Fine Arts
I've always been the "artsy kid", but art is more than just grabbing a paintbrush and smearing paint. Just like writing, it becomes a medium for expression and communication for the soul. It fuels my creative mind and provides a different perspective for me to use in my everyday work. Viewing the world from outside the box lets me see further than others in my field. Art isn't just a passion. It is a way of thinking and processing what's around me.
Paintings
Acrylic on Canvas
Acrylic is a standard medium used by many artists. It's a safe medium that's predictable and easy to use. Acrylic is very forgiving and can easily cover up mistakes. That takes a lot of pressure out of the process, because if something goes wrong, I can just try again. That’s one of the best parts of painting: you can just keep going.
My main inspirations for these pieces are showing the world around me and using other artists, like Van Gogh, as inspiration. I really like exploring other artists' art styles, since it helps me learn about them and their techniques.
Many might ask, "Why copy a painting?" The answer is simple: many things have been done before, realistically, everything has, but it has never been done by you before. It doesn't have your unique perspective and vision. You are the only person who can create it in your own way.
I apply this to my work sometimes, because being creative doesn't always mean finding something that hasn't been done before. It's finding something and making it yours, and that, in essence, makes it new and unexplored. It's not just recreating, it's learning from the greats and making it yours.
Oil on Canvas
When I feel anxious or desperate, I tell myself, "Just let the paint dry." Most things have a solution, but sometimes desperation can cloud judgment, so giving it some time could help you find it.
Oil painting has helped me learn this in many ways. Oil paints are completely different from acrylics. Using a medium that is not water-soluble creates this fear of getting dirty since its stains could be permanent. Oil is more unforgiving and takes more work to master, especially when making mistakes. Since oil takes a lot longer to dry, it taught me to be patient. If you try to cover something up before it's fully dried out, the colors will mix and become muddied. If errors are made, it forces me to take a step back from the canvas and look at the image from a different angle.
This same philosophy can be applied to any job. I can't remain stuck on details I cannot fix right now; I have to move on and come back to it with fresh eyes. When painting, sometimes they tell you to turn the canvas around and come back to it later. When you spend weeks looking at the same thing, you sometimes don't notice the progress. Looking at a painting upside down allows you to notice things you hadn't before. Once you turn it back around, it will become something new.
Any work is the same. Stand up, walk around, and look at it from a different angle. It might just help you find a solution.
3D projects
Ceramics
Clay is an incredibly fun medium to mess around with. Clay is just a lump of dirt until you give it shape and meaning and bring it to life. With your bare hands, you can make nothing into something, and that ability to create is a powerful thing. It's like having the world at the tip of your hands. You can create something useful, something weird, something pretty, something meaningful, or something that's not. Ceramics gave me the freedom to explore a world where even if something breaks, it can still tell a story. Sometimes when you relinquish control, you might end up creating something beautiful.
This collection was called Total Gnit. It is inspired by the disasters caused by radioactive powerplants and the disastrous effects they have on the environment and people. It is meant to mainly serve as social commentary on what our world can become if we simply let it simmer and rot without intervention.
It features a tea set that can never be used as it has decayed, and in the middle, a frog that has evolved thanks to radiation in the area. Frogs serve scientists as the first alarm bell that something is wrong in an ecosystem, since they breathe through their skin, they are incredibly susceptible to any changes in their environment. If frogs start to die or change, it means there is something major going on. In areas like Chernobyl, scientists have found a new species of frog that has evolved to reside in the radioactive environment and produces a highly poisonous secretion for defense. This showcases how even in the harshest of environments, life persists and becomes stronger.
Cardboard sculpture
This piece was heavily inspired by Picasso's many still lifes depicting bold lines and even bolder colors. This is one of my favorite examples of doing something that has been done, but putting my own spin on things. I mainly just used tape and cardboard to create the base shapes for every object and brought them to life with acrylic paint. While creating the shape I first became frustrated with uneven lines and wonky structures, but quickly realized it didn't matter. The beauty of abstract paintings is their imperfection. It's not supposed to make sense. It's meant to convey a feeling and an idea of what you are looking at. It doesn't need to be photo-realistic for the audience to understand what they are looking at. Colors don't need to adhere to reality, and lines don't need to connect for someone to get the full picture.
