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[anu-t]

part 1: self-love

conceptual goals: When thinking about what I wanted to draw, I decided that I wanted to create a drawing that represents the thoughts that are going through in my head as I reflect on this past year. I wanted to represent the idea of how though the past year wasn't as great, there is beauty even in darkness. I wanted to represent the idea of how at the end of darkness comes the sunlight of a new day. Just like how sunlight brightens up the day, a new year will also be a fresh start in which I will be able to grow as a person and learn to love myself better.

aesthetic goals: I decided to depict the nighttime by drawing a skyline using oil pastels and creating a gradient of colors. I love looking at skylines and the stars at night which is what I decided to showcase in this piece. I used oil pastels because I liked how they are very blendable and are very useful when creating a gradient of colors. I felt like creating this gradient of colors is especially important for the meaning of this piece. This is because it showcases how life isn't just a solid black or white color but rather a wide range of different colors. This connects with the idea that even in the darkest of times there is some light shade of goodness.

course inspiration: I chose to take inspiration from the "finding your art voice" lesson. I decided to use color to instill a great sense of sensory stimulation for the viewers when they think about it using formal analysis. This past semester, I felt like color is a great way to show emotion and depth because of the different connotations and meanings associated with different colors.

part 2: spread love

conceptual goals: This drawing was made for my brother who means a lot to me. He is someone that has always been there for me and I am very thankful to have him. He is going through a tough time right now so I wanted to gift him a drawing that represents the idea of at even in the darkest of nights comes sunshine. This is very similar to the piece I created for myself and exaggerates the idea that happiness and better times will come.

aesthetic goals: I chose to represent this piece on 3 separate small canvases because my brother enjoys puzzles. I also felt like the idea of putting all 3 types of weather, whether it's the happiness of sunshine or the grief on cloudy days, is a great way of representing how life is about the bigger picture when all the different aspects come together. Life is only created and meaning comes when take a step back and realize that everything happens for a reason and at the end of the day everything is connected just as the different canvases in this drawing are connected. I chose to make the snake red so that it contrasts with the rest of the picture. I chose to juxtapose the differences in the 3 different drawings with the color of the day.

course inspiration: In this piece, I took inspiration from when we added dimension to the skull drawing. I added the squiggles in this piece as well because I felt like they were a great way to present the idea of chaos and showcase the neverending maze that is life. I also chose to take the ideas from the birth presentation and depicted my brother's zodiac animal which is a snake. I felt like this was a great way to make the drawing more meaningful and special to him.

[anu-t]

I made my note based on things that I have been thinking about a lot. As the year is coming to an end, I have been reflecting a lot and thinking about how much I have grown. This is something that makes me feel calm and calms down my anxiety about the future so I wanted to spread this reminder to those around me by mentioning this in my message to a stranger.

attendance prompt: The Secret Lives of Color "They all developed a fine appreciation for the difficulty of the task. Colors were hard to pin down; they could change name over time, or the shade associated with a name might morph alarmingly from one decade or country to the next."

I thought this passage was really interesting. During this section of the book, they were discussing how back in the day they were trying to create a dictionary of colors like they have with words. In this quote, they are talking about how this is a hard concept because as time changes the names and shades of colors might change. I thought this was interesting because instead of adding more colors to the dictionary they thought it would be necessary to have to change the name of already existing colors.

[anu-t]

I used watercolor, pencil, colored pencils, and pens in my drawing. I first outlined with pencil and thought of my biggest aspirations such as becoming a doctor and having enough money to buy a car/a bunch of clothes but I also thought how what big society right now which is social media. I also really like the winter so I including a painting on the wall of the room with a drawing of snow falling. I also love sunsets a lot so another drawing on the wall is of the sunsetting in the beach. As I was finishing I realized how I love using color to create an even bigger juxtaposition of what is there in that room versus the items specifically being depicted in the still-life. The paintings in the background show the different seasons and the containers such as the bowl holding the money/water dispenser with social media are in pencil. I come to realize how our passions, goals, and technology such as social media are what bring color and light to our lives by giving a deeper meaning and connecting our surroundings. I morphed a person into my drawing of a stethoscope to represent how my passion for becoming a doctor grew further this year and it connects really well because a big part of this profession is working with people. I animated the car with a squiggly line design because the main purpose of them is motion so I thought it was the most fitting to make it stick out more and give it more movement. I also added a collage element with cut outs that represent a big part of my 2023 which are dance, fashion and eating a lot of cup noodles as a college student.

