Online Recognition of Graduating Art Seniors

Our world is filled with institutions that shape who we become. Schools, prisons, mental hospitals, government buildings; within them all you will find Graffiti. Graffiti is an act of rebellion against the institutions that teach and trap us. Defacing blank walls as a way to escape the structures enforced on us. Examples of graffiti have been found in Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Roman Colosseum. Modern Graffiti has become its own art form. As graffiti arises to become a socially accepted form of art decorating museum walls, what started as a rebellion has become institutionally accepted. A new rebellion is needed. I created Greek and Roman style art covered in graffiti. It shows something that was once beautiful defiled, covered by something new, which becomes the contemporary idea of beauty.

The sculptures I create combine layers of media. Faces are created with stoneware clay and painted in graffiti style art. In creating my art I connect the evolution of the human spirit, the traps we create for ourselves and our uprising against them.
 

Illustrating these as travel posters is a logical choice to showcase these architectural works since these are depictions of real locations. I added different color gradients to add a sense of depth and contrast to the clean look of the pieces. Using clean line work complemented by gradients is a technique I was inspired by from DKNG Studios. Having each piece have its own color pallet is something I was inspired by from Brian Miller. Using these different elements, I have made the collection cohesive and balanced, with a sense of variety.

There are a few artists that I have seen over the years that have inspired my use of clean line work and color work in illustrations. Brian Miller and his work with digital illustrations on Adventure and Exploration, and DKNG Studios printmaking work use clean lines and gradients in their pieces. DKNG Studio’s focus on the printmaking process forces them to focus more on their sense of colors and gradients that I enjoy implementing in my pieces. Brian Miller’s work on his Adventure and Exploration pieces has a unique color pallet that helps unify the pieces and help balance them. I use the same techniques to bring balance to my pieces and to help unify them while still making them feel unique. Both artists use different elements in their work that I bring together in this collection in my own way.

I hand built the ceramic bones by rolling long cylinders of stoneware and carving into them and adding clay where needed. This created the form; the textures were accomplished in various ways using both hand work and tools. The patterns and lines emphasize the form of the bones. Acrylic paint was used to give the ceramic bones a white, glossy look. I used pliers, wire cutters, and my hands to bend and cut the wire. To connect pieces of wire to one another I wrapped a more pliable wire around adjoining ends to make a tie and solidified the bond with glue.

I have always had an interest in the health sciences and being a biology major has helped me to explore my interest in human anatomy. I am fond of sketching anatomical drawings, as I frequently see them in my textbooks. Leonardo da Vinci’s anatomical drawings are still relevant today. While the human body varies from person to person, it also remains largely the same; this makes it an eternally pertinent subject as mankind always finds itself relevant. I find the human body fascinating in the sciences and as subject matter in the art realm. The idea of making something with my hands that is typically naturally derived appealed to me. The ability to transform something from being functional in its natural form to being nonfunctional. I found this concept ironic and intriguing. I found the concept of stretching the limits of the human mind’s ability to recognize forms as objects fascinating and worthy of pursuit. Seeing how a viewer would come to recognize yarn as muscle and stoneware as bone from the slightest of hits in form.
 

The pieces I have made are inspired by my childhood and upbringing here in West Virginia. My mind feels at peace when in nature and when I work on my designs. With my skills as an artist I aim to bring that calm mind state back into the reality everyday life with my art.

In my paintings, I use references from my hikes. I take many pictures when I am outside and mix them into a concept for each painting. I use calm soft colors to reflect a peaceful serenity among my artworks.

These two painters focus on a lot of detail in their paintings, drawing attention to the foam, water direction, and splashes, just as I do in my photographs. I specifically search for where the wave begins to crash and the splatter of white foam as it hits the surface water. I look for how the light passes through as it curls and the spontaneous flare of water during its crashing time. The movements of the ocean’s water are all random, yet they all have a purpose. Surrounding the ocean are beautiful sunsets, sunrises, and little beach towns. Whether the ocean is calm or rough, people still seek it out as a place to be set at ease. In the heat of the summer or in the dead of winter, the ocean is never still.

