Art Plagiarism

      The definition of plagiarism is taking someone else's work or  ideas and passing them off as your own and not crediting the original author. We all know that in school, our teachers get pretty tough on us about crediting the original authors in bibliographies and if we don't we get accused of plagiarism, piracy, theft, etcetera...
      When painting, drawing, or doing any other form of visual arts, you too still have to be careful of plagiarism. If you want to sell your art work to other people and you used another persons photograph or recreated another persons painting, you HAVE TO get permission from the photographer, or other artist, to actually sell it. If you sell your painting without the permission, they could sue/fine you for plagiarism. If you are creating your art work for personal use - to hang up in your house, or have it in a personal, private portfolio, etcetera... - then you don't need to get permission to paint it. 
      My first painting of the bird - seen in my earlier post - is another persons photograph. I am using it for personal use and not selling it. So I didn't need to find the original photographer. My flower that I will post on my next blog is my own photograph I took in my grandmothers garden and now I would be allowed to sell it - but I won't. 

Avoiding Plagiarism

      The most effective way to avoid plagiarizing is to budget enough time for thorough research, take careful notes, and allow enough time for paper revisions.
       Please see Handouts for Students for tips on research and writing, how to paraphrase and quote, how to evaluate Internet sources, and a definition of "common knowledge". For additional help and suggestions, please see Terminology andResearch and Writing Help.

Other tips include:

• Talk to a librarian! They are there to help you with your research and any citation questions you may have.
• If you are unsure of whether or not to cite a source, err on the side of caution and cite it.
• Take the time to learn how to properly para-phrase, summarize, and quote.
• When taking notes always write down the complete bibliographic information and always directly quote. This way there won't be any confusion about where your sources came from and what was directly quoted and what wasn't.
• If you are having problems narrowing down your topic or if need additional guidance, make an appointment with your professor. Being confused by, or not understanding a concept is not an academic offense. Plagiarism or cheating is. Faculty members prefer that students talk to them.
• A low or failing grade is always preferable to a permanent academic offense on a transcript!
•  Remember that you are responsible for your own learning.                     

       -From the University of Alberta

My First Watercolor Painting

      Here is my very first watercolor painting. It took me a couple of months - mind you, I only painted once a week on Thursdays - with the help of my grandma. She taught me how to control the color and the water and saving whites. This is not a picture I took, but someone else's and since I am using it for personal use, I am allowed to paint it.
      It was really hard, especially for my first picture. But it was so much fun and has taught me a lot when doing my other pictures. It takes a lot of patients and practise, but once you grasp the idea it becomes relaxing and it allows you to escape reality.

Family Paints

      I come from a family full of artists. They have painted with all sorts paints. My great-grandmother painted with oil, acrylic and watercolor. My grandmother and my father also paint with oil, acrylic and watercolor. They all have so many paintings done - some big, some small.

      For over a year now, my grandmother has been teaching my aunts and I how to paint with watercolor. And I have really started to love it. Every Thursday we go over to her house and paint. My grandma and my aunt have been working on small tutorials while I'm working on a larger painting. I have already done 3 paintings and am working on my 4th.

            Watercolor                                                    Oil                                                           Acrylic

Art as a form of Therapy

      Art tells stories. Artists use it to show what they're thinking, how their feeling, their views on life. Art expresses the inner emotions. We all do it. Doodle, draw, paint, but what people don't really know, is that art is a form of therapy.
      Art therapy first started to originate in the 20th-century. As an expressive medium, art can be used to help people communicate, overcome stress and explore different aspects of their own personality. In psychology, the use of art to treat psychological disorders and enhance mental health is known as art therapy.
      Some situations in which art therapy might be utilised include:

• Children with learning disabilities
• Adults experiencing severe stress
• Children suffering from behavioural or social problems at school or at home
• People experiencing mental health problems
• Individuals suffering from a brain injury
• Children or adults who have experienced a traumatic event

      You might also wonder how an art therapy session differs from the average art class. "In most art therapy sessions, the focus is on your inner experience—your feelings, perceptions, and imagination. While art therapy may involve learning skills or art techniques, the emphasis is generally first on developing and expressing images that come from inside the person, rather than those he or she sees in the outside world," explains Cathy Maldiochi in The Art Therapy Sourcebook.

The Art History

      Art is always around us. Everything you see and hear is some form of art one way or another. Art has started around the Stone Age (30,000 b.c. - 2500 b.c.) They had cave paintings, fertility goddesses, and megalithic structures. The you have: Mesopotamian (3500 b.c.–539 b.c.), Egyptian (3100 b.c.–30 b.c.), Greek and Hellenistic (850 b.c.–31 b.c.), Roman (500 b.c.– a.d. 476), Indian, Chinese, and Japanese(653 b.c.–a.d. 1900), Byzantine and Islamic (a.d. 476–a.d.1453), Middle Ages (500–1400), Early and High Renaissance (1400–1550), Venetian and Northern Renaissance (1430–1550), Mannerism (1527–1580), Baroque (1600–1750), Neoclassical (1750–1850), Romanticism (1780–1850), Realism (1848–1900), Impressionism (1865–1885), Post-Impressionism (1885–1910), Fauvism and Expressionism (1900–1935), Cubism, Futurism, Supremativism, Constructivism, De Stijl (1905–1920), Dada and Surrealism (1917–1950), Abstract Expressionism (1940s–1950s) and Pop Art (1960s), and Postmodernism and Deconstructivism (1970– ) which is art without a center and reworking and mixing past styles.

      Some of the most famous paintings are:

• Monalisa - Leonardo da Vinci 1503-1519
• The Starry Night - Vincent Van Gogh 1889 (One of personal favourites)                   ---->
• The Scream - Edvard Munch 1893
• American Gothic - Grant Wood 1930
• and Group of Seven - Canadian painters who painting our landscapes.