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Building Blocks
Inquiry Question: Which aspects of human culture remain intact across any time and/or distance?
Artist Statement
Artist Statement
Throughout my pieces for this theme I focused on the simplicity underneath the chaos of human civilization. What I mean by this is that all cultures are complex and layered, yet many of them share certain aspects. Some of these shared cultural aspects of humanity became the ideas behind my pieces for this theme, specifically art, war, and religion. I wanted my pieces to stand out individually while also being connected to each other, in a similar way that human cultures differ from each other while sharing certain characteristics. To do this, I used three different forms of colored pencils. Regular colored pencils, crushed colored pencil powder, and crushed colored pencil powder applied with water and paintbrush. The materials I used helped make the pieces look similar to each other without making them look completely the same.
Throughout my pieces for this theme I focused on the simplicity underneath the chaos of human civilization. What I mean by this is that all cultures are complex and layered, yet many of them share certain aspects. Some of these shared cultural aspects of humanity became the ideas behind my pieces for this theme, specifically art, war, and religion. I wanted my pieces to stand out individually while also being connected to each other, in a similar way that human cultures differ from each other while sharing certain characteristics. To do this, I used three different forms of colored pencils. Regular colored pencils, crushed colored pencil powder, and crushed colored pencil powder applied with water and paintbrush. The materials I used helped make the pieces look similar to each other without making them look completely the same.
Reinventing the Wheel
Medium: Colored pencils on sketchbook paper
Dimensions: 12" X 9"
In this piece I wanted to return to the roots of ancient art, and the natural simplicity from which it was born, so I chose to focus on simple shapes to depict the different materials. The piece is a new spin on the color wheel. Each section depicts the material that was used by ancient peoples to create the respective colors of the wheel. For example, the purple section contains a murex snail shell, which was once used by ancient Phoenicians to create purple dye, and the orange section depicts a piece of ochre which was commonly used in cave paintings.
Beautiful Nightmare
Beautiful Nightmare
Medium: Colored pencils on sketchbook paper
Dimensions: 9" X 12"
In this piece I wanted to focus on humanity's propensity for warfare. The particular subject of this piece was the opium wars fought between Britain and China. I wanted to draw contrast between the beautiful poppy flowers, and the horrible things that humans did with the product of that natural beauty.
Be Not a Heretic
Be Not a Heretic
Medium: Colored pencils on sketchbook paper
Dimensions: 9" X 12"
The focus of this piece is religious belief. Almost every culture in the world is centered or was originally centered around some sort of religion or spiritual belief. While I no longer hold any religious beliefs, I was raised in the Catholic faith, so I chose to depict an angel alerting a shepherd to the birth of Christ. I gave the angel a wing composed of the twelve signs of the zodiac to represent a non christian belief system.
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