Artist Statement

       Last semester I completed a series of paintings on my favorite musicians, although the feedback was positive the concept was not clearly understood through the artwork I provided. As a result I decided to do more research and take a different approach to artwork. Due to my recent fascination with poetry I arrived at the point where I wanted to incorporate my poems into my paintings. Lately, I have come to the realization that nothing in Life lasts forever and that is a reoccurring theme that keeps coming up when brainstorming new ideas. After completing the series of artwork that contained my poems the feedback I received was not as expected. Overall the poems were being overlooked and the only portion that was noticed for the most part was the painting aspect of the works. At that point I began to brainstorm different ways I could shorten the poems so they would not be so lengthy and then still be able to incorporate the use of words into my paintings.

            Lately, I have been studying the works of Lesley Dill. She uses words in her artwork but in more of a sculptural manner but I am still able to study her techniques and different approaches to provide me with a better direction in which I would like for my artwork to proceed. I recently completed a series of works that were highly influenced by the style of Lesley Dill but this series I must say caused a huge conflict within me due to the fact that once I shared these works with my peers the feedback was very positive and offered up great conversation, But on the other hand when presenting these same works to my capstone committee the feedback was a little discouraging because overall they felt as though the situations I am trying to portray through my works were not coming through as clearly as they should be which is understandable and with alot of deliberation I became more comfortable and understood what was being advised for me to change.

            Now I am at the point where I have finished the Capstone I phase and have a better grasp on how I need to change my approach to my artwork. I deal a lot with situational art basically portraying humans in those situations that our society often avoids because they are such series issues. For example, Abuse, Abortions & Broken Relationships. After consultation with my committee I have decided to take a different approach to my painting style and not focus so much on the technical details but really have my main focus be on the exact situation I am trying to provide through my art without using the aid of adding the words in the end. I plan to take complete advantage of this Christmas break and produce as much work as possible. Overall this Capstone I phase has been a very helpful experience.