My overall body of work is one which has developed over the past two years to grow to a point where I feel confident in my artistic abilities. When creating each of my artworks, I sought to either practice and refine skills I already possessed, or expand my skills with new techniques, materials, and mediums. My goal with presenting this body of work is to showcase the growth of my artistic skills, by showing a timeline of where I was when I started 11th grade to where I am now. I plan on presenting a collection of works that impacts the viewer by showing just how much of a difference there was between my first and last artworks, and everything in-between. I intend to convey a sense of pride and accomplishment to my audience, and possibly inspire them to attempt to expand their own artistic abilities, just as I have.
Throughout my portfolio I expanded my skills with a handful of select materials which I feel most comfortable with using or have easy access to. The materials chosen for my works are #2 Pencils, Colored Pencils, and Micron Pens. Thematically, my artwork was often centered around concepts including self-reflection, companionship with others, and the evaluation of one’s past, present and future. These themes resonate with me because I have reached a point in my life where I not only need to assess who I was and where I came from, but who I am now and who I want to become later in life. When deciding what theme I want to center a piece around, I will often consider things I’ve been contemplating mentally. An example of this can be found in my artwork titled Pain and Perseverance in which I chose to create a piece relating to my feelings of distress at the overwhelming amount of work and responsibilities I faced, which I needed to power through and persevere in order to succeed.
My exhibition’s design is based entirely on the chronological progression of my artwork in order to best show the development of my skills as an artist. I want to show my audience the evolution of my artwork in an organic, natural progression, emphasized by my exhibition’s presentation. Furthermore, since my artworks don’t have strong thematic consistency, each piece can be viewed individually without needing the others to add context. Due to both of these factors, it is important for my artwork to be organized in a strictly chronological manner. Thanks to the order in which my artwork is intended to be viewed, my audience can not only draw conclusions about the progression of my artistic abilities, but where my mind was when each piece was made as well. My hope is that someone viewing my exhibition can see my artwork and understand my thoughts and feelings when making each piece. Overall, my Exhibition is meant to be a space where people can go to view two primary things: my development as an artist, and what I was thinking about and feeling during the creation of each artwork. Since each artwork has a unique thematic concept with an individual story behind them, my audience can enjoy learning about me without needing to see my other artworks as well.