Artist Statement & Bio

Artist Statement

I have always used ink in my work. I adore the permanence, the risk, the pure blackness that comes with it. I have so much anxiety making decisions in my work, so it’s nice that with ink it does the decision making for me. Watercolor is the same way. For this piece, too, I used a metallic gold to contrast the flatness of black and white. These three works are different tarot cards, aligned into a three-card spread all in the upright. Tarot has always had a unique place in my heart. It is hated in my home, but I adore it. I use the taboo tarot cards in a spread that is hopeful. It’s juxtaposition! To run down the cards in this series in the order in which they are read; The Devil is a card that represents what binds you and inhibits your success, Death is a symbol for change, and The Fool is a new beginning. In short, I wanted to design a reading where the message conveyed is “No matter what you’re going through or have gone through, whether it be toxic people or behavior, the change will be on the nearby horizon if it hasn’t started already and it will ultimately lead to a fresh start.” I only used major arcana, too, because this is definite. Not a minor event in the day to day, rather a major life event that is destined to be in your life journey.

Artist Bios

SHORT BIO

            Katharine Grace was born in Fullerton, California, and stayed in southern California for most of her life. Her work is mostly inspired by her own interest in surrealism accompanied by her fascination with bending reality while using psychology, her main area of study, as a muse or baseline. Her work is visible on the Instagram page @doodlekxtt.

LONG BIO

            Katharine Grace was born in Fullerton, California. She is a psychology and art student at Chapman University, and is a year away from obtaining her degree. She had one of her works on display during a student showcase in the fall, and once in her childhood at the OC Fair. She’s drawn her whole life, pulling inspiration from the cartoons she watched growing up and her love for surrealism. She studies psychology and wants to end up either in private practice or as a school psychologist. Katharine’s love of the human mind inspires her work as well, motivating her to push the boundaries and playing on different psychological conditions or using them as inspiration for work. She doesn’t just pull from a textbook; she also pulls from her own life. Art is Katharine’s therapy, thus a lot of her work is a vent session. The tables turn and it’s the viewer’s turn to unpack what the therapist is thinking. Katharine is a mediocre musician and a barista, and she still lives in southern California while she finishes her education.

Artist Statement and Bio

Artist Statement

I began using art as a therapy tool-- an expression of my feelings, calming mechanism, and a visual record of my thoughts. My mental state has been something I have constantly struggled with, always fighting with myself to act a certain way. I started making art when I realized that I can let go of this control, and some things are just created naturally. The more art I made, the easier it was for me to openly discuss the hardships of mental illnesses and the physical toll they take on one's body. Beginning with my own diagnoses, I began to explore different illnesses with a varying range of severity. I became very interested in the human body, especially in a state of distortion. Body dysmorphia is something that I continue to bring attention to through my work. I am able to ignore the stigma around mental health by putting it out into the open, using various media. I have done several works around these concepts, and I continue to learn and experiment with these ideas.

In my most recent series, "Feeling Anxious," I have created three, 18x20 in. pieces depicting the physical toll anxiety takes on the body. I wanted to capture the symptoms one may feel during a panic attack, and display where on the body (besides the mind) is affected by this mental illness. These works are created entirely of black and white charcoal. I emphasize the concept of battling mental illness by using a black-and-white color pallet, highlighting the parts of the body in which I feel are affected. 


Bio

Sophie Winiarz was born in Los Angeles, California. Her battles with mental health greatly impacts her drawing and painting. She is currently working towards getting her B.A. in Strategic and Corporate Communications, with a minor in studio art. Most of her works are done in graphite and charcoal, however, she occasionally experiments with a wide variety of media. She has presented her work at Beverly Hills High School and Chapman University and hopes to show her pieces in a friend's gallery in the near future. Her work is visible on Instagram (@sophiewiniarz).

Final Series Artist Statement/ Bio

“Inner thoughts”

Artist Statement:

     As an artist, Sammy Keane would describe herself as a perfectionist who hopes to become more
fluid and experimental. In recent works, Keane has been using hatching techniques to add shading and
depth usually on bodies or fabric. She is working to find herself as an artist, however, she continues to
be interested in her personal and physical emotions and how they play in her everyday life. Keane has
always been inspired by artists such as Jenny Saville and Jean-Michel Basquiat and how these artists
integrate the body into their work while also keeping it interesting and active. To this day, Sammy
Keane believes she has learned the most from her previous mistakes. She constantly tells herself to
step back and put her work on the wall if she becomes frustrated as it allows her to see her pieces from
a different depth and perspective.

