Sketchbook Apparel is Open for Business!!

Hey guys! I finally got my Etsy shop up and running! T-Shirt sales have been great at school, so the next step is in the real world. We'll see how it goes :) Here's some pictures for you to see.. if you want to see my etsy shop and order go to etsy.com/shop/SketchbookApparel 

Writing.

"Writing is a form of therapy; sometimes I wonder how all those who do not write, compose, or paint, can manage to escape the madness, melancholia, the panic and fear which is inherent in a human situation." - Graham Greene

Writing! Scroll Down For Poem by Arianna Hall

All my life I've written, no matter what it's about, I keep writing. There's something about creation that comes so naturally to humans, and in the end, it helps us in more ways than we realize. That's why I think it's so important to keep a blog, or a journal if you don't want it to be public.

Making thoughts exist on paper becomes significant to a human because you can do many things with those words. If they're special to you, tuck them away where you'll always be able to revisit them. If you hate the idea written on the paper, burn it or rip it up so you yourself can symbolically burn it inside of you, and forget it (if it's something you need to forget). You can also give a piece of writing to someone, or write something that you needed to say a long time ago but never got the chance to say it to them in person. Point is, writing is a very powerful tool and is very much an art form. Also, anyone can do it. And in my opinion everyone should. So! If you haven't written something for yourself (not school or work related) in awhile then go ahead. Open a word document, start a blog, buy a journal, grab a piece of paper.

See what you've been needing to tell yourself, you might be surprised. Some of the things I write end up to be poems. Here's one of mine. If you're some literature scholar then I apologize if you come to the conclusion that it's terrible poetry haha. And if you like it well there you go, share it & love it :)
Thanks for listening! Comment - I love to read them! Plus it gets you writing haha   ~ Arianna

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Home. - Arianna Hall

This home

is where darkness 

exceeds the faint touch, of light. 

Nothing but a shadow's breath

can be felt from every. vacant. room.

The windows

remain black and hollow.

With the face of death 

staring, almost mesmerized 

by the close. broken. life that is 

trapped 

within its walls. 

All warmth 

extinguished so long ago

that words cannot describe

the frozen feeling

of emptiness that's burred beneath 

the worn. ivory. keys

forgotten. in that, corner. 

A small light 

sits in the mute absence of creation

and cries softly, for love.

for meaning.

for hope.

She, the light. 

Reaches for the edge of security, 

for the warm arms of protection. 

But never. obtains. any. of these dreams. 

She cries to be kept. 

Not as a prisoner,

but a sister. a friend. 

Though.. she is nothing, 

but desperate filth. 

Equivalent to the dust resting on the

cold. wooden. floors. she sits upon, 

that reflect the effects of rigor mortis. 

The walls bow, hunched in sleep, 

Like the memory of 

summer's golden fields

They fall down. They fall on her. 

Till she becomes the floorboards, and joins the stiff. arctic. structure. Herself. 

Is this home? 

Time.

AP Art Assignment #5 by Arianna Hall

"Time is Money." 

- Benjamin Franklin 

Being in high school makes a person have quite a busy life. I mean school alone is from 8:30 to 3:10 (varying from school to school of course). Then when you get home if you're a junior or senior you usually have about 3 hours worth of homework. If you have music lessons that takes about an hour, if you do a sport that's another 3 hours, if you do any after school clubs that's about 2 to 3 hours, hanging out with friends, well only God knows when that ends haha. You get my point. So if you're out of high school, your live is probably even MORE busy! Or if you're less busy I hope that you actually take some time to go hiking or read a good book, you lucky duck.

Won a Gold Key in the Scholastic Art
Awards for this. By Arianna Hall

So, my dad told me awhile ago that in order to be an artist you must be selfish with your time. Or else you'll really get nothing done. You have time for what you want to do. You just have to plan ahead to make it that way and learn to say yes and no at the right times. Learn the art of saying no if you have priorities, it all feeds in to how well you focus. 

Take my AP Art Assignments for example, I have to sit inside on a wonderful summer day in order to get them done because I've waiting until the last two weeks of summer to do them. I had to say no to getting out of the house and yes to what I had to do in order to focus on what needed to be done. 

