BS Art Education | Class of 2020
Bio
I am a painter at heart and really enjoy teaching others about art and creating. I often use themes of nature in my work, both as an artist and teacher. I think it’s important for young students to learn about the environment through art. I also believe that it’s important for kids to work with their hands, and art bring that opportunity. I’ve been able to learn many things, from art making skills and techniques as well as ways to effectively teach in the art classroom. I plan to become an elementary art teacher in the upcoming school year to be able to share my artistic insights and teaches kids about the joys in the process.
Contact
email: emily.kreutter@daemen.edu
instagram: @em_k_art
Blossomed
As an artist, my best work is made when I don’t have a plan in mind, creating work that worked through life situations and learning how to let things go. Collectively, this body of work is influenced from my childhood and how I learned to move forward with God by side and nature as a grounding force. These works are some of my best work and show the most growth of moving through life. Through these works, I have been able to blossom into my own person and to be the best educator I can be.
As a young teen, the last thing I expected was a shift in regular life. When this happened, it was life-shattering for me. This work best reflects that time in my life.
My family is not a “normal” family and it was difficult to traverse that territory as a 13 year old. I value my family very much, but the representation has changed. I love nature and house plants, so I represented my family through potted plants, with each plant corresponding to our personalities and interests.
Balance is a difficult thing in life. As a young adult, I have found it best to compartmentalize home from school. I find balance in my home life through my Christian faith, baking, and connecting to nature. However, there are aspects of my life I hate dealing with and just sweep them under the rug and not deal with it until I have to. This piece was made with all found and recycled materials that represent the balance I have in my home life.
This is a piece that came to me as I worked on it. I was inspired by an antique thimble that had dimples around the bottom edge. I wanted to make them large scale and colorful. This was one of the first pieces I made and was proud that did not have a set plan when I started.
I never thought I would enjoy making art in a loose manner and making an abstract piece. This is the first piece I completed that was completely free with just a blank paper and paint. This piece reminds me of the journey I am making in faith and how this became a stepping stone into the rest of my life that isn’t defined by my past.
I grew up in an old farmhouse that still had the t-lock style shingles on the roof. This piece was influenced by those shingles to create a geometric painting with a color palette that closely matches my personality.
This piece was an exploration in painting a still life with just a palette knife and paint. It was an exciting challenge to use just a knife, and it was even more fun to paint dying plants. It became a metaphor of my life; even though the plant is dying, love and care can bring it back to life and it will flourish.
This screen print was created with an abstract prompt. I am drawn to organic shapes and it just came together so quickly and easily in both the layers and the colors I used. It quickly became a representation of my personality and my favorite season, in the aspects of the ink colors and in the free-flowing shapes that are layered together.
I was asked to paint a portrait of a cow for one of my family friends who worked at Yancy Fancy, a cheese company. I learned how to manipulate oil paint with this piece and it brought back memories of my childhood. But this work was different than others; it brought joy even though it reminded me of my past. It became a breakthrough painting for me and brought joy to a well-deserved friend.
I bought two antique windows years ago and had this idea to use one of the windows as a table top that opened into storage. I created this coffee table with that in mind. This is not my first woodworking project, but it is one that I am most proud of. It is made of solid pine with a top that hinges open to a storage compartment that can be seen through the glass of the window.
As a student teacher, I completed this unit with the third grade at Harris Hill Elementary. We talked about daily travel and the artist Emily Garfield. Each student created a map of a place they travel to frequently. We used water-based markers to outline our map and then used watercolor paint to color our map with warm colors. I then taught the students about how to work together to present everyone’s map. Each student reflected on their work and the daily travel they chose to represent in their painting.
With the coronavirus outbreak, I was unable to complete my student teaching experience at the high school level in person. Instead, I worked with the teachers at Buffalo Academy for Visual and Performing Arts remotely, presenting units with the online Learning Management System Schoology. I helped create a lesson with the theme Hope and Heroes that involved using cardboard to create a relief portrait. To best show my process, I made a time-lapse video while I worked through the project myself. This was an example I posted for students to see my own process because they were unable to see any demonstrations in the classroom.