1. How are you exploring your essential question; is it different from what you expected? If you don’t feel like you’re answering your essential question, what is happening that’s different from what you expected?

There are many ways in which I am exploring my essential question. While some of the ways include researching using the internet, books, articles, and museums, I am also doing so by making various pieces of art of my own. My process is going as planned and the work that I am doing is helpful towards my journey in answering my essential question. I didn’t intend to visit any museums, but after I visited the MET, I realized how important it was for me to see art up close. The little blurbs alongside the art are also very useful to my understanding of artists and their work. I intend to find more diverse ways to answer my essential question. By this I mean, can I answer my question in ways that go beyond changing the content of a painting. For example, can I answer it through a change in material or style?

1. Are you surprised by any of the challenges that you’ve faced so far? How have you met those challenges and what can you do going forward to deal with them?

I am not really surprised by the challenges that I’ve faced. So far I have come across a good amount of challenges, especially while making art. Being a 12th-grade art student, I am aware that I am always going to be learning. Therefore a lot of the issues that I have come across are not that surprising. One of the issues that I came across was using proper proportions. Though I know my works will not look exactly like the pieces I am using as inspiration, one way I went about dealing with this challenge is by speaking with James. While one solution we discussed was doing a better job of setting up the scale beforehand, another was understanding that the art that I create is not going to be perfect (or exactly like the pieces I am using for reference). For this project, the work that I will be doing is without a doubt going to be far from perfect, but it is important for me to focus on getting the idea across. Dealing with my issues going forward, I intend to continue to use James as a mentor and ask for assistance. I will also continue to focus on and practice my work.

1. Writing on your essential question: What have you learned about your essential question so far? What further questions do you have? and/or Has your essential question changed? If so, how?  What do you want to know more about?

I have learned many interesting things about my essential question so far. I have chosen a number of paintings that help me answer my essential question (some of these include: Nighthawks – Edward Hopper, Mona Lisa – Leonardo da Vinci, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte – Georges Seurat, At the Seaside – William Merritt Chase, etc). While I hope to expand on the number of paintings that I use, I also hope to expand on the ways in which I am answering my question. So far, I am using all of these paintings and changing their context (which was my original plan when starting the project). After reading the books that James gave me, which all broadened my understanding of materials and art in general, I now look forward to seeing if I can find ways to change the material, size, colors, etc in order to demonstrate a change in time. I want to continue to learn more about the histories behind these paintings, continue learning techniques, while also finding a way to connect everything to things that are happening today.