In your life it probably isn't getting your art assignments done that is a priority for you. Maybe you have kids that you need to spend time with but work keeps getting in the way. If you come home tired from the long work week and your kid is begging you to read them a story don't just go and check your e-mail! Sit them down and spend time with them because you'll never get those moments back. 

That's just an example I know it doesn't relate to everyone but I assure you that everyone, somewhere in the back of their mind, has something they want or need to do most, but somethings always getting in the way. What is it for you? And what do you have to say no to in order to say yes to that one thing? 

Thanks for listening! 

Check out my t-shirt designs to your right 

(scroll up under entries and you'll find 
the post that says hey you! wanna shirt?!)

I hope everyone has a wonderful day today! 

~ Arianna 

Stretch Your Galaxy.

"Noodle Worship Brainwash" 

Humans are made from the same carbon and hydrogen that exists in stars, yes, you are part of our galaxy.

The galaxy is also forever expanding and contracting, like it breathes. What if our mind was like a galaxy, every star particle was a piece of brain tissue, or neuron that connects ideas together. When we expand our minds, we open them to new ways of thinking, new thoughts, new ideas, a new way of seeing the world and life as we know it. And when we contract our minds, that way of thinking becomes habit and we grow comfortable with our ways. Soon after contracting, we begin to expand again. This is the growth and developmental pattern of a human mind. Like yin and yang you can't have one with out the other. Yet, some people choose to not balance their minds. They get stuck in the contracting phase and never seek new knowledge to exercise their minds. (*Cough cough* Which is exactly what huge corporations like Monsanto want so they can feed us all cancer... but that's a whole other entry.)

Milky Way Galaxy. The home of Earth.

Take an art assignment for example. Look above at the noodle piece I drew yesterday. The assignment was to draw a still life of a bunch of different noodles. So I got comfortable with the idea of drawing noodles and the different kinds.. but as I thought about how to make this piece interesting, I expanded my mind to create something much more interesting to both me and the viewer. I thought of the "all seeing eye" and idealism and how I could connect the two ideas together. Then I started to make a story behind my artwork, which is ALWAYS something you should do to create good art! My concept behind this is that the more plain macaroni noodles were worshiping the more interesting noodles that make up the pyramid. The noodle on the lower right hand corner is questioning why he's being brainwashed and is clearly upset about it haha. (Added for a little comedy.)

So something to think about is, whatever you do, see if you can stretch your mind to think of it in a new way. You never know what you'll come up with. Plus if you're a blogger yourself and you're having writers block or if you're an artist or musician and are stuck with the same old thing, take this advice. Try to talk about something you've never thought about before. Do some research, read a book (by the way I have a good book list to your right if you wanna choose one from there), go on a hike, do something that you've never done before to get that much needed inspiration and motivation back! Expand your mind like the GALAXY.

Thanks for listening!
Share my link if you like what I write :)
http://ariannajuliette.blogspot.com/
I love comments and always reply!! So leave one!
Comment if you're also interested in a t-shirt 
or visit the HEY YOU! WANNA SHIRT?! Entry to your right. 

~ Arianna

HEY YOU! WANNA SHIRT?!

Ladies and Gentlemen - 

I give you t-shirts! 

Available on etsy.com 

September 2012

I know we're all very excited to finally get my art on wearable t-shirts! Order yours in just a few weeks to help me become a high school art teacher :) (If you don't already know my story click on my July entries to your right and read up on why I want to go to college to become an art teacher.)

Prices for now = Student $12.00 or Adult $15.00  

Here are my designs that are available. 

These are just tiny clips of the real ones. If you like a certain one please feel free to comment and leave me your e-mail address so I know to send you one once I get my etsy up and running. I love comments and feedback so don't feel shy about leaving one :) Thank you so much! ~ Arianna 

My signature will be on each one! 

(stands for my initials A J R H)

WANNA SHIRT? E-mail me at arianna.hall42@gmail.com

Like what you see? Share me on facebook - Just copy and paste my blog link to your status!

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Vlog Two.

