Part I: Revising Your Portfolio Website
1. Go to http://www.weebly.com/ and login to the account you made last year.
- if you would like to build a professional website and don't mind spending a some money, check out format.com
2. Reconsider your theme. Think about how your theme relates to your portfolio. How you present your work can both help your intent or hurt it. Have fun and personalize your site based on your own design aesthetic.
3. Really think about what image you are opening with. This image is the first thing your viewers are going to see. Ensure that they're going to stick around and explore what else you have.
- if you would like to build a professional website and don't mind spending a some money, check out format.com
2. Reconsider your theme. Think about how your theme relates to your portfolio. How you present your work can both help your intent or hurt it. Have fun and personalize your site based on your own design aesthetic.
3. Really think about what image you are opening with. This image is the first thing your viewers are going to see. Ensure that they're going to stick around and explore what else you have.
Part II: Updating Your Work
Revise pages/sections on your website to organize all of your work from this year as well as last year. You may use one of the following options for your categories to get your started with organizing your site. You must Include Option 3
-5 Works from Summer
-All your Click Assignments
1. This is Me
2. Comfort
3. Zodiac
4. ab initio
5. Click
6. Censored
7. Incarnate
8. Album Cover/Movie Poster
-All your Film/Digital Work scanned and organized
1. Decay (Film)
2. Push (Film)
3. Photographer's Sketchbook Rolls 1 & 2 (Film or Digital)
-AP Rolls (Film or Digital)
Option 1: Organize by media (ie: Film, digital)
Option 2: Organize by subject matter (ie: Landscape, Portrait, Figure, Documentary etc.)
Option 3: Organize in addition for AP exam (Breadth, Concentration) * Must use if you are an AP student
**************IF YOU ARE MISSING ANY OF THE ABOVE WORKS, YOU MUST MAKE THEM UP ON YOUR OWN TIME!!!!
-5 Works from Summer
-All your Click Assignments
1. This is Me
2. Comfort
3. Zodiac
4. ab initio
5. Click
6. Censored
7. Incarnate
8. Album Cover/Movie Poster
-All your Film/Digital Work scanned and organized
1. Decay (Film)
2. Push (Film)
3. Photographer's Sketchbook Rolls 1 & 2 (Film or Digital)
-AP Rolls (Film or Digital)
Option 1: Organize by media (ie: Film, digital)
Option 2: Organize by subject matter (ie: Landscape, Portrait, Figure, Documentary etc.)
Option 3: Organize in addition for AP exam (Breadth, Concentration) * Must use if you are an AP student
**************IF YOU ARE MISSING ANY OF THE ABOVE WORKS, YOU MUST MAKE THEM UP ON YOUR OWN TIME!!!!
Part III: Update Your Artist Statement
Revise your artist statement. You've grown a lot since last year and your style and voice has changed. Revise your statement to reflect your growth and current work. *Note this is great practice for your AP exam!
Your artist statement should consist of a few short but well-written paragraphs that include the following information: (Should be written in the first person present tense- "I am")
http://www.incredibleart.org/files/portfolio2.htm
Paragraph 1: Why do you create the work you do? Support this statement by telling the reader more about your goals as an artist.
Paragraph 2: Tell the reader how you come to the decisions you make before, during, and after creating your artwork. Why do you select the media, style, or subject matter that you do. Be specific but keep this fairly brief.
Paragraph 3: Tell the reader more about your current/most recent work. How did this work grow out of prior artwork or life experiences? What are you exploring, attempting or challenging by doing this work?
Helpful Hints: (from www.incredibleart.org)
1. If you have trouble writing about yourself, write about an artist you admire. Then write about yourself from that point of view.
2. Begin writing as if you were talking to someone about your art
3. Have a friend ask you questions about your artwork. Take notes as you answer the questions
4. Have someone who is not familiar with your artwork read your statement and ask you questions
5. Create a statement that makes the reader want to look at and know more about your artwork
6. Your statement should be more than just a description of your art and/or art process
Your artist statement should consist of a few short but well-written paragraphs that include the following information: (Should be written in the first person present tense- "I am")
http://www.incredibleart.org/files/portfolio2.htm
Paragraph 1: Why do you create the work you do? Support this statement by telling the reader more about your goals as an artist.
Paragraph 2: Tell the reader how you come to the decisions you make before, during, and after creating your artwork. Why do you select the media, style, or subject matter that you do. Be specific but keep this fairly brief.
