core series
artist's statement
As a very empathetic person I am most drawn to art that evokes an emotional response within me. I chose to emphasize this aspect of myself in my own artistic work by exploring core emotions and how humans express their invisible, intangible feelings. I portrayed four corresponding core emotions: hope and despair, joy and sadness. My figures blend into their backgrounds, not fully distinguished, showing how emotions are not confined to our bodies but emanate beyond, into a personal atmosphere.
The human body is such a complex structure and yet it’s form can be so simple and abstract. I am fascinated by the way light plays off the curves of the skin and the angles created by bones underneath. Body-scapes, close up studies of the body, feature heavily in my photography, but through the lens I have never been able to express the emotional element that I strive to create in my work. The freedom of monotypes allowed me to capture both beautiful forms of the human figure as well as an emotional, ethereal sense, not just through body position but also through color and texture.
My monotypes, which are one-of-a-kind prints, are based on photographs I took of my peers and myself. I used a reductive printmaking process where the images are created through a series of many printed layers. After first covering a thin plexi-glass plate with ink, I then wipe away areas to reveal underlying layers until the fully formed shape emerges on the paper. When printing monotypes I feel I am on an archeological dig, slowly discovering the emotions of these figures with each successive print layer.
This series was created in 2011 for my senior seminar class at Wheaton College.
The human body is such a complex structure and yet it’s form can be so simple and abstract. I am fascinated by the way light plays off the curves of the skin and the angles created by bones underneath. Body-scapes, close up studies of the body, feature heavily in my photography, but through the lens I have never been able to express the emotional element that I strive to create in my work. The freedom of monotypes allowed me to capture both beautiful forms of the human figure as well as an emotional, ethereal sense, not just through body position but also through color and texture.
My monotypes, which are one-of-a-kind prints, are based on photographs I took of my peers and myself. I used a reductive printmaking process where the images are created through a series of many printed layers. After first covering a thin plexi-glass plate with ink, I then wipe away areas to reveal underlying layers until the fully formed shape emerges on the paper. When printing monotypes I feel I am on an archeological dig, slowly discovering the emotions of these figures with each successive print layer.
This series was created in 2011 for my senior seminar class at Wheaton College.