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The Fig
The Fig is my take on Sylvia Plath's metaphor of the fig tree from her novel the Bell Jar. Here's the excerpt this was inspired by-"I saw my life branching out before me like the green fig tree in the story. From the tip of every branch, like a fat purple fig, a wonderful future beckoned and winked. One fig was a husband and a happy home and children, and another fig was a famous poet and another fig was a brilliant professor, and another fig was Ee Gee, the amazing editor, and another fig was Europe and Africa and South America, and another fig was Constantin and Socrates and Attila and a pack of other lovers with queer names and offbeat professions, and another fig was an Olympic lady crew champion, and beyond and above these figs were many more figs I couldn't quite make out. I saw myself sitting in the crotch of this fig tree, starving to death, just because I couldn't make up my mind which of the figs I would choose. I wanted each and every one of them, but choosing one meant losing all the rest, and, as I sat there, unable to decide, the figs began to wrinkle and go black, and, one by one, they plopped to the ground at my feet."
Ornithology
My piece ORNITHOLOGY explores the inseparable connection between nature and human culture. I used birds and eponyms of birds to present this idea. I did this to explore whether humans subtract from the beauty of nature, or if nature is only beautiful because we as people say it is. This can Also be interpreted as the questioning of whether nature would be considered a thing of neutrality if it weren't for usUsing it as the foundation of our culture.
Master of Reality
My piece the Master of Reality explores the idea of higher power vs. chance. Each glass represents an individual put at different stakes left out of their control, and it explores the idea that a person's life is tied to factors that are well out of their right to change. I did this by showing the hands of a higher power pulling at the strings keeping a person (vase) from shattering, and a similar hand burning the string keeping the same vase from breaking while others stay peacefully intact.
Sisterhood
In my painting Sisterhood, my main goal was to tell a story through art. This piece explores the perception of the elderly in our society and contradicts common stereotypes put on elderly people, like those of them being straight laced or even lonely. these two friends look like they are telling each other secrets and are up to no good, but I left it up to the viewer to decide what exactly they might be up to.
the Rib of Man
This piece was inspired by the current debate about women's rights to their own body. It depicts a woman lying down, bleeding, while two snakes are slithering around her, going nearly unnoticed when you're not looking. It represents how men aren't held accountable for their actions and they are left without any burden due to the nature of human design. The snakes are also in contrast to the biblical Story of Adam and Eve.
Market price
My Piece Market Price was based
off of a memory I had as a child,
seeing the fish being sold
at a market and being conflicted
on whether it was abnormal that
I found them beautiful in a way. It
Represents how we can find beauty
In things that are commonly seen as
Mundane or even vulgar.
Franks Mind Reading Goggles
This piece depicts my friend Frankie who has
tendencies to zone out into perceivably deep
thought. I thought it looked like they could
See things that maybe we didn't, and
they might be on a whole other level of
enlightenment. I conveyed mood in this piece
by painting it with a yellowish green cast
making the piece feel dreamy or surreal in a way.
the Death of Apollo
My piece, The Death of Apollo, isn't
based off of any story of Apollo's death
told by the Greeks, but by the idea of the
Death of the apollonian. Since the idea
Of the apollonian is centered around order,
Intellect, and reason, it couldn't face death
from any bodily degradation, but only to lose
the mind responsible for those ideals.
Nude Study
In this painting of a nude figure
I focused on using big
Brushstrokes and applying
Paint to the canvas without
Sketching in pencil first. I also
Tried to capture the softness of
The figure without blending paint
On the canvas
Turbulence
In this piece I focused on
using a looser technique
by layering paint thickly
with a palette knife
in order to create bold
color and texture. I also
Tried to use exaggerated
Colors to create a definitive
mood.
Purple Haze
In this piece I wanted to put focus on harmony between the colors of the sky and the colors in the lavender by incorporating blues in the lavender and purples in the sky. This was a technical piece and aside from focusing on color I was ensuring I used expressive brush strokes.
Creekside
This piece is a plein air painting of a place in Gahanna Ohio called creekside. I wanted to focusing on hiding saturated colors in my darker values and capturing a sense of depth throught the whole piece.
Dogs
A piece of social commentary about the class divides during decadent periods using dogs as an allegorical device to tell the story.
songbirds
songbirds is a pastel drawing that conveys a precious moment between a man and a bird-a mutual trust between two beings who owe each other nothing.
Women of Blues and Jazz
This is a 4'8' mural painted live during the Creekside Blues and Jazz festival. As a female musician who's played in professional spaces, I've experienced first hand both the love and pushback you get for occupying a male dominated space. Learning more about music history, I learned how underrepresented some female musicians can be so I decided to make a mural that highlights 8 extremely influential female blues and jazz musicians who've inspired myself and many others.
Horse study
a colored pencil study of a beautiful horse. I tried to focus on detail and capturing all the intricacies of a horses face.
Production (1962)
The first piece in my series The Life of A Fur Coat depicts not just the production of the coat, but the changing atmosphere for women entering the workforce. AT this time, most women held what were considered Pink Collar jobs. Some examples of these jobs included, maid, seamstress, midwife, nurse etc. This piece was done on scrap metal to provide an industrial feel, de feminizing and de glamorizing the work that kept women afloat during the mid 20th century.