Chains and Rotators

I became interested in cycling 3 years ago when I traveled to Burlington, Vermont to watch my Dad and brother complete the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Ride to Cure 100 mile bike ride. As soon as I saw them cross that finish line, I just knew it was something I had to do. I did my first ride in Lacrosse, Wisconsin in August of 2010, my second ride in Death Valley, California in October of 2011 and am getting ready to complete my third ride in Lacrosse, Wisconsin in a few weeks. Each of these rides takes an unbelievable amount of training. We also raise money and awareness so that we can find a cure for this terrible disease. I will not stop pedaling until that cure is found. These photographs are just another way I raise awareness for diabetes, my brother never gets a break from this disease.

Aboriginal Mask

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Create a piece of art mimicking a Non-Western cultures techniques.

The aboriginal culture is a very interesting culture. Their culture was so rich in design and beliefs, I found the tribal masks to be most intriguing. I created this mask with a 48" concrete form tube, paper mache and paint. I cut the concrete form tube in half with a jigsaw and then cut out the eyes and mouth and rounded the corners. I put several layers of paper mache and then spray painted the entire mask black. The dotting technique was the longest process, it took me about 5 hours to complete all the dots. The flower-like symbol on the top of the mask symbolizes women and the circles on the bottom symbolizes a meeting place or watering hole. I took a more feminine approach to this mask because everything I researched was more focused on men. 

Chains

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Mapping. 

1 shot

1 day

1 week

1 month

I chose to map the amount of insulin injections my brother takes in one day, one week and one month. My brother, Ian, is a type 1 diabetic. He was diagnosed at the age of ten months old and is now 17, so this disease is all my family has ever known with him. I chose to map this out because it's such a big part of our every day lives. We're beyond ready for a cure.

Distress

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Create a site-specific installation piece absolutely anywhere in the library.

At first I really struggled with this project because it could be absolutely anything, it was so broad. We were asked to reflect on the various reasons people visit the library or the many uses of the library. I find myself only ever visiting the library to escape from the noise and distractions in my dorm. I rarely ever use it to actually get books or do research. So in exploring this observation I headed to the library to study. I found the perfect table, set all of my stuff up and got to work. But was quickly distracted by the loud conversations going on around me, it was so distracting that I actually had to move around to three different floors before I could find a nice quiet, peaceful spot. That's how my idea came to me, I wanted to create and "escape" within the escape I call the library. I was able to get ahold of some old journals of vacuum technology that were getting thrown out. I tore out 856 pages out of these books and attached them to 9 foot fishing line. I made 40 of these strands. I hung each strand from the library ceiling around a desk to completely enclose it. The escape is easily entered by just pulling the strands aside. If each page used were to represent an hour of studying (856 hours, that would be the amount of hours that "should" be spent studying for two whole quarters. I crumpled the pages to represent the stress and anxiety that comes along with studying to pass that test or write that paper. I got some reactions that it was a peaceful place to enter because its like you're in your own little world and others said it was just too overwhelming because of all the suspended paper. I am so proud of this piece and it was so successful. I definitely want to explore installations more because of this piece.

High Contrast Portrait

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Choose a photograph and add high contrast then use the add and erase technique to achieve the desired effect

I chose this picture of my brother holding a lacrosse stick up to his face. First I completely covered the paper in blue nu pastel, then I completely covered the blue with black charcoal. After prepping the paper, I went in with multiple kinds of erasers and erased the highlights that were on his face. I am very pleased with how well this turned out!

Selfscape

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Create a selfscape 
I took an abstract approach to this assignment. We had to incorporate specific things that we learned about ourselves through a self-evaluation quiz we took in class. We had to include our favorite color, mine is blue, our favorite animal, mine is a giraffe, and our favorite shape, mine is the lightning bolt figure. I also added other elements to my drawing. The shapes outlined in brown are the spots on a giraffe. The blue circles not only represent my favorite color but also my blue eyes. I put a lot of pattern in the spots because I love mix and matching patterns which alludes to my desire to be an interior architect. There is a tree in the background that represents the love I have for my family and the flowing branches represent my curls. My professor really enjoyed my piece because I took a completely different approach than anyone else and he loved that it looked like it was from a different culture.

