Program Outcomes
Technical Competence
The following works created as assignments during my time at South Piedmont Community College were selected to demonstrate technical competence in color theory, composition, design principles, emotional or original concepts, and professionalism in art.
It Wasn't Raining
(Color Theory and Concept)
This painting was done in acrylic on paper as part of an assignment focused on color symbolism. I chose this piece because I feel that it demonstrates my understanding of color theory and ability to translate an emotion into a visual idea.
Color theory was the central focus of this assignment, and specifically the meaning behind specific use of certain colors. For this painting I chose to use exclusively cool toned colors in greens, blues and purples, creating an analogous color pallet.
The emotional meaning behind this painting was inspired by the loss of my maternal aunt to complications from brain cancer. The subject of the painting is a stuffed rabbit she had given me for Easter when I was a child. The colors in the painting were also chosen to specifically represent different aspects of her and her death. Green can sometimes be used to symbolize illness, but green was also her favorite color. Blue can symbolize grief and sadness, and dark purple can mean fear or misfortune. Finally, I chose light purple to represent how she was a spiritual and creative person, before she became ill.
Lilies by the Pond
(Composition and Design Principles)
This piece is a vector art drawing done for a Digital Design class. I chose to do a fantasy landscape with many organic shapes. For this project I was limited to a grayscale color pallet, and therefore aimed to add interest and complexity using the principles of repetition, balance, and variety.
This piece uses the compositional element of the rule of thirds. The focal point of this drawing is the young woman standing by the pond. This woman is standing within the right third of the drawing, and various elements use directional weight such as the tall blade of grass, rocks and streams of light pull the eye towards her.
The design principle of repetition is present in the grass, rocks, trees and water reeds found throughout the drawing. Though all the shapes are relatively similar, they are altered slightly in direction, size and value to add variety to the composition. Though the focal point of the image in located in the center right third of the image, balance is created by having equal amounts of foliage on either side of the image, and the largest rock being placed in the bottom left.
Stay Inside
(Design Principles and Concept)
This painting was done in acrylic on canvas for an Art Appreciation project. The project entailed creating a work inspired by at least two different art movements from history. For this painting I chose to combine the tenebrism of Baroque art with Surrealist elements.
This painting features a deep black background with a floating eye. Inside the eye is a sad looking woman crawling away from the pupil and iris. The design principle of proportion is found in the woman's body, as realistic proportions were the aim there, but also subverted in the size of the eye, which either makes the woman appear very small, or the eye very large. Rhythm and directional force are is found in the hair and muscles found on the back of the eye, and the brush stroke pattern found throughout the eye. Unity was also implemented in the way that the hair blends with the capillaries of the eye.
The meaning behind this piece relates to a particular mental health topic of significance to me, which is that of anxiety. The woman within the eye ball looks sad or frightened, and has her eyes closed, which is meant to represent her hiding from the outside world. To this same end she is crawling away from the pupil, the part of the eye that lets in light and images of the outside world. The piece is literally about hiding away within your self. The meaning is also meant to be flexible depending on how someone else may view the message. For example, the same symbolism could represent agoraphobia, which is literally a fear of the outside or of other people.
Self-Portrait with Ivy
(Composition)
This is a mixed media piece done for Drawing II, inspired by the work of Kehinde Wiley. We were assigned to create a self portrait with the same kind of regal air found in portraiture of European nobility and royalty. Since the project was inspired by Kehinde Wiley, I decided to keep the floral theme found the backgrounds of a number of his paintings.
The focal point of this piece is the portrait of myself. I chose to do a composition that started just below the hips to further emphasize the regal element by adding height. Further focus is achieved by placing the portrait in the center of the composition, as is typical of portraiture. The blue hydrangea and green creeping ivy vines use convergence to pull the eye towards the upper center of the piece, where the face is located. The silvery outline found around the portrait, the hydrangea, and some of the vines also create contrast between those elements and the background and draw further attention to them.
