"Me and Marilyn". Original Photography, digital effects.
After watching the movie, My Week with Marilyn, I was inspired to create a piece dedicated to her influential role in my life. Now, this should be known: I have always been a Marilyn Monroe fan; this movie just made me realize that I should dedicate a piece to her. I first remember seeing Marilyn on a wine bottle label in house growing up. I instantly thought she was beautiful, and felt like there was something behind her beauty that was even more profound. Throughout high school, I collected pictures of Marilyn off the internet, and started reading about her life. I feel like she was an inspirational female actor, whose complexity and simplicity mix to make her very mysterious. I have read about pieces of her life, and I am currently reading a book about her. I feel like I have several connecting points with Marilyn, which explains why I was initially curious about her and interested in her life. Although Marilyn is not on this earth anymore, she is definitely still very alive.
"Lost" Partner art; original photographs, digital effects.
I've heard that young artists often spend their early years in art creating self-portraits. I can say that I definitely have done quite a few (as I'm sure you have noticed...:P). I have just generally found that using myself as a subject for my art is convenient, for starters-because you already have consent. But, on a deeper level, self-portraits are so much more than convenient-they are a way of figuring out who I am and expressively documenting who I am at that moment in time...which seems is always changing...
"Batman Graffiti", computer image with digital effects.
This is a picture that my boyfriend found off the internet (Where? I am not sure, but I give full credit to the original creator!). He is excited for the new Batman movie to come out, and wanted to isolate the batman symbol, so I did that for him. Just for you, RJ...:)
"Vibrant Rose", original photograph, digital effects.
This photograph was inspired by a rose that was given to me a while ago. I took many photographs of it, and decided that I would hang it to dry. I took photographs of it as it aged. I decided to go back to one of the first photographs I took of it, and use it to reflect how this rose made me feel when it was first given to me.
"A Piece of Soul Escaped with studies of Martha Alf", original photography, digital effects, original drawings.
This piece was inspired by the song, "Sleeping with Giants" by the Academy Is...There is a line, in specific, that states, "A piece of my soul escaped", and I what it would look like if a piece of my soul did escape-and this is the product! And thank you to South Park, for making this art piece strictly ironic (for those of you who do not know, South Park made an episode on Gingers, and said they do not have souls, so many people would jokingly argue that I have no soul for it to actually escape...). I love working in layers, and I decided to include a series of thumbnails that I drew in a Martha Alf study I did for drawing class. I included them because I have always loved to draw, and wanted to show that I am currently studying how to better my techniques and my dedication to art. If you look closely, you can see parts of still lives that I replicated from her drawings...more power to Martha Alf for making fruit and everyday objects interesting (because I certainly have almost no desire for capturing the essence of a tomato...:P). As for the rest of the elements in the piece...I'll leave it up to your imagination. ;)
"Young Adulthood", original photograph with digital effects
Just having fun with this photograph, instead of doing other things that are productive...
I decided to title this one, "Young Adulthood" because it was inspired by a graphic in the Wall Street Journal. It was a comical picture of a teenager's brain, that I found very funny and accurate in a strange way. The article was about all of the things that occupy a teenager's mind, and the picture showed words, such as: "Angst", "Vroooom", and "Heartbreak". I decided to piece together my face in different values and colours (with different proportions) to show how this is such a transitional time in my life. It is a transitional time in many teenager's lives (and all young adults, too)-I wanted to portray the different sides of me that may develop or happen to be an influential part of who I am now. As for the background....that's ,"City-Scape Puddle Reflection" (thank you, Mom for helping me title it!).
"City-Scape Puddle Reflection",acrylics on canvas
So...using the palette knife was awesome! This painting was the first time I used my palette knives, and it was so much fun. This painting took me three stages to complete. The goal for this painting was 1. to explore the texture effects that acrylics can create, and 2. to have fun. I had considered using Gesso to amplify the textural effects, but, instead, I decided to apply the paint in layers. My art teacher pointed out that I like working in layers. This isn't really something that I noticed until I stepped back and look at many of my works in a row. Intriguing? Seems so. Hope you guys enjoy this piece (I know I enjoyed making it...and having a mini photo shoot with it :P). Peace.
"The truth stings like Mohammad Ali" -Lupe Fiasco, original photograph with digital effects
I took this picture (with, yes, my phone) during my first semester. I was spray-painting a 3D wall-hanging of abstract bumblebees (will be posted later...). My awesome roommate Hunter and my friend, Greg held flashlights in the dark while I spray-painted...note to future art students-gain some really awesome, patient friends-it will make your life so much easier. I felt like Lupe Fiasco's quote fits this photograph because it is so easy for us, as people, to make snap judgements about others. It's much harder for us to be understanding, and realized that everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle (quote found on tumblr -total credit to the person who originally posted it on http://surrellaistic.tumblr.com/). It's something that I definitely need to work on... And it's also really hard to type right now because my best college friends have "The Fairly Odd Parents'' on in the background, so hopefully, I didn't make any typos here...
