Mirrored - Matthew Rodden

Matthew Rodden -

My artwork is a culmination of my creativity, passions, and interests. These art pieces were created by me over my 11th and 12th grade years in high school. I would like my art to showcase many different realms of creativity, expressing how art can be made in many different ways. My art pieces range from sculptures and paintings to digital design and clothing design.

The creations and ideas I have about my art are influenced by artists and brands that I look up to. These artists and brands consist of KAWS, Nigo, Evisu, Michelangelo, Salvador Dali, Virgil Abloh and many more that aren’t necessarily related to my art pieces. These influences give me creative ideas that I like to incorporate into my own artwork. An example of this is seen through most of the titles of my art pieces and how they are simple yet strong and straight to the point. This idea was mainly inspired by the great Virgil Abloh and his brand “Off-White”. I find the design process behind creating art is one of my favorite aspects of creation. For example, my artwork “Drawers” represents my vision to create my own clothing brand. Most of my sculptures that I have created are similar to each other in the way that there is an underlying story behind each one. They make the viewer think about what the arts purpose is and the deeper meaning of the creations. The clothing designs that I have worked on relate to the theme of how it is up to the viewer to figure out why they would want to wear a piece of clothing with a design I created on it.

I enjoy creating art because I feel it allows me to bring conceptual ideas into reality by creating a tangible by-product. All of my art pieces have different meanings behind them, and the creation process can be very personal. One of the appeals to art for me is the intimacy behind it. I feel that art allows for a deeper understanding within one's mind where-as words would not suffice. You can learn so much about someone through their artwork. My art creations exemplify different meanings behind them depending on the viewer's ideas and own thoughts on my art. That is also one of the beauties of art as a whole, how people have their own views on a single piece of art, and it can be all based on opinion. I want the viewers of my art to be able to feel something through it. Some of the colors that I incorporated into my pieces help set the vibe of the artwork. The oranges I used give the piece a sense of warmth and vulnerable feeling. While the pieces where I used colors such as red or green give off an entirely different feeling. Three dimensional artwork is my favorite art to make as well as studying it. I feel that there is a different connection a person can have between a three dimensional piece of art and a two dimensional. A reason for this could be the fact that human beings are three dimensional creatures, and this connection could change people’s views and feelings towards other three dimensional art.

MIKE, 4in x 2.38in, wood, leather, plastic, wood stain, acrylic paint, epoxy, super glue, wood glue, and plaster

This woodwork was inspired by the artist Kaws. My first intention of the art piece was to create a KAWS influenced wooden Goofy. I then decided to make it less complex and based the wood work off of small wooden toys from the 80's, with the kaws like face. I grew up playing with these toys and made this art piece for people to remember their childhood, and toys that they enjoyed playing with. I really enjoy pop culture and the best way for me to express that love was by making a wooden toy/collectible. I used all purposed materials for this art piece in order to save money and be creative. For the creation of this art I had to learn how to use equipment that I have never used before. I wanted to use epoxy in order for the art piece to be shiny and have that smooth feel to it, but I had to learn how to put the epoxy on the piece, something that I have never done before. I have very much enjoyed this art project and have learned many things from it.

The Melting Can, clay and acrylic paint 9in x 3.5in

My artwork is a clay sculpture of a soda can melting. The art movement that I decided to do was impressionism, which relates to my artwork because it is up to the viewer to decide why the can is melting. Instead of creating a painting of this I thought the best way for the idea of the piece to be presented should be to bring it to life and create a sculpture out of it. I used clay because that was the easiest material I could use to make a "melting" piece of art. Intentionally my ideas for this art project were to make a sculpture based off of "The Thinker". I later realized that it wasn't my style and I wanted to incorporate pop culture into the Impressionism artwork. I based the can off of the painting "The Persistence of Memory", the melting clocks in the painting are very iconic, and I decided it would be cool if I recreated that with my own brand of soda. The can is orange because the soda inside of the can is an orange flavored cream soda, the brand name for the drink is "Kerb". While working with the clay I had to use a lot of water, because the clay dries really fast and the water made it easier to sculpt and spread the clay onto my base aluminum can.

