Untitled

Artist Statement

Being creative and/or starting new projects has been a constant for me from a young age. I tend to work with familiarity. My current work reflects just that. American culture is known for consumerism and easy access to an abundance of mass production. Adverts are bold and in-your-face, providing images with a certain inclusiveness that pulls in the audience.

I want my audience to be able to associate images they've related to in the past and put them in out of this world settings. Familiarity of characters creates an instant connection allowing it to become almost personal for the viewer regardless of the fact that advertisement that bombards us through the day are the least personal. I goal is to create along side this familiarity and tweak it to present something new.

My current materials stemmed off my use of writing utensils. I'm currently working with sharpie markers and pens of all sizes. This creates a sense of restriction when I begin a new project.When I put this tool to the paper I'm restricted to the lines that came before. There's not layering over heavy black ink but I've found that there are ways of masking inevitable mistakes. I incorporate them or disguise them creating more and more lines of varies thickness.

This semester has come as a stop and go rollercoaster. I have my highs and there is no doubt that I will have some lows to come. My work represents that in full. Still I find myself stuck at points which is a constant. Starting new projects is always exciting, finishing them is a different story. There's endless possibilities to the outcome of a final product and it's all up to me how I present that. I want my work to consume an audience that way advertising consumes our reality.

M I D T E R M

Last Friday was our midterm critique. Writing this post I feel just as nervous as I did presenting. If I could relive it or die, I'd choose death, not really, but yes. Nerves undoubtedly got the better of me. I didn't think it would be as difficult to get my thoughts across in such a short, stressful period but it was more so than I could've imagined. I feel I had sufficient work for the course period, including bits and pieces not displayed. Advertising has definitely been an underlying theme I've been working on but I agree there's a need for a clearer point. More research into 'why' is a key part missing. Overall it went worse than I would have liked but I was prepared to hear it all. I know that the message of the work isn't all there just yet and I'm hoping it will come across for the final. The question of who my work is for is still up in the air. I don't think you have to be a kid necessarily to enjoy an interactive coloring book because advertisement reaches all audiences. There's no doubt there's a lot of work to be done in these next few weeks and yes I'm fearful of another anxiety- stricken critique. Right now I feel as though I'm at a block. There's brainstorming taking place but no clear direction as to what I want to put work into next. As I said, lots of work is still ahead.