Paragraph 3: Tell the reader more about your current/most recent work. How did this work grow out of prior artwork or life experiences? What are you exploring, attempting or challenging by doing this work?
Helpful Hints: (from www.incredibleart.org)
1. If you have trouble writing about yourself, write about an artist you admire. Then write about yourself from that point of view.
2. Begin writing as if you were talking to someone about your art
3. Have a friend ask you questions about your artwork. Take notes as you answer the questions
4. Have someone who is not familiar with your artwork read your statement and ask you questions
5. Create a statement that makes the reader want to look at and know more about your artwork
6. Your statement should be more than just a description of your art and/or art process
Submit your page to either Mahara or through an email to me!
Example Artist Statements
Elisa Paloschi
Faces and Places
I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.
My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.
I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concerned with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.
Jaclynn Claudon
-“I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.
“My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.”
“I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concern with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.”
Jerry Takigawa
-We live in an information-rich yet time-poor culture. I see a society that is becoming more and more disconnected from nature, disconnected from natural rhythms, cycles, and seasons. Often, this is manifested by being disconnected from our own selves.
Fascinated with the concept of time, I have been seeking to understand the feeling that time is “speeding up.” Theories abound to address the issue. This exploration led me to revisit the concept of no time—it means no mind. Eastern philosophies profess that the present moment is the only “reality” and that past and future are an illusion. Being in the present becomes an antidote to the sensation of “accelerating” time.
To create these photographs, I gather objects of personal meaning and work in the moment, responding to what feels right. These images rely on an emotional response in order to be understood. That involves the non-thinking process of presence. Presence is what is needed to become aware of beauty and sacredness in nature. This is an intuitive response. To understand presence is simply to be present. Photography is one way that I am able to experience the moment, suspend time and re-connect with being. With this work, it’s my hope to create an intimate conversation that takes the viewer to a place of quiet contemplation.
Faces and Places
I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.
My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.
I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concerned with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.
Jaclynn Claudon
-“I use photography as a means of self-expression – I make pictures for myself, to identify with hidden qualities of my character, to better understand my reality, and to express my interpretation of the world around me. A clearer understanding of myself and of my world allow me to explore fragments of life as an abstract form, and also to interact with people I would otherwise not be able to engage with. My goal is to use my camera like Alice’s rabbit hole, to open an unexplored world, a place of curious self-expression, but also a world of new relationships, new chances new beginnings and most importantly new stories.
“My choice of subject comes from a place of intuition and is fuelled by an impetuous desire to partake in the stories that unfold around me. I seek the unknown and I look for the light within the shadows, the stories that are not at first obvious and the uncommon in the common. I photograph people in their environments because I am curious of what lays behind their eyes, where they have been and where they hope to go. My photography evokes the passage of time. I use slow shutter speeds and double exposures to explore the nuances of movement and the modulation of time as it passes from past to present to future. Recently I have begun to work with landscapes, attempting to illustrate abstract, evocative scenery as a motif to epitomize the idea of imagined space, a reminder that what I create through the viewfinder is only real to me.”
“I am inspired to compose by the contrast of light and dark, while I use the changing light of day to arouse the mood of my dreams. Strangely, colour has appeared in my work, slowly and without intention, concealing the black and white imagery of my past. This colour conjures images of my favourite foods – mangoes, chocolate and spicy masala chai, and surprises me. Gone with the black and white is my concern with documenting a story, rather I find myself interested in the results of immersing myself in the story and recording my own reactions and actions to my world. The photographs of Faces and Places come from that immersion.”
Jerry Takigawa
-We live in an information-rich yet time-poor culture. I see a society that is becoming more and more disconnected from nature, disconnected from natural rhythms, cycles, and seasons. Often, this is manifested by being disconnected from our own selves.
Fascinated with the concept of time, I have been seeking to understand the feeling that time is “speeding up.” Theories abound to address the issue. This exploration led me to revisit the concept of no time—it means no mind. Eastern philosophies profess that the present moment is the only “reality” and that past and future are an illusion. Being in the present becomes an antidote to the sensation of “accelerating” time.
To create these photographs, I gather objects of personal meaning and work in the moment, responding to what feels right. These images rely on an emotional response in order to be understood. That involves the non-thinking process of presence. Presence is what is needed to become aware of beauty and sacredness in nature. This is an intuitive response. To understand presence is simply to be present. Photography is one way that I am able to experience the moment, suspend time and re-connect with being. With this work, it’s my hope to create an intimate conversation that takes the viewer to a place of quiet contemplation.