What Makes Something Art?

Truthfully, at first, it seems like her paintings were just a little kid, playing around with paint. But when I think about it, it is art, because its her own thing. I think art is just something that you do on your own, it's your own thing, and it's how you express yourself. If you put your heart into it, and have fun with it, I think thats art. 

I think this whole thing about Marla was ridiculous. This whole controversy about if her paintings were her own or her dads. One of the quotes that her dad said stuck in my head. He said something like 'everyone makes the story how they want it to be, and not what it is.' I think that is so true. Once people have suspicions, like 60 Minutes, and they air it on tv, and media, then people would easily be fooled, and they make it what they think, and not what the truth is. Everyone was being so ridiculous, and they were trying sue them for it.

Marla doesn't like painting on camera, and I wouldn't either. I think it would just be nerve racking. You would always worry about painting it perfect, and not relaxed, and doing your own thing. 

I'm glad that the questions about Marla were cleared up, and I think that people shouldn't be so harsh.

Artists

1. Vincent Van Gogh- 

The Starry Night.

 I love his style of painting. Its dark, and mysterious looking, yet it has a different touch to it.

2. Pablo Picasso-

The Three Musicians.

In this painting, he used the style of cubism. I liked how he didn't use that many colors, and yet made an amazing picture of three people playing instruments. Its a different and unique style.

3. Claude Monet-

The Lily Pond.

When I was in elementary school, my art teacher gave us an assignment to try to draw this painting that Claude Monet painted. I love all the different shades of green that he used. He painted this a lot, and did different styles, colors, etc, for the seasons.

4. Leonardo Da Vinci-

Mona Lisa

Leonardo was known for a lot of things.

One thing he was known for was his painting of Mona Lisa. I like how a lot of his paintings with people, the people look realistic. I think its one of the hardest things to do, and I respect it.

5.George Seurat-

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

I think George Seurat is so amazing. He painted everything in dots. Its so amazing, and it would just take so much time to do every dot, and paint things like this.

Videos

In the first video, they used a lot of words that I didn't really understand, or comprehend.

It kind of went in one ear, and out the other. I just couldn't understand it.

All I know is that in the video, they were talking about the left and right side of the brain, where the left was used for like science, and math, etc,. and the one for the left was for arts.

In the second video, I thought this was more of a simpler concept where almost anyone could understand. They had a programmer side of view, and the artists side of view of what they would do at the cross walk. I thought this was not really as informational as the first one, but this video just gave us the basic idea.

In the last video, it was talking about how people needed both sides, the left and the right brain. 

I don't think we need just one side of the brain. People need to be artistic, creative, and people need to do well in math and science. If you want to do well in life, and be one of those people with power, you will need both sides of the brain to help you.

What did I learn?

Portrait:
The portrait was one of the ones I didn't like, because I don't like to draw people, since I'm not good at it. Looking at the mirror, examining all my features, seemed a little weird to me. Trying to make it look REAL was hard for me, and trying to make it look like me, but in the end, it didn't look like me.
The only thing that I thought I did good was the hair. The hair looked like MY hair, and not someone else's hair. Not everyone has the same ears, and not everyone has the same noses etc., I know that, but its hard to not draw everything the same, because we have learned in our heads to draw like that. I learned that even though not everyones the same, we all have our own ways of expressing ourselves.

For Memory:
I thought this one was the hardest, because I couldn't really remember anything about my brother. I remember what he looks like, but I couldn't remember all the details of his face, and his face shape and things like that. That was one of the most difficult things for me, plus the fact that I had to draw a person. I liked the face shape of my brother's face. I think it was an exercise to get my brain moving, and help me remember things better.

Hand:
This exercise was my favorite one because it looked like my hand. One of the difficult parts of this was that I was trying to make the exact hand size of mine, and that took a while. Making it look realistic was pretty difficult too, but I think I did a good job of making it look like my hand. The drawing had all the little wrinkly parts a hand would have and things like that. I was satisfied with how it looked like mine.. I learned to do things by just looking, and trying to estimate the sizes, and not just trace my hand around, but do my best in what I can do.

Igor upside down:
I thought Igor was easier than the portrait and for memory because I was looking at a picture, and then trying to copy the exact picture. One of the difficult things about this was trying to make the picture proportionate. For mine, the head was a little too big for his body, and so I had to change things. If one thing is off, you have to adjust the other parts to that part. That was one of the difficult parts of it.
I learned to just go with the flow, and let things just go, and let my hand move the way it wants to. It wasn't exact, but I did it and finished and I was pretty satisfied with the way it turned out. ! :D