     In Keane’s series “Inner thoughts”, she created four 18x20 depictions of bodies or close up areas
of bodies in positions that could be seen as romantic or even sexual. “Inner thoughts”, is similar to one
of Keane’s earlier series “Girl” as they were both created with graphite and watercolor. This series was
inspired by past experiences in relation to Keane’s inner romantic style of thinking. Growing up, Keane
watched many romantic films that continued to cloud her judgment when thinking about her possible
future relationships. As Keane is getting older and entering in what some would call the “real world”,
these romantic thoughts continue to invade her mind. This piece was created to juxtapose the indirect
relationship between the romantic figures seen and the realistic textual aspects surrounding. Some
themes that Keane continues to focus on when creating her work, especially “Inner thoughts”, are
feminism, freedom of speech, mental health, and personal growth. Keane not only believes that this
series of work could be seen as successful when placed together but each work has the potential to
stand on its own. As each work incorporates the combination of a textual aspect and two human
figures, they are capable to speak for themselves. Prior to creating “Inner thoughts”, Keane was
looking at the skills of artists such as Jonathan Paul and Rembrandt. In addition to that, she believes
that her most successful inspiration is looking at reference photos she finds on different social media
platforms.

     Keane combines photos that she has saved through social media, magazines, websites, etc. with
her imagination and life experiences to create something that she not only sees as aesthetic but also
influential. The more she gets lost in found photos, the more she becomes excited about her upcoming
work. While Keane is creating, she tries her best to remind herself that she is ultimately making this
work for herself and no one else.

Bio:

     Sammy Keane was born in Detroit, Michigan. She started making art in High School in Orlando,
Florida. She is currently working to get her BFA at Chapman University in the spring of 2020. Her
work as a fine artist is mainly influenced by life experiences that connect to her physical state and
emotions. Keane mainly works in pencil or graphite however, she has created pieces in all mediums.
She has presented work at SACI (Studio Arts College International), OTIS, and Chapman University.
Her work is visible on Instagram (@sammygraceart) and on https://sgkeane.wixsite.com/mysite

Artist Statement Final Series

         

I began by creating hand drawn stencils to use to make a pattern on the paper. The five stencils each were drawn to be the stages of a butterfly metamorphosis beginning first with the caterpillar, then the cocoon, escape, first movements, to eventually an adult monarch butterfly. I choose to use the monarch butterfly because it is believed in many cultures that they represent the cycle of life and are related to the human soul. For the main medium of the pieces I choose watercolor because of its fluidity and lightness that complements what the butterflies stand for in the representation of myself. Over top of each of the watercolor patterns if a self-portrait of myself drawn with yarn and string, used to symbolize the malleability of life in general. Although, sections of the yard disappear within the paintings, the texture is still there, you are able to feel the lines emerging from the paper. Some parts of these self-portraits might be hidden by the black, but the hidden lines even more so symbolized the parts of myself that are not always visible, but still present. Each of the paintings have a different self-portrait on top, beginning with me facing to the left and slowly moving toward facing the front. Just like the changes of the monarch butterfly, I am also changing with it. Gaining knowledge and wisdom as I continue to grow and change with the butterfly. 

Collage

I had somewhat of an idea of what I wanted to do for the collage project about a week before it was assigned. My roommate and I always get a lot of advertisements in the mail. I thought about how they were always recycled and almost never used. I decided to take them in and see if I could use them for a project. That's when I had the idea to do a project on the value of something since throughout the pages was sales upon sales, posting the value of what they were selling.

Collages are a great way to express opinion and thoughts about society. I decided to tackle the subject that is women and how they are valued by others and how they value themselves. While working on this I considered cutting off the heads of the women, however I felt like I was objectifying them enough, by covering all their garments to make them look naked, and it did not feel right to deface them all but did deface some to draw your attention to how women sometimes focus too much on their bodies and how sometimes society only views, and values, women's bodies and not who they are as people.

I made it a point to find a diverse group of women. Women of different body types. Women of different races. It is a problem that effects all women. I especially wanted to include a plus size model for the piece "You Could Raise Your Prices!" because "plus size" women tend to undervalue themselves. 

