Paola Almonte Witness and Legacy Artist Statement

Artist Statement Worksheet

Grade 10

Paola Almonte Witness and Legacy Artist Statement

In my artwork, I’m honoring people that had stereotypes, ranging from TV shows, video games, articles to appearance in race or culture, etc. I’m honoring more about complex female, that have strong personality, and fights back against stereotypes.

I pick the topic about stereotype because I’m a female gamer, and when I see females with “perfect bodies” or females like Princess Peach being dependent on male heroes like Mario, or some females do chores like  Roll from Mega Man staying at home in the game, cleaning while Mega Man goes out and his life fighting for the safety of humanities. Some females don’t even have a goal, like Amy Rose from Sonic the Hedgehog, her only goal in life is to marry Sonic, nothing else. It’s important to me because as much as I love video games, I dislike stereotype in not just video game, but also in life. Many people think Latin people don’t work hard, not intelligent, focuses on love, and other stereotype. I work hard, I’m smart, and I’m Latina. This is very important to others because besides Latina and a stereotypical female in gaming, there are tons of other stereotypes, like African American people being violent, Asians help other students with homework, etc. I have friends who are African American and they’re very sweet and honest, but on the news white police shoot at innocent African American and Latino people, and the court dismiss the shooting as “unsolved” or “a mistake,” etc. One person who is Asian told me someone randomly asked her to help with their math homework, and she doesn’t know how to solve the math equation. People need to stop with stereotypes.  

I have 15 forms, each with their own words describing what the form represent. Then I combined each 5 forms to make into 3 main ideas, which is hard of hearing, “Alert,” gender stereotype, “United,” and School Budget Cut, “Balance.” I chose gender stereotype, originally, the form is very vertical. The original form was very linear, just tall, looks like a totem pole.

But then I made some changes, adding a rectangular base with legs, a hole in the middle of bowling pin shaped clay, and two triangles with a hole in the middle on top of the 2 cubes with an upside down V shape on front, next to the bowling pin with a crown on top. The forms convey my idea of gender type because the words are revolution, scarred, perfect, solidarity and unfair. The base is solidarity, providing sturdiness. The cube is “perfect,” the cube with upside down V represent scarred, society is scarred and deeply rooted in gender stereotype. The bowling pin shape is revolution, and the crown on top has power over everything below, making it unfair. All together, the form stands firm, and stays “united,” the art about gender stereotype.

In class, I had to completely change the form because just adding extra stuff like a big base makes the form boring, and it’s not a great way to use positive and negative space. The form now looks a leaf, with the “stem” having a two line get twisted together, and on the leaf boat, there’s a sphere that looks perfectly round until the top, which has scars everywhere like it’s been stabbed many times. The bottom of the leaf boat is its own base, no big block as a base like before.

After refining the form, the sphere with many deep lines represents scarred, the “twist” around the stem represent revolution adds a twist to something that’s common. Stereotypes themselves are common, but if we fight back against stereotypes, people will realize that each one us are unique in our own way, and that stereotypes shouldn’t define us for who we are.

I would put my monument in a place like Downtown Crossing in Boston, where people go to the mall to buy clothes, games, etc. I want my monument to remind people that they shouldn’t trust in stereotype, get to know the person and their preference, their personality, their unique skills, etc. Don’t just judge someone just because of the stereotype. I want my monument to inspire people to change society by not doing gender stereotypes.

Pictures of my Work in Progress

My Triple Final Projects

Paola Almonte

10th grade

Mr. Edwards 

Term 1

01/20/16

Hello, my name is Paola, I'm a tenth grader, and this is my process for Term 1, in art. I have learned a lot this year in 2016 and last year in 2015. As an artist, I have to use different skills, even use my process carefully. One of my first project I ever did for Term 1 was a big pencil drawing, with the theme Power. I quoted this theme, "I have the power to communicate with signs." I made a college and drew on a huge grid. The second project I did for Term 1 was print making, with the theme of System. I did prints of human body language as a human way of communicating with using your body language. My final and most recent project I did was Maslow's needs, with the theme of Hierarchy. This project, I have to do a couple of thumbnails, then make 5 final drawings from the thumbnails. The media I used were pencil and thick/thin sharpie. This project was questioning the most important needs for humans. 

The process for first project was to make thumbnails, then pick the best thumbnail. I went to the book store to get some magazines, cut out some pictures, and make a college. Then I photocopied the college, and on that copy I drew a grid. Then that grid helped me to create a huge drawing with the "correct proportion." I revised, added some value. I used pencil and broken black power, making the value darker using the brush. That drawing was about a woman signing to another woman in a club. 

