Line
ARTIST STATEMENT
In this series of line drawings that I created I wanted to explore the different spatial tendencies of people entering and leaving different New York University dorms. As Michel de Certeau states in his piece, Walking in the City “The long poem of walking manipulates spatial organizations, no matter how panoptic they may be: It is neither foreign to them (it can take place only within them) nor in conformity with them (it does not receive its identity from them)”, which is very much true in this case as well. The entering and exiting of New York University dorms manipulates the spatial organizations of their doorways in a multitude of ways, and I wanted to represent that within my line drawings. In order to do this I filmed two, one and a half minute videos of the entrances of the following halls: Uhall, Brittany, Goddard, Weinstein, and Lipton. Then, I created my line drawings based on these videos, two different line drawings from each place. I began by sketching multiple lines in graphite to represent the unmovable structures stationed at each dorm, which functioned as the “spatial organizations”. Next, I took notice that, at nearly every dorm I filmed there were people who remained where they were, unmoving. I decided to document them with blue dots, to show their temporary permanence, the aptitude they have for movement but the lack thereof. After this, I began drawing the lines that would represent movement, green for entering the building and red for exiting. I drew these lines in the same direction of which the people walked. I did this because the drawings would act in a very similar way to what Certeau observed of New York City from his view from above, saying, “ It transforms the bewitching world by which one was ‘possessed’ into a text that lies before one’s eyes”. I knew that “the walkers make up the text” even here on a smaller scale of the New York University dorm entrances, because they bring the life and add things to an area that would mean nothing without them, giving it depth.
News
The poem reads:
Abrasive and shrill
She was aloof, unlikeable
Backlash
Under a cloud of charges
To weaken support
As clouds loom
Who wouldn't want to live with weakness?
The poem reads:
Craving relief
Pressured to accept
I rip open scars
Fear for life
Regardless of compromise
Easing sting of our generations
The poem reads:
New wounds cripple
Ruined
Scarred
We lived through
People don't know that I cry
I find myself lost
I cry
The poem reads:
Scraps of emboldened relationships
Full of heartache
Trying to flee
Guarding the blackened minds
ARTIST STATEMENT
In this series of newspaper art that I created I wanted to explore the idea of how the media portrays life and events in a very dismal way. After buying a New York Times Newspaper everyday for four days straight, I began to recognize the heavy focus the newspaper puts on different horrifying or depressing things. Much of the word choice in the headlines and articles reflect this dismal tone as well. For this reason, I decided to create poetry that reflected this same tone out of the words written in the different newspapers. I drew inspiration from Lorraine O’Grady’s Cutting Out the New York Times but instead of cutting out different words I did a form of “blackout” poetry on the cover page of the four different New York Times. To do this I gave myself “parameters” much like the ones the artists within the Last Newspaper Artists in Conversation talk set for themselves. My parameters were to use only the words on the cover page and create a somber poem, so I mostly focused on words that actually were somber themselves. For example one of my poems which states, “I find myself lost, I cry” I felt encapsulated these dismal feelings represented in the New York Times. In tandem with this, I chose to use red paint to block out the rest of the cover pages. This was due to the fact that red is a color typically associated with both anger and blood which I felt accurately portrayed the other highly concentrated on aspect within the newspaper, the horrifying. I also chose to cut out pictures of suffering from the other pages of the selected newspapers and pasted them on top of the red paint, next to the blackout poems. By doing this I was hoping to raise questions about voyeurism and the human interest in suffering and things of horrifying and an overall dismal nature as portrayed in the media.
Shapes
Before
Work in Progress
Final Print on Fabric
3D Print
Barbie Orgy
ARTIST STATEMENT
For this project I wanted to create a 3D sculpture of what I titled a Barbie Orgy. This sculpture was created with the intents of being a satirical commentary on the way we as a society view sex. It is supposed to make people uncomfortable, in fact it even made me slightly uncomfortable while creating it, in order to draw attention to the weird an unhealthy way in which we as a society view sex. In our capitalist society sex is often a selling point, sex appeal is used in selling everything from cars, to clothes, to food, and yet the actual act of sex is looked down upon. Sex workers aren’t respected and are often treated outright inhumanely and sex itself is often stigmatized, labelled as taboo. This dichotomy of the role sex plays in our society is what I wanted to shed light on with my sculpture. I wanted people to feel uncomfortable in order to make them question themselves on why they feel that way. Sex is natural and so often in the media, yet we shy away from it. It was for this reason that I chose to create the sculpture using Barbies. Barbie is a huge brand which draws attention to the commercialism aspect of my sculpture but they are also kids toys that have very weird sexual connotations. They too are sold using sex appeal, Ken’s six pack abs and Barbies tiny waist are often the goal of many adults when they look in the mirror. For this reason Barbies were the perfect objects to create this orgy sculpture with and really highlight the ideas that I was attempting to portray.
Facade
Color
Color Writing: Vermillion
Vermillion, also known as chinese red, is a bright mix of red and orange. Vermillion is not quite a uniform shade, it varies as sometimes it is more orange than red and vice versa. It is made from the mineral cinnabar, a sulfide material that's often found after recent volcanic activity and alkaline hot springs, making it quite toxic to humans. Though it is made from the mineral cinnabar, Vermillion got it’s unique name from the Latin word vermis, or worm because it had a similar color to the natural red dye made from an insect, the Kermes vermilio, which was widely used in Europe. Vermillion, like red, is typically associated with blood, love, marriage, and religion. In China, the shade was regarded by Taoists as the color of life and eternity therefore, it was often used in drinks meant to rejuvenate and heal. They also used it in Chinese lacquer, which ultimately lead to it being dubbed, “chinese red”. This color is not just a big part of Chinese culture however, it is also a big part of Indian and European culture as well. In India for example, vermillion powder is used to make a dot on a married woman’s forehead or to draw a line of color in her parted hair. It’s a symbol of fertility and shows that the woman is married. In fact, it’s a part of traditional Indian wedding rituals for the groom to apply this powder on his bride for the first time. In Europe, Vermillion was very expensive and was a status symbol when used as a pigment. Though, as time has passed Vermillion has become more and more uncommon. This is due to both the fact that Vermillion is expensive as well as dangerous to produce. Now, there are many different synthetic alternatives for it. For example, in 1817, a German chemist named Friedrich Stromeyer discovered yellow cadmium which, when mixed with selenium produced the most viable vermilion alternative: red cadmium, which is still commonly used today.