Senior Art Thesis

ARTIST STATEMENT:

Decaying wood and speckled rocks. A past resident’s Pabst Blue Ribbon beer can rusts with the

soggy leaves under the porch. Puzzle pieces drown in a sea of broken glass from a repurposed

windowpane.

I am an investigator and a theorizer. I look for physical evidence and traces of how things were,

while questioning the way things naturally and unnaturally change overtime. I am drawn to worn

and aging objects and get lost in their layers of texture. I create narratives and “what if’s” to

understand and give importance to unmarked entities. The landscape of chipping paint and shoe

scuffs on the stairs up to my apartment changes in insignificant increments each time someone

passes through. My charcoal, graphite, and landscape ink drawings are inspired by musings

about places I’ve visited and things I’ve seen.

My mood and motivation cycles, and I climb out of a rut by drawing the mountain of clothes on

a chair or photographing the water bottle that has been rolling around in the trunk of the car for

the past few months. Through ink wash I am able to draw and paint without questioning and erasing.

I can accept what I am ashamed of by acknowledging it through my artwork; I grabbed my camera

when I saw my pile of dirty dishes sparkling like gems under the lamplight. By evidencing how I

impact the spaces I occupy, I can solidify my presence and ultimately feel unapologetic about the

space I take up in the world. Similarly, by documenting abandoned objects and decaying spaces,

I quiet my mind and give validity and immortality to something well-used, discarded, and forgotten.