The artist/senior that I picked was Matt Burns. He was taking my CGA (Computer Generated Art) class and a colleague thought he would be a good fit. After talking with Matt we decided to come up with a theme to work from in order to make our work cohesive. During the '16 election it was very well known that Matt was a Trump supporter and I was not. So I thought the theme of "Trump"--one piece from a "positive" viewpoint, and one from the "negative".
I started my piece showing Mr. Trump as a clown, yelling in a cartoon-ish manner while also showing some realism. I opted to use colored pencils on a large 24"x24" piece of wood. I also added a map in the background--scrounged from a dumpster, a little gold leaf, and some inkjet transfer.
Up until this point the last time I had used colored pencils was in my 8th grade Studio Art class. I never liked the painstaking precision of colored pencils, or the slow application of layer after layer. I decided to give them a try for the first time in forever and give them a second chance.
Matt, on the other hand, struggled with his side of the "Trump" theme. He started and re-started with no real passion for his idea. Then with about a week to go he showed me the start of his idea on a large 24"x24" piece of plywood! He too was using colored pencils, and instead of Trump, he went with Hillary adding a spin from a 1980's cult classic They Live.
(Matt will be attending Cleveland Institute of Art in the fall)
