Advanced Studio

Saydie Roling "High Infidelity"

Size, Graphite & Collage, 2023 

The idea behind this artwork came from the song “High Infidelity” by Taylor Swift and the lyrics within it. I am a person who loves music and I always find myself falling into the lyrics and imagining what it would look like for my life. The line “Put on your headphones and burn my city” was one line that really stuck out to me in the song. The process behind this work included a lot of planning out how I wanted it to look from the viewer. I wanted to work with multiple media and ended up with graphite which I am comfortable with and collage for a more experimental time. I worked on the outer frame and then cut out the shape of the window to set the shape of the collage. After setting the space I continued on to work on the collage and make it stand out from the front of the image. To me, this artwork is about unfaithfulness. I want someone to be able to see the image and understand the girl and get away from the life that she once knew and find out what her new life will be like. While the song can have other meanings I took it as finding that new chapter of your life and having to start over. The fire symbolizes that new beginning, anyone seeing this can interpret it as change or a new beginning. The headphones symbolize that the girl in the picture is tuning out the world and allowing herself to start over. The most difficult part for me with this project was deciding how I wanted to portray my thoughts. I also was not sure how the collage was going to work for this work because I did not want to make it look too cluttered but also not too simple. If I were to start over on this piece I think that I would expand the background. By doing this I would be able to make a more 3D view so that the frame could come forward. This would allow for a different perspective from more angles. I think that this is a more realistic style of art. This is unique to my own style because while I kept it simple with the graphite on the frame, I was able to add my own twist by adding more to it with the collage element. What also kept it unique to me was the fact that it all revolves around music, which is something that I feel strongly about. I love how everything came together, without knowing what the piece is about it tells an entire story. I love that this piece can be interpreted in many different ways and it is up to the viewer what the story is. 

Saydie Roling “On and On”

Size, Graphite, Colored Pencil, & Collage, 2023 

The idea for “On and On” came from the song “On and On” by Djo. I wanted to embody the media and how much of it cannot be trusted. The idea started when I was listening to my playlist and was really focusing on the lyrics, those which you can see I focused on within the artwork. From there I sketched out my ideas and found a way to bring my ideas to life. I knew that I wanted to use a phone because this is ironic to the fact that the person typing is not trusting the news, but yet is using their phone to figure out what is real. The process for this piece started out with just the hands being drawn out in graphite, the phone being colored pencil, and then the layer of collaged words on top of that. The background started out plain and I thought this was too little for the message, so then I collaged a newspaper background to represent the “real” news. I went out of my comfort zone here using more colored pencils and white gel pens, having to do more blending than I am used to. “On and On” is representative of the media and all of the fake news that is spread daily. When someone sees this piece I want them to really think about the media and everything that we see every day and how much of it is actually real. There is not necessarily anything symbolic here but the message is more straightforward and out for anyone to look at and understand. The most difficult part of this project for me was how time-consuming it was because there were so many different pieces that had to come together. There are three layers and 3 different media within that, so not letting the work become too much and focusing on the idea was important. To overcome my struggles, I really just focused on the outcome and it came out exactly how I wanted, I took my time and did not let it become overwhelming. If I were to start over I think I would spend more time on the newspaper background because this was a last-minute idea. I think that this could come out looking nicer and I wish that I could really get it to turn out how I wanted. I think that this piece is more realistic. It is unique to me because of the different media coming together. I tend to always use at least two and make the different media come together to make that final piece. I love this piece because I really enjoy how chaotic the piece is but it really helps to tie everything together even though there is a lot going on. 

Saydie Roling "Cardigan"

11x17, Graphite, Collage, & Colored Pencil, 2023 

“Cardigan” by Taylor Swift was the inspiration behind this artwork. The idea behind this artwork is thinking back on old memories and reminiscing. The idea for this came from listening to the song and sketching out the emotions that it brought out in me. I knew that I wanted this piece to feel more sentimental and be something that can be interpreted in many different ways.The process behind this piece started out with sketching out the girl and the outline of the man, from there I cut that out and added the dark backdrop with the lyrics on it. From there I was able to do the collage within the man and the lamp post. I used graphite for the simplicity of the girl, colored pencil with a blue to stand out for important lyrics, and collage for the rest to get them to stand out but yet blend in. This artwork is representative of past memories and fading away from them, it shows what it is like to think back onto these memories. When someone sees this art I want them to view it however they feel, whether they relate to these memories or not. Maybe they even interpret it as happier times and a blooming love. The symbolism within this work is the fact that the man has been cut out and the flowers being held within him, these all show that he is gone but yet the memories are there and are still vivid. The most difficult part of this piece was deciding how to go about it and cutting out the man. It was hard to figure out how to express my thoughts on this and to overcome this I tried to think of ideas that I have not done yet and that would be different to my other pieces. If I were to start this piece over I think that I would focus more on the street lamp and getting it to perfectly fit how I want, which is still something I can go back and fix but starting it over would be preferred. I think that this piece is more realistic. While it is still unique to my style once again because of the layers with the collages. I think that I have incorporated this into many pieces and find it something that I enjoy doing. One thing that I love about this piece is that there are so many things going on within this piece that no matter who is looking at it they can still find something to take away from it.