Working as a Potter and a Painter I experiment in many ways. In my recent work in ceramics featured in the Gallery space, my process involves throwing forms that feel organic in nature. From there I use stencils cut from the Cricut machine. This sounds simple, but I first start drawing in Procreate making sure that all stencils are original. These stencils are hand drawn in the program on an iPad. This allows me to illustrate many images and concepts. My featured concepts involved the childlike image of paper airplanes and clouds. It helps to remind us to keep that child-like outlook even through the hard times. Keep dreaming and your head in the clouds.
As a painter, the medium I use is oil on canvas. Using oils is something that I find riveting and exciting. This material allows me to softly blend edges and transition seamlessly to achieve tighter rendering. The play of color is important within my work, and I find that it goes hand in hand with the use of lighting as well. Color manipulation can set the whole mood for each painting, along with light. Light is another main source of inspiration when looking at still lives and interior spaces. These are the main focuses of my work.
Working with interiors and objects through close observation is key within my process. Interiors on a smaller scale create an intimate playing field for the canvas. Focusing on a man-made environment makes me question how we fill a space or the idea of leaving a space. Therefore, correlating my adjustment of color and materials to the involvement of the essence of that tender space. These elements aim to enhance a certain mood based on the theme at hand. This can be found similar within the use of my still life’s through spacing out a composition on a two-dimensional plane representing three-dimensional objects.
Flying the Clouds Series
Hand Drawn Stencils,
Underglaze, on Porcelain
2023
BFA Statement
BGSU 2023
Investigating ideas of disorientation through the awkward placement of furniture and objects is vital in the series of paintings. Addressing man made medical spaces allows for an investigation of the ways in which we interact with medical interiors. The interiors are scenes found within nursing homes and or the hospital waiting room settings.
The view of a space specifically in a nursing home or hospital has contrasting elements when compared to a home that is filled with tenderness and warmth. Addressing the cramped spaces, multiple views, metals, plastics, and harsh lights, allows me to venture though the disorientation of these spaces. A goal of these works is for the viewer to become disoriented, and confused, while experiencing the environment in the same way a patient or family would.
The experience of waiting is something that is powerful and disorienting in its own essence. Time is precious and is something we all wish we had more of. The idea that waiting is wasting time and is unsettling showcases the primal instinct of the human mind in relation to worry. Working together, the paintings start to develop a sense of disorientation with the mood of waiting being an element. The process of waiting on whether someone lives or dies creates an unstable head space. Disorientation as a state that is compounded through loss, losing one’s sense of time, place, or identity.