Artist's Statement

All of my pieces are either mounted with a cardboard frame, or painted directly on cardboard. Early in the semester I discovered the versatility of using cardboard in artwork. Either as a flat surface, or torn to show the corrugation, cardboard is a cheap (essentially free) and interesting material. In my triptych, I tried to convey the idea that growth comes from the death of something else. Eastern religion and spiritualism was the catalyst for this symbolism, and I tried to convey it in an artistic idea that meant something to me. As the “line of vision” emitting from the front of the “eyeball” type figure dissipates, the fractal pattern is expanding, thus relating back to the idea of birth coming from death. Also in these pieces, I tried to contrast the light wash background and colorful triangles with the sketchy, uneven lines of the main figure. I wanted to show the contrast between structured vibrancy and dark unevenness. For my self portrait, I was originally going to make it solely 2D, but when reflecting on my want in the beginning of the semester to make more 3D art, I decided to add a slight 3D element. A person’s eyes can be the most telling thing about them. They are, in my opinion, the most honest physical part of a person, so in choosing to make the one eye pop out, I wanted to force people to actually look at me. The four black “drawings” are done directly on cardboard, and are made of glued down string. A lot of my sketches contain very uneven, frayed lines (much like the black drawings in my triptych) and I wanted to find a way to represent my style without actually drawing them. That is when I realized that gluing down string causes exactly the effect that I was looking for. It gives the sporadic, imperfection of my sketches while still keeping true the the original idea. With my artwork, I aim to visualize ideas I would otherwise be unable to explain. To me, art is a way of bringing forward things I am unable to put into words.

Let me know what you guys think, this is what's going to be posted next to my section, so I'm a little self conscious about it.