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The artist we know today as Hokusai was born in 1760 in Edo (present-day Tokyo), Japan. Though the artist went by nearly thirty different names in his lifetime, he began calling himself Hokusai around 1798. It was common for artists to adopt different names to delineate different careers. As a child growing up in a family of artisans, the artist was called Tokitarō. His father was a mirror-maker for the Tokugawa Shogunate.110 At the age of fourteen, Hokusai became an apprentice to a woodblock carver; four years later, he entered the studio of the ukiyo-e artist Katsukawa Shunshō, where he spent ten years learning drawing, painting, and woodblock printing techniques. Hokusai’s mature style was impacted by the Dutch art he encountered at this time. Ukiyo-e woodblock prints had become tremendously popular and widespread in Edo period Japan. Ukiyo-e referred to “pictures of the floating world.” “Floating world” refers to the Buddhist concept of impermanence. These were regarded as cheap commercial products. Prints were available in shops and from street vendors, and a common print cost about as much as a bowl of noodles. After the artist Shunshō died, his studio, which was known as the Katsukawa school, continued. However, Hokusai moved on to join the Tawaraya school. In 1798, he left to work as an independent artist, and ultimately, he began accumulating followers of his own. These followers included his youngest daughter, Katsushika Ōi, also known as Ei, who assisted her father with his work and also created art on her own. Hokusai distinguished himself by moving away from traditional ukiyo-e subjects like courtesans and actors. Instead, he embraced landscapes and scenes of everyday life. One of Hokusai's most well known works, Under the Wave of Kanagawa, is pictured below.

Ink wash, or water-ink, painting technique is an artisticpractice that originated in China and spread throughEast Asia, becoming popular in Japan and Korea. Ink wash painting is known as shuimohua in China, which is pronounced as sumukhwa in Korea. The technique is called sumi-e in Japan. The essential components include an ink brush, inkstone, inkstick, and xuan paper. Known as the “Four Treasures of a Scholar’s Studio,” these were the tools required for calligraphy, and painting emanated from this tradition. The ink brush is typically a round, tapered animal hair brush with a bamboo handle. Occasionally these handles are made of more valuable materials like jade or ivory. The inkstone is a mortar to which one adds water and then grinds the inkstick against it, combining the two to produce ink. The stone also has an area to store the paint after it has been made. The inkstick itself is made of soot and animal glue, formed into a solid stick or cake. Xuan is the final component; it is a soft, absorbent paper well-suited for ink painting. Typically referred to as rice paper, the name is misleading. The paper often contains bamboo, hemp, and mulberry bark, not rice. Any additional color needed for paintings is made by combining ground minerals or vegetable dyes with animal glue and water to create washes of pigment. Once the materials are assembled, the painters need to master handling the brush with nimbleness to produce lines of various lengths and widths. Practitioners describe the calm and mental acuity necessary to balance the appropriate amount of water and ink on the brush, and then wield it with the necessary pressure and speed. Though figural studies exist, landscapes and nature scenes dominate the field of ink brush painting. Such scenes can be representational as well as symbolic, commenting on humankind’s relationship with nature.

10/4/21 By: Likhita Velmurugan This is probably my favorite piece from my entire portfolio. My idea for this piece was to have a portrait of a young woman with “old” wrinkly hands, to show how fast people age and the wrinkles are like the experiences and stories our lives tell, the hands are also the first body part to show signs of aging. The colors also match this theme of young/old as well because yellow is bright and associated with youth and blue is regarded as more intelligent and calming which is what happens as we get older. My main media for this work was Prismacolor which was a total pain to shade because everything kept blending and becoming green, but I'm happy with how it turned out. Hope you all like it! :)

10/2/21 By: Likhita Velmurugan Hi! Sorry, I haven't been posting a lot, but I wanted to share another piece from my AP portfolio I did last year. This one was inspired by how I constantly wished I could go back in time or just freeze time to enjoy a certain moment. So the figure inside the clock is meant to represent a person attempting to stop time from passing, and the chain around their neck ( like the chains of a pocket watch) are preventing that from happening. I was experimenting with drawing new textures and the figure is meant to look like a bronze statue but I think it just looks a little unfinished lol, hope you guys like it! :)

