Concentration The Concentration section shows the student's in-depth exploration of a particular design concern. It is presented as 12 slides, some of which may be details of works. The emphasis is on a coherent development of an idea through a body of work, in addition to the artistic success of the work.

1 - a series of related works 2 - shows artistic exploration and growth 3 - personal “voice” 4 - you must come to "own" your imagery, whether objective or nonobjective, based on personal contact, history, manipulation, observation, research, or a combination of these 5 - goals and objectives. What do you wish to accomplish or explore with your art?

Student Statement: For my 2-D Design portfolio, I concentrated on abstracting objects in my everyday environment by looking at them from a different perspective

Explanation of Development of Concentration: As seen in slides 1 and 2, I started this portfolio by taking straight-on photographs of objects in my everyday environment. My idea of abstracting the objects began to develop, and I started to look more closely at the objects and to view them from different perspectives than one typically would, resulting in images such as slide 5. I explored the idea of abstraction further by using computer programs to alter my photographs in new ways.

Concentration: I chose to use the Roebling Suspension Bridge in Cincinnati, Ohio, for my concentration. Over the summer, I drove downtown taking pictures of various architecture, including buildings, stadiums, and bridges. Scanning through the pictures, I came across a wide shot of the Roebling bridge. I liked the angle of the shot and decided to work with that as my focus. I went back to the bridge, walked across it, and took multiple shots of anything that I thought I could use back in the classroom. Explanation: Instead of just doing the artwork and not getting any meaning from it, I decided to organize my concentration from an artist's point of view. Therefore, I structured my concentration to go from black-and-white to different color schemes. I also moved from simpler composition and forms to more complex interaction of lines, forms, and texture through digital works (see slides 4*, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9). I chose to challenge myself in terms of color schemes in working with complementary and split complement schemes in slides 11 and 12.

Concentration: My concentration is based on the essential behavior of the bee and the atmosphere, which it creates. Explanation: At first, my focus was on depicting realistic illustrations of bees, as in slides 1 and 2. Eventually, it evolved to include other atmospheres, such as the honeycomb, as a way to illustrate the behavior and lifestyle of the related subject matter. In slide 5, I began to juxtapose unusual environments within the framework of the beehive. This ultimately led to the discovery of an implied sense of movement beginning in slides 8 and 9. The beehive soon became secondary within my work. Inevitably, the act of the subject matter creating its own environment led to the delineation of the bee's movement through erratic use of line (slides 11 and 12). Ultimately, a deeper understanding of the subject matter was reached, questioning not just the environment, but also the reasoning behind it.

Concentration: The focus of my concentration is pattern. My goal was to work from a variety of sources of inspiration and use my repetition to create designs. I intended to explore shape, texture, and color while limiting my sources of inspiration to nature. In nature I chose simple forms such as insects, fish, and shells as sources of imagery. I tried to achieve an "organic" look to my pieces. Explanation: I began with simple geometric patterns made with a ruler and a pencil creating a repeating grid. Next, I applied this method to organic forms. I then tried to use more sophisticated materials leading up to gouache. Recently, I began to combine organic and geometric forms. I was influenced by the work of MC Escher.

Concentration: I was stuck on ideas when my teacher suggested [to] me the theme, "holes." A lot of times people walk into holes within their lives and do not know how to get out or where these holes lead to. The goal of my concentration was to explore these ideas -- where the hole leads, what are in the holes, and how people fall into them -- through collaging. I was used to drawing from life using pencils, and I thought it would be quite a chance for me to practice craft-work and to develop my imaginative skills as an artist. Explanation: I have assembled my slides in an order that shows the development of ideas throughout my concentration. 1, 2, and 3 show a road that is representative of "life," and show figures falling into holes. Slides 2 and 3 are close-ups of slide 1 where I rearranged the colors. For 4 and 5, I produced multiples of my pencil portrait drawing, and used that to show the bewilderment of the people who have fallen into the holes. The reason I used the same images of the figures repeatedly was because I wanted to emphasize the point that trap-holes in life exist equally for everyone and not to particular individuals. How could one avoid falling into holes? You could be lucky and reach the other end of the path, but that rarely occurs. So I thought that people would wish they could fly (7). I created an image of a large eye (8), an eye searching for the way out. But once people fall in, there is no getting out. They are trapped, caught, and distorted (10/11). In my final work, I created an image of the other sides of the holes. I incorporated the sky image to show the bottomless feeling. It was a challenge for me to build new ideas and perspectives for my theme.