Attendance: "It was Shakespeare who cemented the relationship between green and envy. With The Merchant of Venice, written in the late 1590s, he gave us “green-eyed jealousy”; in Othello (1603), he has Iago mention “the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.” Prior to this, during the Middle Ages, when each deadly sin had a corresponding color, green had been twinned with avarice and yellow with envy.1 Both human failings were the guiding principles in a recent saga concerning a vast green stone, the Bahia emerald." (The Secret Lives of Color, pg 207)

This passage discusses how a writer was able to create an association between a color and a emotion. I found it very interesting by how in the nineteenth century the way shakespeare depicted the color green was why people assoicate this color with envy. Its fascinating to see the power of description and words to push people to imagine a certain color when they read The Merchant of Venice.

[anu-t]

I used watercolor, pencil, colored pencils, and pens in my drawing. I first outlined with pencil and thought of my biggest aspirations such as becoming a doctor and having enough money to buy a car/a bunch of clothes but I also thought how what big society right now which is social media. I also really like the winter so I including a painting on the wall of the room with a drawing of snow falling. I also love sunsets a lot so another drawing on the wall is of the sunsetting in the beach. As I was finishing I realized how I love using color to create an even bigger juxtaposition of what is there in that room versus the items specifically being depicted in the still-life. The paintings in the background show the different seasons and the containers such as the bowl holding the money/water dispenser with social media are in pencil. I come to realize how our passions, goals, and technology such as social media are what bring color and light to our lives by giving a deeper meaning and connecting our surroundings. I morphed a person into my drawing of a stethoscope to represent how my passion for becoming a doctor grew further this year and it connects really well because a big part of this profession is working with people. I animated the car with a squiggly line design because the main purpose of them is motion so I thought it was the most fitting to make it stick out more and give it more movement.

Attendance: "It was Shakespeare who cemented the relationship between green and envy. With The Merchant of Venice, written in the late 1590s, he gave us “green-eyed jealousy”; in Othello (1603), he has Iago mention “the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock / The meat it feeds on.” Prior to this, during the Middle Ages, when each deadly sin had a corresponding color, green had been twinned with avarice and yellow with envy.1 Both human failings were the guiding principles in a recent saga concerning a vast green stone, the Bahia emerald." (The Secret Lives of Color, pg 207)

This passage discusses how a writer was able to create an association between a color and a emotion. I found it very interesting by how in the nineteenth century the way shakespeare depicted the color green was why people assoicate this color with envy. Its fascinating to see the power of description and words to push people to imagine a certain color when they read The Merchant of Venice.

[anu-t]

This is a portrait of my other best friend from back home, Vivian. The Renaissance aspect that I incorporated was the side profile and having a dramatic backdrop. I also took inspiration from Hiba Schabaz and incorporated shapes and used watercolors to create a contrast between white and colors to intensify the ackdrop.

attendance prompt:

"....everyone, even the nonsighted, possesses a special receptor that senses blue light. This is crucial because it is our response to this portion of the spectrum, naturally present in the highest concentrations in early daylight, which sets our circadian rhythm, the inner clock that helps us sleep at night and remain alert during the day...." (pg 170) This passage describes the importance of the blue color. This passage really connected to me because I always liked this color because of its calming effects. I never realized that this was a common idea for everyone and that everyone is able to see this color because of its immense presence in our day to day life. I was especially intrigued by the statement that mice who do not have color receptors are still able to be stimulied by the blue color.