SECOND VLOG 

Alright so this is me playing Rue de Cascades by Yann Tiersen. This one I just learned a month ago. Music is great because when you're playing, everything else fades into the back of your mind. You don't really think about anything else and it's like nothing really matters except for the moment you have right now while playing music. Hope you enjoy this one!

~ Arianna P.S. Thanks for viewing and sharing my blog link!!
(Heads up.. t-shirt production is a go!) 

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To view my stuff about art, life, and other thoughts scroll down or click on "entires" to your right :)

Vlog One.

FIRST VLOG 

Hey guys! This is Vlog number one. If you want me to talk about any of my art or whatever just leave a comment and ask me any question and I'll be happy to address them in my vlogs! Don't worry I'll actually be posting more photos of art along with my writing too, the vlog is just an add on. Hope you enjoy. This is my first time on camera on the internet so hopefully I don't sound too dorky or whatever. 

The song you heard was Concierto de Aranjuez and it was arranged by Sally Harmon. It was a song I learned awhile ago but I just recorded it for my first trial. Leave your comments I love hearing from you guys! Thanks! ~ Enjoy, Arianna 

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To view my stuff about art, life, and other thoughts scroll down or click on "entires" to your right :)

A Tattoo.

Finished piece of a character I thought up
named Nanji - it means warrior. By Arianna Hall

"However, 

every mark has its meaning..." 

- James Swan 1879

I find the constant argument of tattoos between all members of my family hysterical sometimes. The "elderly" or adult side rants about how ugly they are and how absolutely hideous they'll turn out to be when you're older and your body changes. However, the youth of our family argues that tattoos are art for life and have a significant meaning for that particular person.

And me, well, I'm in the middle I suppose. I think if anyone is thinking about getting a piece of art tattooed to their body for life, then they should at least draw in on themselves (or have someone else draw it on them) with a sharpie for 9 months to a year. This way, you'll see it often just like you would if you really had it. It gives you time to think "is this really the image or word(s) I'd like to keep on my body for the next 70+ years." So there you have it. A happy medium. Now if you want to present this argument to your parents (if you're under 18) then be my guest and see what they say. Remember, thinking things through isn't just for them, but you as well!

Sketch I did in 2011 by
Arianna Hall

Hey, I'm an indecisive person, I would totally want to change it within the next month probably - its color, size, image, whatever. Just make sure it's what YOU want. And not someone else (like your friends or your boyfriend, don't listen to them they wont be wearing your skin for the rest of their lives.) Unless they're cannibals, but then that'd just be creepy as poop. 

I donno about you but I'm super tired. So I'm gonna go ahead and wrap this one up. Sorry it wasn't a Vlog.. hopefully I'll have time to do one for you this month. The summer is getting pretty busy here at the end. Gotta finish up my AP art assignments and everything. This entry was rambling a bit and won't be as edited and pretty as the others so I do apologize for being inconsistent with teen rambles and normal people talk.  

Alrighty well as always thank you so much for listening and viewing. I hope you share some of my other blogs with your friends and what not. Please comment! I love to read what you guys have to say :) 

~ Enjoy, Arianna

To Dream.

"All that we see or seem is but 

a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allan Poe

NASA's photograph of a galaxy
From the Hubbl

First off.. speaking of dreams, I'd just like to give some congratulations to my blog "sketchbook" for receiving over 200 views. (Lets make it to 1,000) Huge thank you to everyone who made that possible! Now for the newest entry on something a little different than the usual.

Native Americans said that dreams we're significantly more important than reality, or what we perceive reality to be. It's also said that dreaming is dying, only without permanently losing consciousness. This observation has been published in many articles on people who have died and lived through their near death experience. So my food for thought is, what can you do with dreams? What about a dream makes it so important and applicable to the dreamer? If humans followed their dreams, literally, would it change the depth of art if they chose to apply it to a piece? I think yes. Dreams are our subconscious molding over what our deep thoughts, needs, and greatest fears are. That's why dreams have such a great emotional impact on us and how we remember some of them so vividly. 

Photograph and sculpture by John Frame

Dreamer to Artist.

