Ali Sykes
Artist Statement/Bio
Artist Statement:
My
entire art career, the pieces I have produced have primarily been a result of
an assignment or prompt or project. I first began seriously practicing art in
high school, as my passion for it was sparked in an art class. From there, I
continued taking art classes each year. Summers were plagued with commissions
in an effort to desperately make money, especially the summer before I left for
my first year of college when I was commissioned to paint a mural in a baby
nursery that took up the whole wall. I was very proud of this, as it was the
largest piece I had ever done, however, it still wasn’t me. Of course, I doodled and sketched in between assignments and
projects, but I never considered those to be works of art, rather, just
something to do with my hand when I was bored. It wasn’t until this particular
class where I truly began to discover my own style as an artist and felt a
sense of self-pride and ownership over my work. I would consider myself a very
creative person, and in the past I tried my best to make assignments my own,
but there’s only so much you can do when given a specific prompt. But this
semester, for the first time I was given such little guide lines on my work,
which honestly freaked me out a bit, but also prompted me to grow and improve.
My process of self-growth as an artist began
after the collage assignment (however, at that time I just thought that
everything was falling apart for me). During critique, a student mentioned that
he could clearly see another student’s “style” in their piece, and then a third
student commented that everyone’s style seemed to have a funny way of coming
out, regardless of what the piece was. However, looking at my piece, I would
have had no idea that I created it if I wasn’t me. I realized that I didn’t
have a “style,” and this bothered me. Then, we began working on our alter ego
projects, which was the perfect recipe for disaster for me, as I was already
questioning myself. I pondered over this project for hours, unsure of what to
create. An alter ego is supposed to be someone you’re not, and in order for me
to create a representation of what I’m not, I had to know who I am. And I
didn’t. I spent a while during and right after that project feeling a bit lost
and unsure of myself, especially in my work.
Eventually I decided
that I just needed to do something, anything, so I began drawing little things
everyday. I drew doodles of people and characters, which I created, but were
ultimately based off of people I knew and saw. I was drawing inspiration from
the world around me much more than I ever had before. In artwork I had done in
classes with guidelines and expectations, it was easy to come up with a concept
in my head to answer the given prompt. But when I wasn’t given any guiding
instructions, I felt inadequate as an artist because I couldn’t figure out what
to create, when in reality, I needed to realize that the answers weren’t all in
my head. We, as humans, are a product of the world around us, and I needed to
reflect on that world and allow it to inspire me. Thoughts and ideas don’t just
fabricate out of thin air, they are a reaction to what we experience. I felt so
detached from myself when I first began this personal drawing project of mine,
but slowly I began realizing that I was developing my own style and I was
having a lot of fun doing it. The reason I never felt like I had my own style
was because I never spent the time exploring art in my own way, I was always
just meeting expectations and following guidelines. But now, suddenly I felt
proud of what I was creating, and everyday I looked forward to being able to
come home and draw. I finally felt the sense of self-pride and ownership in my
own work that I was missing before. All of this lead me to my final project.
When considering
my final project, unlike usual, I developed my idea for it pretty quickly. In
fact, I already had somewhat of an idea for this project when we began the mail
art assignment, so I used that assignment to somewhat prepare and practice for
this. I knew that I wanted to do portraits, but this time I wanted to allow the
world around me to be part of my work more than ever. I wanted to go beyond
drawing people I created, and make pieces of real people. I also wanted to give
up some control over my pieces by not giving myself the power to choose whom I
portray in each portrait. In order to do this, I posted on social media for
people to send me pictures of their face for a project, and took the first 9
people to respond to my post, regardless of how well I knew them. I found it
interesting how much I could learn about each person just based off the picture
they sent me. Some people sent me selfies they had just taken right then for
the purpose of this project, some people sent me selfies that had clearly been
at different times for the purpose of showing others and looking good, and some
people sent me cropped pictures of their faces from family photos, pictures
with friends, or professional portraits. This made me think about the act of taking a
picture of oneself, and how differently everyone feels about it. After
finishing my first portrait, I felt that it would be fitting to post each one
on social media because of its nature of being a selfie. As I began posting
more, increasing amounts of people commented and messaged me asking me to draw
them (for free). Lots of people have an obsession with themselves, especially
in this society that is revolved round social media and posting oneself
everywhere.
Another decision I
made for these pieces it that I wanted them to be done in nonconventional
colors. I do wholeheartedly believe that people should be proud of their
ethnicity, and am in no way trying to say otherwise through this piece.
Especially as a white person, I don’t think it is my place to make claims on
topics associated with race and ethnicity. With this piece, though, I wanted to
represent these people in a way that steps beyond the normal scope of human
coloring. To best do this, I chose to use gouache as my medium. This project
definitely came with a big learning curve attached, because I had never used
gouache before. I was really nervous to start on my first piece, but luckily
found that I really enjoy using gouache. My skills and understanding of the
medium improved greatly with each piece.
Bio:
I
am a practicing artist who was born and grew up in Washington state, which
shaped me a lot as a person. I consider where I came from a part of my
identity. I currently attend Chapman University, where I have recently left
animation behind and begun studying fine arts with a minor in entrepreneurship,
and plan to graduate with a BFA in the spring of 2021. I first began practicing
art as a sophomore in high school, when I was required to satisfy an art
credit. I set down my softball bat and picked up a paintbrush and never looked
back. I have been an artist ever since. My work has been featured in the
Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery 2018 fall Departmental Show, and the
Chapman University Guggenheim Gallery 2019 spring Departmental Show. In the
fall of 2019, I will intern at Night Gallery, where I look forward to gaining
first-hand experience in the art world.
*Hi Cindy, I know this is perhaps
somewhat of an unusual and lengthy artist statement, but I felt like it was
important to explain my growth in your class and how everything helped to
create my final project. This semester has truly been a time of reflection for
me that I didn’t even know I needed. I essentially hit rock bottom this semester (not because
of this class), and being forced to think about myself and who I am as an
artist made things worse at first, but ultimately allowed me to figure out who
I am. While I know this project in and of itself may not be all that profound, it
a product of all this semester has taught me and I'm quite proud of it, and I'm just now realizing that I haven't felt this kind of pride towards my artwork before. Thank you for everything.