It is rare to come across someone who will put pen to paper. Where is the need in grabbing some ink when you have a computer willing to loyally store all the information you could ever imagine? It’s so much easier to type, writing by hand is messier. Collaboration becomes more feasible online. Hard-copy things can get lost quicker. Yes, all of these things are true. But there is something about the way a pen feels on paper, the unique way hands scribble notes, jot down ideas. It’s not just a uniform font. No letter looks the same. The hard-copy has character to it. It can be distinguished as yours and not someone else’s. It can be used as a trademark, a signature. It is you. Of course there are numerous studies that show the benefits of handwriting as opposed to typing. The brain transfers the information from short-term to long-term, it improves your understanding of certain topics, it engages you, yada yada yada. But studies are just numbers. Although there are people who participate in the study for the results to be shared, the “studies” are statistics. They are percentages. The world has gotten so used to labeling us in different categories saying we can be this, but not that. We can choose to do this, but we can’t do that. It’s not our type. It’s not YOU. Well here’s the thing, nobody has the right to tell you what your type is. Nobody has the right to tell you what you can’t do. Nobody has the right to tell you who you are. Only you provide those answers. When it comes to handwriting, there is something about checking off a box, crossing off an item on the list, or marking off a day on the calendar that brings satisfaction. It is a specific action that marks the completion of an event you noted. Something you told yourself you needed to get done. Clicking “Complete the Lesson” on the computer does not give the same sense of achievement. It just feels like another click. It doesn’t feel special. What makes handwriting so unique? People can say all they want that it’s the brain, but let’s face it. The brain can trigger all of these emotions, but what really makes handwriting so sacred is the fact that it’s ours. It’s our line that is crossed off. It is our day that has been completed. Have you ever thought about how nobody can write your exact same story, but anyone can type it? Ponder that for a moment. If someone wanted to type up your story, and they used the same language as you, they could do so easily. Using just the click of a mouse, the font can be changed to reflect your personality, the details can be added, the blanks can be filled. In fact, this can even all be done on your account. But nobody can write for you. Yes, there are ways that people have scribed if there happened to be a group project that has needed that in the past. Yes, there are representatives that write according to the common consensus. People do that all the time. But that’s not what I’m talking about. What I am speaking of is the specific way in which you write something. Anything. Draw a line on a piece of paper, and then ask the person next to you to draw a line. Most likely, if the point was not to copy, the lines looked different. That other person did not have your line, you did not have theirs. That is what makes handwriting so unique. It’s yours. Nobody can take it away from you. It is specific to you. It is tied to you. That line has your name on it, and nobody else’s. Somehow, your brain told your hand to draw that line, and the other person’s brain told their hand to draw theirs. There is no mistaking the lines. They are clearly different. Sometimes we dread the cramping of our hands when we write an essay, or the smear marks on the sides of our palms once we have written in pencil (lefties, I’m talking to you guys). But looking at the way we put a pen to paper and we fill up all the boxes, those words came from your brain. It is actually proven that some of your best thinking is done with writing. Putting a pen to paper. So if this is the case, why don’t we hand-write more? Why don’t we make it a staple? Well guess what? Nobody says we can’t. Next time you take notes, try picking up a pen. Next time you make a list or set a reminder, make it on a sticky note instead of your google calendar. Allow yourself to feel the accomplishment of crossing off an item on the list. Checking off a box. Do it. In fact, do it more than once. Go throughout your day, and instead of checking the reminder off, cross it off. Make it more permanent. Seal the deal. Make it official. The writing’s on the wall. What are you wanting to say?

