HC thesis.

Early on this semester, I had every intention of working myself as hard as I could to turn myself into a great photorealist. Since I began painting a little over two years ago, I have had a huge fascination with realistic paintings. I have this mindset that if you are technically a good painter, such as having serious skills as a photorealist, I feel like you could paint whatever you could possibly want and get away with it because you have the skill set behind you. Throughout the semester I did follow this plan with the creation of my self portrait. For this portrait I painted a realistic black and white version of my face and hands on top of a black background, which I later encased in a wire to create an enclosed figure look. As time went by I realized that I had been spending too much time not working toward my final plan for the semester and there I was with not one painting ready for the final installation and only a month to complete it. This is when I realized I needed a new course of action. I needed a plan that made it realistically possible for me to complete enough work to cover a ten square foot area in the communication hall. It turned out in the end that I actually made more pieces than I needed. But I had a connection to every single one, and I could not bare to not show every single one.

This semester was very insane for me. Normally I like to be on top of things and get everything done so that I am not pressed for time. One thing after the other has been due this semester causing me to push one project back and so on which brought my level of stress to an all new high this semester. I had every intention of doing a very moody/emotional set of paintings for the installation, done to the best of my abilities in realism. Once time became a concern I changed my direction to something that I could finish in the amount of time I had. This is where plaid came into play. I had a sketch early on this semester where I just made a gradient and simply placed a layer of plaid on top. I really liked how this looked but never really thought it would stand on its own as it did not really have much to it. After a short meeting with Bruce Wall, we came up with what I like to believe is one of the most original things I have done. I decided to incorporate my love of realism into my love of plaid. Bruce called these paintings “Plaid World.” While I really liked that idea, I also wanted to venture into some other things to show more of myself as a person. I am quirky, I love patterns, I love many things people see as trivial or just plain tacky. I take pride in being an individual with my taste in pretty much everything around me.

I am a huge fan of rubber ducks. After a little consideration, I decided, “Hey, why not make a few paintings of some rubber ducks?” A few people that saw these pieces in progress did not really get them or like them. While I do care what others think, I also want to make myself happy. This is why I completed five pieces of various angles of rubber ducks. I fell in love with them. One piece in particular I plan on hanging in my living room following the show, whether my mom agrees to this or not. I actually would like to make many more duck paintings. I even thought that maybe this summer I would create a few pieces designed after real ducks, rather than just rubber ducks.

Another direction I took this semester for the installation was my fondness of fruit. Everyone likes fruit, I like painting fruit. So why not make a few fruit paintings? Two weeks later I have a set of five fruit paintings which I placed on a picnic stylized pattern whose colors compliment the color of the fruit. This set I found had a completely different effect on the people who got to see them in progress. Numerous people offered to buy them for their kitchens, which I was very flattered by. The final set I made for the installation was a series of body figures inside plaid. I did so by creating a nice gradient on the surface of the canvas which would become the background of my pieces. I then made one layer of stripes for the plaid. Following this, I painted the realistic figures and then topped it off with one more layer of stripes to give the piece an overall feel of plaid.

One thing that I actually recently discovered through Amber were stencils. I really like them. I would also like to see myself sometime in the near future creating a few stencils of the many things in my life that I enjoy. Just imagine, like 20 different rubber duck stencils. I know, amazing.

The idea of making my art my own came upon me after I did my visual culture paper. I completed the assignment by presenting a power-point based around photo-realists. Some realists I researched were Richard Estes, Chuck Close, and Audrey Flack. I am hugely influenced by these three artists because they were able to take the complexity of realism and make it their own through various techniques. Richard Estes concentrated a lot on reflection and pushing the limits of realism by creating lines and highlights that may not really exist to really make the piece remarkably realistic. Chuck Close made his mark on the art world with his portraits which are created generally on a large scale and done by strategically placing colored circles to create highlights and shadows which in the end come together quite well. Audrey Flack is perhaps my favorite; she has a great eye for super realism. I noticed she also enjoys painting fruit which only made me like her more.

This semester I wanted to trek into using new media. That never happened. For the most part I worked with acrylics on canvas. I did do one drawing just because I do not draw much and I wanted to see what I could do and hopefully try to get myself to want to draw more. One new thing I did try this semester was using gel medium. I worked with a lot of straight lines this semester and just taping off does not really give a nice crisp line. I used the gel medium and painted a layer down and let it dry prior to painting on top of the tape. Doing this gave me the crisper lines I was looking for. In addition to the gel medium I also did work with more diverse canvas. I made my Navajo project on a large piece of peg board, which I was skeptical about in the beginning because I never really worked on a grainy surface like a board or wood before. I was pleasantly surprised that I did not have to use extra paint to get the opacity that I wanted in the areas that were painted. I was also very surprised at how easily I was able to blend my gradients on the board.

Throughout the semester I had the honor of meeting various established artists. Of all of the artists I believe the one who inspired me the most was Emil Lukas. I think the majority of the class will feel the same way. What I liked most about him was his use of colored string on homemade wood panels to create amazing pieces. I am a really big fan of color, and lots of it. After seeing his large piece with the thousands of colored strings, I was pretty much in awe. The time Lukas spends stretching the string alone must take endless hours, but on top of that he also worries about what colors are placed where. I also enjoyed meeting Claire Seidl in her studio in New York. I think it was really important for us to really get out to a major art scene like New York and see an artist who lives that life in her own space. Seeing her in this environment only made me want to be an artist even more. Although, I am not a city person, so I don’t really see myself moving to a major city any time soon. I mean, I guess I would have to have the opportunity first before I could really make a real decision.

In the end I am very glad I was able to experience this class this semester. Not only did I learn a lot about myself as an artist, I really believe that I have made some life-long friends. Being who I am, I like to communicate, and I am pretty sure I have had decent conversations with everyone in the class. Although I am pretty sure I will never heard from Kylie again after this semester, I think I drive her crazy with all of my talking.

The first time I started painting, I thought I knew exactly the type of artist I wanted to be. I was wrong. I started out wanting to just paint as realistically as possible. I realized that while I do enjoy painting realistically, I needed a way to make them my own. As a person, I am very quirky. I sincerely believe that plaid is perhaps the greatest thing in the world. Simple patterns always catch my eye and keep my attention. This is why I decided that I needed to take my love of realism and patterns and make them one.