JVA student Adam C. is an artist here at our very own school! They have expressed their personality and creativity through the showcase of their art assignments. One assignment was to recreate a famous artwork, and the other was a personal photograph that reflects their identity through art!
For the recreation of a famous painting, Adam recreated “The Automat” by Edward Hopper. The Automat is a very well-known artwork that captures a lonely and quiet moment in a hectic, crazy place. Adam expressed that they chose this artwork because of the strong emotions being displayed. “I picked it mainly because of the feeling the painting evoked,” Adam described. “It has an intense sense of loneliness, even though it’s a place that is probably very busy.” Adam states they revised their artwork at least two times. The first revision was set aside as it did not communicate what Adam felt it needed to. After revising the first time, the idea and thumbnail were created in a way that captured the intended true message and the mood of the original work. The painting connects to Adams’s personal experiences mainly since they are someone who tends to spend a lot of time online, although being shy. They relate to the strong sense of loneliness that is represented in the artwork. To them, the dark color palette that Hopper’s work incorporated truly stood out. “I really like the colors of the painting, even though they’re darker,” Adam states. “That’s one of my favorite parts about it.”
Adam has created wonderful pieces of artwork, including a personal photograph meant to show their character and their identity. In this photograph, we can see many of Adam’s artworks around them, signifying their creativity and seemingly years of learning and expression. “I’ve been making artwork for a long time, and over time I’ve collected all this knowledge and art that I put in the background,” Adam explains. There is immense difficulty in taking a photograph such as this one. Adam had to set up the camera in a direction that best captured all their artwork, and that alone can take many tries to get correct. Despite these challenges, though, the result of this photograph became one of Adams’s most favorite artwork projects. “This photo is just who I am,” Adam says. “Art is how I express myself. Sometimes I can’t explain how I feel, so I use art to do it for me.” There are two options for this photograph, one color and one black and white. We received the black and white one, but Adam expresses how the vibrant colors of the original piece show how being creative can play a role in their life.
Both pieces allow the viewer to, in a way, travel into the mind of Adam and see the person they are through their artwork. It allows a deeper understanding of their identity, personal experiences, and emotions that they feel when words cannot express.