Purely innocent is a combination of words that can be used to describe nature; but let’s face it: nature has quite the sense of humor. Solely through the contortion of trees, the uniqueness of wildlife, or the absurdness of brush, the world around us provides a more whimsical perspective on our seemingly bland surroundings. Think about it, when you look at a tree, have you ever seen one that is perfect, through and through? There is always that one branch. This one leaf. That funky stem. The list goes on. In fact, there are moments when the environment looks so dilapidated we start to pity the sour luck of Mother Nature. We start to say things like “well that’s strange”. Sometimes we even laugh because nature looks so unreal. But allow me to pose a question; what defines these unique qualities as imperfections? Are not our views of nature imperfect? Have we not witnessed the fact that nothing natural is ever flawless? What if this is the way it was made to be? In our modern-day culture, we are enticed to believe that perfection can be achieved. In fact, we are fooled into thinking this. We are cornered into a bottomless abyss in which we fall when we try to be perfect. Why is this? What even is perfect? Can perfect even exist? The short answer is actually no. Perfection is the ideal scenario depicted from our own, personal vision. Perfection looks different for each person, meaning it cannot be placed into a box. It cannot be defined. So why is it that we aim to be something that varies and changes? Something that we can never put our finger on? If we strive to become something that never stays the same, we find ourselves changing as perfection changes. We lose ourselves in the process. Our minds become entwined with ideas that seem too good to be true and we become those ideas for fear that if we do not we will mess up. Friends, are you hearing me? Are you seeing this clearly? What most people often forget is that each time we mess up, there is another that does the same. Maybe our scenarios look different, maybe the minor details and the fine print do not match to a “t”. They do not have to. It does not matter in the long run. What DOES matter is who we are. Why do we get lost on a path that doesn’t even exist? The path to perfection is not defined because it does not exist. There is no path. There is no way to reach what cannot be. Nothing is perfect. Nobody is perfect. So why walk the path in hopes you will “fail less” and risk losing yourself? Do you wish to deprive yourself of the joy of being human? Do you wish to become the boring tree, the one with no movement? It’s time to purify ourselves of perfection. It is not needed. There is no use reaching for something that cannot be reached. There is no purpose in bending over backward in order to “look better”. I’m about to give you a reality check, friend. You don’t look better when you try to be perfect. You look lost. The happiest people on the planet have grown to understand that there is nothing wrong with making mistakes as long as you are being yourself. Did any of your favorite influencers get to where they are because they tried to live up to a standard? Were any of those people remembered long after they stopped singing, acting, dancing, cracking jokes, for their flawlessness? Quite possibly they were appreciated because of their distinct and very feasible ability to appear nonetheless spotless on camera. But behind the scenes these people are humans. They showed a bit of themselves and realized they didn’t need to be anyone else. They did not need to be the symmetrical trees in the forest. They could be the trees that contorted off to one side, those that looked disproportional. It didn’t matter. As long as they were authentically true to them. And the same goes for you. People want pure, not perfection. As long as you stay true to yourself, the right people will show you your purpose. You’ll find your way. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you have to work to be picture perfect. There is no such thing. Stand tall and embrace your bends. They are meant to be there. They are not even comparable to another’s. Before we depart, let me leave you with one last reference. When you buy something like bottled water at the store, do you want the aesthetic packaging with the sucky water? Or do you want the bottle that looks like it went through hell and back but contains the purest water? If you pick the aesthetic packaging with the sucky water, you’re picking the perfect over pure. It will set you up for disappointment. I challenge you to open up your bottle. One that’s been through a lot. One that has seen pain. One that hurts. Allow people to see your heart. It’s refreshing. And most importantly, it belongs to only one. You.

1960s Pop Art, with its incorporation of images of mass culture, violated the traditional unspoken rules regarding what was appropriate subject matter for art. Andy Warhol (1928–87), the icon of pop art, achieved the kind of popularity usually reserved for rock stars. His soup cans, Brillo boxes, and images of movie stars were created with a factory-like silkscreen approach that he used to mock the art world. Roy Lichtenstein (1923–97), another pop artist, adopted the imagery of comic books and recreated them on such a large scale that the pattern of dots used to print them was made massive. Robert Indiana (1928–2018) used stencils that had been originally used to produce commercial signs to create his own artistic messages. Minimalism sought to reduce art to its barest essentials, emphasizing simplification of form and often featuring monochromatic palettes. The invention of acrylic paint and the airbrush enabled Minimalist painters to achieve very precise outlines, which resulted in the term “hard-edge painting.” The artist who is best known for these large, entirely non-objective paintings is Frank Stella (b. 1936). The sculptors David Smith (1906–65), who used stainless steel, and Dan Flavin (1933–96), who used neon tubing, also created large pieces that reflected this abstract minimalist sensibility. A Pop-inspired group of artists began to produce works that aimed to create a kind of super-realism or what came to be called Photorealism. In these works, a hyper-real quality results from the depiction of the subject matter in sharp focus, as in a photograph. This technique offered a clear contrast to the use of sfumato, developed in the Renaissance, which had added a haziness to the contour of painted objects. z Photorealist artists Chuck Close (b. 1940), with his portraits, and Duane Hanson (1925–1996), with his witty sculptures of ordinary people, hearkened back to the Realism promoted by Gustave Courbet.

