Hello guys! It’s still the beginning of a new year and a perfect time to look back at old work and see how much things have changed.
Intro
Today I’ll share with you one of my high school art projects from around 6 years ago. If you have any old art,I would love to see it in the comments or to share the link to your post!
This will be a 3 part series, second one will focus on my quilling and cutout artworks and the last part will be a mixture of smaller projects. This post is an introduction and about my biggest project that started with simple paper origami.
Backstory
Because of my parents work and a lot of traveling, I was fortunate enough to have gone to international schools. I finished the IB (International Baccalaureate) program and I chose higher level Visual Arts as one of my subjects. The major difference with this program is that we had to choose only six subjects for the whole two years and study them in depth.
Probably the biggest benefit of IB art was, that having an art journal was mandatory. In it we planned out projects, described our inspirations, even write about art exhibitions which we went to. At the end of the 2 years, I had to prepare an exhibition in the school. I was the only IB art student in my generation at that school, so I had my first solo exhibition very young.
About IB Visual Arts
The IB Diploma Programme visual arts course encourages students to challenge their own creative and cultural expectations and boundaries. It is a thought-provoking course in which students develop analytical skills in problem-solving and divergent thinking, while working towards technical proficiency and confidence as art-makers.
Unfortunately, because we were so little students in that school that I had to leave my art book there for the future generations. However, I have a scanned version and many photos.
Origami
“It is said that a thousand folded cranes, one for each year of its life, makes a wish come true.”
Another positive part was that students choose what to work on and how. I had to make multiple different projects, each covering some art elements and principles.
Action origami: origami that flies, requires inflation to complete or can more a flap or limb by applying kinetic energy to certain regions.
Wet folding: models that have gentle curves rather than geometric straight folds
Modular origami: it is origami that is composed of a number of identical pieces put together to form a complete model.
Pureland Origami: only 1 fold can be made at a time
Kirigami: it is a style similar to origami but it allows cuts in paper.
(Excerpt from my Art journal)
Peace cranes
I have finished making around 500 peace cranes which I consider to be more than enough, so I got some fishing string, because it is transparent, and a needle and I started hanging the birds. I am hanging mainly 5 birds on one string, but the number of the birds and the order of the color of them is random, randomness is a sign of freedom.
While hanging the birds I was thinking of the ways I would hang them. I had previously decided that I will use wood, but not have to decide in what shape.
I plan to make a cage out of wire in a shape of a peace crane bird, the light hanging peace cranes and the heavy cage will make a meaningful contrast, as one depicts free soul and other imprisonment. The bird cage will be filled with birds, which to me are little ideas everyone keeps inside themselves and from time to time allowing them to get out.
(Excerpts from my Art journal)
Important Summary
Another thing that I eventually learned is: take photos of you process. I deeply regret no taking any as a teenager and now the more time passes by, the harder it is to remember how I did all of those projects.
Understandably, there are a lot of the artworks that I'm not proud of and that I never share. The following is an example of on of many that I have.
For those starting just out with art: experiment and have fun. You can't know what medium you love the most if you haven't tried as many things as possible.
My Old High School Art – Part 2
My Other Recent Posts
Thank you for reading! And don't forget to share some of your old art in the comments! :)