Chaos

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT:Create a design based around a word of choosing.

I chose the word "CHAOS" as that was what was going through my mind when trying to decide on a word. At the beginning of the school year my professors encouraged me to be bold and daring but I was just too shy. So I used this project as my opportunity to break out of shell and doing something very bold. Each one of these letters started out as an 18" x 24" piece of paper that was then embellished. Also, there are notches in each of the letters that kind of ties each letter together, even though there is spaces in between.

Self Portrait

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT:Create a self portrait mimicking the style of a famous artist. 

I've always admired Chuck Close and his one-of-a-kind technique. I just never thought I'd have the patience to do such minute detailing. But I really wanted to challenge myself for this final project in my digital class so that's how I chose this style. I put countless hours into this piece, after each session with my face glued to my 15" laptop screen, I swore I was going cross eyed. I knew going into this that it would take a lot of time and effort, my professor warned me several times. But that's what made me want to spend countless hours staring at layers upon layers of shapes. I can't say I'm 100% satisfied with it, I think there were several other ways I could have gone about it. But seeing as this was my first time using Illustrator, I think I did a pretty good job figuring out the various tools to help me go about this tricky technique. I'm very interested to see how the class reacts to it at my final critique so we'll have to wait and see.

Midnight In Paris

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Create a movie poster and DVD cover for the movie Midnight In Paris using only original images.

I combined two photos that I took. Inside the street lamp is a picture from a church in New Orleans and the street lamp was taken here in Athens. I printed out the image of the church and scanned it into the computer several times to create an "old vintage" look to the photo. I inserted the church photo inside the lamp because New Orleans has similar qualities to Paris. I chose the lamppost because they are timeless to Paris and Paris is known for being beautiful at night when everything is lit up. I added the whimsical stripes because they represent Owen Wilson's character in the movie, he's very peculiar. 

Black & White Collage

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT:Recreate a black and white image with magazine clippings of similar grayscale values. 

The was a very challenging piece, especially because my original image was a photograph taken through a window. So it was very hard to capture the reflection using magazine clippings. I really love to mix and match patterns so I tried to do a lot of that to differentiate between different objects in the image. Although this piece was very time consuming, it was also very soothing to work on.

Photoshop Collage

PROJECT ASSIGNMENT: Create a collage in photoshop using found objects.

I really enjoyed choosing random objects for this project, items ranging from treasured jewelry to rocks and leaves. This is the first time I've ever used photoshop and I've really developed a love for it. The endless possibilities that you can achieve with it are just simply amazing to me. I look forward to continuing to explore it's many features. This piece is a tribute to my dear grandmothers. After scanning my objects into the computer and picked which ones I would use throughout my piece. I went with my Grandma Wolff's hankie, a locket I made with Grandma Hibner's picture, one of my hair clips, and one of my earrings. At first I wasn't too thrilled about the kaleidoscope look that was produced but now I really enjoy the repetition. As my first photoshop piece, I really love it.

Gas Mask

Inspired by this
'68 anti-war poster

Project Assignment: Anything your heart desires.

I chose to work with charcoal and water color for this piece.I was inspired after looking through anti-war protests for the Vietnam War and came across some compelling images of gas masks. Something about the dark mysterious nature of these objects really intrigued me. I incorporated the butterfly wings because butterflies represent the soul and there’s that old saying, “The eyes are the window to the soul.” I was terrified to work with charcoal because I was not very familiar with it before this piece but ended up absolutely loving it in the end. I started out by covering the eyes with blue painters tape to preserve the white and completely blacked out the board with charcoal. I then went in with a kneaded and white eraser and did the detailing in the shadows. I had my final critique today and overall the professor was pretty pleased. I’m thrilled at how this piece turned out!

Photographs

“You don’t take a photograph, you make it.” 

-Ansel Adams