[anu-t]

Activity 1: Portrait

This is a portrait of my best friend back home. I love her because she is one of the most genuine, understanding, and goofy people I know. I have known her since I was 3 and we have been through a lot together with each other by our side. She is one of the only people who understands me the best and even as an overthinker, I am very comfortable around and feel like I am truly myself. I chose green as the only color in this portrait because growing up that was the color (and still is) the color of her room. We have shared many memories together in this room from sleepovers to dance parties. For this reason, green is a color that I correlate with my childhood and is the color that always reminds me of home even though I am so far from California.

Activity 2: Rock Sculpture

Activity 3: "books and bonding"

Since I am not 21, I was not able to host a "wine and paint" night so I wanted to create a nice fun activity that better represented my and my friend's interests. All of us enjoy reading so much and we are always in the library reading or working on homework. For this reason, I thought it would be a great opportunity for us to spend some time bonding in the library by drawing and talking about the latest books we are reading.

[anu-t]

eagle fun facts:

Adults measure from 30 to 40 inches from head to tail

Both the male and female build the nest, but the female chooses the nest tree

The female will lay 1 to 3 (usually 2) eggs 2 to 3 days apart. 

The young will stay in the nest about 11 to 12 weeks when the adults will start encouraging them to fly.

Bald eagle populations started to decline in the late 1940's coinciding with the introduction of the pesticide DDT. 

Source: https://www.fws.gov/eagle-fun-facts-for-educators

technology fun facts:

tv: Average American family watches TV for eight hours per day.

computer: RAM stands for Random Access Memory and is its short term memory. Without it the computer wouldn’t be able to do anything from opening files to streaming a video.

social media: there are nearly 3.5billion active social media users, and every 6.4 seconds a new account has been created

jewelry: The word jewel derives from the old French word ‘jouel’, which translates directly as a plaything, or toy.

books: The world’s smallest book is Teeny Ted from Turnip Town..

Source:

https://cuttingsjewellers.co.uk/blog/top-5-interesting-jewellery-facts

Attendance:

"In 1760 Amsterdam, the principal source of Dutch dry-method vermilion during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, exported just under 32,000 pounds to England." (pg 141)

This passage discusses the use of vermillion which is a big part of Indian culture. Vermillion is a symbol of married women and is used for many religious practices. I was surprised to see that it was very popular in Amsterdam and England. I would expect more to be exported to India and not England but this also makes sense because of the colonization that happened in India in the past.

[anu-t]

My skull artwork came to be by first thinking of the idea of creating a duality with art. Then I thought about putting together the idea of light vs dark or life vs death through the use of color. When I thought of using color to create a duality, the first thing that came to my mind was the symbolism of flowers for life as the skull is a universal symbol for death. Next, I decided to use the maze-like line to fill up the empty space. This was the visual decision I chose to make because I felt like the symbol of a maze was a great way to connect the ideas of life and death. This is especially because life for many is a neverending game of trying to reach an endpoint but not knowing how to get there without going through many twists and turns until you learn and realize what the correct way truly is.

The experience that I want to have in life is being able to step outside my comfort zone without the fear of judgment or being wrong. I wanted to show this idea in my piece in a simple way by only showcasing 3 main parts. There's a box that represents my comfort zone. For me, this box feels like a cloudy rainy day. I thoroughly enjoy rainy days but these days make me want to just snuggle in bed and not try anything new. For this reason, it is so much easier to just stay in the box or otherwise just stay as my same old introverted self. But, as I was drawing I realized it is a gradual pathway outside of this box that can't be rushed. This gradual pathway can be seen by the different colored steps. Eventually, in the end, we have the sun which represents fulfillment and happiness. By putting this sunshine outside of the box, I hope to reach a point in the future where I am able to easily step outside of my comfort zone to for example talk to new people without overthinking so much and being scaried.