Additionally, it felt weird to decide what price to put on different women. Who gets to be worth $158 and who gets to be worth $1.99. I purposefully included a wide range of prices to show how varied women value themselves and how society values them.

I found the phrase "69c Sale" in the ads and decided that I wanted to each piece in the collection have a "slogan". "How do you value yourself?", "Don't sell yourself short!", How much do women cost?", "You could raise your prices!" Instead of these being magazine or ad cutouts, they are more like my own personal questions or statements to the audience.

I'm really proud of this piece and made to understand collage in a different light. Our collage work in class and this project has converted me into a collage lover.

However it is extremely messy and cutting is very time consuming.

Alter Ego

I always viewed alter egos as different versions of a person, especially versions that are strong and successful . A few years back a friend drew an alter ego version of me with a dark green pixie working with Captain America. Now that is one of my alter egos, I sure do love green pixie cuts, but reflecting on how I view myself, it's not I view my main alter ego anymore.  I started to develop a new version a my alter ego in 11th grade when I had to create an expressive self portrait for AP Art but it became more of an alter ego because it transformed into how I wanted to be like instead of how I felt. I wanted to create a new and improved version of the old. Going into this project, I knew there would be an array of color, wings, and armor.

I view my alter ego somewhat as an "angelic warrior", however one that is unrelated to religion or g-d. The armor, the shield, and sword implies that she's a warrior. The warrior concept is that my alter ego is not only a survivor but a fighter. The halo shows that this warrior is "angelic", good of heart, fighting for what is right. I always want to be someone who fights for what is right and be a good person. The angelic factor also implies that my alter ego is free from "sin" or "mistakes". As someone who easily carries guilt around, I want my alter ego to be free from it.  Furthermore. the wings represent freedom. Too often, I feel trapped. My alter ego is not. She can fly wherever she desires. The wings being colorful/rainbow represent that there are many "colors"/parts to/of myself. Each color has a connotation. Additionally different colors represent that I have many different interests. The hair is silver and gold because silver implies old age which implies wisdom/knowledge and gold implies riches. I wanted my alter ego to show its wisdom but also richness of soul. Lastly, the eyeshadow is like warpaint, but also I chose neon green for its originality
as it is not often used as eyeshadow.

Destruction project

At first I was nervous to destroy something I had made to make another piece of art because this idea is completely unconventional to me. Usually, every piece of art that I make takes hours and hours due to the fact that I use a lot of detail. So the thought of destroying a piece of art, that was labor intensive and something that I am proud of, would never occur to me because it seems like it would be a waste of that time I spent creating it. The more I thought about the assignment though I chose to destroy one piece of art and add those pieces to another piece I had done.

For this project I took one of my live model drawings and added to what I had already done. I liked the idea of revisiting some piece of work that you have done previously and expanding and manipulating it. For me, this project was fun and even therapeutic because there was no expectation to make the piece perfect, there was just the act of creating. Often times I find myself getting caught up in making the perfect piece or trying to make something that I think other people will think is good. By doing this, making art becomes stressful as if it is a performance that everyone is watching and judging. The one thing that I tried to keep in mind while working on this piece was to enjoy the process of creating. Once I was able to let go of my perfectionistic tendencies the process became fun and expressive rather than a performance.

An artist whose work I found  particularly interesting was Gerhard Richter. I love his style of painting over his photographs and while his work is not something that influenced my own work I find his style quite beautiful and a style that I would want to explore in the future. Some of his work was completely covered in paint and others of his works were only partially covered. Those that were partially covered were not fully destroyed and yet they are still beautiful.  

One thing that I struggled with was completely destroying the piece I was working on. What I mean by this is that I kept the figure intact and did minimal destruction to the final piece. While I knew that destruction of the piece was the goal I think subconsciously I was unable to fully understand and accept this idea. Therefore, I was unable to fully let go of control and the need to keep things intact and make something pretty.

On the other hand, I did destroy another piece of art in order to add and develop the final piece. So, in this case the destruction is hidden but the destruction is still there. Furthermore, just because you cannot see the parts that are destroyed does not mean that there was no process of destruction. In fact destruction of another piece can lead to beauty within another piece which is what I believe I captured in the final piece.