Title: Escaping to Nature Size: 60.96cm by 91.44cm Medium: Photoshop Exhibition Text: It can be exhausting interacting with people and having to deal with your own thoughts and others' judgment. However finding someplace to find peace and calmness can be relieving. For me, this place is nature. This collage shows how I feel when I am surrounded by nature. Nature feels bright and colorful when I am feeling otherwise dull and dim. It reminds me of the beauty in life. This piece was inspired by Frida Kahlo’s "Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird" and her use of nature.
Title: Pretending with a Shadow Size: 60.96cm x 91.44cm Medium: Acrylic Paint and Canvas Exhibition Text: This artwork is inspired by the works of Giovanni Boldini as well as Anselm Kiefer. This piece is about the feelings and experiences I feel like I am hiding from everyone. Sometimes I feel like there is a dark shadow looming over me of everything I struggle with and have been through and I fear someone will see it. I don't want people to see me for my struggles or pity me because of what I have had to go through so I put on a brave, happy face and hope no one sees through it.
Title: The Consequences of Our Action Size: 50.8 cm by 38.1 cm Medium: Watercolor and Black pen on Illustration Board Exhibition Text: This illustration depicts the extreme contrast between our world and what it can become. The top half of the illustration depicts how people view places in the world. It is a romanticized version of the world that people want to see.The bottom part shows the effects and aftermath that can occur if people continue treating the earth with carelessness. My main inspiration came from the imagery and vibrant colors of travel posters and the structure of The Apotheosis of War by Vasily Vereshchagin.
Title: Give Nature a Chance Size: 50.8 cm by 38.1 cm Medium: Watercolor, Acrylic Paint, and Pen on Illustration Board Exhibition Text: Many people fear nature, they are only able to focus on things they fear and not be able to look past them. Many things people fear in nature are not as dangerous as people think. If one takes a risk and faces that fear they would be able to experience and see the true beauty of nature. As a person who loves the outdoors, it's important to me for people to realize the importance of nature. This piece was inspired by Erin Hanson's flower paintings and Henry Moore's drawing, The Artist's Hand V.
Title: Self Portrait Size: 91.44cm x 91.44cm Medium: Oil Paint on Canvas Exhibition Text: As a Junior nearing the end of the school year, stress and anxiety is a thing I can't seem to escape. Feeling constantly overwhelmed with my school workload as well as many daily life things, this painting expresses that feeling. This painting was inspired by The Desperate Man by Gustave Coubet and the composition of the painting as well as the meaning. Through this painting I am able to express my emotions instead of pushing them down revealing a vulnerable part of myself I don't like to show.
Title: Something New Size: 55.88 cm by 76.2 cm Medium: Mixed Medium Exhibition Text: This piece was created during the pre-college course I took at MIAD. This art portrays the feeling when meeting someone new and realizing how much they mean to you. I was inspired by Pierre-Auguste Renoir's painting, "The Day Dream" because of the dreamy facial expression and emotion conveyed in the painting. Additionally, I drew inspiration from The Beast by Jim Dine because of the symbolism and use of brush strokes in the heart.
Title: "How are you really doing?" Size: 27cm by 29.21cm Medium: Gouache and black pen on illustration board Exhibition Text: Oftentimes when someone really cares about you they want you to tell them how you are doing. However, it can be hard to share how you are really doing. The first one with the cool tone colors presents the struggles and pain that someone could be going through and not want to tell others. The second painting with the warm-toned colors shows the feelings of trying to overcome those struggles and dark times, taking one step at a time. I drew inspiration from The False Mirror by Rene Magritte.
Title: Overwhelming Amount of Emotions Size: 50.8 cm by 38.1 cm Medium: Mixed medium on Illustration Board Exhibition Text: This painting expresses the overwhelming feelings that someone can face all at once. In life, people can experience many situations in a short amount of time that can make multiple, very opposing feelings. This can be very overwhelming and cause lots of distress. This piece is inspired by Guernica by Pablo Picasso and his use of a certain color scheme as well as extreme emotions that are conveyed through the characters' faces.
