Blog Evaluation: Kara Hemsworth

Blog in question: http://thelaughingdonkey.blogspot.com/

Kara's blog, apparently, is a sort of showcase for her artwork...particularly those that are "works in progress" that she wishes to share with those who view her page. Kara begins this blog by describing who she is and how she thinks, emphasizing that she is "a random and crazy person." Considering the artwork she has posted on her blog up to this point, it's not surprising to learn that she wants to create art professionally someday...she specifically would like to work in animation. Something else she shares with the viewer(s) is that her "art is a reflection of how she feels and her emotions" that she tries to convey to the viewer(s), which is written at the top of the artwork she has posted for her title: a winter scene featuring a barren tree standing in the center of a fenced-in grassy field, with snow scattered around in the foreground and background.

Every post that Kara has made to her blog resembles what I can only describe as "stream of consciousness." There doesn't seem to be any pretense or forethought in her posts...she just lets you know what she's thinking when she thinks it. For example, in her opening post, Kara describes her goals for this blog...including how she plans to make posts of her work twice a day, and how she hopes viewers will develop a good sense of who she is (as a person, presumably). She wants people to see her artistic capabilities flourish in this blog, like a gradual evolution of her ideas and work. She also mentions the "upcoming comics" she is working on, featuring herself and her roommates, as well as character development. After all of this explanation, she says: "See how technical I'm being? I'm doing a good job- setting a good goal for myself. Go Kara! alright.. i'll post some stuff.." This set of remarks seems completely spontaneous, or "random", and seems to give the viewer a picture of how Kara's mind operates. We see further examples of her mind's inner workings in the each of the pictures and the posts that go with them. One prominent example of this is found in her series of drawings featuring, presumably, a sort of rock band. Kara describes that while she likes the series with the different appearances of the same image (different backgrounds, lighter vs. darker lines, cropping part of the image vs. leaving the image in its entirety), she's not quite sure if she wants to use every single picture in the series for her eventual paining of said picture. This indicates, at least to me, that this picture might have started out as just one drawing, and Kara thought to herself: "I wonder what this picture would look like with a darker background...or lighter lines...or if I cut off some the image...or if I use different shading?" Maybe the resulting series is not what Kara had in mind when she started, but when she sees the images together...the result seems to be more powerful than any of the images individually. This post alone not only reveals Kara's artistic process, but also her thought process as she creates this art: she just follows the flow of her creativity, perhaps not knowing where it will end at first, and just keeps following that flow until she comes up with something that really works for her...even if she has to leave it alone and come back to it later when she comes up with another idea, as she indicates in her "Screaming Birds" post. Of course, people in general seem to come up with new ideas for a project more easily when they've turned their attention to something else (myself included)...so this is quite easy to relate to.

Kara indicates from the beginning that she wants to convey her thoughts and feelings through her artwork, and when combined with the posts that come with her artwork...the viewer gets a very clear picture of just who Kara is as an artist and how her mind works, and perhaps even a few hints about who she is as a person. I'm personally impressed with Kara's artwork, and the spontaneity that seems to go with them...I doubt she'll have any trouble finding an audience for her artwork. However, I'm also impressed by her posts. As I said before, no pretense, no forethought...just Kara. It's almost like I'm actually talking to her...and laughing with her as she seems to have no problem poking fun at herself. After all, her profile does say she loves to laugh...and I do, too. I think it will be very interesting to continue following this blog....

As for implications, I think "The Laughing Donkey" seems to indicate that we can all be happiest and can best relate to people if we just be ourselves. Kara has no problem being herself, indicating that she's very comfortable with who she is. Perhaps the world could be a better place if more people learned to be comfortable with who they are, and learned to be more accepting of who other people are. Of course, that's just my opinion....