Art, what is it and where does it come from?  As an art student I think about these questions and what they mean to me.  I believe art to be something that displays creative ideas and planning and can also express a person’s inner feelings or intentions.  I feel my work is part of who I am and is my way to let out my creativity and emotions.  I used to get carried away with making things look realistic, and true to life.  But now I have a different focus, even though naturalism wasn’t a totally bad thing.  My style has changed through the years and I am learning to integrate photorealism with emotionalism, and I have begun to include content in my work.  A lot of my Pre-Governor’s School work is all about making things look realistic, while my work since Governor’s School is much more content driven.  Some of my later pieces include themes like my view on abortion, and loneliness, and although most of the work I‘ve completed in college has been assignment driven, some have specific ideas and themes behind them.  As far as my style goes,  I have branched out and loosened up what was once very tight, and now I am free to pursue my own desires.

Within the past year or so, I have learned a considerable amount about the great artists of the past and about their styles.  When I first started drawing, I had little to no knowledge about artists of the past, their lives, or their time periods.   I feel that art must be a show of talent, but without knowledge of medium, styles, and basic art concepts like composition and color, talent means next to nothing.  In the art I create I try to combine the knowledge I have gathered with talent.   I think that exploring with ideas, media, or anything, is a big portion of being an artist, part of forming who you are, and creating your own style.