Many great artists have written down their most vivid dreams and have let that influence their art, such as John Frame. The picture to your right is a character in a scene of a dream he had remembered. Then, over the time span of four or so years, Frame built a whole world and art gallery about his dream. Me, having seen it, was incredibly impressed at how well he was able to communicate the same mysterious and eerie feeling of the dream to the viewer. You can actually see his final animation at this link Three Fragments of a Lost Tale.

It's always important to hold onto things that motivate you the most. For example, I'm going off to college in 13 months. Right now a new adventure is motivating me, I can go anywhere that I want if I hold onto that dream. Because the longer you hold onto it, the more the idea will grow in your head and eventually become a reality. Just like John Frame's work, his world literally started out as a dream he had. But then as he worked for years and years on this one vision, he made it a reality for not just him to experience, but for a whole population of people to enter his mind. So on my hunt for scholarships I keep in mind that college is a dream now, but with much time and hard work invested will certainly become a reality later. 

FONT PROBLEM: Let me know if it has been fixed yet, apparently there's a font problem that blogger can't figure out yet. If you know how to fix it please comment! 

Hope you enjoyed the takeaway for today's entry. 

Comment if you'd like - I love hearing your thoughts! 

I'll put more of my new artwork up next time :)

I'm also working on that video.. not sure how long it will take. 

~ Enjoy, Arianna

The Idea.

Fire Native by Arianna Hall
30" x 40"

 "i carry your heart, 

i carry it in my heart." 

- e.e. cummings

Hello everyone! Back from vacation :) 
Here's the newest entry... 

The advanced art class at my school is based around a full year assignment called "concentration pieces". It's made up of 12 or more different pieces that all include the same concept. So for my concentration concept I want to include literature into my art, like the clip of e.e. cumming's poem above. When you create something of your own and add a touch of someone else's genius work, it makes yours that much better. Plus you expose the viewer to literature (or other artist styles) that you appreciate and the viewer gets a new understanding about the meaning behind your art. 

No piece of art is truly original or has never been seen before. Of course the whole piece can look like a new creation but certain aspects of the piece are always borrowed from something the artist admires in another artist's work. This might be viewed as a bad thing or seen as "copying" but the truth is that it's far from lazily replicating and ripping off another artist's work. 

Learning by observing is a crucial skill to have when you're an artist, or anyone really. It's good  to notice certain things about another artist that benefits them and see if you can't apply that to your own style or art market. Andy Warhol is actually a pretty good example of this. Even if you don't like him or his art, let's be honest, he had some amazing marketing strategies that we can all learn from. His poster designs are simple and recognizable. Human's recognize repetition, so if you suddenly see an image everywhere you go it's likely to catch on with society. Andy's posters were everywhere when he started creating Obey Propaganda in response to government dictators. Soon, everyone wanted a t-shirt with his art on it. 

Mask (Sketch) by Arianna Hall

Hense, this blog. The more people see your art, like it, and share it, the more people will be interested in your story and want to make you more known to society. Pretty soon you have a popular artist who's getting their message/story/art out there! And that's the story of success. 

When I'm an art teacher I think it would be a really good idea for my art students to keep a blog. Then they can share their art with one another and with other people out there too to get comments and feedback from the real world about their work. 

A little about the art in this entry - Up top is "Fire Native" and I drew him for extra credit for English 11 last year. If you want to know the concept behind it just leave a comment saying so and I'll answer any questions about it. The Mask sketch was a doodle I did while camping last week. Word to the wise (bloggers/writers/artists).. Never go anywhere without your notebook or sketchbook! When a good idea hits you, always be sure to record it and act on it when you get back home. Inspiration comes at the most unexpected times. 

Up Next: I've been thinking about recording a small video! Some idea's I've been throwing around are making a tutorial on how to use rocksalt while watercoloring, or sharing a piece of music with everyone. I've been playing piano for 7 years so that might be a fun thing for people to see. Let me know what you think! 

Thanks for listening :) Any comments or questions are always welcome and appreciated! ~ Enjoy, Arianna  

Vacation.

To My Audience..

Thank you for reading my Blog! 

I'm going to be gone till Monday August 6th. 

I wont get to write a new entry until then. 

In the mean time - My past entries are available to read! 

(Look to your right)

Enjoy exploring! ~ Arianna

My experiment with watercolor and rocksalt!
By Arianna Hall 

Question The Story.

