For my project I have done The Painted Book.This was a class I took the fall semester of my senior year and I fell in love with the idea of the class. There was so much artistic freedom, to do whatever I felt fit best in my book. With a different little prompt or idea every week, we created the art that spoke to us. I went with Simplicity in Chaos for my original book in the class. There were five pages, and every page was a different thing. For example, I had a coffee cup on one page, then on the next page I had books. These are things that I find to be very simple in life. When I have a cup of coffee early in the morning, getting ready to step out into the chaos the world will bring me that day. Reading a book blocks out the chaos that is going on around me at that moment. Little things that help me escape the craziness from everyday life. That is what I wanted to recreate with my book Simplicity in Chaos: My Path. I wanted to display the past four years of my life in this book. With the simplicities and the chaos that college has brought me. Every page of the book is a different semester, starting with my high school graduation, to my college graduation. There are simplicities on every page, along with the chaos. There are highlights of each semester, what I can remember happening, there is darkness, there is light, there is sadness, but there is hope. This book brings depression at its worst, and it brings happiness at its best.
I originally had a hard time determining what I actually wanted to do with this project. I did know I wanted to use the book, but I didn’t know how. Or what for that matter, I did not have a theme, or a plan I just knew I loved the class, and I love the book. So I finally came up with creating a book that reflected my four years at UNE. So, from there, I made little decisions here and there. Like, if I wanted to work in a hardcover book that I already own, or if I wanted to make my own book. I also then decided I want to do a page for each semester I have been here. Totaling eight pages, for eight semesters. I searched and searched for a book to work out of, but none of them were the right size, or short enough. So I made my own hardcover book. We did this in class as well. So I decided to make the book long horizontally, to try and fit more into the pages. If I were to go back and start over to change some things, that would be the first thing I would change. Making the pages shorter. There was too much space to work with at times, in some places it was hard to fill.
My skills from class to this project definitely changed. I think I learned a lot in class, and then we had to use what we learned in the pages we were working on. But for the project, I could use whatever skills that I wanted. Or teach myself new skills and techniques. I did not venture too much with the techniques I used in the book, just because I knew what I could do and wanted to stick with that for the most part. I think my painting skills are a little better, just because I knew how much time and attention was needed to paint little things here and there, with detail. One technique or theme that I stuck with was texture. I really like the look and idea of having a texture to the page, so it’s not just flat with paint. So there are 3-D things on the page that catch your attention, or that feel a certain way to match what I am trying to display. Over all, the more time I spent on the book, the more I learned not only about the skills and physical creation of the book, but also the more I learned about myself.
