I am 19 years old, and I am currently studying to get my master's in fine arts at MSU/OTC. I am hoping to become an art professor.
I feel the need to express myself and show people the deep meaning behind things. I make work that challenges viewers and how they perceive things. What may seem like an obvious interpretation often obscures the true, deeper meaning. For example, my work The red string of fate presented a contrary depiction of love. It showed how the string can get tangled and be manipulated by others around you. It also shows how love can be suffocating and painful. Most may claim love is essential, this work challenges that assumption by delving into the destructive, suffocating potential of love. Things are not always as they seem; just because something was said, does not mean that was the message received.
I express my creativity through art or even through my writing, this manifests into graphite, colored pencil, or even paint. I find colored pencils to look nicer, but it challenges my patience. Graphite has always been a close favorite as I am good with value and shades. Charcoal is a new experience for me, yet I find that restrictive art criteria bores me and doesn't allow me to express my creativity or my thoughts. I like open ended projects where I can take a theme or meaning and create something based off of said meaning or theme. I like my drawings to be set around a theme or message.
Drawing is my line of communication, something I never had yet something I so desperately need. I feel the need to do this due to the trauma I have suffered growing up. This impacts me to show that the world normally ignores the problem and silences the victims. Drawing gives me a way to show these problems and to let my voice be heard, to show the meaning of why this happened and why my voice was silenced. I need people to see that the communication line is damaged, thrown out and disregarded, one might say they are a great communicator while in fact their line is twisted into knots and broken on one end.
I find that black paper with colored pencils is dramatic and can truly show the detail of a piece. I like using it because it really gives a piece meaning, something that fits into almost all of my pieces. I find that music is my number one inspiration starter, songs that are heavy, songs that have meaning. I find most of this through Sleep Token and Bad Omens, their music is beautiful and leaves a lot for interpretation. I find songs that relate to me or fit with a story idea in my head help me create ideas for my art. I hope to continue creating art for myself and others, I hope to teach in hopes of showing my students that art can be anything you want it to be. I want to implore people to explore and be curious and creative, since most of my life I was told not to do those things and I had wished for someone to show me that my ideas mean something. Art is my passion, it is who I am.
"To be an artist, you must exist in a world of silence." -Louise Bourgeois
