Artist Statement for Grade 11

By Sophie

Looking back at the art pieces that I created throughout the year, I see my strengths and

range of abilities as an artist, as well as repeating or similar themes and subject matter in several

pieces. I have further explored a variety of art styles such as drawing, painting, printmaking, and

sculpture, imporoving in ways that I had struggled with in earlier years.

Firstly, I see how my art throughout the school year highlights my range of abilities and

various strengths. I know that I feel more comfortable doing sculpture art. I feel like it is easier to

control than other forms of art. When I comes to drawing or painting, I feel less confident with

what I do. It feels different shaping things with my hands versus trying to control a colord pencil

or paintbrush.

There are always steps I take to create with art to fill it with more meaning and thought.

The first step is finding an artist whose artwork I like and usin them as inspiration. Even if my art

doesn’t look anything like that of the artist I chose, looking at other people’s artwork puts me at

a starting point and gets my thinking. Next I plan and sketch, writing down my ideas and

drawing the different ways I think my artwork will look like, though sometimes I don’t get what

I planned at all. The third step is only one that I do sometimes, usually for the larger

assignments, and this is practicing with the medium I am going to use. For example, if I am

doing a painting, I practice painting something small to get the feel of what I am going to do.

Then, I start in to my actual art piece. I take pictures along the way, keeping track of my progress

and often discuss my art ideas with my friends and family to see if they have suggestions.
Sometimes my art projects take a long time, and other times only one or two classes. I tweak my

final piece until I get it just right. At the very end, I add all my progress to my website and write

a reflection.

This year, and throughout past years as well, I realize repitition in my art work. My

pieces often include flowers, butterflies, animals, and nature. At the start of the year I chose to do

a medieval duolingo logo, one of the few logos with an animal on it. My portraits were of

people, of course, because that was what I was instructed to draw. I find it rather difficult to draw

humans because you can so easily screw up their features and they’ll end up looking

psychopaths. My sunset lino prints were nature scenes, showing a lake, trees, and a loon. I

intentially made it look like the nature that I live near. Bundle of Wildflowers are like the

wildflowers in my yard, which I spoke about in the reflection. Snail Wire Rose included trees,

snail shells, and rose petals, another nature scene. And then there’s my Mixed Media

Masterpiece, which again includes flowers. Because the subject matter of my art is similar, the

themes and messages in my pieces are similar as well. I think that it is because I live around so

much nature, and I think it is so beautiful that I try to replicate it and trap it in my art, but I know

I will never create art that is as breathtaking as the nature I live in. Something else I noticed is

that I often use contrasting colors, some that are very dark, and some that are light.

Looking over all the work that I did in this class, I can see where I have grown as an

artist. I have practiced working with skills and medium that I do not usually use. I think that I am

getting better at drawing portraits. Some of them looked really weird, but I was happy with a few

of them. I also practiced more with printmaking, the second time I have done it in my life. Last

year I made dragon lino prints, but that was with a softer material and I also didn’t stab my pinky

with the chisel. I learned a lot from carving our tile this year, especially about how you should
keep your hands out of the way. This year was also the first time I tried stencil printing, which is

cutting shapes through a paper and dabbing color through it. I also experimented with using non-

traditional art materials in my sculpture by using wire, snail shells, and rose petals, as well as a

wood base instead of using basic clay or papier mache. I hope that I have improved in writing

reflections for my art, as it only makes sence that you improve your writing with times.

Overall, this Grade 11 art class was a lot of fun. It also took lots of work and was hard at

times when I struggled with an art project. I got to practice with many different types of art,

using new materials and styles or improving with ones I have used before. I learned a lot of new

things and explored many interesting ideas and themes. I love the art that I have done and hope I

will continue to grow and learn as an artist.