The process for the second project was print making. I have to write out on what I would draw, which I decided were body language poses. Then I did 3 observational drawings, two drawings based on a wooden figure, one wire figure. Then I carved only two stamps based on the wood and wire drawing. I couldn't carve the third stamp since I ran out of time. Using colored ink, I spread ink onto the carved warmed up rubber, which was stamp, put it on the paper facedown, and rolled the rubber stamp until the ink sticks to the paper. I peeled out the stamp, and my work was printed. This work was showing that we all can still communicate using body language, and sometimes body language are more powerful than words itself.

The third and final project I did was to do 5 final drawings about what we need in life. I have to make 3-5 thumbnails based on the theme, and then draw the final. I used pencils at first, revised a bit, and then used sharpie over the pencil. The drawing of the boy at camp represents needing oxygen to breathe, the drawing of a girl roller skating represent that she's staying safe using protective pads, the girl feeding her new bird at a pet store represent love and care, the boy playing basketball represent keep working hard and never give up, and finally the drawing about a girl playing a video game about herself that she controls her life. 

I learned a lot from this class, thanks to Mr. Edwards, Elise and my friends. I learned that I can try out new materials, and ended up liking them or not liking them, but knowing that I tried. I also learned about trying out new strategies on art, like using a grid instead of using circles to create the right proportion. I also learned that I should try something new, like using sharpie. I was nervous at first about ruining my drawing, but I went ahead and took the risk. The drawing looked nice with sharpie, but kept mostly pencil.

Some changes I'd like to do with my art projects was for project 1, I wish I made some areas darker, or more lighter, for project 2, I would carve more deeper into my carved stamp to make a more visual printed work,  and finally, for project 3, I would change some drawing's composition to make them look visually more interesting, while others need more value. 

My strength is passing my art in on time, following the process, using lines, and creativity. My weaknesses were not too strong values, similar composition, and not trying out many materials (for project 3). 

My new goals for Term 2 is to try to add some colors to my drawings if possible, try to make the composition at an interesting angle and not flat, and I'll try adding plus improving on values. 

It has been a wonderful experience about thinking more in depth about art. I can't wait to learn more about art in the future and trying to think more deeply, as well! 

Here are some pictures of my final projects I did throughout Term 1! :)

Also, the 3 blue-ish drawings below are light added with blue background to create a better form compared to the original.

Analyzing the Pop Art Piece, "Perfection!"

1) This is a very strong composition because there's extremely dark or strong contrast under the character's neck. There's lines for the gloves and the hair, the lines on the glove shows it's wrinkly, and the hair looks curly, giving some textures. There's also few colors, only yellow, red and blue.

2) The artist uses only few colors, mostly red, yellow and blue, making the picture an attention grabber. The colors blend together nicely. The black color gives the art a strong contrast from the bright colors, giving the character an illusion of 3D.

3) The lines on the gloves gives the wrinkly look, and the lines on the hair gives the texture of curliness. There's also tons of circles/dots on the woman's face, giving the art a cartoony look. But with lots of details of black, thick lines on her eyes, nose and lips, she's a mixture of cartoon and realism.

4) My connections to this art piece is that I find cartoon art fascinating, and I love the way how the artist did this art piece. Instead of coloring in the skin color, the artist puts tiny dots on her face, making it look more cartoony. But with the dark contrast on her face, it makes the cartoony art a lot more dramatic. It's also the way how the character is posed and the serious look on the face with the thought bubble saying "Perfection!" gives it a sense of drama. By looking at this art piece, I think the artist's intention is that this woman wants perfection. The message could be, "We want perfection, but no one is perfect, so we make mistakes in order to perfect something."

End of Term Reflection

1. I have grown artistically in classes by trying my best to do what teachers say. In my opinion, all art teachers have helped me grow in many ways and in a new perspective. Mr. Edward made me build a puppet, and it required art and engineering skills to create a puppet that blinks, moves its mouth and sign. With Mr. Hackett, I learned how important observing with what I see can make a big difference in my drawings. Ground and figure relationship, along with balanced proportion, helped me improve my drawing skills dramatically. Ms. Marsh helped me a lot with drawing values. I learned that some areas are darker than others, that I can layer cake to make a drawing look like in 3D. Lines makes drawing look flat, so I have to turn lines into edges in order to add the 3D effect. I'm still struggling and improving, but Ms. Marsh made my 3D drawings look much better than when I had not much experience in adding values. Mr. Leyen taught us how to use Illustrator to create interesting art, like words forming a person or an object. I also worked with a partner to create a storybook. Miss Aldarondo showed me how artists express themselves through art by visiting art museums. With all of the support from my awesome teachers, my perspective on art did change.


