In a sculpture class my sophomore year of high school, I was introduced to the material that is foam core (I think that’s its official name). Foam core is a sort of thin-ish sheet of foam with paper glued on either side, making it firm. To work with it you must have very sharp knives, else the foam will tear away in chunks when cut. You also must be very cognizant of the way you are holding the knife, as with the depth of foam core, holding it at an angle will affect the edge.

Now why, you may wonder, would this boy write about proportions in art when he clearly doesn’t know anything about them? That’s where you would be mistaken. Just because I choose to dismiss standard proportions in most of my art does not mean I am unaware of them.

For the 2022 Innovate WithIN business pitch competition, I pitched a website called “cardboard.com”. This website would be home to thousands of uses of cardboard collected in a free, easy-to-navigate format. It would encourage reuse of the versatile and amazing medium that is cardboard. However, I needed some proof that this was a decent idea.

Something… forklift-ish? Not to go off on a tangent, but I love the suffix “-ish”. You can put it on anything! Buttery-ish, cool-ish, smart-ish, and it makes any word seem uncertain. Not that I’m a fan of uncertainty… but I digress.

The idea of timed, limited budget creations with a theme in mind is used all over cooking and game shows. You don’t need to be on a show however, to enjoy the creative energy associated with competing for the best thrown-together project. My aunt and I tried this ourselves at a Goodwill, and it went great!

Compensation is when one tries to replace something they can't have with something else.

This can take the form of eating extra desserts after you work out or giving yourself a longer break after an extra stressful assignment (not admitting to either, simply acknowledging them).

MiPads were my compensation for not having a phone.

Rodeo Stampede is the best mobile game out there.

The range of animals you can collect, and the struggle you endure to collect them makes the whole game simply amazing. Created in 2016, this endless runner also features all the clever animal names.

I drew a house.

Personally I think this looks incredibly polished, and it's all thanks to the Queen of Cardboard.

Though I have addressed my rant of social media making art daunting and truly stunting creativity at times, it is still the home of everyone's favorite tips and tricks. One such tip is for use with corrugated cardboard.

Projects like this are just tedious. Enjoyable, yes. But tedious.

My art teacher bought bags of hundreds of straws to throw in the ocean, but we ended up using them for art instead.

The smallest things can alter the course of history. Minecraft Dungeons may have sparked one of those moments for me.

I never knew spray-foam insulation was so fun... but I had always assumed it was.

First off, check out my sister's awesome work on instagram @k.steely_the_artist! I admire her ability to actually follow prompts and not procrastinate things like #inktober.

Is math an art form?

When struggling through a completely new concept in Calculus, it surely doesn't seem that way. (Unless you're counting the confused circles and arrows surrounding problems I don't yet understand).

But in Trigonometry, there was one assignment that was inarguably art.