End of Year Reflection

I always get sentimental at the end of the year, as I've made so many memories, seen faces new and old, gotten to know more and more people, and written so many stories in this chapter of my life that I get to look back on later. This year was so different from any other. I'm honest when I say that it really has been a difficult challenge. There have been tons of obstacles on the road to overcoming it, but so much came out of me in the process. I've learned so many new things in art and in all my classes, but also, about myself; things that I never would have learned if I hadn't taken risks and dove into this year's challenges.

Art III taught me so much! I'm extremely proud to say that I feel a lot more confident in my knowledge of how to use materials. I really appreciate that we've had the chance to explore different mediums, even if I didn't enjoy every single one. I enjoyed learning how to manipulate different mediums, which has also helped me explore what I want to create. Another thing: I definitely feel a bit more confident in my knowledge of art history. There’s so much art history to know, but I’m glad we talked about it because going into this year, I was close to clueless about art history. I’ve most certainly proved over the course of the year I have a bit of an understanding about art movements. This has also been helpful with exploring what art makes me happiest.

I think my greatest growth this year has been narrowing down on things that I am passionate about in my work. There’s always room for improvement, but I believe I really zeroed in on a particular topic this year: Identity. Almost all of my work has been about the more general topic of identity, more specifically self-identity. As the year came closer to an end, I turned to discovering how cultural identity can relate to my work. One thing that I am extremely confident in about my work is that I like creating more expressive pieces stemming from my imagination and not real life. I think that I need to improve my craftsmanship. Being able to get a good craft has been one of the bigger issues throughout the year. This may be due to the fact that I just work slower and that I need to find better ways to manage my time. Usually for projects I end up having to rush them at the last minute, and going into next year I need to organize my time better.

Moving forward, being able to take advantage of having an idea for a starting theme of cultural and self identity is going to help fuel my thoughts for the head and heart project due next school year and the beginning of Art IV. Knowing my passions is essential for finding inspiration for next year and my summer project. This summer, I will also use knowledge in art history to explore different artists that I can reference to assist in learning more about what type of art I want to do. Learning material has been one big part of my school year, but so has learning about myself. I’m really thankful for my journey in Art III, as I have been able to learn about myself like never before.