BA, Art, (Studio Art – Digital Studio Practice)
Community Arts Certificate
Artist Statement
This exhibition is a synthesis of my studies in studio art, community art, and psychology. Using my favored mediums of collage and photography, I culminate the evolution of my visual language and expression through a selection of digital mixed media compositions and present a gallery of artifacts from a community-based mindfulness collage workshop I implemented for my BA thesis project. The collection of images and documentation of the workshop elucidate the philosophy of my artistic persona Funk God, where funk represents the chaos of existence which must be recognized, processed, understood, and integrated into one’s life.
Thematically my work focuses on The Sublime; the philosophical notion that something can be paradoxically divine, inspiring, beautiful, but also horrific, destructive, and agonizing. Funk confronts absurd incongruences of existence with surrealism, states of consciousness, dreamlike and bizarre visuals, fragmentation, playful and sardonic poeticisms, and psychedelia. Encountering absurdity with a lens of acceptance, humor, exaggeration, and bittersweet veneration, allows for the threat of chaos to be less devastating, and an appreciation for the sublime to generate gratitude and vitality.
To guide others in artistic healing, I designed and led Exploring Creative Self-Expression Through Mindful Collage, a community workshop which gives others the opportunity to order their own chaos. Held at The Lyndon Sculpture Garden and Milwaukee Mindfulness Community, participants expressed themselves through mindful journaling, grounded through meditation, and created their own collages which were shared in the uplifting group space. The experience illuminates my methods and the spirit of Funk God in a socio-emotional community setting which replicates my individual perspective and spreads the gospel of funk. Holistically, both portfolio and workshop are based in the mindfulness concept of radical acceptance, leaning into the paradoxes of sublimity and absurdity, and subverting bad funks into good ones. Most of all, understanding how to groove.
