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Joshua<br />
Carena Carrington<br />
Grade: 12<br />
School: High School of <strong>Art</strong> & Design, Manhattan<br />
<strong>Art</strong> Teacher: James Harrington<br />
Oil, gold paper, and chain on canvas<br />
STUDENT: Being an artist has given<br />
me confidence, patience and time<br />
management skills. I’ve learned to<br />
set goals, organize and plan out<br />
everything I’m doing when I create<br />
art, and this has helped me in real<br />
world situations too. I’ve learned to<br />
love my work, and appreciate those<br />
who also love my work. When people’s<br />
eyes widen and jaws drop as they<br />
look at my work I feel satisfied and<br />
proud of myself. My teacher always<br />
influences me to step out of my<br />
comfort zone, and try something<br />
new or challenging.<br />
The hardest part of this project<br />
was making sure my subject,<br />
Joshua, looked the same in each<br />
painting. I worked this out by<br />
redrawing and touching up areas<br />
several times until they were<br />
perfect. In the end, I surprised<br />
myself with what I accomplished,<br />
and couldn’t be prouder.<br />
TEACHER: All students are required<br />
to develop a body of work united<br />
by a theme of their own choosing.<br />
This theme often changes as the<br />
work progresses and the students<br />
find their way. What evolves is a<br />
clearer vision of the artist’s creative<br />
identity. Sometimes the theme<br />
doesn’t become evident until quite a<br />
lot of work is complete. Underlying<br />
each is the common denominator<br />
of the artist’s aesthetic, both visual<br />
and thematic. It is often during our<br />
senior critiques, where we examine a<br />
body of work, that we find the words<br />
that best describe the student’s<br />
entire portfolio. In other words the<br />
images occasionally precede the<br />
words. I embrace this because it is<br />
an indication of a true visual journey.<br />
This is Carena’s breakthrough piece.<br />
Her concept of portraiture really<br />
expanded and her technique took a<br />
huge leap forward. Her sophisticated<br />
and thought provoking triptych<br />
changed how I saw Joshua. She<br />
created a representation that changed<br />
my perception of the reality. The first<br />
thing I usually had noticed about<br />
Joshua were the marks created by<br />
his skin pigmentation. Carena’s<br />
portrait reveals the person beyond<br />
surface appearances.<br />
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