This week has been full of frustration, exploration, and new ideas. I have been struggling with the whole concept of how to execute my big idea. My relationship with my mom is so complex and hard to put into pictures, which is exactly what I am trying to do. After creating color studies and seeing how color could influence the idea and/or emotion that exist between my mother and I, as well as journaling and sketching certain object that I believed best represented my idea I once again got stuck and more frustrated. I was not sure of where to go from here so I started to think about what ?I like to do best and something which I have realized has been present throughout this entire process. I love to draw! I wanted to get my hands back into the drawing process and the freedom I feel when I do it. Furthermore, below are a few images that I have completed to start thinking about drawing figures and faces. They are very technical pencil drawings that focus specifically on the face. None of these images are of my mother or I they were just for fun and practice.

          Also this week our class took a trip to the Tappan Library on campus to research art and specific artist that relate to our projects. Here I looked a artist that included Gene Davis which focuses on color, As well as some aboriginal art that is very colorful and expressive. This was influencial in how color is used and applied to create a feeling. One specific image that I loved is a painting by Emily Kame Kngwarreye called Awelye. Another artist that I came across that started to influence this idea of focusing on faces is Vernon Ah Kee.  

          After look at these artist and have a small in class critique I think I have a good idea of the path I need to now take. In this next week and over break I am going to focus on my mother's face as well as my own face and the interaction between us too. I want to continue to draw and complete more expressive version  of our faces while using charcoal and even color pastels. I want to both draw from real time as well as from memory and explore the differences and see what kinds of meanings and expressions can be expressed through the two different methods. As well as drawing I am going to conitinue to explore the process of photo litho and finish a few of the images I previously started. With these I can explore ideas of color, layering and mixture of different mediums.