Khadijah's Artist Statement

As an artist, I focus on painting and architecture. These two elements both illustrate my love for nature and the visible and invisible linear connections made in space. As a math major, my interest in this subject is converted into art through the recognition of patterns and the use of measurements, proportions, and shapes. These passions cohesively work together and allow me to focus on the relationships between objects and how connections can be translated into distinct shapes of color.

Painting

With the use of a vibrant palette of contrasting colors I try to convey my feelings of joy and exuberance evoked by the subjects I choose and the act of painting. I alternate between different-sized brushes and brushstrokes as a way to evoke sentiments with broad, spontaneous brushstrokes for big, intense feelings like fever, frustration, and fear. Carefully painted lines with thin brush strokes allow me to translate delicate feelings like calmness, contentment, and cheerlessness, while also illustrating subtleties and linear connections. The process of mixing and applying color allows me to produce colors the viewer would usually miss- saturated blue-grays, fiery orange-reds, and pale-green yellows.

I take real objects such as nature and buildings and abstract them into shifts of color that cohesively form a two-dimensional story based on a three-dimensional subject. I often paint landscapes because for me they are the most visually exciting to witness. This excitement comes from the lack of control due to the shifting and constantly changing light, the overwhelming amount of information, and the ability to easily manipulate the subject matter for my own visual needs as landscapes shift with ease between representation and abstraction. Landscapes are inanimate, but lively in the ever-changing shifts of shadow and highlight. Fascinated by the natural world, I aim to interpret it by capturing the visual impression of light, color, and other sensory aspects such as temperature, sounds, and atmosphere. Landscapes themselves offer beautiful layouts that develop strong compositional spaces, often exciting the eye before focusing on the details. As much as I like the broad compositions offered by the landscape, detail is an important element in my work because it heightens my appreciation of life through the specific while allowing the viewer into how I see the world we inhabit. To execute this, I challenge myself to take a deeper look at the subject and the connections made within.

Architecture

I aim to look deeply into the forms and shapes created by nature. Ecological systems are important to me and as a result, I create striking places connecting people with each other, their communities, and the environment. I have a desire to illustrate the strong connections between light and shadow within visual forms and physical structures. Often it is the shadows and reflections of light that create the most visually appealing elements of a structure. Developing a strong line-curve relationship evokes movement within three-dimensional spaces. I seek to create buildings with sound and sturdy exteriors that juxtapose the interior that is full of life.

Sustainable building materials and equipment selection - either by the energy they consume in their manufacturing process, their reduced maintenance needs, or their efficiency in transportation - are important elements to me.

My models are often neutral in color to avoid distracting from the vibrant design. Large windows allow natural light in while also casting unusual shadows that form art in itself. By creating work that provides transparency to the world around it, I strive to find the balance between water, sky, and earth with simple shapes, organic materials, and open volumes. While architecture is the physical environment in which humans inhabit, it is also representative of how one sees themselves and the world around them. The world is our oyster, but architecture is the pearl, the small element that makes the world striking.

Both painting and architecture, along with my love for math and nature, balance each other, resulting in a cohesive representation of how art harmonizes with the ground plane that we rest on. My interest in both continues to grow as I continue to explore the relationship of spaces and the linear connections within.