My whiteboard doodles

"The more you look, 

the more you see." 

- Life of Pi

The beauty of english class is that it has the ability to open the mind of a young human. It sometimes worries me how many people glance at life and don't question anything. Every piece of literature that a mind absorbs is filled with connections. Over junior I've learned that with any book we picked up, coincidences ceased to exist. Anything and everything the author mentioned was a link, a connection, a metaphor, a symbol, for something greater. That "wait a minute" type of thinking can only be taught over time with practice. With that said, I think it's incredibly important when people look at art.. or anything really. Good art always has layers. In my first entry I stated a quote by Walt Whitman "I contain multitudes" in Song of Myself saying that humans contain layers.. there for art is the same since, to me, humans are the largest creation of art.

Practice questioning things you look at. Take one of my whiteboard doodles posted above for example, yeah its a girl/guy with a mohawk head to head with a fish.. but does it mean anything more than that? Art that is considered good art has a story behind it. What's the story behind this one? Being the artist I can tell you that it speaks very much towards environmental science. The fish is drooling and is clearly unhealthy, judging by his expression. The woman touching heads with it is becoming aware of its suffering. Also, her hair is covering her mouth, which connects to the harm and pollution people are inflicting on rivers and the environment that's unnoticed and unheard about.

Sketchbook page

So you see.. while freshmen were commenting on how much they're enjoying the drooling fish, I've been subconsciously planting environmental awareness messages into their minds. Yet the tragedy of it all is that who the hell ever noticed? Not a soul. No one took the time to question the story behind my art. 

What does art mean to you, what is it in your eyes. What's its story? Gain a different perspective, find a meaning, question the story. Oh yeah I almost forgot.. here's a quote that I wrote last year about my definition of art. "Art is a piece of a human's soul drawn out from inside them and shown to other humans to comprehend. Because humans contain multitudes, what is shown is both obvious and mysterious. It's the spirit of love and/or truth that's shared for the human senses to reflect on and to experience, to hear, to see, and to feel with the hand, heart, and mind." - Arianna Hall 

Totally leave a comment if you'd like - I always enjoy other's thoughts. 

Thanks for listening :) 

~ Enjoy, Arianna

Gallery.

Hola - Welcome to my Art Gallery. 

These are pages of my sketchbook from last year and I'll be 

updating my gallery with more photos of my 

AP art pieces as soon as school starts up again. 

Drew this after a homeless person died
at the cafe right next to my dad's work 

Project t-shirt has been going on since last summer. I had this idea that I could sell my art and different art shows and what not.. but the problem is, with my art, it's not really a style that you would hang in your house or anything. So I thought they might look good as t-shirts.

Things catch on at high schools.. like uggs. If you don't know what those are you live under a rock or you're over fifty. Which is totally fine! haha, but seriously I think I have a few designs, if sold correctly, could catch on like wild fire and would possibly pay for my plane ticket to Europe or for some of my college classes.

A lot of you viewing from facebook have probably already seen these which I do apologize for, but I'll be getting some new drawings up soon for t-shirt ideas soon. And new works for AP art! Which is going to be a challenge next year.. but it also comes with a lot of freedom to finally think up your own assignments which is great.

As you scroll down you'll see a few sketches.. I'd love to know what people think about my style of drawing.. What's to hate? What's to like? Constructive criticism is always read and appreciated :) I left the comments open for whoever wants to write back to me - you don't even have to have a google plus account, you can be anonymous! Again thanks for listening and viewing. Enjoy ~ Arianna P.S. If you see any errors in my blog that would be amazing if you could comment and let me know. Shanks.

This one I was thinking about putting on a t-shirt
would you want one? haha

Won a gold award in the Scholastics competition
for this one in 8th grade

Just a page in last year's sketchbook 

Focus. Teaching.

 "Don't compare yourself to anyone else." - Sally Harmon

Last summers art by Arianna Hall

Focus.  

This is why I want to become a teacher... why I need to actually. When I'm in my thirties and a student walks up to me and shamefully confesses that they can't draw or aren't very good at art, I want to be the person who tells them these exact words - "Don't compare yourself to anyone else." This is something my piano teacher told me years ago and from then on I've always made sure to live by it. Whenever my subconscious tries to negatively inform me that others are clearly exceeding past my own ability in whatever I do I just remember that quote. 

