Laura Morgan

05/02/2017

Arts Portfolio

My Development as an Artist

During my time at Wheelock I have come to develop my own artistic style.

Although I am nowhere near done in my artistic development, the classes I have

taken and the new techniques and styles that I have learned have helped me to

begin carving out my own artistic style. When I first came to Wheelock I had

developed many of my artistic abilities, but felt at a loss when it came to identifying

my own style. While I was able to create something pretty it was usually one-

dimensional and lacked a depth of feeling or gravity. Through my art major I have

been able to take classes with professors who have pushed me outside of my

comfort zone in search for something greater than what I was currently creating.

Although the journey has been hard I know feel as though I have a direction as an

artist.

When I arrived at Wheelock I had little to no experience outside of drawing

mediums. I was able to take classes in pottery, photography, design, art history,

and Aesthetics. Each of these courses helped to expand my artistic viewpoint to

include new ideas and new mediums. While I may always see drawing as my go to

artistic expression, the lessons that I have learned from each of these classes will

help to make any artwork that I create into a more accomplished and well-rounded

1
piece. Pottery taught me how to better understand balance and symmetry in three

dimensions. Photography helped me to understand how light and shadow affect

the balance and weight of an image. Design has helped me to learn how to

activate an entire space while maintaining a balance within the negative space. Art

History has shown me where artistic practices are routed and the cultural

significance behind each. Finally, Aesthetics allowed me to gain a deeper

understanding of why we, the human race, feel the need to create art and,

similarly why I feel drawn to create. Each of these courses has helped to push my

artistic abilities making me a better artist. The Drawing courses I have taken at

Wheelock have worked to move me away from what I feel comfortable and safe

creating, instead working to risk failure in the search for something better than

comfortable. While moving away from what is comfortable has been the most

difficult thing I have been working on during my time here, it is also the thing that I

believe has moved me the furthest towards my own artistic style.

When creating my artwork I had always been highly concerned with other

people finding it beautiful. Because of this I was always too afraid to take chances

within my artwork and run the risk of ruining it. This set up a mentality of

preciousness within my pieces that made me stop when they were beautiful, but

maybe not significant. Allowing the opinions of others dictate my creative process

meant I was never able to make the mistakes that would have helped me to define

my own style. During my drawing classes at Wheelock my teachers have

recognized this tendency to avoid risk and have endeavored to push me outside of

2
my comfort zone. Through much trial and error I finally found that if I removed the

preciousness of the blank page by either ripping it apart, splattering it with ink, or

drawing on a grey-scale I was relieved of the burden of being confined to the

beautiful. This knowledge has allowed me to create some of my favorite pieces,

all made possible because I had let go of the need for perfection. I still struggle

with finding my voice at times, but I am now able to find my voice in the artwork

that I create.

When I came to college my art world was mainly focused inward. I was not

aware of a lot of the history of artistic creation beyond that of the famous master

artists, and even then I was unaware of the worlds that those artists lived in that

inspired them to create their famed artwork. In my art history class, Art and

Architecture I learned about where the very first artwork came from. We moved

throughout the beginnings of most major civilizations and studied how those

individuals were inspired to create art. Knowing more about how ancient

civilizations were influence by and in tern influenced their art has helped me to

gain a deeper understanding of where art today has come from and how my own

art has been influenced by the society that I live in. In Aesthetics I was able to tap

into the minds of great philosophers from across the globe and time to search for

the reason that human beings are drawn to create art. Although I did not agree

with every philosopher, it helped me to expand my own thinking, and find

philosophies that resonated with me like Gadamers philosophies on the play

3
between artwork, artist and viewer. Because of my time at Wheelock my artistic

world has been greatly expanded making me a better artist and person.