[anu-t]

I was born on December 10, 2003, which makes me a Sagittarius. My animal is a centaur which is half human and half horse. In Greek mythology, this mythological animal represents a creature meant to fight in war. This animal makes sense to represent Sagittariuses because they are known to be adventurous creatures that like to challenge themselves in many different ways such as testing their agility and strength in war. Sagittariuses are also represented by the planet Jupiter because just like the planet, individuals born into this zodiac sign are represented by the fire element which symbolizes ambission and passion. I included a bow and arrow as my visual because it is used on many occasions to not only represent the war aspect of a centaur but also the adventurous side of Sagittariuses.

Attendance:

The Secret Lives of Color (Clair, 97)

"The color saffron is also present in the national flag of India. Today it is said to stand for “courage, sacrifice, and the spirit of renunciation.”"

This passage resonated with me because as an American-Indian myself, I never really learned about the meaning of each color on the Indian flag. The idea that red symbolizes courage and sacrifice makes a lot of sense because this color is also used for many auspicious occasions such as the wedding dress that brides wear.

[anu-t]

week #4

I am drawn to a squirrel because just like me they may seem small and tiny on the outside but inside they are curious creatures that scurry around a lot. I learned that there are many types of squirrels like fox squirrels. During the fall I enjoy listening to slower rnb/pop music. My favorite Halloween-themed movie would have to be The Nightmare Before Christmas. I found out that Finding Nemo was released in 2003. Finding Nemo is a part of my upbringing because the movie is the aspect of my childhood where I am finding my sense of belonging and "home" as I grow older and experience more of our world. The lyrics I included are the melody of Riptide by Vance Joy. These lyrics represent the feeling of love that I have for my comfort people that I value so much. The idea of being the "left hand man" represents the moral in my life of always caring for and checking up on those around me.

attendance: "

The Secret Lives of Color (Clair, 78)

"Research carried out on Van Gogh’s paintings in Amsterdam over the past few years has shown that some of the chrome yellow in the flowers’ petals has darkened significantly, due to the reaction of chrome yellow with other pigments in sunlight"

As a bio major myself this passage seemed very interesting to me. This is especially because it opened my eyes to the possibility of scientific research. I never thought about using scientific methods to research even paintings to figure out their origins. This is an eye-opening revelation because it allows me to connect my two interests which are the arts and the sciences even more deeply.

[anu-t]

red maple: Otherwise known as Acer rubrum, the red maple is considered one of the most spread deciduous trees. Something special about this tree is that it has a different form in every season. During the winter, the tree has buds while there are flowers in the spring. During the summer the tree has green leaves while they turn red during the fall.

pin oak: Pin oak is also known as quercus palustris. This tree is known as one of the tallest trees in Kentucky but it is mainly native to Illinois.

annual asters: These flowers are cool weather annual plants and they take 6 weeks to bloom. They are also known as the China aster and they are different from many asters because they do not bloom perennial.

Attendance:

In his book titled The Secret Lives of Color, Perkin states that "because of its link with light, white has laid deep roots in the human psyche and, like anything divine, can simultaneously inspire awe and instill terror in the human heart." (Perkin, 43) I picked this passage because I never thought about the meaning of the color white. This is especially because many do not even recognize the color since it doesn't express an actual shade such as the primary color. I always thought black "instilled terror" while white had a more uplifting connotation. I thought it was really interesting for the author to point out that the color white has both a good and bad meaning. This makes sense because even in Indian culture, the color white is associated with death and it is the color that people wear to funerals.

[anu-t]

Attendance Prompt

On page 26 of "The Secret Lives of Color," William Perkin explains how in the past "most pigments were made by hand, either by the artists themselves or with the help of apprentices in their studios." I selected this quote because the idea of artists bringing their vision to life by going to the extent of making exact colors was really fascinating to me. This is especially because it is more common for many today to pick colors that have already been created in their medium of choice just because of convenience. This makes me think about how technology has advanced so much that the value of true art might even by decreasing.

[anu-t]

step 1, step 2, step 3, step 4

[anu-t]

hey, im anu and im from san diego, ca! i enjoy listening to music, going on walks, and recently started crocheting. im a sophomore bio major and love the sciences. i hope to pursue a career in medicine in the future :)