Jean Kirschtein
By Jessica Nastasi 
Period 2, Art 2

When we were first informed about the concept for this project my mind went in so many different directions. There were so many cool things I could have done, and when I had just about settled on tin foil I thought of it. Denim. I had never heard of someone making art out of denim before, so I googled it. Turns out it's a real thing. The artwork was so beautiful it made me want to make my own.



(These two were my favorites)

After I decided on my medium I started coming up with ideas for the person. My top choices were Marilyn Monroe, because her real name is Norma Jean, Jean Simmons, and  Jean Kirschtein. I thought the first two were cute because there names went with the medium, but I don't really have a connection with either.Jean K. was the one I  wanted to do the most, but my problem with him was that he's a character from an anime called Attack on Titan. And at the time I thought it might be weird to use him for that reason. I was going to go with Marilyn Monroe, but then I saw another person chose her. Some of the people at my table said I should just go with the Jean K. idea instead, and that's what I ended up doing.

I used this picture of someone dressed up as him to create it.


After I traced that onto a piece of paper I sat down, got out my materials, and realized I had no idea how I was going to do this. After testing out a few different techniques I figured out the best way to do it was to cut out a piece of the paper, trace that shape onto the fabric, cut the fabric out, and repeat. It took up a long time, but it wasn't a difficult thing to do so it was kind of nice.

I think out off all the projects we have done so far I have grown the most because of this one. My abilities may have only grown in fabric cutting, but I think my mentality on art has flourished. I'm no longer going to debate in my head for days what I will do on a project. I'm going to try new things, and really challenge myself. I might screw up, but I'm a high school art student. I'll have plenty of time to get better in the future. I'm looking forward to making new projects, and I hope you look forward to seeing them.