Ok, this is the first day they learned this, so don't judge as I spit out a bunch of excuses: only been dancing for a month, learned in 45 min, and I have no other videos:/
Hope this works, in the dance is actually the pose from my soft pastel piece so keep your eye out for it!

Elizabeth Holmes

 6/5/13

 Art

 6th

 Don’t Lose Your Head


           
Associated with individuality and character the head of a person is the
single feature which can characterize someone. Without it one loses their
personality, becoming nothing but a mechanism, a generality. Therefore, if one
perceives the world like most common folk the following images are just
mechanisms of anatomy and lack character. However, that would be futile. Body
language is utilized more often when determining the mood of a person than their
face. By eliminating the face one journeys through a person’s battle to find
their identity. The audience determines this journey through the body language
and colors of the following art projects.


           
In order to portray this coming of being I chose to use a variety of
mediums. While I lost a touch of cohesiveness with my art work because of this,
the pieces were made to have variety and provide growth, not consistency. So the
first two I used charcoal and soft pastel to provide a raw and rough image to
start the person out with. It then grew into paintings, the first acrylic and
the last two water color. The paintings add a more peaceful and content feeling.
Through the mediums the audience can grasp the raw energy from the beginning
which then gets harnessed and utilized as the person
grows.


           
While also changing the mediums, I changed the color pallets and the
methods of creation. For the first two charcoal and soft pastel I used few
colors and began with the background then went to deal with the body. This made
the background and the body very cohesive, making it hard to differentiate
between the identity of the person and the rest of the world. As the individual
grows, more colors are used, especially to highlight the body. This forces the
individual to be more prominent than the background, and by the end there isn’t
even a background, only the person’s head. Therefore, the color pallet and
background are key components the interpretation of the individuals development.



           
This concept was compiled during a point in my high school career when I
choreographed a dance about the same subject, and was reading Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, so I couldn’t get the
idea of a lost identity out of my mind. By intentionally chopping off the head
the audience has to focus on the body language and colors of the piece. This is
a more honest interpretation of emotion, faces often lie, but bodies don’t. The
reason the head was employed for the finally was to satisfy the audience. People
feel more comfortable, and can understand a face greater than any other body
part. Essentially, by the last one the person shall have discovered their
identity, and therefore deserves a head, the symbol of individuality.



           
Influenced by dance and an outstanding novel, five art pieces were
created portraying the struggle both of those events faced, the discovery of
individuality. By employing a variety of colors, mediums and body contortions
the five pieces portray a development ideal in ever person without utilizing
faces.

a. What did you make?

Well, I made art, considering it's an art class. But I know that's not what you're going for and bla bla bla. I made a charcoal and soft pastel sketch, an acrylic painting, and two watercolors of headless dancers.

b. How did you make it?

For the first three pieces (the charcoal, soft pastel, and acrylic) I started by designing the background. Then I colored in the bodies. For the last two (the water colors) I began with the body and then added the light back grounds.

c. Why did you make this?

I made these headless dancers to portray a dance I had choreographed when we began this project. The dance was essentially showing the coming of age of a person, or the discovery of their identity. Ideally, the use of color grew through the pieces showing the finding of her individuality. The decaptiation of all the heads except for the last one shows the lost identity, and the employment of it in the final piece shows the final discovery and understanding. Essentially through colors, mediums, and body positions these pieces were made to show the transformation of individuality.

My brain is fried from AP testing, so I'm going to make this brief. So far I've finished one assignment, and have one partway done, ill post pictures as soon as possible along with comments on the finished projects. I have all of my sketches, so I need to finish my charcoal, and do two acrylics along with one water color.

    I have committeed my self to doing a theme about dance. Current choreography which I am dancing to portrays a girl who feels depressed coming out of this dangerous emotion and into a happy, free life. I plan to show this through the use of color and different mediums. The first image will be a charcoal, the second an acrylic, the third a chalked piece, the fourth another acrylic, and the fifth a water color. By slowly adding more colors and changing the body movement of my dancer I feel it will portray her evolvement through emotions and freedom.