The central idea of my sustained investigation is taking childhood innocents and morphing it into the grueling reality of growing up and realizing everything isn’t as it seems.

In my work I show things that a child might see as innocent or not harmful and show the reality of the danger of the object. I want to show through my art the experience I had learning that everything isn’t sunshine and rainbows like I had imagined it to be as a child. I show this in my art by over dramatizing the circumstances represented in each piece, similar to how a child over dramatizes everything. Through my work, my hopes are to portray the unsettling feeling of growing up while leaving the viewer uneasy and curious.

My sustained investigation is an extensive exploration into the construct of identity and how it is inextricably linked to societal influences. Self identity is not based on how we view ourselves but rather rooted in the social norm. If Identity is a fluid social construct, is it human nature to change ourselves in order to conform? My investigation explores these philosophical questions through forming, process, and performance.

A main aspect demonstrating my sustained investigation in my artwork is the exploration of the human form. Society has established the image of the perfect human and for many that has damaged self identity. For instance, image one explores the concept of how we tend to have alternative identities depending on circumstances. Image three explores a similar concept that we change the way we look to fit the image of the “ideal person”. My other pieces also explore this idea of identity as a fluid social construct that is inextricably linked to issues of power, value systems, and ideology. In image 2 it is evident that women today are redefining themselves similar to women in the 1920s. Images 4, 5, 8, and 9 are all statements on women being defined by their bodies.

My sustained investigation was all about depicting the positive and negative impacts that humans have had on nature. With my pieces I attempt to tell a story. Starting from early humans all the way to now, and how nature has been affected for the better and worse. The first piece of the tree is the beginning of the story. It is before humans really had an impact on nature and nature was much more beautiful and prominent on this Earth. The tree symbolizes life and safety for the animals and habitat that it is protecting in the rest of the piece. As my pieces progress they all have a new burden on them. All the middle pieces depict damage that we have done to nature. This is all done through pollution due to our overpopulation and lack of knowledge of the damages that everything can cause. There are problems such as global warming, pollution, destruction of the ozone layer, destruction to the sea, and most importantly destruction to the animals in these habitats. Animals are forced to endure these terrible conditions or move out of the habitat that was once theirs. This puts the animals at risk of getting killed by humans or hunted by other animals. The last piece is the end of the story. It is similar to the start because it gives off a ray of hope. It is a plant overcoming the pollution and still being beautiful. This symbolizes the moves towards change that humans are attempting to accomplish after being informed of the serious damage we have caused.

Each of my artworks give a message of my concentration differently throughout the medium, colors, and the way it is portrayed. My work demonstrates my intent of showing the impact humans have on the endangerment of marine animals. I take what I have learned and make a preliminary plan with the research I have on how I can portray art through each project differently, but still keeping the same idea. The trophy I made with white earthenware clay, I wanted to raise awareness of the endangered animals that are hurt in today's time from humans not keeping their trash in their own trash cans. Nobody actually realizes how much one piece of trash can do. Creating my turtle out of trash was different from my other artworks. Depending what medium would help form the shape of the turtle while still thinking about the trash that these precious animals consume. The endangerment of the sea turtles is from the trash that is left behind and the turtles mistake it with their own food and eat it. Soon later, it hurts them and they become weakened. Each of my projects that I have created this year has helped me to realize the importance of keeping our ocean and the animals within the ocean clean as much as possible. It takes way too long for the animals to realize what they are consuming and before they know it, it's unfortunately too late.

In depth - How do you control the flow of water?

What is the shape of water, how is it defined?

Can water be controlled? What is the limit of its control?

Throughout my investigation of water I explored the movement and limit of water. Each piece that I have created shows some connection to the flow of water. Some are sculptures that literally control the flow of water while others are showing water’s movement through design. The investigation that I have created really challenged the idea of what is water and how can it be put into 3-D form. I have managed to utilize different forms of color weight as well as a different introspective view of depth in my pieces to create this idea of flowing water. Whether I was trying to create a form that controlled the flow of water or I created a still image to capture the flow of water, I have been able to explore in depth the flow of water.