Last Blog Update :(

well, its finally over. senior year was a blast. not only in art, but the year in general. art, however was great. one of the highlights from the year was the scholastic art awards. i dont remember which awards i won, but just having my art up in the show was awesome. its very reassuring, and made me want to push myself even more, knowing that other people liked the stuff i made. also, lumberjack day was epic. i finally was inside mrs.mcbrides house. and learned how to throw axes. and hungout with rob, and emma, and cider, and the cat (forgot its name). anyway, that was a great final thing to do for the year. ended everything on a fantastic note. so much fun. definitely do that again. this year i learned alot about myself. i learned how to actually apply myself to making art. the self gratification was that much better after i actually tried. probably my favorite piece i made this year was ameritard. the first piece on my concentration. i went into it with a great idea, let everything go, and just made what i wanted to make. i love the way it carries my eye, and evokes emotion. some advise i would give to future ap students would be to think about what your doing, and do it the best you can. and make it good. other wise, why are you doing it? in ten years, i see myself, as either homeless making art, or with money and making art. basically just making art.

"if a tree falls, and no one is around to hear it, does the eagle still fly north? does the river still point the direction of the rising sun? can you still ride the sound of the wind home?" - Matt Shapiro

up dizzy

yo guys. just a quick update for yall. got some stuff goin on that needs to be spat. im doin the cover for the student planner next year. its lookin pretty dopeeee. got some swirlieys and what not goin on in it. im also goin hard at my pieces for the show. fixin up some old ones. gonna be reall sick. im really cited. also, i decided what college im going to. CCA!!!!!!!!!!!! if your ever in oakland holla, and ill hook it up with a place to sleep. matty out. peace up. a town down. 

UPIZZLE DATEIZZLE YO YO FA SHOW MO.

YO YO. got some news for all yall. mad ups in the college world. cruised on up to emily carr university. in vancouver british columbia. place was dope. really high tech stuff goin on in that school. they had some photo processing machine thats one of 2 in north america. but, all the students looked really old. kinda a downfall. plus there aint no dorms, and none of the kids live near each other. so that would pretty much murder my whole college expierence. plus, i didnt really like the feel of the work ethic there. little too uptight. so im crossing it off the list.... oh, and it rains MORE than portland, and is COLDER. so ya. plus they use the metric system. thats whack. anywho. went to the cca banquet or whatever its called for accepted students. they gave me the whole rundown, made it sound amazing. plus they gave me some sweet brownies that were real good. the guy leading the event was the same guy who gave me a tour of the sf campus while at the summer program. so we bonded over that for a bit. so we shall see. ill be making a decision in the next week or so. ive also been murking my april pieces. so ya. keepin up with the real talk ya dig.

march pieces

UP TO THE DATE YOO

hello errbody in tha club. got some updates for yall. i went to hawaii for spring break. it was dope sauce. i saw some cool fishies, and swam with a few turtles and whales. some inspiring stuff. i saw a cool surfer there, and did a drawing of him. pretty dope yo. back in the real world, i got accepted into the art department at u of o. ye ye. exciting stuff. see yall in class homie g dawgs

UP DATE

wud up lakeridge. got a few updates for yall. first off, i got some scholarships. one to pnca, and one to cca. so it looks like ill be going to art school. i still have yet to hear back from emily carr. anywho, ive been doing some painting. i accidently got oil paint, and used it, and it sucks. it got all over me, and didnt dry, and yeah, that stuff sucks. it messed up my whole painting. oh well. ive been workin on a drawing of an american flag. word up. shappy out

UPDATE

YO YO YO. BIG WEEK!!! i got accepted into pnca, so that means im goin to college. yahhh. i also heard back from cca, they had all my information stolen, so i dont know whats goin on with that yet. hopefully good things to be seen in the future. ive been doing some drawings of weed leaves. pencil drawings on colored paper with colored pencil and black paint markers. maybe ill do some of my next concentration pieces inspired by that. kinda fun. ye ye. word up. matt shap out

UpDAyTes For the DAAY

well hello blogging commuunitee. not a whole lot to say. but ive been working on this big painting that i actually started at the jesse reno thing. its for this lady. so far its got 2 big plants on it. i dont know if i should bring the plants out alot, and have that be the focus, or make it more abstract. ill stare at it a bit more. if you have any input feel free to share. THANKS. see yall in art tomorrow. updayte out. 

Concentration pieces

My concentration is deconstruction of the human mind

WOW! lots to talk about. first up is the piece with the red white and blue. titled ameritard. I was flipping through a book of portraits when i came across this fantastic photo of a guy from new york holding the american flag. so i pulled out some paper and started drawing. i took some key ideas from the photo, and then threw my own little spin on it. i played off of how wierd the guy looked, and the fact that he was holding an american flag. i tried doing the whole making the eye follow something, so i carefullyplanned where the yellow went and how the whole movement was down and to the right. i also just distorted the reality and made it all grotesque.

Second is the martini man piece. they other 2 pieces actually go together. its a top half and a bottom half. i also started out with this one by looking through a portrait book. this particular photograph was of a man in his kitchen sippin on some martini. gettin faded. i took the over all posture of the man, and modified the line quality and colored it differently. i also did the top half of the man on one sheet, and the bottom half of the man on another. crazy huh. i also did all the color on one half of both the top and bottom. the value and errything is really partially distributed on purpose. added a dimension to the character. implying that i partially knew him. he was very to himself, not very talkitive. mysterious

heyo updayte

yo yo yo. its goin down. lots of stuff to update on. i entered a couple of pieces into the art magazine national competition. so we'll see where that goes. hopefully i will win. that would be sickkkkk. some of my concentration pieces are on their way. im doing one of this old lady. shes super creepy looking. ive also got a bird house decorated with u of o stuff. it looks cool. fun to work on. woot woot

lots to update

first off. scholastic. the reception was hectic. and really hot. but it was great. got a scholarship to pnca which im suppperrrr psyched on. it was cool to see so many people there reppin the pacers. gotta love it. everyones art looked awesome. 

Next up is my concentration piece. its goin alright. doin a split drawing of some homie holdin a martini. im gonna do the top part of him first, then do the bottom half, on seperate sheets of paper. gonna try to bring 2 different styles together, and incorperate it into a cardboard background, or maybe some wood. 

finally.  with the help of the MC i finally got my portfolio put together to send out to colleges. its up on my facebook if you want to scope it. psyched. maybe ill get into college. ye ye

PORTFOLIO DAY!

portfolio day wasnt that bad!! last year it was awful. i talked to 3 schools and got some good critiques. at first we were just looking for the shortest lines, and i was standing facing away from this one table, and the guy started talking to me. turns out it was SVA from new york. and i used to live in NY, so we talked about that for a bit. then he critiqued my work, and he turned out to be really cool. he gave me this huge book to look at. then i talked to this equally cool dude from MIAD. he gave me some good critiques as well. i guess i need some meaning to my work. i didnt really come prepared with anything to say, and wasnt ready to be interrogated, so i told them basically the truth, and that just wasnt gonna cut it for an art school. basically i learned that you shouldnt have to bullshit anything, it should have the meaning from the beginning, and thats what im lackin. so now i have something to work on! the lady from PNCA talked really quietly and i couldnt really hear most of what she was saying. plus she just got really mad that she couldnt see the thumbnails i brought. get some glasses. stop drinkin that hatorade