Reflection: What is art and who decides?

Madison Deitch

Mr. Nagle

IB Art SL I/II

1. Dec. 2013

Reflection: What is art and who decides?

              As a child, my favorite games to play were those on paper, one of which was played by finishing a piece of art with a partner or group of friends. The catch was that we were not allowed to tell each other what we were thinking. Usually, each player would use the same medium as the others, but in participating in our class project, I realized that mixed media, when used "correctly," can create beautiful and even meaningful masterpieces. Now, it is clear to me that by working with other artists, we can learn from each other and help each other grow, artistically. This group project also helped me personally with working within time constraints, since we were “speed-painting” for a maximum of two minutes on each piece. However, it was much less daunting to work on small pieces than it would have been to work on larger ones. Also, the whole idea of grouping pieces together and presenting them that way made me think of the pieces thematically rather than by which ones just looked nice. All of the pieces within the assortment needed to share a common motif or quality. Joyce Kim and I put together a collection with the common theme of contrast, but the word, “contrast” did not apply only to black and white; we included complementary colors as well. For the most part, we considered each of the pieces to be art, simply because they were meant to be called “art.” This project has definitely influenced me to include more abstract pieces, since I have learned to think of pieces as more than the subject matter within them.