Artist Statement

Untitled (flowers)

For my final series, I decided to challenge myself by using a media that I have not had a lot of experience with. I have always found that I enjoy working in black and white and want to develop as much detail as possible. I find that the easiest way to do this is to use graphite because it allows me to add small detail and a large range in values. I rarely have used color, so for this series, I decided to work in watercolor and allowed the pieces to not be entirely photorealistic.

There are nine pieces in this series because that number has been very significant to me in the last two years. The anniversary of when my boyfriend and I started dating is the ninth day of the ninth month. We just moved in together and our move-in date was set by the apartment complex and happened to be set at May 9^th. We recently adopted a puppy and were thinking of names for her. Because we started dating in the fall, I suggested the name “Autumn.” We later looked at names for those born on September 9^th and saw that Autumn was on the list, and so we named our new puppy Autumn.

I’ve been thinking a lot about flowers recently: what they represent and how they are used in society. Flowers can symbolize a place, a person, a memory, a celebration of life, and an offering to the dead. My series, Untitled (flowers), is a symbolic self-portrait comprised of various flower species. Golden poppies represent my home state of California and the orchids are for my mom, who has collected them since I was a child. Roses, which are my favorite flower, will likely be present in the bouquet at my wedding and will also probably be put on my grave when I die. In this case, the same type of flower can be used to represent complete opposite emotions, which is a unique occurrence in society.

 For inspiration, I looked at Kiki Smith’s Touch series. These works are printed etchings and water color on paper. I had researched her works in the past and done a pair of etchings and wanted to revisit that concept with my current series. However, I do not have access to a printing press, so I chose to outline the flowers in black pen to mimic the ink in the etchings.