2. Being in a creative community made me notice how students have very different art skills, yet we all have one thing in common: we love to do what we want to do and we work hard on our art skills. It's so nice to see other visual artists like me, though on different stages of skills and interests, we always learn something new from each other and we are always improving. I enjoy getting feedbacks from other visual artists, which helps me grow on my art skills and ideas. I also taught students something too, like I wrote tips on the white board on how to use 123D design to create Ife heads in the STEAM lab. Even though we are students, we teach each other. That's what I learned being in the BAA community.  

Blog Post Number 2: Term 1 Review Day

1. What I learned in Visual Arts Term is that making a puppet takes time and lots of work to make a wonderful puppet. I also learned that value is important in art, but it's even more important to learn shape, forms and proportion if I want my drawings skills to get better and more skilled.

2. So far, the homework I'm very proud of is the puppet project because even though it didn't came out perfect, it's still a very pretty puppet and I'm proud of it. I worked hard on that homework!

3. One time in art class, the model did three different poses and I have to draw them all on paper. I think this is great for boosting my art skills because it builds skills such as sizes or forms as well as creativity. This art is called self portrait. It has negative spaces and positive spaces as well. It's a very cool drawing with dramatic poses.

4. My goal is to learn as much about media as possible, because I really want to learn how to do 3-D animation! I want to learn how to make great models, realistic to simple, big to small, cute ones to scary ones, all sorts of kinds, because I can play around with textures and the appearances. But most of all is I want to learn how to make the model move. I know it has length, width and height, but that's about it. I want to start from basic, then climb my way forward until I mastered it. What I do know about term 2 media is that it's not just about 3-D animation, it has photo shops and other things. If I'm lucky enough, I hope I'll master so many cool art skills in Media! For Figure drawing, I think it will get harder. Challenges can be very interesting but hard at the same time. I'm also improving on my art skills, which is great. I'm not sure if I'll be focusing more on value (adding shadows), or other basic things, just to the next level, level 2. I'm not sure what Design 1 really is, my best guess is when I hear or see the word "design," fashion comes to mind. Fashion is all about designing clothes, from common ones to very fancy, high class ones. I know some hand sewing, and that fashion designing needs a pattern. Nowadays, there are sewing machines, which is much faster than hand sewing, possibly more neat, too, with lots of sophisticated sewing details. Despite all this fashion, I wonder what other designs I will learn that I never knew. To sum it all up, I want to learn as much as possible in Term 2 in visual art classes!

My First Post!

1. I came to Boston Arts Academy to learn more about art. I want to improve my drawing skills and become an amazing artist! I want to achieve my dream as an animator. I want to work hard and show the world that I can do anything as long as I believe in myself and focus on my dream, and make that dream come true. I felt that Boston Arts Academy is a great place to go because I can learn much more about art from art teachers, professional artists and improve my drawing skills massively. Now that I'm in Boston Arts Academy, I will give my all and work toward that dream I've been dreaming so long.

2. One thing I hope for my future as an artist is to become a famous animator! I want to start from baby steps, practicing my skills in Boston Arts Academy. After I've mastered all these skills, I want to go ahead and start making animations! I want to make all sorts of animations - Anime, stop motion, 2-D animation, even 3-D animation! But the animation I really want to make is either 2-D animation or 3-D animation. I want to show off all of my improved drawing skills I've been working hard on all these years and put it all together into a unique 2-D animation. For 3-D animation, I just want to impress others with beautiful 3-D fluid animation. Many 3-D shows look so beautiful in 3-D, so I thought it would be lovely if  I  learned to make 3-D as an artist as well!

3. I went to the Museum of Fine Arts on 9/15. I saw beautiful paintings created by the talented Jaime Wyeth. One piece of painting that got stuck on me is mostly the seagull painting. I got impressed that Wyeth made the painting out of water color, it looks like oil painting! The painting of seagulls he created and many other paintings he made is so beautiful to stare at. He's an amazing artist!

4. In general, what I learned from the exhibitions is that Wyeth took his time to paint. He focused on his art and enjoyed every minute of his hard work. I saw a video of him painting the seagull painting, and I can tell he's enjoying what he's doing. He also made many paintings, he practiced all his life painting. He painted differently on different paintings, like some are blurry, others are detailed, others are portraits, some even came from his imagination! When you take your time painting, and you enjoy at the same time, the painting will come out even more beautiful than expected.