No matter what it is that you do, music, art, even running, you do it differently than anyone else. That's a pretty significant fact alone. Think about it. In all of human history and time that has passed, the present, and the future, you are the only one who has done what you're doing. And even if it has been done before, you go about doing it in your own way. 

Take a piece of classical music for example. I learned how to play Clair de Lune by Debussy last year. Timing is key with that piece and reading the music gives you very specific instructions on how to play the piece. However, not one person who plays piano plays Clair de Lune the same. You can't get discouraged if someone plays it much better than you do. That's where they are musically, and you're where you are musically and there's really no changing that in a matter of seconds. Same goes for art or anything else really. You just have to know any human can be extraordinary at what they put their mind to.. it just requires focus. 

Art. 

A page of my sketchbook by Arianna Hall

I also want to talk about grading art. If you've ever taken an art class in high school you'll know that grading art is absolutely ridiculous. In fact, it's so ridiculous that even your teacher probably asked you what letter grade you would give yourself for your finished piece, and then what are you suppose to say? Who would really give themselves a D or an F? Let's be honest here. 

When I become a teacher I'd love to be able to grade my students on growth and improvement rather than their mistakes or laziness on a piece that they weren't really excited about. I want to adapt my class to what the students are most interested in. Of course I'd have a curriculum and they'd have to learn basic color theory and proportion, but I'd love to leave assignments open for my students so that they can exceed it their comfort zone at first. Then ask them the right questions and push them further to think in ways about their art that they'd never thought about before. 

When you think about your traditional high school art class things can get uninteresting very quickly. Painting portraits, researching the same famous artists time and time again, pencil drawings of spheres. You want to have a basic class structure don't get me wrong.. but I'd want to introduce newer material to my students to provide a little inspiration and thinking room. Like air brushing or spray painting.. when have you ever heard of a high school class learning pop art through a lesson on graffiti? 

Sorry about my art class tangent it's just I have so many ideas for new lessons and I'm so worried that when I'm finally an art teacher they wont matter because all the funding for high school art programs and classes will be cut in America. Time to move to Europe I guess.. that wouldn't be too bad of a plan. 

Anyway, thanks for listening -  

Please leave a comment if you'd like  :) 

Or if you have good blog discussion questions or subjects I'd love to hear them. 

Thinking about doing an art gallery page.. with a few more photos. 

~ Enjoy, Arianna 

Hello! First Entry.

Divinity by Arianna Hall
- 2012 -

Sketchbook - Entry 1

Alrighty, well I haven't written many blogs before so I just thought I'd try it out. I'm sure you'd like to know a few basic things first. Humans contain multitudes, many things make up who we are so here are some that make up who I am... 

Yes, I'm a high school student but pretty soon now I'll be heading out into the world to become something different. Not to myself, but to others. I'd like to be a high school art teacher. My father wants me to be a web designer (said I'd make more money that way) yet when he expresses this opinion all I can do is laugh and say.. dad - if I cared about money, I would never be a teacher. 

Anyway, more on that later I suppose. I'm still trying to keep you interested in what I have to say and why you should even keep reading. Which is entirely up to you, by the way, depends on your boredom level. So I'll keep it short and sweet.

Me.

I want to get my art out in the world. If you're an artist, writer, reader, thinker, dreamer, whatever, I'm sure you understand the importance of art. If you don't, take a minute and walk outside. Yeah, what do you see across the street? See that building, stop sign, street light? Someone had to design that. Everything is creation, everything is art. Without art, depending on what it is to you, humans wouldn't exist. (Because I believe we're art ourselves.) Something to ponder. 

So - to throw myself out here, blogging sounded like a good idea. I made a website last summer and the link is below if you want to check it out. Just some of my old sketches and such. More to come on the blog if you want to keep visiting from time to time. http://alionsheart42.weebly.com 

Thanks for listening.

~ Arianna 

P.S. Totally leave a comment if you want.
Any thoughts & comments & questions are accepted. Shanks :)