This year in grade 12 Visual Arts at St. Michaels Catholic Secondary school I went into the semester with the intention to discover what my preferred media is and also to come up with a term to describe my style as an artist.  I believe that during my time in this class I was able to come up with a way to describe my style and while I did not discover what medium I liked the most, I did discover more mediums that I have gained an appreciation for.  This year, I decided to branch out of my comfort zone and try out other mediums.  Prior to taking grade 12 art class, I would only ever use pencil crayon or watercolour to create my works of art.  However, this year I decided to try acrylic painting along with other techniques using acrylic paints and inks.  I am very happy that I decided to experiment with acrylic paints as I ended up creating some of my favourite pieces with this medium.  If I were to describe my style as an artist, I would say that I use the colour palette of an impressionist artist, use qualities of a pop artist, and have the skill level of a realism artist.  I feel like my style has evolved throughout my high school career and I am very proud to see what I have been able to achieve despite some of the obstacles that I have experienced during this semester.  

             When one looks at my artist's portfolio throughout the years they will see how much my style has evolved over the years. I was very impressed when I analyzed my portfolio from grade 11 Visual arts when I noticed how much I have improved my acrylic painting skills over a span of 1.5 years.  The top piece pictured to the right titled, "Mother Nature" took me 2 months to complete, and the bottom piece pictured to the right titled, "Nanna's Apartment" took me 1 month to complete.  Even though these pieces are based on very different subject matters, I believe that my techniques have improved drastically.  In the top piece, one can see that my blending skills are subpar and the painting looks non-dimensional, while in the bottom piece the painting has dimension and my blending abilities have significantly improved.  Before I completed the bottom piece, I studied impressionist techniques such as the broken colour technique and used this technique in the background.  I believe that this made the bottom painting look much more dimensional and therefore presents much more effectively.  In order to be able to blend my paints this smoothly, I watered my paints down a bit to make them more transparent and then build the colours up from there.  This is something that I did not do in the top painting and it is very apparent that I did not do this. 

            In my artist's portfolio this year I decided to include all of the works of art that I created in this semester as well as some of my pieces from my grade 11 art focused world religions class.  I decided to include all of my works of art in my art portfolio that I created this semester no matter if I liked the finished product or not.  I think that it is very important to include the best pieces as well as the worst pieces in a portfolio because this way the artist is able to show the viewer what they learned and how they evolved by making the piece.  For example, I decided to include my print in my portfolio even though I did not want to include it.  However, I decided to include this piece because even though it was not my best piece, it displays hard work and dedication to me.  Despite being in the hospital, I was still able to complete this piece and this makes me proud.  Overall, I believe that I managed to put together an effective body of work this semester to display for you.  

            I believe that art class this year was one of the most eye-opening experiences that I have had in a while.  This year in art I learned many things about myself as a person and also about myself as an artist.  In March this year, I experienced one of the most eye-opening events of my life.  Falling ill and being in such a critical condition made me feel vulnerable and also made my life flash before my eyes.  While I was in the hospital I could not do much due to my condition, however, I could make art.  While I was in the hospital I created a few art pieces and this is where I discovered that art is a very large part of who I am.  After this experience, I began to take art more serious and I have decided that I want to go into a career involving the arts after my 5th year at St. Michael's.  I have also learned that it is ok to make mistakes in art because even if you think that you made a mistake you can always turn it into something that works with the final product.  In previous years, I would consider that I was so extremely detail oriented to the point where I was too hard on myself if I messed up.  However, this year I started to explore more abstract techniques such as acrylic pours and discovered that you can always fix a mistake.  I have also brought this lesson outside of the classroom and I am now less harsh on myself.