by Lizybeth

Created on: June 24, 2008   Last Updated: October 04, 2009

From a teenage point of view, the first and most important starting point is the option, the opportunity, a place, time and the availability to try my hand at an art project. The next is to have many options. I find it stifling to have someone tell me what to do and to use specific things, however to be shown options that I may not have heard of or seen and given the tools to use can do just the opposite and stimulate my imagination.

My dream art project is to be in a place where there are many tools and mediums to use where there are few limits and the group progresses in their own directions thus stimulating and supporting the creativity of each person. Also the creativity of others may trigger new ideas for me.

Art can take so many forms, writing, drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, carving, music, drama or roll play, building needlework, quilting, weaving, and so many others including the virtual world. Then you can participate as an independent or in a group project.

Each form of art can use so many mediums as examples, drawing can be done using pencils, pens, crayons, pastels, charcoal to name only a few. Sculpture can be done using clay, but so many other possibilities, such as sand, mud, dough, recently I saw pictures of sculptures that were done by weaving pine needles together, creating life-size sculptures of animals, like brown bears, beavers, squirrels, etc., they were amazing and had the texture that appeared to be fur because of the use of pine needles.

There is a woman who shreds all kinds of paper and then creates very complex and detailed mosaic pictures that are truly amazing and sell for large sums of money. Then there is the virtual, all of the above is possible there, but using the computer and a different set of physical rules, such as gravity is not necessarily a law, but an option addressed in the scripting of an object if appropriate. Virtual art can be a visual object like a picture or sculpture, or animated via scripting like a cartoon or a three dimensional appearing character or sculpture or audio such as music or sounds associated with an object. The virtual world is opening up in so many creative ways.

Imagine a project where teens are given the opportunity to create a play, where all the props and backgrounds are created by the teens and the story written and acted out by the teens, then recorded with music added along with virtual characters and props to add enhancements and then edited and produced as the finished product.

A project this big would take money and planning and obviously would not be quick or easy, but could be amazing for both the teens involved and for anyone viewing it.

Of course the more realistic is to have a place where the tools are available and previous projects displayed to both support the work done and to give inspiration to those starting their projects. Nothing is better then to take ideas from one art medium and incorporate them into another completely different medium making something new and inspirational.

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