July 01, 2008

Teenage art

A post on Nuvonova’s blog the other day re: updating artwork from her school days got me thinking about a piece I made when I was 17. Our assignment was to create what the word Freedom meant to us.

I chose the three most powerful pieces of paper Americans have….and I painstakingly hand lettered each word. No photocopying, no tracing. I even included all the mistakes the original scribe made.

This is a partial scan of my piece…it was too large for my scanner.



Looking back, I see many mistakes I made. Number one being why the heck didn’t I ink it on parchment? Bristol! What was I thinking? Then there’s the line over-runs on the top of the Constitution…I improved as I went along. And cutting off the Declaration…gah! Why didn’t I pen it to look like the other document overlapped?

All in all, I actually still quite like it. Sadly, the word Freedom, which I brushed over the inked words in dark blue watercolor, has faded almost beyond recognition. Some of the black ink has faded, and before I thought to get it framed, it got water spots on it...

Still....a good effort. I received an A.

21 comments:

LazyTcrochet said...

A well-deserved A for sure! What a great project. I am not artistic at all, other than creating with fiber and fabrics. I did sew some of my own clothes at that age.

Victoria said...

Well, I would hope you received an A!
This is really very impressive.
Love getting a peek into your past!

littlebyrd said...

totally impressive!

Tess Kincaid said...

Painstaking is right! It must have taken you hours. wow!

Anonymous said...

Wow! How long did it take you?

I wish my handwriting was naturally like that though.

Ivy & Mae said...

impressive!

Grizzly Mountain Arts said...

What an awesome piece!

Michelle Engel Bencsko said...

A+++++!

OMgosh how labor intensive does this look! Wow, girl, I don't notice any mistakes at all, just pure determination and skill.

Great work! I know it was years ago, but still, it's stuff like this that leads you to where you are today. Got anymore treasures to share?

High Desert Diva said...

I lettered it in pencil first using a non-photo blue pencil, then inked it. I seem to remember it taking 14 hours. But I really don't remember...it was a very long time ago!

Thanks for the compliments!

Mrs.French said...

Are you kidding me? This is amazing! Totally amazing!

Unknown said...

Oh gosh! Painstaking indeed. Wow, kudos to you. Great work.

Sandra Evertson said...

Absolutely AMAZING! And Beautiful how the fading and water spots just at to it's Beauty!
Sandra Evertson

T.Allen said...

Wow, just wow talk about eXtreme effort! Such an interesting look into your childhood. My most fondly remembered art project was an assignment to modernize/culturally alter any piece of art. I chose the Birth of Venus. I drew her as an African-American punk goddess w/ a NYC skyline replacing her shell, I too received an A. Great post.

High Desert Diva said...

T-
Sounds like a great assignment. Do you still have your piece?

Unknown said...

Wow, it is amazing. I would probably never have the patience for something like that! It's beautiful. Thanks for sharing it.

Lavinia said...

This is remarkable. And the fact that you did it when you were so young....wow.

Hey Harriet said...

Wow! That's impressive! Nothing like my crappy high school art. I wish I had your beautiful handwriting. My writing was once nice, but sadly not anymore. Too much caffeine I'm thinking. Sigh. A very well deserved A!

Rosebud Collection said...

What work..really a beautiful job and
at first, I thought you were putting up a copy...didn't realize you did it. Wonderful.

earthdeva said...

I recently found some of my old paintings, well - they are more like the by-products of other work, that eventually led me to where I am now with my art...swirly colours, random patterns...and alongside those were the Celtic themed illustrations I did when I was younger. Very time consuming, that Celtic artwork... !

Unknown said...

In a million years I would never have seen any imperfections, nothing in this world is perfect except of course your well deserved grade for this project. Kudos!

Kathy said...

I really, really, really like this!!!