It All Begins with an Idea...

Here are my proposals for my art capstone:

Proposal #1

Capstone Project Description: While I was in London, I learned if you slightly burn receipt paper, it turns black and begins to sparkle. I want to use this tainted media to make a sort of collage and create a unique image from something people usually ball up and stuff in the bottom of their bags. I would like to use a fire motif to keep the fact that I used fire to create it in mind, and possibly make portraits to illustrate how what we buy is a part of who we are. I personally like to shop, but also feel we shouldn’t be defined by what we buy, instead by our personality or the things we do.

I wish to attempt a similar effect...

Form: I want to make this into a series of portraits or images. I would like for people to see the image from far away, and then as they come closer, they see the detail of the paper as well as how it sparkles.

Materials: I already have five rolls of receipt paper to use. I want to also experiment with different backgrounds to see what brings out the paper the best. I wish to try canvas and Bristol paper, as well as using different colors with perhaps oil or acrylic paint, pastels, or ink.

Fire motif

Exhibition: I can imagine my project hung on a wall in three or four pieces. I would like them to be large so that I can work more with the texture of the paper. I would also like most of the background to show and use the receipt paper as a minimum and concentrate on negative space.

Proposal #2

Capstone Project Description: Since I’m a double major in Studio Art and English, I would want to write my own children’s book and illustrate it. I want to write a story relevant to children of the 21^st century, as well as using my skills to bring out my own inner child. I also like the idea of mixing both of my majors together for one large final project.

Alice in Wonderland inspires me.

Form: I would like it to be a book, but to also create some pieces for advertisement or to add to the book. Depending on my main character, I can also make a stuffed animal out of crochet or sewing.

I'm a fan of Winnie the Pooh as well.

Materials: This project, I would need to learn more about book-making. I would need sturdy paper as well as cardboard, and materials to make a cover. I would also like to make some sort of poster or advertisement to promote the book, so I would need large paper and ink.

Exhibition: I would want the book on a pedestal and allow people to flip through the pages. Behind it, I could see a large poster advertising it as well as a stuffed animal beside it. The colors would draw people forward and the story to keep them there until the end.

Proposal #3

Capstone Project Description: I began a project in London involving extra scraps of canvas to make something new and beautiful. While I was abroad, I mostly concentrated on the different textures I could create with simply the plain fabric and sewing it together, but I can also use color as well as experiment with shape and form. I tried this project because usually canvas is only used as a background. Painters stretch and prime the canvas, altering its form to fit their need for simply a blank nothingness. I wanted to show that even the simplest material in art can be used to create something beautiful and unique.

My work from London

Form: This project will be a sculpture. Either one that will hang from the ceiling similar to the one I made for London, or I would like to experiment with the free-standing piece.

Materials: I would need a lot of canvas and sewing needles. As I scrunch and fray the canvas, I use the string to sew the pieces together.

Exhibition: I could hang it from the ceiling again, but I would want it long enough to curl and twist along the floor. If it becomes a free-standing structure, I would aim to have it where no one will step on the canvas.

Proposal #4

Capstone Project Description: Another project idea that I tried in London before simply sewing the canvas together was taking a stretched canvas and adding texture by sewing more canvas onto it. It revolves around a similar idea in Proposal #3 with trying to enhance the use of canvas, but also along the lines of changing the texture and giving more of an illusion to the piece. I would like to do abstract images of landscapes with this project, concentrating on the simplicity of nature and the beauty it contains.

My rendition of English countryside... with texture.

Form: This would be a series of paintings illustrating either London or Marietta. I would like it to transgress from one to the next, and I base my painting style slightly on the Impressionists, so I would also be concentrating on light and color mostly with the added bonus of texture.

Materials: I would need enough canvas to stretch as well as to add to the flattened surface. I would prefer to use oil paints because I like them more, but will also experiment with acrylic. I would also need stretchers to stretch the canvas, as well as a nail gun, nails, and wood glue.

I would like to do one on Stonehenge.

Exhibition: This would hang on the wall next to each other. I would actually like to make these small so people have to step up to them to see them. I want their noses to almost touch the parts of canvas that stick out.

Proposal #5

Capstone Proposal Description: This idea I’ve had since sophomore year when I did over 6 self-portraits. Since Mary is a common name, I would like to take my face and dress myself as famous women of the past such as the Virgin Mary, Mary Queen of Scots, Mary Read the pirate, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly who wrote Frankenstein. By putting my face in their lives I would be illustrating how a name can not only add character to the person given the name, but also whoever else bears the name has a connection to them. What’s in a name, but the lives of others?

Everyone knows the Virgin Mary...

Form: These would be a series of paintings based off of their time periods, so mostly oil paintings on canvas. If I could give them some sort of modern feel, I am up for suggestions.

I'm quite a fan of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Materials: I would need the usual for oil painting on canvas: stretchers, wood glue, nails, nail gun, gesso, oil paints, etc.

Who wouldn't want to be Mary Poppins?

Exhibition: I would hang these up and make them large, once again trying to mimic those images of the famous women. I would name each piece after each Mary, because obviously with my face in the way, it may be hard to tell who I am.

Finally preparing the first steps of my capstone can be extremely intimidating, but I actually find myself excited over anything else. It may feel like my career as a student soon will end, but my life outside of what I know begins after only this year. My ideas almost burst from my mind, and although some interest me more than others, each proposal represents a part of who I am and what art means to me. I am a little quirky and a little strange, but with art, I find peace within a world of chaos.