When you're down to nothing, God's up to something...

So this semester I am in a drawing level two class at my school, our latest assignment was a wall drawing (4ft x 6ft) on the topic of Identity. Thought I'd share what I came up with for this assignment! Here is my artist statement on the piece:

One’s past, present, and future actions, beliefs, and experiences are all part of their identity. Some believe that what makes up one’s identity would mainly be their life experiences, and how different events shape them as a person, others would argue it has to do with family, and the list goes on. However, all of these things contribute to the idea of identity, when I think of the word identity I first think of one’s physical identity. If I were to identify someone, I would say his or her body type, race, eye color, hair color, etc. The thought that no two people on this planet – even twins – look exactly alike is astonishing to me. We all have two arms, two eyes, two legs, a nose, and a mouth; but yours are unique to only you. Some would say that the fact that no two people go through the same life experiences is amazing, which is true. But the combination and number of different experiences someone can go through is endless. No one is born with five arms, an extra eye, or without a belly button, we all have the same physical traits; but there are over six billion people on the planet, all who look different, and that is fascinating. My work is focused on the human body, and face, concentrating on physical identity and how it can define someone, and also give us insight to their personal, and emotional identity. While still focusing on physical identity, I incorporated parts of my own identity within my work. My experiences with my faith, friends, and family, have greatly affected me, and my own personal identity. The smoky imagery seem throughout the piece was done very purposefully; my oldest brother once had an extreme drug addiction that drastically affected my life, and how I view drug abuse. What happened with him is a huge part of who I am, this part of me is also seen with the smoke coming out of the mouth of the small portrait in the middle of the piece. This is just one example of many on how my work also focuses on my personal identity, including my portrait located in the center of the piece.

This was my first day of working, took about an hour and a half...

Finished Product!

And here are some details of the piece...

And after this massive project, our teacher gave us a break for a week! So it was nice to not have to worry about doing any homework after taking on such a Huge project!

Today in class we got to work with COLOR!!! So much friendship, haven't been able to do

a drawing assignment in color yet since I've been in college!

So... our teacher let us just kind of play with our pastels.

I like oils... Deys nice :)

And then its time for some complementary color still life studies!!! YAY!

not really..

But what's this the teacher is saying? "Try to come up with interesting line work, and different ways of mark-making!"

Processing...

Interesting mark making = scribbles.

TEAM

Had a good time in class today, listening to worship music and just drawing loving God and loving life. Then went on Facebook quick and saw a status update that I loved...

"When you're down to nothing, God's up to something..."

Such a true and comforting statement. He's got a plan, and its bigger and better than anything we could dream of!

"No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him."

1 Corinthians 2:9

Thanks for reading, everyone! I'm out!

-Austin

-ALIVE