Broken Dreams

2020

My work explores the relationship between student identity and mindset between the coronavirus pandemic. The isolation both mentally and physically delves into the connectedness of the real and the abstract world.

With influences from personal emotions as well as outside narratives, new realizations were formed. The isolation surrounding our new reality was something that relates to everyone which was a big motivation and inspiration on the subject.

The black background with contrasting bright colors in the bubbles are an intentional detail to contrast the highs and lows but also used as a personal reflection for the viewer. The female graduating in the middle bubble was placed as a students perspective during this pandemic yet everybody can be placed into this figure.

The artwork pulled out a lot of personal experiences from the pandemic as a graduating senior. Although the pandemic can be extremely isolating and lonely, it is something that everyone is going through together creating a form of unity.

Silence

2020

This artwork is a view or a third person perspective of someone in a car with a police siren in the rearview mirror. No one is in the front seat nor in the passenger seat so you feel absent. Everything that you can see around this car is blurry and hard to make up. The majority of the car consists of shading created by colored pencils, charcoal, tortillon pencils and graphite while the front view mainly consists of oil pastels. I used dull tones for the inside of the car, although in some places I included the light/glare of the police siren on the seats of the car. I used oil pastels for the headlights on the car to make an unfocused effect. I went through many processes before ending up with the final image because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to reflect the coronavirus as a personal or a social sort of way. I started this project with a social timeline where it featured Kobe and Gianna Bryant, wildfires and George Floyd and other events throughout the year. After a lot of time, I felt like I wasn’t getting anywhere because I started and then I erased my drawing. I couldn’t connect to those events or I felt as there are and will be many memorials connected to them, or I felt like if I drew them a certain way to another person the artwork of their portraits wouldn’t look realistic. So I changed my focus and went back to the drawing board or I continued off of my original idea. I tried to show two themes in this artwork. My first theme was isolation or the feeling you get when you can see everything clearly but you don’t know what’s happening on the outside. You have this feeling of months going by before seeing other people. You feel helpless because you’re not in control of the vehicle or where it is going. You are at a standstill moment. My other theme that I developed later was the fear of getting pulled over (based on your race / perspective there will be different interactions). My goal was to have a clear message that people can relate to/people felt in life or even in quarantine but I think some people might walk past the artwork and just see a car. While making this artwork I learned that sometimes you don’t have to specifically show a timeline of 2020 to show how you interpret it, that’s just the process of art, seeing things from different angles. Sometimes you have to express how you see something so people might see it the same way.

Welcome to the Anime Hellverse

2020

Welcome to the Anime Hellverse captures the all-encompassing nature of my anime infatuation during the first part of quarantine. I sought to escape the reality of our world by entering the world of anime, which my friends and I call “big cope”: the things that you obsessively do to get over or forget something bad. This piece was my first time animating. I struggled to learn how to apply my technical drawing skills to conveying motion and life, but after overcoming the many learning curves, I came to realize animation was the next logical step for my art, as I have always sought to create movement in my previous work and convey meaning through sound. I was inspired by the anime Welcome to the NHK, where the main character struggles with his self-induced isolation, like quarantine. The song and character featured originate from that series. Much like in NHK, the real world is scary, bleak, and bitter, but the virtual world is beautiful, colorful, enticing, and safe. But a lot of the time, the virtual world is just as dangerous as the real one.

Hide Inside

2020

The fantasy and pain of self-induced isolation is the driving force behind this piece. I based the final image on the denial of truth and immersive caution of turning inward on yourself during tough times. Everything found within this box has heavy symbolism attached to it. From the colors of the floor and the ceiling, to the plants chosen for this project. They all have meaning. Let's first start with the outside of the box that sadly isn't shown within these two pictures. I painted the outside of the box a gold color to represent the outside of myself. It's the color of a metal to show being gilded/jaded to the outside world. I chose to make the floor yellow and the walls blue to represent the outside world, but this time in reverse. I wanted to create an unsettling atmosphere within the small space I created to represent the inside of my mind. I will now list out components of my final piece and their meanings.

The destroyed self portrait- The frame of which this canvas is stretched is small and creates a claustrophobic effect. I chose that specifically because it symbolizes the way I see myself and how my dysphoria has destroyed my frame of reference.

The bunny with the third eye- The bunny shown here is in the position I normally sleep in myself. It symbolises the forced ignorance of what's going outside but the third eye indicates the awareness of what's really happening.

Paper butterflies- These butterflies represent the flying away of my childhood, and the coming of adulthood for me.

The large bunny in the corner- This bunny represents the corruption of innocence to the outside world, hence the black that seems to be slowly cracking through it's body.

Cracks in the Stars

2020

The Hill We Climb

2021

Reflections

2020

Hold On

2020

You!

2020

Blinders

2020

My piece, titled “Blinders,” is a 9”x12” drawing on tinted paper made using colored pencil and ink. I layered the colored pencil over the ink in certain areas in order to achieve richer colors. It features a man standing in front of a store called Willful Ignorance & Son. This store displays both sunglasses and canes. This is meant to be a statement about the current political climate of the United States. The man, equipped with bias, is actively seeking blinders that prevent him from seeing the viewpoints of others, even if they are factually based. People often choose a pleasant lie over a difficult truth, putting on blinders to avoid facing the pressing issues in our society.

My World 2020

2020

As the Covid-19 Pandemic continues, the people will continue to stay at home. As the days pass, the people's lives get more and more depressing unless you aree those non-law-abiding citizens who roam the streets freely with out a mask and not keeping the 6' apart rule in mind. For those who do stay at home, their life is at its lowest point. The reason for this is the boredom gained from staying home. They are itching to go outside and get in touch with friends but they aren't able to due to the restrictions. So what do they do instead? Play video games, watch tv, sit somewhere as time passes by the more depressed they become. And lastly, they do tons of homework they receive from school.

Doldrums

2020