BFA, Studio Art (Printmaking & Book Arts )
Secondary Focus, Painting & Drawing
Artist Statement
The Village
The Village centers a canon of folklore that I constructed as an investigation of human nature and existentialism. As they explore the breadth of life in all its tragedy and ecstasy, the villagers fall in love, tell secrets, grieve, have regrets, make art, bury the dead, betray people they love, try to live forever, move away from home, and cook meals. I examine universality in the human experience, emotions that people have been experiencing for thousands of years, in a strive to feel less alone in my personal search for meaning in life. In making this endeavor visual, I draw from historic forms of illustrative storytelling, notably the manuscript practices of Europe and Asia. The graphic language of The Village calls upon the manner in which historic manuscript artists were able to flatten large narrative scenes into two dimensional planes. Spaces and figures are warped to better show how forms allegorically relate to the world around them. Colors are saturated and simplified to extract fundamental emotions and archetypes. I see ancient artists using these motifs to explore their world and continue their traditions to explore mine. Similarly, for thousands of years we have been making vessels to hold sustenance and textiles to cover our bodies, but we have not only made their forms out of necessity, we have also made them beautiful out of love. The patterns on fabrics and the glazes on vases were made from the human ability to show tenderness and affection through craft. The Village uses the forms and motifs of utilitarian crafts to draw upon this rich history of material comradery, borrowing traditional fabric designs and ceramic ornamentations. When I look at my work and see the hands of many centuries of artists before me, I am able to feel not alone.
