Kevin

= = Concentration Statement

My concentration theme is myself. All 12 concentration pieces contain a self-portrait, but they are drawn in different styles using different media. Since at young age, I have loved to draw people around me – my family, friends, celebrities, etc. But this time, with this given opportunity to reflect on myself, I decided to draw myself for my AP Art portfolio. Slide #1, 2, and 3 show how I think about my environment. These pieces convey my interaction with the environment. Then from Slide #4 to 12, the works focus wholly on me; there barely are backgrounds. This transition shows that I do not care about how the world thinks about and I will love on my own. Slide #4 portrays how I have two characters; the external one and the internal one. How I act outside actually contradicts how I think. Slide #5 depicts my body in nude. Nudity symbolizes the fear of being exposed, and I used this symbolism to demonstrate how I sometimes worry about going out to the community. Slide #6 and 7 are done in pencil to show variety of media I used. These drawings, compared to others, emanate calmness and serenity. From Slide #8 to 11, I imitated Egon Schiele style. His body gestures in his paintings and his skillful use of oil paint deeply inspired me to follow his fashion. Finally, Slide #12 is a huge self-portrait with a powerful background. The background, using Jackson’ Pollock’s style, demonstrate an explosive feeling – somehow reflecting on my mind. = = =Van Gogh Exhibition=

DESCRIBE THE WORK IN THE SHOW. TRY TO CATEGORIZE THE STYLISTIC GENRE OF THE WORK (EXPRESSIVE, POP, ETC). GIVE A LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE ARTIST IF AVAILABLE. MAKE AN EFFORT TO PUT THE WORK IN ART HISTORICAL CONTEXT BY MAKING COMPARISONS TO OTHER NOTEWORTHY ARTISTS EITHER CONTEMPORARIES OR HISTORICAL. Van Gogh is an expressionist artist He’s a Dutch painter. He was born on March 30, 1853 in Groot –Zundert. Since at young age, he had showed moody, restless temperament which later became an important characteristic as an artist. He had not been only an artist, but he was also a French tutor, a theological student, and an evangelist. When he was a preacher, the images of low-class people such as peasants and farmers came strong to him. That is why many of his paintings depict peasants working on field. Probably another reason he drew such images is that he also had lived in a harsh environment. His talent as an expressionist artist was incredible. To become such prominent artist, he was influenced by many contemporary artists. He was first influenced by the Impressionists. Well, Impressionism came first before Expressionism; Impressionism basically begot Expressionism. But it was a bit for him to learn Impressionist style because his original painting differs in style. Some important artists who strongly influenced him were Japanese printmakers such as Hiroshige and Hokusai, and Van Gogh practiced and experimented with their techniques. Subsequently, he also soon adopted the brilliant hues found in the works of Camille Pissaro and Georges Seurat, who are also Impressionists. Furthermore, he went to Paris and studied at Cormon’s studio where he met other passionate artists like John Peter Russel, Emile Bernard, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Van Gogh was a bit special artist, for he tried to keep his drawing environment perfect to motivate him. For an example, he improved all the lighting systems of his studio by installing variable shutters. Thus he was renowned for using better colors in his paintings than other contemporary artists.

JUDGE THE SHOW AS IF YOU WERE AN ART CRITIC. EVALUATE ITS MERITS AND SHORTCOMINGS. MAKE PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO STRONG OR WEAK POINTS TO THE SHOW. 300-400 WORDS Van Gogh is a great artist, and I, an amateur artist, should not make any negative critics toward him. However, if I were to state them, I would say that the themes of paintings are all same and do not vary throughout his whole life. The main theme he focused was peasant’s life. There’s no doubt that his painting skills have flaws; however, I found his paintings a bit boring despite his brilliant brushstrokes. The mood or feeling that his paintings give out is very consistent. So even though I see tens of different paintings, they all seem the same. I’m a type of person who likes pop-art or other interesting styles. But these are basically the problems of my personal style, not his problems. One strong point of the show was that I really liked the interior design of the gallery. The atmosphere of the gallery, which is really calm, matches with the soft and serene feelings the paintings give out. Also there were many knowledgeable curators who knew a lot and explained us about the life of Van Gogh. So even though I did not research a lot about Van Gogh before going to the gallery, I did not have problems on understanding the explicit meanings of the paintings. Another strong point is that we were able to look at his paintings really closely – just directly in front of us. It was an honor to look at his renowned and famous brushstrokes of oil paints. He made great textures with the oil paints, and with such brushstrokes he could draw anything expressively. It was amazing how he made several layers of textures on top of each other. Also the lighting effects were effective that we could enjoy watching the paintings more – Van Gogh studied lightings separately besides studying only art.

=**Concentration#8 "Pose"**=

= = =Concentration #7 "Mimic"=



=Concentration #6 "Eclipse"=



=Concentration #5 "Small Sketch"=



=**Concentration #4 "Another Replica" - is it really me in the mirror, or another different me created by the society?**=

I'm looking at myself in the mirror, redeeming myself, and thinking if reflection in the mirror is really me. This sounds a bit cheesy and psychological. But the person in the picture, or me, is wondering: if the reflection is really him, or another him. Since my concentration theme is the connection between me and the society, I tried to portray a character (me) who sees himself in the mirror, looking the same but somehow different. And then he realizes that it is him but another creation of the society. The main character created another personality, being influenced by the society. I hoped to convey the message that a society can change people, and humans are weak and have no choice but to change in order to survive in such society. Although this latent meaning is really profound, I don't think the painting itself isn't that profound.



