Thesis and Graduation

A few snapshots of the thesis show! I had the privilege of showing in the Meyerhoff Gallery right next the the talented Dai Foldes (pictured above with part of his painting/design thesis) The shelf and frames were custom-made by Mark Oliver. I have high-res photos taken by a friend that will be posted as soon as possible. The shows all looked great and I was especially proud to be part of the Illustration senior class of '11. Whitney Sherman is an excellent instructor and I've been honored to graduate with such talented classmates. As for future plans after graduation, I will be working as a Teaching Assistant/Resident Counselor at MICA's Pre College program and then looking for work in Baltimore as I develop my freelance business. Currently I am home in Michigan for a couple weeks and working on a commissioned mural.

Artist Statement from Commencement:

I have always been drawn to the narrative potential of visual art as well as the imagery that exists within the written word. For the past semester I have been navigating this relationship between text and image by using both mediums to explore one over-arching theme. The novella “Fells” is a fictional narrative based off of the environmental disaster in Picher, Oklahoma and the surrounding areas of the Tar Creek Superfund site. It explores the ideas of responsibility, consequence, and man’s relationship with land through the eyes of three boys who witness the rapid decline of the city of Fells. The fragility of human structure, both built and inherited, is revealed in the constant push of the interior to the exterior. The imagery displayed is not meant to accompany the story in a traditional illustrated sense, but is supportive to the narrative and includes characters from the text. In the same way that the imagery was inspired by the text, some of the visual elements of the novella “Fells” existed before the parallel text. This relationship of text and image is something I plan to continue to explore through both my illustration and personal writing in the years to come.

Thesis Update

These drawings are old, but I realized I hadn't posted them yet--here are two more thesis works, uncolored. Final print sizes will be 13x20 and 14x10.65.

Thesis Update!!

So it's been a while since I posted any thesis work. . .here is an update of what I've been working on. The colors are not final, but I wanted to start experimenting as I'm continuing to work on the next few pieces. The drawings are done in graphite, and the color is photoshop. I'm continuing to work on my novella, and my thesis imagery is starting to parallel the characters and motifs in my writing. I included a few excerpts of writing below that relate to the work.

Three weeks ago to the day the first sinkhole swallowed a house. It was the first house of many, but the ground in Fells had been bad long before then. If you took a cross section of the land and sliced it either way, you would find holes like swiss cheese, some of them a quarter mile deep. Gurgling up from these spaces there was water, a coppery red-orange sludge making a film across sluggish streams in low-lying areas. It flowed from cavities in the ground back where people rarely walked and dissipated itself invisibly into clearer rivers and swimming holes. The mountains near Fells High were not really mountains; they were massive piles of earth that had been dug up long before most of the residents were even born. But to most, especially the children, the piles were part of the natural landscape of Fells. It was hard to imagine watching a football game without the backlit silhouette of the piles looming in the distance, their dusty surfaces disrupted by playing children strong enough to reach the top.

For Adam and Dan and Isaac, the sinkholes were the beginning. They were the first violent strike by the ground, the most visible sign of aggression that was to build in the following months. There was no fear over the holes, and the thought that Mrs. Skinner’s fate was possible for of the boys’ houses never came into their minds. They were intrigued by the sudden awakening of the landscape, something they had always thought of as passive, asleep, and constant. Now the fine grains of chat that blew across the track on windy days were something to look twice at. The sweeping wave was searching for a place to rest, a yard to cover with a thin film like a morning frost.

******

They were down near the swimming hole now; Adam could sense the openness of the space, the shift in the sound of dirt under the tires traveled far away and did not return. Sleep was creeping over him even as he pressed his foot on the accelerator. His tongue was a warm, heavy stone in his mouth and his eyes felt as though they were sinking deeper into their sockets. His fingers were slightly numb and light as he turned the wheel to park. Dan and Isaac were already halfway out of the truck before it even stopped. The three of them stepped from the glow of the car into the night air. Adam slid the key ring into his pocket and followed Dan down the edge of the slope. The swimming hole lay dark and silent at the bottom of the hill. A milky circle of white was wavering on the surface of the black water like an alien pupil. Upon seeing it each boy felt a brief internal shudder that they masked from the others.

******

There was a weight to physicality, a price for the pleasure of flesh and blood. She was starting to feel the burden of carrying around bone with muscle, the strain of creaking tendons forever stretching and releasing. But there was something more: a new, foreign weight to her blood. Maybe it was a recent adoption or maybe it had always existed there, flowing without her notice until just this moment. She felt that if her finger was pricked and a small bead of red sprung from the point that the blood would be of a darker, more sinister hue. This image of dark, alien blood in her veins just made her heart pump it with more force. It was hammering at the walls of her temples now and draining from the tips of her fingers and toes, making them tingle. Where could she go now? Even as she slept this new presence would be exploring the cavities of her organs and pressing up against nail beds and peeking through the thin windows of capillaries. Even if she left this house and all her possessions, her body would not be entirely her own.

New Semester, New Thesis

This semester I'm switching gears in my Illustration thesis, playing more to my strengths and interests. I am working on more fine art/editorial work inspired by the environmental disaster in Picher, Oklahoma. I'm interested in the play between internal and external anatomy in man and land. Here is an uncolored drawing of my first piece. More sinkholes, chat piles, and acid mine water to follow!

Thesis Finals!

My big final I still need to photograph, but here are some of the finals from my thesis class. I was exploring modern societal issues using gladiator themes and classical imagery. The hog battle comments on the self-perpetuating issue of resource depletion and environmental woes, while the reflection piece deals with the constant battle with beauty and aging. The spots illustrate the modern American suiting up with the correct "armor" to preserve sanity and peace of mind in the current times. I struggled a lot with my theme and medium over the semester, and it was a very uncomfortable and at times very discouraging battle, but I learned a lot about myself as an artist and how I work best. I'm taking the next few weeks of break to center in on a new thesis for the new semester that will be better suited to my interests and working style. More updates to follow!

Some Thesis Stuff!

Okay, so I realized I haven't posted anything from thesis this year. . .so here are two inked drawings! I'm holding off on posting the final versions until I get the colors just right. There's also a larger piece I'm working on that I'll try and post this week. For those of you who don't know the theme of my thesis this semester, basically I'm working on a series of illustrations inspired by a fusion of the themes behind the Roman gladiatorial games and the classical styles of the Italian master artists. The gladiatorial games, besides being a perverse form of entertainment, also served as a visual metaphor for the threats faced by Roman society at the time, including the threat of criminals, invasion by foreign enemies, the danger of wild animals and the ever-looming knowledge of an early death (life expectancy was less than half it is today). Order and peace of mind was maintained by the literal slaying of these threats, whether it was a formal execution of a criminal, the slaying of a prisoner of war, or a mass slaughter of wild beasts.

WIth this in mind I'm exploring the threats of modern Americans and how we face them, using both gladiator imagery and reference to the figurative poses seen in old Italian master paintings. The two images shown represent two different modern-day battles. One is the defense of the environment and natural resources against constant threat, a sort of never-ending loop of self-perpetuated disaster (the small boys in the forest area are nurturing the baby hogs while the adults defend the same forest from an onslaught of wild hogs.) The other image shows our relationship with beauty and the futile attempts to stop the process of aging (the girl is piercing her own reflection, which is indestructible). That's all for now, more updates to come later!