Aesthetic Judgement
The following work and accompanying statements reflect upon the aesthetic quality of my work and my identity as an artist.
Jasmine: Thief of Agrabah
This piece is a three-page comic created digitally for Drawing II. The assignment was to create a comic based upon a Disney property with a change to the stories and/or characters. For this I decided to create a comic based upon Aladdin, but switched the roles so that Jasmine was the mischievous thief and Aladdin was the discontent royal. Of all of the works I have created during my time at South Piedmont Community College, this one was most in line with my future artistic and professional goals.
This project started as a series of character and page design sketches, which were developed and redesigned until a rough idea of the panel order and composition was attained. The next step was to line the first page and tweak the position of each element to get the desired effects. Additional details were also added during this stage as I saw the need for them, such as additional bricks in the walls. Flat colors were added and adjusted to look appealing in relation to each other. Shading and lighting effects were added last, in that order. This process was repeated with the next two pages, but with the final two having the added step of placing and formatting dialogue bubbles.
Animated movies and cartoon artwork has always been a big source of inspiration to me, Disney being one of the bigger influences in my character art. I have also always been fond of media that features female protagonists with an active role in the plot, as opposed to the passive role of the damsel or the love interest. While Jasmine was already a very active protagonist within the source material, I thought it would be entertaining to explore what her character would be like if the roles were reversed.
This comic was very time consuming and challenging to create. By its nature it forced me to figure out how to create convincing backgrounds using perspective to place the characters in. Without the backgrounds the narrative would not make sense, nor would it be as easy to follow the sequence of events. Perspective has always been difficult for me, and my results are by no means perfect. However, in creating this work I was forced outside of my comfort zone and gained valuable experience for it. It also proved to be good practice in creating narrative sequence, as the placement of objects and people needed to flow from one frame to another to create a logical order for the reader to follow.
My dream is to create comics and graphic novels of my own one day. More than anything, I want to be able to share the vibrant narratives that come to life in my mind with those around me, and I want them to be able to experience the characters and their worlds the same way that I experience them. This piece reflects that desire in its story telling, colorful world and dynamic characterization. Though I wished I could have continued the narrative and given the full story of the lady thief and the bored prince, this work has helped to make my dream of building visual representations of the worlds in my imagination seem just that much more attainable.
Knowledge of Art History
This artifact and reflection is intended to display my knowledge of art history.
History, as a general rule, has never been my favorite subject. Sometimes it can be interesting, but most of the time it feels like I am meant to be memorizing information that does not and often cannot apply to my life in any way. With this paper, however, I was tasked with looking back at art history and the movements and styles from it and drawing parallels to contemporary art. It features contemporary art from several artists and comparisons to historical art movements and styles such as Art Nouveau, Japanese Ukiyo-e and Bijin-ga, Primitivism, Surrealism, Fauvism, Impressionism, and Color Field Painting. This paper was an exploration of the concept of originality, and how everything is, consciously or unconsciously, inspired by something that came before it.
For this paper my first goal was to draw strong parallels between specific styles of the past and works of the present that resemble them in at least one way. My focus was primarily on specific styles of drawing and illustration, since that is my area of interest. Though the conclusions I draw are entirely my opinion, as I did not directly ask the artists featured what their influences were, I feel that I made strong arguments for why certain elements of their work resemble the influences I attributed them to.
The second in this paper was to explore the nature of originality, and how much or how little importance should be placed on it in respect to art and how it relates to art from the past. I truly believe that true originality does not exist. Everything is inspired by something else. Whether the artist is inspired by something from nature, or by the work of another artist, or from a story they heard as a child. I am of the strongly held opinion that the importance of originality is overly inflated, and I believe that I made a fair case for that in the introduction and conclusion of my paper.
Commitment to Artistic Quality
This section is dedicated to various artifacts that demonstrate my professionalism as an artist, including: creating a business card, displaying and discussing my artwork, and obtaining relevant work experiences.
Solo Showcase Gallery
South Piedmont Community College Spring Juried Show 2022
Artist Talk
Business Card
