Unit 4: Mixed media Still life
Section 1:Inquiry Question and Concept Exploration
Meaning of artwork
I named this art piece 'Mother,' as the composition is filled with items that represent my mom. The red sphere and the cat are glass sculptures she herself made, and the orchid is the beloved flower that she always cares for. I wanted to dedicate this artwork to my mom to show her how much I appreciate her and how much her art and hard work mean to me.
Inquiry Statement:
How can combining different materials and personal objects in a still life communicate layers of meaning about who I am?
Inquiry Question Evaluation
This unit dives into the usage of various artistic media and styles to create a piece with more stylistic and artistic depth, which conveys an extended and more complex artistry.
Intent sentence
I'm curious about how creative and ingenious I can get with the mixed media used in my final artwork, and how the more unique additions will impact the final artwork.
Section 2: Connections
American artist born in 1887 in Wisconsin and died in 1986. She is considered one of the most important artists of American Modernism. O’Keeffe lived and worked in places like New York and later New Mexico, where the desert landscape strongly influenced her art. Her work often focuses on nature, especially flowers, bones, and everyday objects.
Themes and Meanings
Materials and Techniques
Style
O’Keeffe’s style is mainly modernist and semi-abstract. While her paintings are based on real objects, she simplifies shapes and enlarges details to create a more emotional and symbolic effect rather than a realistic one.
O’Keeffe mainly worked with oil paint on canvas. She uses mainly Smooth brushstrokes, simplified shapes, and Close-up views. And bold but controlled color palettes. Her technique often removes background details, so the object becomes the main focus.
In her still life artworks, O’Keeffe explores the beauty of ordinary objects, nature and organic forms, Personal perception and emotion. Her paintings encourage viewers to slow down and really look at things they might normally ignore.
Black Iris
Medium / Size: Oil on canvas, 36″ × 29″
Date: 1926O’
In Black Iris, the main object is a single flower, shown extremely close up. The petals fill most of the canvas, making the flower feel large and powerful rather than delicate. O’Keeffe uses dark purples, blacks, and soft highlights to create depth and contrast. The lighting emphasizes the curves and folds of the petals, giving the flower a dramatic and almost mysterious feeling. The composition is very simple, with no distractions in the background. The mood of the artwork feels intimate and intense. By enlarging the flower, O’Keeffe makes the viewer focus on its form and texture, suggesting that even small, natural objects can be meaningful and emotionally powerful. What makes this work inspiring to me is how she turns something ordinary into something bold and unforgettable just by changing the scale and perspective.
Reflection
For my own still life, I could borrow O’Keeffe’s affinity with flowers. I could also simplify shapes and use color to express mood rather than trying to make everything look perfectly realistic. I could also try to make ordinary objects feel meaningful by isolating them, removing distractions, and encouraging the viewer to truly observe their form, color, and presence. She shows that everyday objects can be powerful when we take the time to really look at them.
Section 3: Investigate
This experimentation process was a great trial-and-error journey as I tested with various media and scrapped many ideas before getting my final one. Additionally, I attempted to push the limits of mixed media by incorporating unconventional materials, such as ironed orchid petals.
Section 4: Create
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
On day 1 I started slow and added gridlines to my image wich I then added into my actual paper using the 13 x 9 grid. In the second day I started sketching the actual image with the gridlines aiding in my propotions. After finishing the drawing I erased the gridlines (or tried too). After that I procrastinated for a lot of days until in my third day of work I truly begun to work. That day I started with coloring the cat with colored oencils and then doing the pot, followed by the orchid . The last thing I did that day was starting the sphere . For the fourth day I finished the sphere with water colors and copper metallic colors. Then I started the painting using pen and a chocolate wrap. With the image complete I tied everything up with coloring the bakgorund a light blue..
Section 5: Final Artwork
Artist: Joaquin Escalante
Title: Mother
Size: 36 x 27.5 cm
Date of Completion: Dec 19, 2025
Why: Because this image includes not only my mom's art but also her favorite orchid, which is one she's nurtured and cared for a long time, having died a few times. With this piece of work, I want to show my love and appreciation for not only my mother's work but for everything she has done for me.
Section 6: Communicate and reflect
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Have I drawn my contour lines boldly, with some variation in line thickness to show texture or value?
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Have I used 2 paper types and 3 drawing materials on my final?
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Am I drawing what I actually see, not just what I think the object “should” look like through accurate grid drawing?
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Have I used hatching or cross-hatching in at least one area to build value or form?
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Did I test materials or techniques in my sketchbook before applying them to my final piece?
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Is my work clean and professional-looking? (No eraser smudges, fingerprints, wrinkles, or rough marks.)
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I have worked carefully on my final piece, not rushing, with thoughtful choices and application of materials.
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Have I stayed focused, worked hard even when it got challenging, supported classmates, and cleaned up my materials?
Peer Feedback
In retrospect, I can confidently say each unit of this first semester has been fundamental for shaping my art skills, and I can say I've vastly improved my art arsenal. Looking back, before this course, I would've been terrified of using colored pencils or anything involving a brush, as I was so scared of failure, of imperfection. I can't say I'm still not afraid at times because I would be lying, but this course has pushed me out of my comfort zone on many occasions, which has expanded me as an artist and brought me closer to my former artistic self. It feels like each unit has been meticulously thought out and planned in a way that maximizes learning and experimentation, and I must say it's worked in flying colors, so kudos to you, Ms. Shamburek. Even if I personally didn't quite enjoy doing a discoball, I can say the painting confidence boost I got from that unit was unparalleled. Let's not even talk about the abstract art or colored pencil unit, which was my favorite. I say was because there is one unit I've gone to enjoy even more than that one. This current unit has been amazing as it has felt the most permissive unit to date. It has been a testament to my progress and to my art journey. Using all the skills learned throughout the semester and ideating new techniques has truly been a blast. Like when starting this course, I could've never imagined a few months later I would work 8 hours straight in an art project( yeah, I misused my time horribly in class and procrastinated until there were two days left. I guess something never changes), or that I would be ironing orchid petals to glue into my artwork. With this unit, it feels like the key to my creative energy has been unlocked after being vaulted for a very long time. That carelessness when creating that capability to learn to embrace mistakes and imperfections. So basically, the only takeaway from this unit has not even been something related to the unit itself, but more on my part. This being that I procrastinated like never before, which is something I now greatly regret, as I could've used that extra time to make my artwork even more of a personal magnum opus. With nothing else to say, I just look forward to the next semester and to getting more honing to my tools so that I can, at the end of the course, create something greater than anything ive ever done.