=**Concentration #3 "Step by Step" - finally out in the community, another long way to go.**=

Well, I turned 20 (in Korean age) this year. I'm a real adult now; I can drink alcohols, smoke (which is the bane of my asthma and will never utilize)and etc. legally in Korea. And I'll be graduating high school this year and enter a college. This year is the time I will turn into an adult; a meaningful year of my life. I'll be going out into the community, the outside world. Another long way lies in my future. And in the painting, i'm redeeming my self, what events are waiting for me in the future. In the painting, i'm looking at myself in the water reflection, in some kind of dimensional world.



=Concentration #2 "Another Victim" - another victim generated by the society=

I look a bit scary in the painting. I used Pollock's style for my background, like fireworks, and I drew myself in nude. I used oil pastels, one of my favorite media. I tried to look as expressionistic as possible, like Egon Schiele. In the painting, I look like some kind of a patient, who is psychologically unstable. The confusing backgorund enhances such feeling, too. The title is "Another Victim". I tried to make the character in the painting a victim generated by the society. He can't establish himself in the society and fails to do it. He's completely lost. The background describes the mind of the character.

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= = =Concentration #1 "Private Shelter" - secluded from the society=

Let's face it, another nudity of myself (good thing it is expressionistic). This is one of my favorite paintings yet, and I really like this. This is my first time using impasto pastel and painting on it. I was quite afraid in the first place, but I think this turned out well. Because of the rough textures, the colors came out stylistically. And i had to use alot of water mixed in the acrylic to make the medium really soft, or else i would break the textures and particles would fall off during brush strokes. And I'm glad that i made such choice; the water effect came out really pretty in the painting. THe theme is a usual one; an isolation from the society. I chode to draw in nude because, the chatacter feels exposed to the society, not only physically but also mentally. And he wants to hide.

=

= = = = =Concentration Statement=

Since when I was young, I have loved to draw portraits - portraits of my family members, celebrities, and mostly myself. To redeem myself and make further discoveries about who I am, I decided to focus my concentration on myself. Every piece will contain a self-portrait, but will be drawn in a variety of styles and will contain innovating ideas. A few pieces will be about how I think about the world and how I interact with it. Many pieces will contain my nudity, to express my fear or nervousness of interacting with the society. I believe such nudity can deliver strong and profound messages. My inspiration for nudity came from the works of Egon Schiele. I was very motivated and touched by his strong and expressionistic nude paintings. Not only his nudity, but his facial expressions and his peculiar gestures inspired me to imitate his style of painting. My concentration pieces are diverse: some are focused on idea and design, drawing skills, or expression. Although my concentration is inconsistent in style, I believe this diversity can effectively help me achieve my goal - describing who I am.

i think thats a smart choice, strategically speaking, since accurately copying an object/image in front of you on paper is probably your biggest strength. i would like to add that since you are really good at bringing out the ittybitty details of the objects, you should pick objects with interesting texture/ shape. -ek

=The Devil Wears Prada=

This movie is one of my favorites. Despite my male gender, I love fashion and am very interested in it that I even once considered studying fashion design early on. But I heard the fashion world is unimaginably competitive, even if one graduated from top fashions schools like Central Saint Martins or Parsons. And truely, I admire almost the every word Miranda said. She could not stand at what Andy said about how the two colors looked the same; Miranda considered it as an insult to the fashion/art world and its passionate contributors like. I was quite surprised when how one color could bring a big revolution in the art world. (just like how cerulean did) But we cannot blame wholly on Andy for creating such seemlingly-shallow comment. Some people aren't as much interested in art as other people do. Some people consider fashion (or art) important yet some other people do not. I think it's all about difference in ideas/thoughts. Just like the man in the soundtrack said, there are people who don't care or don't know. But I agree with him that these people who aren't much interested in art should at least be aware that art plays a big important role in every aspect of society. One thing he mentioned - medias. Today, we are all surrounded by medians. (commercials, advertisements posters, etc) Yet people do not know how many artistic processes the commercial creators go through to make advertisements. We can see such processes in movie called "What Women Want." Mel Gibson comes out as a commercial designer, and you will be surprised how much artistic work is involved in creating just one commercial. I think this is pretty what the man in the soundtrack tried to emphasize.

it is wrong of you to think (or suggest) that just because Andre Kim has feminine qualities about him people would question your gender or sexual orientation for the fact that you are interested in fashion design. as a matter of fact, many of the famous fashion designers are men -- i, personally, have never seen a female fashion designer in my life although i bet there are plenty of them out there.

I just meant that for a guy to have such characteristic is uncommon at school...not in the fashion world. I know that there are many,world-famous male fashion designers like John Galliano, Tom Ford, or Andre Kim like you mentioned. I think they are really amazing. But reading what you wrote, I also think there are more male fashion designers! Even by walking around inside malls and looking at the names of brand stores, I think you're quite right. -kevin