High School Painting

Artist Statement: This is an acrylic on wood painting of my grandparents’ old house the way I remember it. I wanted to depict the distinctive feeling of childhood memories and the imaginative ways we perceived our surroundings when we were younger. 

Artist Statement: I painted this piece as a depiction of a silent unoccupied space. I use warm colors to create sort of a “homey” feel going along with the feeling of being in the silence of my room at night. I used the light and dark contrast outside of the lamp’s light and on the back of the chair/under the desk to emphasize the importance of the items on my desk like the empty picture frame (memories to be made) and the bottle and cup (becoming self sufficient). 

Artist Statement: This is a piece I made using watercolor. Houses are my favorite things to paint, and this is one of my favorite house paintings I have done.

Artist Statement: Starting to dance as a teen felt like flying. This piece was inspired by the feeling of finishing a recital piece and seeing how far I’ve come, and where I could go.

Artist Statement: This work is part of a short series around lesbian self expression and identity vaguely inspired by the works of 20th century oil painter Romaine Brooks. This one in particular incorporates themes of guilt and indecision and incorporates vague religious imagery. The title is based on the tarot card Judgement. I haven’t been working in oils for very long, but they’ve become a new favorite of mine! 

Artist Statement: The idea of this project is the uncomplicated joy of being a little girl and still being fearless and silly and free to be yourself. As we get older and become more aware of the expectations, I feel like we lose a lot of that pure enjoyment of life, so I think it’s important to be reminded of that every once in a while, and try to get some of it back. I attempted to express this idea through the image that I chose since swinging is a joyful, weightless, and familiar experience and through the colors that I used in the image. By choosing bright hues and warm tones, I hoped to create a feeling of youthful happiness and fearlessness like how Bisa Butler did in her work, “Anaya with Oranges”, which inspired my project. Using warm, glowing sunshine and colorful shadows when adding value to my image was meant to keep it feeling light and playful in that way

Artist Statement: I decided to use pen and watercolor to make it look like my piece is somewhat in the style of a children’s book. This is my childhood bedroom as I’ve never lived anywhere else, and I feel like my room gives me a sense of nostalgia like a children’s book would. 

Artist Statement: I made this piece about self-growth to focus on my SI of people’s relationships with themselves and how they evolve over time. I showed hair clippings in the base of the sink, using cutting hair as a representation of self-growth.

Artist Statement: Growing up I was often told the saying “kids and fish have no voice”, which is something that has influenced me when I was younger and me growing up. So, I wanted to showcase kids, as fish, and then have older characters using their voice – but having it in a way that asks if they deserve to have it when others don’t simply based on age?

Artist Statement: This is a piece I made in November of 2022 with acrylic paint and pencil. This piece was very enjoyable to make, and I loved having the limitation of working in only black and white because it gave me more opportunity to use shade creatively. This piece was harder for me because it had been a while since I had worked with acrylic paint, and it took me a full day to improve my skills so I could paint this piece the way I wanted it to be. My favorite part of this painting is the vase because I am proud of the glass look that I achieved while also keeping the painting a bit more abstract.

Artist Statement: There is  real joy exploring my connection to real life horses and art. Working in an old book brings out another  dimension that allows me more experimentation. 

Artist Statement: In this piece I mainly used gouache to emphasize the different opacities you can create with the medium. The subject of this piece is the two dismembered figures. I purposely chose simple backgrounds to put more emphasis on the figures. This piece was loosely inspired by old television shows that had similar elements, like adding to subjects together to create one.

Artist Statement: I made this painting for a still life assignment, focusing on negative and positive shapes. I tried to capture the rough shapes of the flowers, and used black and white paint to highlight the different tonal values in the still life. This allowed me to create a more abstract painting, expressing specific characteristics of the still life instead of making a realistic image. This was my first time painting in black and white, and I really enjoyed it because it helped me focus on light and shape instead of color.

Artist Statement: My memorial of the dog Esper became one of my favorite pieces in this class. She helped me learn to work with the elements of art I find most difficult: patterns  bright colors and animals. I put these elements into a medium that I was familiar with -portraiture. Even though Esper and her owners will never know, I still want to say: thank you, Esper