Identity

My last two posts were about admiring art. This is a piece that I drew this summer. Can you tell what it is? It's a combination of two images.

One image is of an eagle. I'm Gitxsan; I belong to the frog clan. In every clan, there are houses (wilps) and every wilp has a crest. My house's crest is the eagle. I'm in Wilps Delgamuukw.

The other image might be a little harder to see. It's a maple leaf; because, I am Canadian!

I've never been big on drawing (this is the first real piece of Native Art that I've done) but this one small project appealed to me.

I had a difficult time figuring out what I wanted to draw in my art elective during one of our summer camps.

But once I figured it out, you couldn't stop me until I was satisfied of the work I had put into it. You see, sometimes, SOMETIMES, I'm a perfectionist. I'm not saying this drawing is perfect but I'm proud of it. I feel that it represents a large part of me quite well.

Art is a fantastic way to express yourself; that's obvious. You can lose yourself in what you're doing because you just want to see that image in your head come to fruition.

Anyway, this is how I identify myself; and, it's great to share my identity with you in a different way.

I don't know exactly what the criteria for these blogs is but I wanted to share this with you anyhow.

If you have any questions, ask them in the comments section!

Thanks for reading.

"Meet Me in the Basement"

Like my friend Jana-Rae, I want to talk about music today. About one song I should say (there may be many more songs in the coming weeks).

Music is important to me. I love listening to it, singing to it; I only wish that I had the time and patience to create it!

This instrumental means a lot to me. I only heard it this summer but I know it's going to be one of those songs that I'll turn up when it comes on through my car stereo/headphones/computer speaker/you get the idea... 

I'll tell you the story of when I first heard this song.

The camp staff that I had the privilege to work with this summer, as well as myself, had decided to take a weekend retreat to Gitwinksihlkw (an hour North-ish of Terrace) one weekend. The trip started terribly; we didn't leave the camp until late. Everyone was suffering from a severe lack of sleep, and I had to drive the whole five hours. One of my supervisors, who was riding shotgun (she's an '07 B.Ed grad from our program!) had to stop 5 minutes away from our destination to throw up (the road to Gitwinksihlkw is really curvy). We ended of arriving at our destination at 3 AM. After settling in, I finally got to go to sleep at 3:30. Well, we all had to wake up 5 hours later because a few of my friends were playing in a brass band in the River Boat Days parade (fun fact: their entry won 1st place). 

This trip sounds really really bad so far... It gets better! Of course, I wake up still tired BUT shortly after I wake up, Nick (the guy who lives at the house the guys were staying in) turns on his PS3 and begins to blast this song on the TV's stereo. 

Immediately I was like "whoa" this song is awesome! My spirits were lifted and I had a feeling that that day was going to be a great one. I knew that I had just created a lasting memory. This song will be forever associated with standing in that living room and thinking how good I've got it. 

Play the song again, or for the first time. Turn it up! 

It's awesome how music affects us. It's awesome how much influence art has on our thoughts and feelings, be them positive or negative. 

Where would we be without it?

Warmth

Good morning/afternoon/evening! Thus begins my first official post about art and what it means to me! This piece here was created by my sister Michelle Stoney. She is a recent graduate of the Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
Make the image on this post as big as you can. Click on it or something.
Take some time and just look at it.
What do you feel?
What do you think it's supposed to represent?

When I look at this painting, I feel safe. I feel warmth wash over me. I feel content and comfortable.

Taking from my Fine Arts course, I think these feelings can stem from the lines in the painting. There aren't any straight lines (besides the border but whatever). Another thing I like about this painting are the colours. Red is my favourite colour, so it's obvious that I would find this painting attractive. The different shades are neat because the painting is essentially one type of colour. I like that it's not as busy as most other paintings. It's definitely something you don't see very often...

After a short discussion about her painting, Michelle told me that she felt the same way while and after she was done painting it. We both have the same favourite colour by the way.
She told me that this painting represented a fish egg waiting to be spawned. The circle on the bottom left is the egg. The "s" shapes on the top reminded us of the fish's ribs.
Do you see it? Pretty cool hey?

Does the image of this fish egg change the way you feel at all?
It didn't for me. I still feel warmth because this fish egg is being cared for; it's so vulnerable yet it's so protected. You may feel different (and that's great!) but that protection equates to warmth and comfort to me.

You could feel something TOTALLY different. If you do, tell me what you feel! There are no wrong answers when it comes to the interpretation of art (as long as you take a respectable approach to it!)

Until next time!

Hello and Welcome!

Hi, thanks for stumbling upon my art blog! Or, you might be here on purpose because you're in my EY 2014 cohort; in which case, don't judge me too harshly! I just wanted to start this first entry off with a short little welcome. No, I didn't want to dive right in to the artsy stuff... So, hello and welcome to the very first blogging journey of one Mr. Stoney AKA Alex/Sharkbait (Short Cake, Sharky, any other variant you can think off)/AStone/Al/Lex/A.

I'll try not to bore you too much with my entries. 

Key word here is "try." 

That's worst case scenario though.

Best case scenario, you'll enjoy the photos I post and maybe, just MAYBE, I`ll have something thought provoking to contribute to your day. In the words of Plate (probably): "Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something." I place myself in the latter of this quote for this particular post. However, I hope not to waste your time in the future!

Anyway, if you`re still reading, I hope you have a pleasant rest of your day.

Alex, out.