Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Me

Hello artists and such.  My name is Katelin, a drawing student here at UW-Stout, excited to grow and connect with others through drawing 3 this semester. A favorite subject of mine is the figure, especially faces and the stories they tell through expression, birthmarks, and features. My journey of art is lifelong, just like any artist would probably claim. A certain youthful form of a critique stands out to me in a memory: a friend and I (about seven years old, give or take) both agreed on the fact that we "used to" draw people as arms and legs coming out of a head, and proceeded to laugh at ourselves and discuss how uneducated we must have been back then.
Now my perspective is a bit different, as I hope to almost "unlearn" and unleash the child inside - that unbiased, non-judging, uncensored child.
Elementary school was important for my art development, as I attended a private, single-hallway establishment a mile from home. Where, to my complete and utter joy, my mother came in once a month to teach "Art Appreciation" with another involved parent.  I had no idea what appreciation really meant or how to say it for the majority of those years. But hell, if the word art was before it, I was more than okay with that. & Mom always appreciated my art =)

We'll skip middle school.

And high school.

This takes me to Stout. In the past year and a half-ish, I have developed in ways I couldn't really have imagined. Thanks Rob Price and Bryan Ritchie. I tortured myself through accuracy. I've received praise. I've been rejected. I've tortured myself through deconstructing all accuracy. I've just sat and thought mostly. I've gone on a "journey". Most importantly, I've kept on and will continue to keep on.
So here goes...

1 comment:

  1. Hey Katelin. The figure is also one of my favorite subjects. I consider the face, body, and hands the most difficult, and thus satisfying subjects to draw. I love to reproduce unusual and captivating facial and body expressions. I'm sick of every photo where every person has that cheesy "Say Cheese" smile on there face. Of coarse, the beauty of a true smile is endless if you can capture it. I prefer goofy or weird expressions so that with my artwork I recreate those feelings in every viewer in some small way. I think part of the reason we both enjoy drawing faces is that there is a whole section of the brain devoted to facial recognition. This part allows babies to recognize there parents. It allows us to picture people in our mind and remember a face we haven't seen is a long time. It's the reason we see faces in ink blot test, clouds, and that bumpy ceiling stuff.

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