Year 11 Art - 7

So far I have finished two pieces for my first panel. These two pieces are linked together, connecting my idea of intertwined stems or vines and celtic patterns. Both are done with black pencil drawn and shaded over top of water colour paints on A3 water colour paper. There can be multiple interpretations of the two pieces. One perspective can be that the lines are a confused mess trying to make sense of themselves, eventually falling into a natural order. Sort of like when a single person is thinking too hard about what is going on in their life, and not allowing everything to just fall into place the way that they should natural fall.
Originally, I was going to stop with just having the water colour background and black pencil, however I felt that it wasn't enough. To add more detail into both pieces, I added in dark green, blue and white paint in the background to give extra depth. Also, painting over the black pencil lines with black acrylic paint to make the lines look bolder.
For my next art work, I am wanting to do a wood cut print. I want to use the same idea of 'natural' in the wood cut. I have a drawing of a tree from the roots to the branches, with a line either side showing where the level of the ground would be.

Reading Log - 3

Reading Log - 3

Title: What Your Most Vivid Memories Say About You
Text Type: Short Written Text - Article
Written by Susan Krauss Whitbourne

There are a lot of things which have come together to form the people we become over time. 'What Your Most Vivid Memories Say About You' is an informative text which shares with it's readers how previous experiences in our lives, help to allow us to grow mentally and to gain a stronger sense of self.

What makes us who we are? This article shared with me the fact that the memories stored clearly in our brains give us a stronger awareness of who we are as individuals and I must say, I agree. Each and every one of us hold different our own memories, good, bad and neutral, but the ones that mean the most to us gain an emotional reaction when thinking about them. The text states that 'The easiest way to find out your self-defining memories is by thinking about the events in your life that you are most likely to tell people about when they say "Tell me a little about yourself".' and I feel that this is a correct statement. I feel as though that really triggers the memories which stand out the most, even when it comes down to thinking about it personally. I know that my clearest memories are being named for softball teams. They are my proudest moments. I guess I take a lot of pride in my achievements which I have worked hard for, therefore sharing one thing about myself.

Something that caught eye in this text where Whitbourne explains an example of how age can show us how developed or under developed our sense of self really can be. When comparing older and younger adults 'older adults tended to come up with more general memories that linked several events together and that, in general, older adults tended to feel more positively about their self-defining memories, even if the memories were of events that were negative in nature' '...older adults have found ways to make sense out of their life stories. They convert memories of troubling events into stories of redemption in which they make peace with their past struggles.  For younger adults, events of a negative nature had more rough edges, causing them to experience greater distress when they recalled them.'. I found these statements interesting as I have never really considered the fact that the older we become, the more established we become. We take experiences in while it's happening, but it's the memories of the experiences which matter the most. Memories, whether they are great ones or painful ones to thinking about, they are hard to get rid of, but we can overcome them. From these studies at Connecticut College, it shows that those who are older have a more positive look on their memories, even the negative ones. They have grown past the pain or stress of those negative memories and it have helped them to gain an even stronger sense of themselves. Whereas college aged adults had a rougher experience with those negative memories, because the haven;t been able to age and grow past them yet. Before reading this article, I thought I was quite established, but as I went on through the text, it made me realise that I still think young, younger than I ever thought. I have not had the time to grow a overcome painful memories, but that will come with age. 

After reading this article, I was not really sure what to think. I have realised that I have great emotion toward me success and the memories of the people around me, and it makes me happy to think about it all, feeling more established with life and it's meaning. But I also feel as though there are memories which I wish I never had and they make me thinking of the stress I was feeling at the time, and I notice that I know who I am now, but I still have no clue of who I want to be further down the track. without negative spikes of my past getting the best of me. I guess though, that the positivity of elders comes with time and age, things I have not had enough of.