Connection: An Exploration Through Visual Communication
Location
Alumni Hall North
Department
Art
Abstract
I am a portrait artist that plays around with different techniques, such as realism and expressionism, but my work stays consistent with color. I investigate my subjects’ energy and personalities and portray them through my use of eccentric color, pattern, composition, and line work. With watercolor, colored pencils, and collage, I use bright colors and funky patterns to help illustrate the disposition of each person I draw. I enjoy making my viewers feel as though they are “meeting” my subjects just by looking at them. I work from photographs that I take, assuring I get an up-close and personal unique composition. I am drawn to the raw emotion of humans and how they’re able to tell a story with just facial expression, something we are all familiar with just by solely having contact with other humans. This contact is something we’ve been deprived of recently because of the pandemic, but it is also the only way I’ve ever been able to communicate with my nephews who live across the country. Which leads me to my most current work- my senior exhibition. For my exhibition, I’m using colored pencils to draw screenshots I’ve captured of my nephews while Facetiming them. With this, I am exploring the personal experience of distance and connection through visual communication. I intend to have my portraits evoke positive energy and relatable compositions that give the viewers the urge to engage and connect with my subjects, but also feel a sense of distance while all they are able to do is look, as I am only able to do the same.
Faculty Sponsor
Kim Ambriz, Northeastern Illinois University
Connection: An Exploration Through Visual Communication
Alumni Hall North
I am a portrait artist that plays around with different techniques, such as realism and expressionism, but my work stays consistent with color. I investigate my subjects’ energy and personalities and portray them through my use of eccentric color, pattern, composition, and line work. With watercolor, colored pencils, and collage, I use bright colors and funky patterns to help illustrate the disposition of each person I draw. I enjoy making my viewers feel as though they are “meeting” my subjects just by looking at them. I work from photographs that I take, assuring I get an up-close and personal unique composition. I am drawn to the raw emotion of humans and how they’re able to tell a story with just facial expression, something we are all familiar with just by solely having contact with other humans. This contact is something we’ve been deprived of recently because of the pandemic, but it is also the only way I’ve ever been able to communicate with my nephews who live across the country. Which leads me to my most current work- my senior exhibition. For my exhibition, I’m using colored pencils to draw screenshots I’ve captured of my nephews while Facetiming them. With this, I am exploring the personal experience of distance and connection through visual communication. I intend to have my portraits evoke positive energy and relatable compositions that give the viewers the urge to engage and connect with my subjects, but also feel a sense of distance while all they are able to do is look, as I am only able to do the same.