This project is based on artist Susan Shie, who's art incorporates
bold images and colors, journal writing, and stitch
Students were challenged to create a painting on fabric that expressed who they are
for the HumanThread I AM juried student exhibition
This is my example. I tried to show how I use arts education
to lead the way to make the world a better place.
My art is centered around social issues and created using my sewing machine
In the apple I stitched, "learn" because
I am a life-long learner and teacher
The stitching is used as another layer of artistry
Students made a watercolor draft using sharpies for bold outlines
Then recreated their images onto muslin using a Rub-a-Dub
fabric sharpie (it does not bleed)
Once the painting was finished students layered the piece
on top of felt and stitched it together
At the end of the project we had a class critique.
Overall the students liked the project, enjoyed sewing,
and recommended I do it again next year.
The following pieces were accepted into the HumanThread I AM exhibition
Job with his watercolor draft
Final piece
Artist's Statement: Content
Every
artist knows great art comes from the heart. Art can be described as, the
creation of illusions. It benefits anyone who accepts it’s message and
understands it’s meaning. I Believe that art is a way to express yourself, so
whenever am working on a piece, I focus mainly on my goals and ethnicity. I am
from a place not known for many positive contributions to society, so art to me
is a way of representing my country.
Veronica: Stepping On My Enemies
My piece
is about bullying. I have been bullied all of my life and that’s a huge part of
what I stand up against. I incorporated something that really represents me,
which is my high-heeled shoe. The little
raindrops represent my tears and once they reach the ground they turn into a
little puddle. In that puddle there is one tiny drop falling into it and you
can see that there are many ripples that represent how strong my feelings were
and the emotional pain I’ve experienced. I showed myself stomping all these
negative words that many people would say and turning them into positive words.
My piece is about not caring what others think of you, because the most
important thing is others may knock you down, but you will always have the
strength to get back up.
Sarai: We Can Do It
For my piece I decided to explain how I support
women’s rights. I support women’s rights because I believe women deserve to be
as independent as men. Growing up watching my mom being a mom and dad for me,
working full-time, coming home to take care of the house, and me made me realize
women can be even stronger and smarter than men. My mom was my role model
because she accomplished so much by herself. She raised me all by herself and
she did a good job.
Zed: Fire Ball
In
my piece I am wearing a basketball jersey and holding a ball in my hand. I
chose to use basketball because the sport best expresses who I am. Basketball
to me is not only a method to discipline myself, but also it is a way for me to
have fun. I drew the ball on fire because it symbolizes my passion for the
sport. I was both shocked and thrilled when I went to Yemen about a year ago,
and found that basketball had made its way there. I look forward to it changing
the lives of people in my country. On my jersey is the number 19. That number
has followed me everywhere on the competitive court. I try to be as realistic
as possible in my drawings, so when I was given the opportunity to draw me, it
gave me the chance to show off who I am.
Jennifer: Unseen
In my piece I am
holding a heart in one hand, and a book in the other. The heart represents the
people I care about dearly, such as my family and friends. I wouldn’t be able
to live without them. They play a major role in my life and how I control my
life. The book is important to me because reading a book helps my mind relax
and not think about anything that is happening in my life. Reading a book makes
my mind focus on the story and helps me forget everything else. The musical
notes represent the love for music. I’ve always loved music and I enjoyed the
years I spent playing an instrument. I love hearing the different parts of an
instrument play in a song and how they sound all together. The colors represent
how calming I can be and that I don’t need to be the same or different from
everyone to be unique.
Jerelly:
Won Honorable Mention
Have you ever felt like your voice wasn’t being heard? Well,
I purposefully don’t speak up. I keep to myself and tend to stay quiet when I
wish to speak the most. I’m not as open as many people. This shyness and reserved
personality of mine have caused me to feel depressed. My piece represents
withholding thoughts and emotions. It is
almost as if your thoughts are really loud but your voice isn’t being heard. It
shows how you can only hold in so much before it all comes bursting out. The
woman in the bottom left is shown to represent whoever isn’t speaking up and
the worm like figures represent all the words, thoughts, and emotions left
unshared.
Saniya: Known, Yet Unknown
My piece is about a
girl, who represents me, that has gone through so many difficult phases in life.
The ridged tree symbolizes the difficult times and events in my life that made
me who I am today. How I made my way through the top of the tree, which is
bright green and yellow. The leaves represent freedom and superiority that I
carry over my personal problems and hardships. The background, red and black
heartbeat, represents my anger and my problems in the past, which made my heart
strong and less emotional or sentimental. The flower represents my positive
attitude, which keeps on going, and gives me strength to keep walking everyday
holding my head up high and represents my pride.
Zak: Corruption in The Air
I
expressed my pure passion for art when I had done this piece. What I mean
is that I took time and thought out my project by making multiple drafts, and
trying to put every detail expressed into one complete piece of work.
I expressed who I am metaphorically, and by that I mean that I thought of
my moralities and beliefs and in a way fused it into one. A couple of beliefs I
had on my work were of the Illuminati which I believe covers and
corrupts government conspiracies, global warming which I believe is
part of natures cycle not a mistake by man , and most and foremost the
things broadcast on the media and how they control how everyone should
feel about things and how you react " figures". In conclusion I believe
my painting represents me as a person, and student in more ways
then one.
