Statement of Intent

So I think I might have taken this home and not actually turned it in. But here it is, I used part of my draft artist statement so just bear with me if you are reading it.

I make art about the nostalgia I feel towards my home region of Florida and my relationships by using imagery of nature, and my friends interacting within nature. When I moved to Memphis I immediately found a new appreciation for my home. I began to romanticize my memories and so I began making art focusing on my skewed recollections. By using personal photos I have a tangible reference to start from, and by abstracting the imagery I make the pieces less specific, and therefore more relatable to others beside myself. I do however leave clues of the original occasion so that they are not only recognizable to me, but the friends involved. I simplify the color palette to help exaggerate elements of the composition and to reflect how some details are lost in memory.

I would like to transform Rust Hall into a scrapbook of sorts. My works will line the walls; they will range from 18×24” to 5×7”. The arrangement will alternate form groupings of paintings, to rows two paintings deep and to single pieces. This will give variation and emphasize a kind of timeline. While the subject matter will be similar, certain events will be depicted multiple times, and certain figures will become recognizable throughout the works. I will utilize oil painting, embroidery and watercolor. Some pieces will include only one of these mediums, while some will combine them. This will break up any possible monotony while adding emphasis to certain images through the technique and the level of abstraction. I will decide how much to abstract each image based on the importance of the event, place and/or people depicted to give certain pieces significance.

In viewing the gallery space the viewer will recognize a progression of how I view my experiences through my memory. Certain elements are repeated not only to show their importance, but also to show how these relationships and events I find comforting are rather unchanging because of my separation from home, while in Memphis I don’t have the same kinds of experiences, so I am left to reminisce over old ones.