Jiāoyóu Gēn, 7in x 7in, acrylic paint and clay

When I look at my artwork I see a black and white Yin Yang symbol in the middle of a UNC blue Metallic Zia symbol. The medium for this artwork is sculpting clay. The color of the clay is originally grey, so I had to paint over the clay a couple of times for the paint to be bold and not see through. The line work in this art piece are the lines that are based off of the Zia symbol. I first created a circle out of the clay and then piece by piece cut out the lines out of clay and molded them onto the circle. The meaning of this art work obviously shows the meaning of Yin Yang and the Zia symbol, but while creating the art work I honestly decided last minute to do the zia symbol. I really enjoy the Yin Yang for how simple and clean it looks and that it shows the bad and good things in life with a sense of balance. I really like this art piece because at the start of it I really had no idea what I was going to do or what it would look like. While I was creating the design I had a spark of creativity and decided to have the Yin Yang in the middle of the zia symbol to clash two cultures I enjoy.

The Marble Glove, 9in x 4in, clay, acrylic paint, and spray paint

The art creation that I decided to make is a surreal clay sculpture called, “The Marble Glove”. The inspiration for the piece came from all three of my researched works. I wanted to capture characteristics from each artwork to incorporate it into a single piece of art. With my own ideas and creativity I decided on making a clay sculpture of a boxing glove to represent Michelangelo’s marble sculptures/paintings, and Tom Jung’s drawing of the boxer Rocky. My art piece displays a marble like boxing glove with cracks throughout the whole glove, portraying symbolism taken from the Sistine Chapel.

Drawers, denim, fabric ink, 32 in x 32in

While going into this artwork, my intended plan was to create jeans from scratch. I then decided that this was going to take longer so I focused on making the design that would be on the jeans. The design I created has no real meaning, I was messing around, and this is how it came out. The inspiration that I got for the piece was from the brand Evisu, and their jeans. I also was influenced by the Off-White logo design. I was going to create a stencil of the design then spray paint in onto the jeans. This process didn't work out and I was recommended to stamp the design on using fabric ink and a mold of the piece. My end goal for this series is to create my own jeans and add more designs to them, but for now this is just a rough draft.

BAG, cotton fabric and denim, 7in x 11in

For this artwork I wanted to practice sewing clothing with the sewing machine. Before creating the denim pants that I am going to make, I wanted to create something smaller. I decided on a tote bag. I used the fabric that was provided by the studio, cut out the design of the bag, and then sewed the bag together. It was not difficult to do, something I need to work on is having a straighter stitch when I sew. I chose the fabric for this piece based on the design that it had. I thought the design had somewhat of a vintage look to it, while also being a design that would stand out.

Desert Storm, watercolor on paper, 9in x 12in

For this art piece I decided to change things up and make a watercolor painting. My initial brainstorm on the piece was going to be a green jungle with palm trees. I then thought it would be creative to add cactus in the jungle instead of palm trees. I also added tan, orange, and brown colors into the painting to resemble a sand storm. It turned out to be a plant like desert, undergoing a sand storm. I wanted to keep the painting simple but have a deeper meaning to put the viewer in question of what is happening. I was influenced by the movie Dune to incorporate a desert into the painting, and that is one of the main reasons why I changed the initial jungle themed painting.

Digital Ape, ink on paper, 21cm x 27cm

Over the years I have made some creations that have graphic design art incorporated into the art pieces. The Digital Ape was my first digital design art piece that I have created all year. I am very fascinated with the ideas of digital art such as Nfts, and this is somewhat my attempt at one. My design is heavily influenced by the brand BAPE, a very well known street wear brand that creates clothing and characters that are based on ape’s. I wanted this piece to be very vibrant and exciting. The colors I used are not typically found on an ape, which shows how art doesn’t have to relate to the real world.