Gustavo: Unmasked
I’ve suffered a lot over my
17 years of existence. Blood, scars, and tears are only some of the results of
the hardest time of my life. Being the only child, I was left alone to suffer
and figure out how to survive in this ferocious world. However, I am thankful
for those that punished me for no reason at all and ruined my childhood,
because thanks to them, I now have the strength to fight not only for myself,
but for those that I love and anyone else that is going through what I went
through. The pain still exists, the scars still mark my body, and the taste of
blood remains in my mouth, but they just give me the strength to keep moving
forward. These are my motivations and what I demonstrate to show myself and who
I am.
Stanislaw: Peace Around
My
piece is about creating peace between others and keeping the world clean and
sparkly. It isn’t just a painting that was made to look at, it was made to
inspire others to try and be helpful and nice to others. The person in the
middle is trying to inspire his followers which are the people sitting on the
ground facing at him raising their fists in the air holding peace signs, and
the people climbing up the hill are people cleaning the environment.
Mariah: I Am Just Me
My
piece resembles me in many ways. I chose four things that represent me: Unity,
Future, Family, and Love. Unity, because I believe that everyone should come
together and be one. My future means the most, because I want to become
something big in life, and I want to live a life worth every minute. Lastly, I
chose family and love, which tie together. Family and love has the biggest
impact on my life because without my family, I wouldn’t have support, and
without love my life, it would be pointless.
Amaney: Heal The World
My piece says quite a lot about me; I
am a humanitarian at heart. One of my biggest goals in life is to travel to the
Middle East and provide aid to the less fortunate in not only my homeland of
Yemen, but neighboring countries such as Syria and Palestine also. The red
pathway symbolizes all the bloodshed and war still happening today that I
believe must come to an end so peace and prosperity can come.
Sydney: Achieve & Blossom
I
felt I could show who I am by literally showing myself, in a self-portrait. I
drew an outline of myself, however I didn’t add facial features, because I
wanted to use more symbols to express myself. I painted a big heart in the
middle of my piece because I have a big heart to achieve many things. I painted
two flowers to represent me because I think that most people my age are like
flowers, and we are always growing. In the corner of my piece I drew a few
bubbles, and wrote words to live by inside, because I think there are many
options above me and all I have to do is grab them, just like bubbles. Lastly,
I drew a butterfly, flying to the side of my face. Butterflies are simple
beauties you can appreciate if you stop and look at them. And I like to stop
and look at the butterflies.
Hunaina: I Am Who I Am!
My
piece is about what I feel I stand for and the type of person I am. In the
center of my piece I use a giant heart to represent how much love is a big part
of me. I feel that I am a very loving and caring person and everyone should be
that. Which is also why I use hands of
different sizes and colors inside the heart overlapping with swirls spreading
everywhere, because everyone of all races, ages, and shapes should be caring and
kind to each other. Then I drew a paintbrush with vibrant colored paint because
I ‘am an artist, art helps me express myself, it’s something I am passionate
about. I made the background of the piece look starry and galaxy colored
because sometimes I wish to get away from negative people and be alone. I wish
to be in a place where I could shine bright as stars. That is why I drew these
objects in my “I Am” piece.
Leilani: The Warrior, The Scholar,
The Artist…. Just me
I visually represented myself within my piece by creating a
character that looks similar to me. The piece expresses my personality and what
I personally value in my life. I visually represented my values using typical
and simple symbolisms within my piece. The elements I used in the piece are
there because I feel that symbolism is the only way to express how I am and the
way that my art works. That’s how my style is, and that’s why I chose what I
did for the piece, and that’s how I express myself.
Max: Fire Wall
My piece reflects my
two biggest joys in life: cooking and coding. The two actions are reflected in
the computer screens and fire that surround me in the piece. The computer
screens, with a random line of code journaled on them, stand behind me, as a
message that my future and passion to come is with coding, but for now my true
passion is to cook. This is conveyed through the fire surrounding me in the
foreground. The fire itself is covered in recipe fragments, to convey its
affiliation with cooking.
Selena: I am Infinite
I
am infinite. I am a book with no cover, waiting for someone to unravel me and
see that there is more to me than physical appearance. I am a piece of perfect
imperfections. I am strong and capable. I am a journey of emotions and
experiences. I am Selena and I am infinite.
Maria: I Care. Do you?
My
piece is about poverty in the world and the lack of help. The girl represents
me because I care about those people who are only living on $1.25 a day. Those
people are born into poverty, raised in poverty, and die in poverty. That is
why the girl's face says, "I care. Do you?” The man on the left represents
the wealth of this world, or the people who have enough money to feed
themselves and many others. The man on the right represents the working class,
or the people who struggle to live day-by-day. The black space represents the
selfishness that there is in the world. We worry about only us. We are
self-centered because we don't choose to help other people. The green
space represents the few people who care about poverty and do help
overcome it, but the space is very little compared to the black space, because
there are few people who help.
Jessica: Chained
I
believe that people should not allow money to control them. People are
prisoners of money and need to break away from it. In my picture, I drew myself
on the beach with a box of money. It can be seen in the picture that I am
breaking away from money. By breaking away from money, I am no longer a
prisoner and am free to live my life happily. I believe in peace, love, and
harmony, symbolized in the sky.
Isabella: Onward and Forward
I AM on the path to a better life. I am stepping out of the
bad and into the good. My eyes are open, and I am seeking answers to find
positivity and change.
Some more of the pieces that were not included in the I AM exhibition