Come what may, the sea remains in constant motion whether millions of people are watching or if no one is watching. This thought has influenced my self-expression because some of the most breathtaking ways of the ocean are what people fail to notice, but the ocean doesn’t care, it keeps moving anyway. The opinions of others are irrelevant to the sea, as it needs no one's approval to keep being what it is.
 

These pieces are intended to be worn like Halloween masks. The cutting is made outside of the design and has small holes where string is tied to put around the persons head. The reason for this is to share my passion for fantasy art and show others what I see through the masks: a unique world full of fantasy
 

The inspiration for my collection of work is based on documentaries about what exist beyond our world and artist of the past who chose to include extraterrestrials within their work. We can find extraterrestrials depicted in art pieces such as Leonardo da Vinci’s St John The Baptist 1513-16, Saint Wolfgang and the Devil 1475, The Baptism of Christ 1710, and Svetishoveil Cathedral Fresco 1600s to name a few. I chose to take a lighter approach on depicting extraterrestrials by giving them a friendly image so that the view would feel more comfort while viewing my work.

I have a love for the unknown specifically focused on the outer space and cryptozoology. I brought these two concepts together by not only depicting extraterrestrials but also by using the large black empty eyes that are known to be an alien feature and using that large space to present a phase of the moon. I find that not everyone can relate to cryptozoology, but every viewer can relate to the sky and the moon.
 

I got the idea of the paper bag on their heads from The Sims. When a Sim gets embarrassed in the game, they get a symbol of them with a paper bag over their head. I liked that idea because I found it funny and somewhat relatable. When I get anxiety, I want to hide from everyone. I thought a bag over their heads was a funny way to express that they’re hiding how they really feel.

The challenge I gave myself posed the question: how to take my love for basketball and my love for typography and bring them together in artistic form? I was inspired by a video on Facebook. The video, in slow-motion, was of an NBA player sizing up his opponent to get him off rhythm and go by him. The players were moving in a way that felt like a form of poetry, almost as if they were telling a story with their movement.

 

I chose this topic because I suffer from anxiety personally and have multiple family members and friends who suffer with other mental disorders. I created these images to relay our stories. I chose bright colored dolls to offset the dark imagery depicting the illness. The dolls were used to represent the individual with said illness as sometimes those with these illnesses do not feel like a person. I was inspired by Shaun Coss who started an Inktober mental illness series, and Psyca who uses vibrant watercolors.

Each piece was sketched out onto watercolor paper after measuring each layer for size. After this, I painted each piece and went over them with inking pens, and a white gel pen for little highlighted details using a pointillism style. Once each piece was painted and inked, they were then cut out with an Xacto blade, and then layered using jeweler’s wire. The final step was to place them in custom built and stained frames.  

Pyrography means “writing with fire,” and it originated from early men using charcoals that remained from fire. With these charcoals they created designs, patterns, and drawings on walls. In the Victorian era, a tool was created for making pyrography, and since has become progressively more popular.

I decided to use pyrography to create some flora and fauna found in West Virginia. For example, I created a brook trout woodburning because it shows the culture of fishing in the state. These vibrant fish fill the streams of rivers in the state and it was only reasonable that I added it to the series. I also woodburned a monarch butterfly, as it is the state’s butterfly. The monarch butterfly was selected for the state butterfly in 1995 because of its beauty. The series wouldn’t be complete without it. I also used a mountain lion in the series. Mountain lions are among cryptids in West Virginia in addition to species such as the mothman or bigfoot. Cryptids attract tourism to West Virginia and it made a lovely addition to the series.

Wild and wonderful West Virginia is full of so much beauty. It is easy to be inspired by it to create bright and vivid pieces of art. My intention is that my artwork speaks to fellow West Virginias who enjoy our beautiful state and the flora and fauna it beholds.