2018-2019 | Year 3
For my review of my 3rd year of school I am presenting two works of art I have completed this year. I will compare the content and themes of two artworks that reflect my experiences this year and what I’m learning in life right now.
The first work here is a gouache painting made at Malibu Beach in California. It’s a small painting made in one sitting, meant to reflect my personal view or experience of the beach. The thing about this though, is that it’s a limited view of the beach and the beautiful sun. It’s true that it’s my experience of this place but much of what exists in the place is lacking from the painting, most obviously you can see in the photograph that there are many people around. Looking back now at it, I notice that my painting doesn’t know who the people at the beach were that day, or how many of them were there, or where they walked and sat and played. But then nor do the sand and the rocks and the waves, or I, remember either. So I’m not saying that this painting isn’t a valid representation of my experience of the beach, because it is and it was. I’m just saying it’s a type of art that I made a lot of last year, landscapes that just show nature and my solo experience of it as a painter (my honors experience painting california as an artist was a big part of this). And this year I’m starting to consider other ways of representing my experience, and acknowledging and embracing shared experience. We each have our own unique experience that we are living and creating, but we also have a shared experience with those around us. This is a new topic that I want to address in my life and art making. The concept of a shared experience and a unique experience within a shared world that we all cohabitate.
The second work I want to talk about addresses this topic directly. As the solidarity of the experience reflected in my previous works came to my attention, I felt compelled while considering my experience and it’s place in the shared experience to create this work. I began work this year on a fine art minor and took my first course in the school of art, life drawing. This piece was created as a final project for the course. Drawings were made of each student and our instructor in the studio on our last day of the class, a day when we were all in the studio together but working almost fully independently of one another on our own individual and seemingly unrelated works. Although by being made in the room together, by people who have spent the past four months drawing together, the works do have a relationship with one another whether we intend it or not. Our experience is at the same time isolated and shared, on this day in class but also in all of our life as artists, students, and humans. The drawings were collaged together into an abstracted cut paper 'classroom' environment which plays with perspective, direction/technique, and color to convey a sense of the mood of the studio (sort of chill and quiet, seems relaxed but everyone is working hard so the air is energized and creative).
This work and this lesson that I'm getting at about considering our lives and our works both how they exist independently and together is something that my professor this semester stressed with us a lot. Edward Sanchez was the drawing instructor for this course (find his portrait in the center of the work) and imparted some philosophy of teaching and of life. He always reminds us that our art is influenced by our life and that we are here together for this time, so we need to interact with each other and with the world around us, and that will improve our lives and our education and our artworks. He also reminds us at the end of each class to eat something, stay hydrated, take care of ourselves, and remember to do something fun. These are among the things that have impacted me this year, and encouraged me to explore and engage and improve the world around me. I am especially working on maintaining my relationships with the people in my life (including myself), and how I can foster positivity to be a good friend, daughter, student, coworker, or person.
The second work I want to talk about addresses this topic directly. As the solidarity of the experience reflected in my previous works came to my attention, I felt compelled while considering my experience and it’s place in the shared experience to create this work. I began work this year on a fine art minor and took my first course in the school of art, life drawing. This piece was created as a final project for the course. Drawings were made of each student and our instructor in the studio on our last day of the class, a day when we were all in the studio together but working almost fully independently of one another on our own individual and seemingly unrelated works. Although by being made in the room together, by people who have spent the past four months drawing together, the works do have a relationship with one another whether we intend it or not. Our experience is at the same time isolated and shared, on this day in class but also in all of our life as artists, students, and humans. The drawings were collaged together into an abstracted cut paper 'classroom' environment which plays with perspective, direction/technique, and color to convey a sense of the mood of the studio (sort of chill and quiet, seems relaxed but everyone is working hard so the air is energized and creative).
This work and this lesson that I'm getting at about considering our lives and our works both how they exist independently and together is something that my professor this semester stressed with us a lot. Edward Sanchez was the drawing instructor for this course (find his portrait in the center of the work) and imparted some philosophy of teaching and of life. He always reminds us that our art is influenced by our life and that we are here together for this time, so we need to interact with each other and with the world around us, and that will improve our lives and our education and our artworks. He also reminds us at the end of each class to eat something, stay hydrated, take care of ourselves, and remember to do something fun. These are among the things that have impacted me this year, and encouraged me to explore and engage and improve the world around me. I am especially working on maintaining my relationships with the people in my life (including myself), and how I can foster positivity to be a good friend, daughter, student, coworker, or person.
2017-2018 | Year 2
For my second Year In Review, I have chosen to publish one of my works of photography that can summarize my learnings, and to include an artist statement that describes the meaning of the work to me.
This photograph showcases a couple of things I have experienced this year. The main subject being the Infinite Clearance sign, so it is the overarching metaphor for my learning. Infinite Clearance is a beautiful concept to me, meaning that the world is infinitely vast. I got to see a taste of that vastness this year when I drove out to Los Angeles from Cincinnati with my Dad in December, It was a great trip and driving 2000 miles across the country is no joke! We drove there so that I could move to Pasadena, CA for my co op job for Spring semester. Moving away from my hometown for the first time really put me out of my comfort zone, and forced me to explore life in another part of the country / world, specifically around a city 13 times the size of my own... The other smaller metaphor in this photograph is the coexistence of nature with man made architecture. If we only wanted a picture of nature, this is not a good photograph. If I only wanted a picture of the man made elements, this is also not a good photograph. But this picture is about how we can integrate with nature, and accept that both elements are part of the world. This is one major difference between my photography and painting, photography only shows what is actually there, while painting shows what I choose to see, and how I see it specifically. This is also a concept that applies to my study of Design, I am always thinking about how whatever I make will interact with the rest of what the user or audience will be experiencing at the time. Although, it is also most important to consider the individual interaction that the user or audience is having with your work, as that interaction is the one you are meant to be controlling or guiding, In this photo, I am guiding the viewer to interact with the sign and the concept, but I am also allowing a broader scene to be experienced around it. In this way, I feel the viewer can begin to understand my experience. In this case, of the joy of the beauty of Infinite Clearance, as well as some questioning and struggling to make sense of the overwhelming experience of the vast and full world we live in today.
2016-2017 | Year 1
For my first Year In Review, I decided to map out my thoughts and experiences. I'd say the format of this reflection turned out somewhere between art and writing, mostly stream of consciousness writing though, mapped out on pages with common themes.
