I adhered all the layers together using rubber cement, cut off the excess paper from the brain layers, and added all the doodles around the figure. I really don't like how the doodles came out, so I ended up removing the blue paper and I plan on re-doing that surrounding sheet.

​This week we went to VCU's Institute of Contemporary Arts. I was interested to find out that the museum will not have any permanent works, and that it will be entirely exhibitions. Our visit began with a talk on the architecture of the building, focusing on how the entrances focus on the busy nature of the intersection vs. the calming nature of a pool and plants. We then did two art activities: drawing the view of another person based on their description, and doing a watercolor painting (using a water brush and watercolor pencils) of our view, but with expressive colors. I really enjoyed doing the watercolor and might look into using watercolor pencils in the future.
We had a short guided tour of the building and then free time to look more deeply at particular pieces. One thing from the tour that fascinated me was the tar ball of prison bedsheets - it was so toxic and had to be so carefully maintained, and the dedication to this piece of art just really struck me. I also enjoyed the mending project by Lee Mingwei and might want to have my clothes mended sometime. The obvious stitching seems to me a cute souvenir from the experience, and the conversation with a stranger would be good for me, I think. The idea behind that piece intrigues me.
Two pieces I liked visually were in the gallery on the first floor - The Therapy of Groups and another which I failed to grab the credit line for (it was a wall of people's descriptions of women.) The hands one is simply beautiful, with soft colors and light and expressive motion. I would love to make art like that in my own way (I doodle a lot of hands and could really see myself making a finished piece of just hands.) The paintings with words about women were shocking when I read the artist statement - they were all responses to a question about what words describe women. So many of the responses were vulgar and downright disgusting. The ones I took photos of were simply ones for which I liked the painting in the background, though.

Ennun is a Romanian artist living in the United Kingdom. She works mostly with digital media. Some of her work is simple illustration, and others are detailed scenes with backgrounds and hidden images (such as the one of a cluttered room.)
I follow her on Twitter and have been really intrigued by her series of fashion drawings. https://twitter.com/ennunanaiurov/status/986284795037560833
They show cute illustrations in simple yet dynamic poses, which is something I usually strive for in my art. Her drawings are really inspiring for my doodles more than my art projects. The simplicity and ease of the drawings, with block colors and neat contours, is very appealing.
Her more complex drawings have cool concepts and are interesting for the level of detail - the one of the hands overlapping is one of my favorites.

​Kara Walker's silhouettes intrigued me, as I also work with paper cutting and occasionally silhouettes. Often when I cut out a figure I like how the second piece of paper looks, with the negative space silhouette inside. I might try to incorporate those into my art - to reduce waste and to try something new. Kara's style is also appealing, and the ease with which she sketches and cuts her drawings is incredible and inspiring. 
I related to her revelation about paper cutting, too. I still love illustration but paper cutting opened a new door for me in my art. I could incorporate her silhouette layering technique with my paper cutting if I wanted to do backgrounds in my work. I have always really liked color-blocking in art, especially with plants in backgrounds. So maybe in future art I could cut out plant shapes to create a dense forest background like in Walker's art.
It's also interesting that she works on such a large scale. I tried painting on a large scale but did not enjoy it - I like painting on canvases but apparently not on a wall. (Maybe with different paint or surface it would be better.) Paper cutting would be an interesting path to follow to see if I could work on a large-scale and enjoy it. Finally, her installation aspect of it art is intriguing. When I assemble my art I enjoy playing around with arrangement to see how the various pieces of paper would fit best. Maybe doing a piece where the papers are so separate that they could freely be moved, in the way that Walker assembles her art, would be fun.

Over spring break, I went to New York with other Maggie Walker arts students. We went to several galleries in Chelsea, and saw 3 museums - the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim Museum, and the Museum of Modern Art.
​Unwisely, I forgot to take photographs of the credit lines for almost all of the works I photographed. The first 8 photos of the slideshow are from the Met, where I admittedly did not see much art that I particularly loved. I did see some that I thought Kenan would really like - it was in a room devoted to this one artist, but I cannot recall his name! I did photograph his work; birds and papers in boxes. 
At the Guggenheim, I liked Josef Albers' exhibit the most. I took 3 photographs in the Guggenheim - the red and gray geometric painting, the clown painting, and the piece with writing. I noticed that it shares a compositional feature with Alexis Torimori's work that I liked. I really feel that this feature is something I could incorporate into my art, and something I should play with.
​At MoMA, I liked the brushstroke and warm color of Picasso's paintings. I also liked several other paintings that I photographed, such as the outdoor scene with a sketch-like image cut out in the center - that idea REALLY intrigued me. The blue portrait is stylistically something that really interests me. I like the color-blocking and the overall shape of the subject. I have noticed a trend in works that I like, that many are busts with little detail in the clothing. I also doodle like this sometimes and I am certainly interested in creating work like this, or at least playing around to figure out how I can spin that concept into something of my own, that fits comfortably with how I create art.

I couldn't save images from her Twitter, so I included a link to it instead. Here! And here is her Instagram: Here!
This artist has virtually no information online, just her art. That's a bit frustrating when trying to write about her process and such, but I will do my best.
On one of her websites she is listed with "Graphic Design | Illustration | Icon Design" so I assume she works with digital media. All of her realistic art has what looks like a noise-filter overtop, making it look more like traditional art than crisp, refined digital work. Looking through her Instagram page, her compositions have always been something that appeals to me. I like the inclusion of the abstract shapes and blocked-in color. In my opinion, this is even more effective with the realistic work, as the contrast between the abstraction and the realism is sharper. She also frequently uses words in her work, which I don't plan to do but I could, given how much I value the title. 
None of her backgrounds are white, which could translate into using colored paper for my work, which I have taken a liking to. I'm not sure how I could accomplish counterchange with a colored shape, as she sometimes does with red circles, but I could do solid red circles cut out from paper. Her work inspires me for a new way to incorporate shapes into my compositions.
I also really admire her mark, and the style of her realism. It's not hyperrealistic but certainly is not stylized. The way that she frequently blocks in hair and clothing looks really nice against this realism, in my opinion. I would definitely be interested in trying something like that in my work.