Title: Moving On Size: 35.5cm by 45.7cm Medium: Acrylic Paint on Canvas Panel Exhibition Text: This piece of art looks into the experience of getting through tough times and moving on. It expresses the sense of freedom and relief one can feel once they are able to get through that tough part of their life. It can be overwhelming but once you do it will be worth it. This is conveyed through multiple components in this painting that hold deeper meaning. Much of the components in this painting were inspired by Vasily Vereshchagin's painting "The Road of the War Prisoners".
Title: Please, Just Let Me Go Size: 60.96cm by 30.48cm Medium: Acrylic on Canvas Exhibition Text: This piece explores the idea of trying so hard to move on from something but feeling like you keep getting pulled into it. Even when you have help and support it can still feel like someone is pulling you back to it, keeping you from moving on. This piece was inspired by a series of paintings by Georges de La Tour because of the meaning behind and the look of these paintings.
Title: Finding Beauty in the Small Things Size: 50.8 cm by 38.1 cm Medium: Colored Pencil on Black Illustration Board Exhibition Text: This art represents how one can find beauty in the small things in life. When life is overwhelming and seems really ugly taking a step back and appreciating the little things in life is very beneficial. For me, I love nature so taking a minute to appreciate it can help remind me of the beauty of life. This piece was inspired by the bright vivid colors of Green Oak Leaves by Georgia O'Keeffe and the subtle facial expression on the face of the woman in Head of a Woman 9nby Leonardo da Vinci.
Curatorial Rational: My body of work is centered around using art to express my feelings, emotions and thoughts that are important to me. I have done this through using nature to symbolize this as well as using self-portraiture. Nature has always been something I have loved and found peace in since I was a little girl so being able to incorporate this aspect of my life into my art was very impactful for me. Additionally growing up I have found it hard at times to communicate my feelings to others and feel comfortable doing so. As I got older and realized that I was able to express my feelings and emotions through art so this was something that I wanted to explore further. I have found this body of work to be an amazing outlet as well as having the ability to explore my emotions and find ways to show things that I'm not able to express with words.
Artist inspiration was a huge part of my body of work. When I first started making my body of work I found huge inspiration from Frida Kahlo. This inspiration can be seen specifically in my digital collage, Escaping to Nature where I drew inspiration from Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird by Frida Kahlo. Kahlo’s inclusion of nature to represent further meaning and what she is going through in life influenced me greatly. When I had my first chance to make my own art with no restrictions I wanted to create a piece that explored an embrace to nature in a similar way that Kahlo did in her paintings. That's when I created You Need to Give Nature a Chance, which highlights the beauty and peace in nature, conveying the deeper meaning of giving others a chance. When it came to the self-portraiture aspect of my body of work, I drew great inspiration from artists who used self-portraiture not only to convey the human figure but also deep, personal feelings and emotions. These such artists are Gustave Courbet who inspired my oil painting The Self Portrait, Leonardo da Vinci who inspired my drawing Finding Beauty in the Small Things and others.
The way that I arranged my artwork in my exhibition was strategically set to further enhance and emphasize the purpose of my art. I set my artwork on two walls. The first wall showcases my larger more self portraiture based works of art. I wanted to put these pieces together because it shows how one can explore themselves and what they are feeling in many different ways. Self-portraits don't just have to be a plain painting of oneself, it can help the artist to deeply explore themselves and their feelings as I did in mine. On the second wall I put pieces that are smaller and focus less on myself but the environment I painted around me or as the piece itself. I wanted to make sure that I included paintings that incorporate nature in them throughout both walls. This was intentional and important for me to do because I wanted to highlight how important nature is to me and how I can use it to express deeper meaning no matter what size, subject matter, or medium I am using. Additionally I also wanted to put paintings with different emotions together and not segregate them by different moods they convey. I did this for a similar reason that I explored in my mixed medium piece Overwhelming Amount of Emotions. It was important for me to explore how humans often feel many emotions and they range even from day to day. This is very evident in my exhibition, especially how there can be a piece where I am very happy such as Something New, and then a piece right above it where I am very distraught such as Please, Just Let Me Go.