2D Studio Art - Painting and Drawing
I think of human emotions as a kind of internal geography, constantly updating. This map does not have a set route and is invisible to others. Anguish, sensitivity, and choice are all active components in this unspoken landscape. The community in my life has been my foundation in discovering my growth through womanhood and motherhood. My current large oil paintings reflect a sense of storytelling about my community accepting the constant change of phases in the identity of womanhood. Conversations topics with women around me involve loss, renewal, discovery, motherhood, social acceptance, body imagery, and overall everyday stresses of life. These connections have shaped my understanding of the world around me and speak volumes through my artwork.
During these conversations, flashes of imagery, colors, or emotions fill my mind. I record these thoughts in my sketchbook or take pictures of the scenery surrounding me that triggers those thoughts and emotions. I chose the medium, painting, for several reasons. My paintbrush and the canvas relationship are therapeutic, and I find a sense of escape and peace. Frida Kahlo's insight about self-expression has helped influence this part of my understanding of how to communicate through art. I am constantly experimenting with color theory. It is intriguing to discover new color connections to reveal new emotions. My painting "Desserts and I" is an example of experimentation of color theory. In this painting, I use vibrant colors like bright pink, blues, and oranges to surround the figure and still-life portraits of Oreos and macaroons. On the outer border of the canvas, I used the same hues but saturated the hues with browns, greens, and blacks. I want to visually communicate the divide of emotions women have with desserts and body image. The joy of eating desserts gets saturated when the thought of compromising body self-esteem is threatened. The artist Georgia O'Keeffe's color choices strongly influenced my decisions in art theory for my paintings. In the artwork for capstone, I use pinks, reds, and blues repeatedly. I enjoy finding values in untraditional colors, for example, in "Pothos: Longing Growth." The colors can represent the imagery of flesh, slumber, or war/conflict. These colors send a visual message to my viewers that can relate to their own buried conflicts with growth.
The idea/plan for my paintings can have strong intent, but I am patient to listen and hear the painting's direction during the process. For example, in the painting "Growing from the Shadows," the idea was preplanned in my sketchbook with composition layout, colors, and figure studies. During the process of painting "Growing from the Shadows," I felt a lean towards sadness or indifference, so I used cooler colors in wall, curtain and tub than planned. I also incorporated more mushrooms in the composition because, I felt, the mushrooms were giving aid to the figure with a sense of light and warmth to the coldness of the environment. Making these decisions takes time because I go through a back-and-forth conversation with the painting and myself. I develop a story through the process of self-discovery in the mists of the invisible geography of growth.
The perspective of my painting is near the ground because it displays many layers of compressed vulnerability. The light elements in my paintings have a sense of surrealism because of the intimate details, bold broad paint strokes, and mixture of nature and human figures. Semi-abstract representations in my paintings are to break free from realism standards and experiment with color values. These uses of elements, metaphorically, speaks to the message of my painting to break free from ties of social standards women hold close. I am also drawn to Vladinsky's artwork because of his talent to create movement, energy, and color to evoke a particular mood of anger, sadness, and tragedy. Sarah Slappy and William Turner's work have come across my studies because of their take on romanticism. The viewer to walk away with a sense of identity, romanticism of wonder, and fragments of vulnerability exposed, in hopes, will demystify the process of growth for women. I create a road for these emotions to have refuge and belong in my paintings.
Installation view
"Growing From The Shadows"
"Growing From The Shadows", (detail view)
"Pothos: Longing Growth"