The Greener Grass A Blog by Jessica Nino Please remember to stay safe loves! <3 Many, if not all, K-12 students have already begun attending classes for the 2021-22 school year. Like myself, many of you are back to in-person learning or had limited/no remote option for this year. Finding yourselves back in such a large public space with less strict mandates, covid may still be a cause for concern to many. Taking those circumstances into consideration, many of us ask ourselves, What can we expect for the next couple of months? As some states are no longer requiring masks, we can presume a spike will occur at schools. With large bodies of people in such small crowded places like hallways, cafeterias, assemblies, and pick up/drop off stops, we begin to worry about our safety. In the United States, Canada, and Germany, we were already seeing speculations of a fourth wave expected to hit in December. Bringing students back to school can only be expected to speed up the wave. With only about 50% of the U.S. population vaccinated, we have also seen a spike in hospitals once again. Once again, many city hospitals have reached their maximum capacity like they did a year ago. 9 out of 10 hospitalized cases are stated to be unvaccinated. The fourth wave of Covid is “inevitably” expected to hit many countries and spikes are already revealing themselves. Overall, we can definitely expect a spike in rates, especially from those who remain unvaccinated. With the Delta variant, some vaccinated have still been infected, but overall those who are not vaccinated pose the highest risk. States are opening up again, but cities are asking to keep mandates put. Having started school early August with no mask mandate in order, I was seriously concerned for my safety and that of others, especially the unvaccinated and immunocompromised. After two days of no mask mandate at schools, every large city in my state opposed the government and placed a mask mandate once again. Because of how recent it is, no surge has been reported considering those, if any, infected are barely beginning to feel the effects of the virus; I am sure there will be a surge and spike of cases from those two days. Please be aware of our worsening situation regarding this sickness once again, get vaccinated and stay masked if you are willing and able to. To help, here are some scenarios to have in mind when washing your hands: Wash your hands like you touched a pepper and have to remove contact lenses. Wash your hands like they have dye and you’re wearing very expensive white clothes. Wash your hands like the kid that picks his nose high fived you. Reasons to keep your mask on: Someone has probably already farted or is planning to do so soon. It's summer, it’s hot, kids get musty. No one can see the faces you make under it. You can talk to yourself. What if something is stuck between your teeth? Your mask can match your outfit. Contact me Hi! I would love to hear your ideas, suggestions, and feedback on the content I am regularly publishing! I believe it is important I stay connected with yall and am able to positively connect and learn from yalls criticism and suggestions to help me improve as a writer. I encourage you to send me ideas and suggestions based on what you’d like to read about so that I can regularly connect with you all as well as better understand your interests, and help y’all destress, learn, and enjoy my content. -Love, J You can contact me through the following links and medias: Gmail: jessicanino2004@gmail.com Twitter: 1andxnlynino And Instagram: jjessicaninoo (also found at the top of the page next to the title, you can reach my profile by clicking the IG icon or looking it up through the username) The best way to reach me would be through either Email or instagram, I am constantly checking both. Don't be shy! Even if you don’t have suggestions, if you need a safe space, feel emotionally/mentally stressed, are feeling anxious, depressed, or just need a friend, I am always available! FAQs Who Am I? My Name is Jessica & I am a blogger for the CPSB (college prep student bubble) I was given the wonderful ability to create content for you all as a way to relax or entertain/learn while you prepare for AP/college. What Are My Interests? My interests include painting, volleyball, discovering music, reading (mostly sci-fi or romance), writing about absolutely anything and interacting with new people! I believe having hobbies and consistently participating in them helps you mentally and physically destress, so if you haven't done something you enjoy today, take the time to do it :). What Do I Intend For This Blog? This blog was created for you as a student to get some daily reading in on something that interests you. This became a resource because AP and college can very often be stressful and a handful, my purpose is to entertain you and help you stay motivated. My writing can be seen as a brain break or relaxer to those who are interested in it. I intend to make this a very chill spot for you all and to bring weekly content on any topic imaginable you suggest/want. What Grade Am I In & What Courses Am I Taking? I am an incoming Junior for the 2020-21 year, and will be graduating with the class of ‘22. I am an Early College High School student, so half of my classes are highschool and the other half are college. My classes this year will include: English 4 dual credit, Geometry PAP, Environmental Systems PAP, US History, (high school). For my first semester in college I am taking College English, Texas Government, and Philosophy. More About My Writing: How did I come up with ‘The Greener Grass’? Very often I heard the saying “the grass isn't always greener on the other side” I decided to name my blog after this to give it a positive connotation: it doesn’t matter what side of the “grass’’ were on, sure it may not be the greenest, but I think that by being positive & interacting we can make our grass greener. To me this means we can help each other out, we can teach and learn from each other; we will all eventually feel stress, pressure, & frustration, but together we can make the most out of it and encourage each other & grow. Cites used, referenced and helpful related to this content:

