capstone

"As the capstone course in the studio art major, Studio Topics will provide an opportunity to explore your artistic vision through the development of an independent body of work among a supportive group of peers. You will address the formal issues of your artwork as well as the conceptual basis of your artistic practice. Topics such as process, meaning, tradition, and innovation will be examined. The overall objective of the course is to help you investigate the content of your work and place it within the larger context of contemporary art. In short, we'll talk about what interests you about the world and look at ways of addressing those concerns through your artwork. You will be required to initiate and complete a semester-long visual art project largely outside of class time. During class, we will review projects with group critiques as well as expand critical thinking and communication skills with dialogues and reading and writing assignments centered on issues that influence your practice."

 -- Course description

Artist's statement

There is nothing more difficult to articulate than the immeasurable number of things the human brain does to “protect” itself. When the brain is overloaded with anxiety, stress, and copious sources of stimulation all at once, it tends to disconnect itself from its thoughts, emotions, memories, and sense of self. I chose to paint this experience - or these experiences, if they are separate at all - which I know many people often struggle to describe with words. Am I dreaming? Why are pieces of my memory missing? How much time has passed? This series represents why I create art and what creating allows me to do; to answer the questions I have about my own brain. To communicate things that I may never fully be able to articulate with words. 

Each painting was built from scratch; I stretched and primed three canvases, then painted with water-soluble oil paints over acrylic underpaintings. Working on a scale larger than anything I had done before was intimidating, but freeing. The process became the subject - finding a way through something unfamiliar. Through each thought, sketch, pause, and paint stroke, this series has forced me to confront a part of my mind that I usually avoid confronting. These paintings are not about how pleasing they are to look at, but about understanding myself through creating art. 

Art is catharsis.