Art Historical context

When I was in Italy we went to a place called Paestum, a Graeco-Roman city, founded around 7 BC by colonists from a Greek city. It was abandoned during the Middle Ages and its ruins were noticed again as recently as the 18th century, following the rediscovery of the Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum. While the main features of Paestum are currently the standing remains of three major temples, what impressed me the most is what I found in the museum. There are tomb paintings and stone busts, along with many other incredible artifacts, but nothing fascinated me more than the Illuminated manuscripts. I studied them for a long time, impressed by the great amount of detail, and whimsical little markings. I spent a long time documenting them in my sketchbook. 

Since then I began adding to the pages of my sketchbook more and more intricate designs and patterns I found anywhere from the most unusual places to the most beautiful and renowned works of art. The idea of using these ancient designs in a contemporary way intrigued me, and I felt passionate about drawing for the first time in a long time. 

This experience influenced my decision to get my BFA in Drawing and Painting. I created many paintings that incorporated the patterNs and designs I found during my exploits in Italy. There is one symbol that I adapted as my own, which I included in all the paintings, drawings, and prints that I made. 

I was excited when I got accepted into the program, however, I found that I did not completely understand why I created these compositions, or what they meant. Now I can see that they are emphasizing the details that make things as wonderful as they are, although they may go unnoticed if you do not look for them and make the effort to recognize them. It is what kept me going as an artist, so I could get to where I needed to go.



I continued to make these designs in my sketchbooks, but moved on to more conceptual art. I was pushed and challenged in the Installation class and really enjoyed the Digital Art class I took in the Fall of 2010. In these classes I created art that exploited my feelings. It was very uncomfortable, but I have found that it is in the uncomfortable situations that push you out of your comfort zone that you grow and progress most. It is there that true greatness is discovered.

In these classes, along with Studio Seminar, I was introduced to contemporary artists who excited me. They broke the rules that I was taught to keep and took new approaches to art that I had not thought of before. Contemporary art is the art that is being created right now. Some museums consider any art created since WWII to fall into this movement. It is conceptual. It holds meaning. It can make you look at things in a different way. Which may be why distinctions between the high and low arts have started to fade, as contemporary art continues to challenge these concepts by mixing with popular culture.

While I was in NYC I saw firsthand some of the work I had learned about. Incredible works from the artist John Baldessari were stunningly more impressing in person that they were on a computer screen. The meaning was the same, however. John Baldessari dared to take familiar images, with recognizable subject matter, and replace parts of it with a flat color. He challenged the meaning and context by doing this. His works are amazing, but not because of the effort put into flawlessly painting the images, capturing the accuracy of what is depicted. It is because of the poignant meaning and subtle references. It is because the concept is strong, and the execution is clean.

I also changed the context of the images I used in my animations and digital collage by taking one person from a photograph, already loaded with a history of its own, unrelated to my art, and combining it with many others. I like the baggage these loaded images brought because it allowed my compositions to hold many histories, just as each person at a party brings a different history or life baggage with them in reality.

Annie Poon is another contemporary artist who has greatly influenced me. She creates lighthearted animations that have an unfinished quality. This is something I really enjoy. It brings a life to the animations that I admire and relate to. 

I tried to accomplish a similar rawness in my own animations by allowing it to lack a seamless or overly finished quality. It looks as if I took a bunch of people, all the friends that I have collected like some kind of kleptomaniac, and pasted them into one setting.

Another artist of this movement who I have thought about in consideration of my own art is Emily Fox. A fearless artist who puts her pride aside to perform somewhat ridiculous and embarrassing things for the videos she creates. Whether it is swimming in a pool to perform aquatic dances or exhibiting her ballet skills in a skintight leotard.

There is a sense of raw, unadulterated exposure that is something I desire to find in my own animations. While I am not exposing myself physically, I do use stop animation to expose my feelings. Specifically the uncomfortable feelings I have when I am alone in a social environment.



I created animations to explore my feelings and desires. I found this process challenging because I wanted to the crowd to be made up of people I know, my friends and loved ones. I wanted to make sure all of their faces could be seen, because they all mean something to me. This would not make a natural looking composition, though, so I had to remind myself of Rembrandt.

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn was an artist in the 1600s. He was a Dutch painter working during the Baroque period. Baroque is a style that is used to exaggerate motion and easily interpret detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur in sculpture and painting.

Rembrandt was a determined artist who took risks and did things differently. In his painting, commonly known as The Night Watch, he composed a group portrait of a division of the civic guard in an unusual way. Instead of painting them in a neat row or sitting at their annual banquet, he depicted a moment in time in a natural way. To have someone hidden behind another person, or obscured in some other way was uncommon because paintings like these were paid for by the group.



I proceeded with my compositions, taking care that they looked natural, swallowing the importance of the face of my friend in order to create an environment that represents a potentially real moment. They are still in the image, which means they are present at the event depicted, which is just as significant as if their faces were visible to the viewer.