Well, here it goes!

So it wasn't until this year that I started blogging, and now it seems like there'll be A LOT of blogs in my future. At least 50! So here goes nothin'!

Well for starters, my name is Maria and I'm gonna be a senior next year at Christopher Newport University (crazy, right?!). I'm a studio art major, with a minor in Spanish, and I'm pursuing the MAT program, so whenever I tell people that, their typical response is that I'm going to teach art to Spanish kids. It's a possibility, but anything could happen and I don't know what my future holds, though I'm excited (and slightly impatient) to find out.

Anywho, in regards to art, I rather like it. a lot. Both my mom and my aunt (her sister) are very artistically talented, and I remember wanting to reach their level of talent since I was very young. Between then and now I've had a lot of growing and growing pains as an artist, but it's all been worth it. I have had to learn hard lessons such as sometimes I just need to do something in regards to art, rather than waste a huge chunk of time trying to figure out the perfect thing to do. When I first came to CNU and took 2D and 3D design, I had this pompous "I'm an artist and already know all there is to know" mindset, which was quickly set aright. I know that there is still plenty more to learn and grow in as an artist, and I have a hunch that a lot of that will take place this year. Bring it on.

The Problem We All Live With

In regards to my ideas for senior sem, I have a few which you will see very soon, but for now I would like to look at one of my all time favorite artists, whose work I have loved since I was young: Norman Rockwell. I love stories. If someone has a good story to tell, then I am all ears. Norman Rockwell was able to express a story in a one-frame piece of work. It wasn't a comic strip or a movie, but by using the facial expressions and body language and context of his paintings, he was able to tell fantastic stories. Some were serious, some were comical. No one could accuse his art of having the purpose of simply being an exercise, rather his art communicated his ideas and told stories that united the viewers together.

The Girl With Black Eye

He said "Without thinking too much about it in specific terms, I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed" (nrm.org). That is exactly what he did; that was the story he told. He used the American culture and even the facial expressions and current events that we were familiar with, to express a story that was perfectly understood, without the need for words.

I appreciate that ability to communicate without words, and will certainly strive for it in my art, with Rockwell's work as an inspiration and example.


http://www.nrm.org

-Maria