#artists bio

[charliemcarthy]

this is how artist bios get written if yall ever wondered (i REALLY want that residency)

[thefugitivesaint]

Virgil Finlay - Master of Fantasy by Gerry de la Ree, ''Starlog Magazine'', #14, June, 1978 Source: https://archive.org/details/VirgilFinlayMasterOfFantasy_504

[andrea-art-educator-blog]

Bio/Why Art Education:

My name is Andrea Ortiz. I am a 23 year old art education k-12 masters student from Brooklyn NY. From a young age I found myself drawn to the arts; music, dancing, theater, and visual arts. A lot of what I learned about Visual Art, however, has been self discovered or was not taught to me until I attended the University of New Haven in West Haven Connecticut to pursue my bachelors in Clinical Psychology. My elementary school experience in the arts was very limited and lacking in real instruction from teachers who mostly assigned vague projects and gave little guidance, and in middle school my art education was non existent. When i reached High School i renewed my interest in the arts through schools high level of involvement in New York’s Chelsea neighborhood where my High School was located. Despite this renewed interest there was little in the classroom that supported my desire to learn more and replicate the things which i saw in museums. Most of the work was done in computer programs, either photoshop or flash player, and even hand made work was to be scanned and manipulated on the computer for each project. It was not until taking art electives at UNH that i was exposed to various art forms and given tools to progress in each of them. I was finally able to acquire new skills and knowledge about these art forms and began to feel that I could develop my skills in the arts in order to feel efficacious in my pursuits.

When I began my career as a college student pursuing a degree in Clinical Psychology i wanted to become a High School guidance counselor and eventually an Art Therapist. Once I began to learn more about the arts and its different forms and possibilities that this allowed, I realized that I finally considered myself an artist and that it should not have been only in college that I could develop my skills as an artist and feel that my interests were being met with challenges to help me build upon my existing knowledge. For me the arts are a way to make others smile and say something personal about my own life and my interest, for others art is a platform to bring awareness to greater social issues, or to speak about a culture and their beliefs, or to even tell a fictional story. As I came to understand the possibilities the arts provide I came to realize that I was appalled that younger students in public schools often did not have the same access to the arts and that many students cannot afford to go to college to have these more enriched art experiences. By the time I graduated with my bachelors I realized that I wanted to bring the awe and joy that the arts give to me, to others that perhaps were not as fortunate to have the art experiences that I have had. I truly believe that people should not have to pay money, or attend college in order to receive a fulfilling and rich art experience.

Through this blog I hope to teach a bit about what I have learned about what art means, how to become an artist, tricks and tips for materials, as well as to highlight some of the struggles that artists and art educators encounter and how these might be tackled. These are all key factors that have shaped my identity as an artist and an art educator and allowed me to discover my passion for various methods and media which I base a lot of my own art work in.