My name is Amanda Barnhouse and I am a junior at Orange Lutheran High School in Orange County, California. I am currently enrolled in Advanced Drawing and Painting, which is my third art class at OLu. I have been creating art since I was a young girl, and have always had a very artistic side to my personality.
I make art because I love it and it is something that I am passionate about. I love to create and show what I can do in an area that not everyone is gifted in. Art acts as a different escape than what I am used to, and with anything in art, I can calmly and freely express my feelings and emotions through my work.
I think the things that inspire me the most are the people around me and how they have impacted me, as well as past events throughout my childhood, and what is going on in the world today.
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I feel like most of my subject matter has to do with the people around me, what I know about them and their personalities, and everything that they are doing in my lives. I enjoy approaching pieces that I have a set idea and plan for and that excite me, as that's where I feel I exert my most effort, skill, and pride.
I am really interested in pieces that have a story behind them or meaning that you cannot see from surface level. Things that have a foundation and evoke different feelings within the viewer. Art that was created for a reason, whatever that reason may be.
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I believe some of my strengths as an artist are definitely working with acrylic paint on things like canvas, wood, and shoes, as well as working on pieces that I can draw out and play around with, while at the same time making it a bold and clean piece. My newest adventure is printmaking, an media that I have become best friends with, and which I believe is what I will pursue more passionately going forward.
After all the projects this year, I am looking forward to creating pieces that in some way involve 3D media such as pillows, string, wood, and definitely shoes. I think it's really exciting to be able to have interactive and multiple materials on an artwork, as well as sometimes even being able to use them, show them off, or do something with them after.