I recall being friends with a Tunisian girl, in my old school back in Asia. I remember her for two reasons: -She gifted me a cereal bracelet(which I consumed in days..I was a ravenous 8 year old.) -She gave me a piece of notebook paper, containing a star of the culinary world.. Which is none other than the famed dish, shakshouka. It is a flavorful dish of eggs, poached in a sauce of tomatoes, olive oil, peppers, onion, and garlic. Shakshouka is commonly spiced with condiments such as cumin, paprika, and cayenne pepper. According to Wikipedia(and my friend at the time), Shakshouka, in Arabic, meant "a mixture". I was extremely enthralled by the specific Arabic term, although I could never get my tongue to exactly pronounce the word correctly. Nowadays I am no longer in Asia, and I have unfortunately lost contact with my lovely Tunisian friend. However, I still remember the young friendship by making the dish, usually on rainy days, or on days where I return from school and feel like cooking a rich, soul-fulfilling meal. I usually added preserved lemon zest(a favorite of mine) and some crumbled feta cheese to the shakshouka once it is finished cooking, so the diverse myriad of flavors will mingle. To my Tunisian friend: Shukran. You are missed.

As we step into the twentieth century, we see artists who were continually striving to discover new ways of presenting their ideas. Furthering the attempts the Post-Impressionists had made to extend the boundaries of color, a group of artists led by Henri Matisse (1869–1954) used colors so intense that they violated the sensibilities of critics and the public alike. Taking their cue from van Gogh, these artists no longer thought their use of color needed to replicate color as seen in the real world. Their wild use of arbitrary color earned them the name of fauves, or “wild beasts.” Picture: Big Ben-London, by Andre Derain, a contemporary of Matisse. Natural form was to be attacked with equal fervor, as can be seen in developments in Paris around 1908. Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), in close collaboration with Georges Braque (1882–1963), was at work developing a whole new system of art. Picasso and Braque broke down and analyzed form in new ways in the style that came to be known as Cubism. The Cubists were influenced by African art, which they deemed closer to nature than the more intellectualized European art, and favored abstract forms over lifelike figures of the earlier times. In Germany, an art developed that emphasized emotional responses. A group of artists calling themselves Die Brücke, which included Ernst Ludwig Kitchener and Emil Nolde. They merged the brilliant Fauvist colors with the intense feelings found in the work of Edvard Munch. The resulting movement is now known as Expressionism, with its goal being to reveal the inner thoughts of the mind upon a canvas. The Great Blue Horses, pictured below, by Franz Marc, part of Der Bleu Reiter movement, similar to Die Brucke.

The artists who followed Impressionism were influenced by the earlier Impressionist maestros, and took various features of the art movement in vastly different directions. One of the most influential was Paul Cézanne-disillusioned with the lack of solid form in the generally quixotic Impressionist works, Cézanne aimed to redefine art when it came to form. He suggested that a painting could be structured as a series of planes with a clear foreground, middle ground, and background and argued that the objects in the painting could all be reduced to their simplest underlying forms—a cube, a sphere, or a cone. Here we should note the obvious influence that these ideas, presented first by Cézanne, later had on the development of Cubism in the early twentieth century. The ongoing search for more and more brilliant color was a unifying feature for many of the Post- Impressionists. The work of Georges Seurat(1859–91) placed an emphasis on the scientific rules of color. Seurat applied his colors in small dots ofcomplementary colors that blended in the eye of the viewer in what is called optical mixing. The results were vibrant, though the emphasis on technique also resulted in relatively stoic compositions. As Seurat was attracting attention and Cézanne was formulating his rules for painting, a young Dutchpainter named Vincent van Gogh (1853–90) was studying art. Van Gogh, using theories of contrasting color and very direct application of paint, created vigorous brushwork and twisting forms, both designed to capture an intense response, and though his career was short, many of his works have become very well known. Van Gogh developed the idea that the artist’s colors should not slavishly imitate the colors of the natural world, but should be intensified to portray inner human emotions. The intense and jarring yellows, greens, and reds in the poolroom of Van Gogh’s Night Café (1888), included below , was somewhere that van Gogh considered a place of vice. This work illustrates his very influential idea of color coordinations.

Although summer is a great time to relax and clear your mind from the previous school year, it is still important to continue learning over these short three months. Here are some tips to stay educated in interesting ways—without sacrificing your summer. Take Online Courses. Coursera.org, edX.org, and Alison.com are good websites to take courses in anything that interests you. Read for at least 15-30 minutes a day about anything that interests you. Download “Goodreads” if you need any reading recommendations. Learn a New Language. Download the app “Doulingo” or go on the website Babbel.com. I’m currently learning French myself. Internships/Shadowing. Taking internship or shadowing opportunities is a great way to learn about a potential career. You can find internships on intermatch.io or visit your local hospital if you’re interested in shadowing a doctor. I hope these tips helped with finding ways to continue learning over the summer!