry, figuring I was done. Within the next week I moved on to another project. Our last two classes were upon us, and I had nothing to do. I was sitting against the wall, doodling in my sketchbook. "Hey! I don't pay you to sit around, start painting!" Mr. Wright was in front of me.
"You don't pay me at all, I have nothing to do, and you said we can't start something new." I responded.

He went over to where our work was stored and pulled mine out. " I think you can touch this one up." He said, tossing the product at me. I stared at it for a while. It was plain but I liked it. I decided to touch it up so I grabbed some paint, yellow, black, blue, pink, and I mixed the pink and yellow. I took the yellow and made the snake down the middle line. Eh. I added the lines in between the curves. I guess it looked better.
I got the black and made the original infinity symbol, basic. Then I took the blue and watered it down, and spread it around the left side of the symbol. I did the same for the pink on the right. I guess that looked cool.

The top part still looked bare with just the polka dots. I took the mixed color, it came out kind of like a coral, and started painting lines in the corners and sides. It still looked bare so I added little people, dancing on the polka dots. I don't understand where it came from, it just kind of happened.
I had to put my name on the side because it was the piece I was putting in our final exhibition, they needed to know whose name to put under each work.

About me / Introduction to this blog

I'm Christina, I'm 18, and I'm a senior in high school. I like reading and making things. Photography is my passion, I love dressing up for no reason and I really like my cats.

When people learn that I'm a senior in high school they ask me where I want to go next year, what I want to go to college for. I tell them Lesley University is my top school, I want to go there for art education. In July of 2014 I spent the entire month at Lesley University, staying in the dorms and taking classes having to do with different kinds of art. It was easily the best month of my life, I made so many friends and learned things that I still use in my everyday life. The courses I took introduced me to new mediums, things I've never seen or used before.

I'm going to write this blog about artistic mediums.

Each time I post I will have created a form of art using different mediums, and I will write about the process of using each medium.

I will use a variety of the following mediums... 

watercolor paint, pens, cyano-type photography development, markers, acrylic paint, crayons, collage development, kalli-type photography development, along with others.