Four Final Projects

Over these four final pieces I felt I grew as artist. In the last two projects in particular, I felt I was able to push myself away from landscapes and explore other subject matter I enjoy, particularly plants and 'useless' machines.

The Laser design was accomplished using an X-Tool Laser cutter, and it depicts a cactus, two mountains, and a sun overhead. It was inspired by some of my previous works as I thought it would be a cool little key-chain design. The hedgehog mountain sign design was accomplished using a brush pen, and the trees outline edge the mountain over the words.

The third project was much more up my alley. I had experimented with block prints a couple of times prior this year, but this was an opportunity to greatly improve my technique. With both the fern and the tree prints I got better results than previously. I also explored printing on clothing, using a crew neck sweatshirt and a couple of old t-shirts, to pretty satisfactory results. I would love to further explore block printing as a medium in the future.

The Art Factory, on the other hand, was made using ballpoint and technical ink pens. It is a revision of a piece I did my freshman year titled "Pure Imagination." I tried to make this piece a little bit closer to my interests, choosing to replicate street artists that have either inspired commercialization or commercialized their work: Sheppard Fairey, Basquiat, Keith Haring and Blek Le Rat. Basquiat and Haring's work now appear on clothing from fast-fashion companies such as Urban Outfitters and Uniqlo, while Fairey sells his work on posters, shirts and other printable surfaces. Blek Le Rat, however, had his original style of graffiti made famous by the artist Banksy, and he gets little of the credit for his original work. Blek's work, in fact, has been accused of being a copycat of Banksy's work, despite Blek making social commentary using stencils and spray paint since the 80's. Bleks work appears in contrast with the three other artists, while their work is amazing, the commercialization is what truly popularized it to some extent, while Blek's lack of exposure lead to his original style being replicated without him receiving recognition. While my piece does 'copy' these artists work, it is intended as a way to make a point about commercialization in the art world.