Watercolor Salmon Star Lilies

I finally finished my lilies! I looked them up and found that they are the Salmon star oriental lilies.

https://www.google.com/search?q=asiatic+lily&rlz=1CAACAY_enUS713US713&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj_ub2_nZbUAhWKzIMKHUsQBcIQ_AUICigB&biw=1366&bih=654#tbm=isch&q=oriental+salmon+star

If I was to pick out the most thing I don't like about this piece, I'd say the dots. Especially the ones on the bottom right corner... so annoying, but whatever. Overall though, I really like it. My first botanical piece, not bad. I just have to get the right frame now!! Shout out to Jeanne for all the great feedback!

On the Cover of the Summer Catalogue

A photo taken during one of Larry's evening classes. 

Asian Brush Painting Flowers

In this class, we pretty much worked on flowers.I forgot what its called to outline a or draw your painting first, but that's the technique I used for this piece.

Please ignore the puffy bird haha. I took this photo before it completely dried and that bird is the result of a brush carrying too much water. The rice paper is so thin that it just absorbs the water if there's too much and that can get soo annoying sometimes.

Asian Brush Painting Blossom

In Alice's class last night, we practiced painting blossoms. The bottom left one is Alice's demo on my paper. The ones surrounding it are my practices after maaany other practices. haha so the "good" ones out of the bunch. Really hard stuff to do. Also, I need to invest in a smaller brush but the supplies are so expensive and I'm kind of broke right now. 

Watercolor Lilies

I've been working on my lilies for some time now. I've just been sooo busy with so many other things that I haven't been able to spend as much time as I would like on this piece, but here it is.

The original photo is actually Jeanne's from several years back.

I WON!! The Congressional Art Competition for the 25th District

The title says it all. Thank the Lord! Words can't express how happy I am to be representing the 25th District of New York for the 2017 Congressional Art Competition. I will be meeting congresswoman Louise Slaughter tomorrow after school. Huge shout out to Mrs. Elisa for going out of her way to have my piece matted in time so that I would be able to have it with me when I meet with the congresswomen tomorrow. Also, I want to thank Rachael Baldanza (Curriculum Director at the MAG) for encouraging me to submit a piece into this competition.  

I want to talk a little about the inspiration I had for this piece. When I've visited Morocco in the past several years, I'm overwhelmed each time with the tile work design in buildings and homes. These are just examples I found online.

 

So I became inspired to create some type of tile design that when duplicated it would form a design similar to the Moroccan zellige walls.This one is from my grandma's house.

 

So I created one that if duplicated, would end up looking something like this:

 And this is just a blurry quick version I got by putting my original piece in an iPhone template just so you can have an idea of what I'm taking about. Exiting!

Asian Show

Today, we had the opening reception for the Asian brush painting show. It was at the Pieters Family Life Center Garden Cafe Gallery. I thought it went really well. I brought my mom and sister over as well and they got to meet Alice. She was so welcoming and sweet. There were so many beautiful pieces by Alice herself and her students. I got to meet many local artist as well. I brought over a couple bags of Matcha Kit Kats to add to the Asian vibe also. 

I wish I took more photos, but the gallery is still open and the pieces are still up for people to see. 

Pre-show

So today is the day before the show. I stopped by the gallery today while they're putting the pieces up. But before that, I had to quickly go to Wal-Mart to grab the screws and wires after school. This whole framing process is very new to me, so I did kind of struggle with it. Also, the way they're handing the pieces was new to me as well. They had some type of vertical metal rod or wire going down the walls and the pieces were hung that way. Any ways, it turns out, they found a way to get my pieces up with some type of wiring. So the frame wire and screws I bought weren't necessary any more. 

Exam and MAG Classes

Today has been such a looong day for me. I had my AP Lit exam in the early morning. I think it went fine. We don't get our results until July or something, so there's still time to hear back. But any ways, so like on Monday, this exam was also from around 8:00 am- 12:00 pm. We were all excused to go home right after, except I couldn't because I was supposed to be at the MAG from 1:00pm -9:00 pm for my classes. But before that, I had to quickly get to school, give Mrs. Elisa some potential pieces for the art show and get to the MAG. You do not know how bad I wanted to sleep. But I pushed through until the clock struck 9:00 pm. Jeanne's class went great as usual. I worked a little on the botanical piece I started in Jeanne's class. It's slowly getting there. I handed my pieces in during our class. I gave them to Lisa, who is one of Alice's students, but also does a lot of the behind the scenes work with Alice. My pieces still need to be wired for the show. So, I'll probably grab them from the store tomorrow and stop by the gallery while they're organizing everything for the show. 

Pre and Post Exam Day

So yesterday, I had my APES exam. Tomorrow, I have my AP Literature Exam. I thought today was supposed to be my chill day, but I totally forgot that my pieces for the Asian class are due tomorrow. So I have to get the frames, have  enough pieces and frame them all before I go to bed. My sister came through and quickly got me the frames from Walt-Mart. It's pretty late at night, but thank God I got them finished. 

APES Exam and Extra Work Shifts

So this day is a little off topic to my senior project, but it I want to talk about it anyways. So I had my APES (AP Environmental Science) Exam this morning at 8:00 am. I think it went fine. But right after, I didn't have to go back to school. We finished around noon. I had to work from 4-6 today, but I honestly didn't feel like going all. So I put my work on the trade board hoping someone would pick it up. Since no one did, I picked up an empty 2-4 shift. So I went from planning to work nothing to going in from 2-6. But I was working with one of my favorite supervisors, Amy, so it was all good. So throughout the whole day today, it's been raining and we've been hearing tornado warning and flood warnings. When my sister picked me up to go home, the sun was setting and the sky was the most beautiful thing ever.