Department of Art Scholarship Academic Year 2010-2011

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Portrait of a famous artist
8x 10 feet
Fall 2009


Portrait of a Famous Artist, Detail

This is my final for Figure Drawing with Cara Jaye. The assignment was to make a life size self portrait. I drew my head with a dunce cap on Francis Bacon's body to poke at the idea that even though there are so many women in the art department, most of the artists people can name are still men. I am sitting there like a puppet in a body that does not fit masturbating and dancing to gain the attention and praise of some art critic. I am trying to figure out the balance between my feminine and masculine sides and their roles in my ability to be a "success".




Speed Dial
60x 40 inches
Winter 2010


Speed Dial, Detail

Systems Project for Cara Jaye's Experimental Studio Drawing, Winter 2010. The assignment was to invent a system and draw it. This system is the first three numbers on my speed dial transformed into a repeating pattern of triangles. The black places are where the system broke down and was corrected. The system ended when I skipped a unit and the pattern broke down irreparably.




Boobs, Installation Shot
Winter 2010
Size Variable


Maggie Wong, Boobs Detail
11x 17 inches
Winter 2010


Conor Russell, Boobs Detail
14x 16 inches
Winter 2010

Shopping Project for Cara Jayes Experemental Studio Drawing Winter 2010. I asked my friends and family to show me their breasts and I drew them, photocopied them and printed them repeatedly with various cheesy printed out frames. I wanted to celebrate the parts of women' that are so often used as marketing tools by drawing them and putting them in cheep disposable frames.




Tape Drawing
5x5 feet
Winter 2010

The assignment was to sketch a part of the drawing room then recreate that sketch using tape as a base for the drawing. I focused on the grid matrix's and the overwhelming abundance of horizontal and vertical lines.




String God
8x 10 inches
Winter 2010

Cara Jaye's Experimental Studio Drawing Winter 2010. Create texture and line without using traditional drawing tools.




Red Drawing
60x 40 inches
Fall 2009

Figure drawing with Cara Jaye Fall 2000. Long term in class assignment 6 hours: draw models as they move slightly over time. Emphasize grotesque nature of positions and distort bodies.




Contrast Drawing
40x 60 inches
Fall 2009

In class assignment, Cara Jaye's Figure drawing class. Emphasize depth and volume with strong light and dark values.




Skin Fall
Variable size
Fall 2009


Skin Fall, Detail
Variable size
Fall 2009

Figure drawing with Cara Jaye. The assignment was to draw skin. I sewed wax paper together in the pattern that I see in flesh.

Artist Statement

Skin fascinates me. I prefer to focus on its patterns and textures. I like tiny repetitive details. Working with skin and pattern allows me to apply my work to things in my life.

I like things that make my brain go KShhhhT. Lines and patterns that confuse my eyes and brain. I like images that impress me with their commitment to repetitive detail. I’m trying to recreate that experience through my paintings as effectively and in as many different ways as I can. I am interested in the inconsistencies and the accumulation of small mistakes. I tend to be sloppily meticulous in my application. I like it when my straight lines look like they were made by real live hands.

Recently I have been inspired by my mothers’ changing position in the world as a woman and an artist. It disturbs me to think that women make up such a huge part of the art students in our country but such a tiny percentage of the professional artists. Women’s place in art simultaneously excites and disturbs me. I don’t plan on having children but to think that that decision could affect my ability to create art is terrifying. The work of Louise Bourgeois, The Guerrilla Girls, Jenny Seville, Ann Hamilton and Ariana Page Russell have been the focus of my interest recently.
I want to spend my life making art. For the next ten years or so I would like to be in school working on my doctorate. When I graduate next winter I’d like to spend a year or so doing a Post-Bacc at CCA in Oakland then I will probably go to Graduate school. Anything to spend as much time as I can in school and learning about art. If I cannot support myself by only making art I would not mind working in a museum or teaching art or art history at the college level.

soft crystals

Painting 321 Spring 2010

Inspiration Series

So maybe right now I am inspired more by things than people. There are definitely some clear connections between my recent work and say Pop artist Claes Oldenburg/ Pat Muschinski and Op artist Bridget Riley, Professor Cynthia Camlin and my best friend Maggie Wong. However things like crystals and cells, ‘Dazzle Camouflage’ and patterns on posters that cannot be attributed to any one person also inspire me. On top of that the whole time I was working on these projects I was pretending to work on the next assignment. I focused more on breaking out of my rigid idea of painting than on who I got my ideas from.

My first painting for this project is a random assemblage of triangles and squares of canvas sewn together to form a soft geometric shape. I then covered the different ‘faces’ of the crystal with patterns from all over the place. I referred to Oldenburg/ Muschinski but I don’t admire their aesthetic.



The second painting is another random assemblage of canvas but this one is gessoed and therefore hardened. If I had my way I would have dipped it in gesso and created an entirely different look with drips between the many pieces of string and canvas hanging from the crystal. I covered this with a cellular pattern that that I picked up from somewhere in between Ellen Gallagher and Eva Hesse.



My third painting was a paper construction held together with staples. It is also a random arrangement of triangles and squares that form a crystalline structure. For this piece I wanted to represent some sort of transparent geometry. I researched crystal structures and gem cut patterns and looked at James Sienna, Mark Francis, and Tomma Abts for my line work.



My fourth piece was an attempt to create a structure that defied three dimensional space. It was inspired by “Dazzle Camouflage” a technique developed by Norman Wilkinson during WW1 to confuse the shape, size and kind of battle ships during all weather conditions by using contrasting colors and angles intersecting and overlapping to distort space. This idea intrigues me but I do not think that my study really expresses my ideas as I would have hoped.



My fifth painting is the only two dimensional painting in this series. It references Sergej Jensen and his construction paper paintings. I would like to explore both the two dimensional and three dimensional aspects of representing crystals. I also really like his color pallet.

Golf Rock

Small collages on paper. Mostly smaller than 8.5x11. Winter 2010

systems

Systems: speed dials 1, 2, and 3. My voice mail 1 is me, Maggie is number 2, and Rosie is number 3. I wanted to create a simple pattern but I ended up making it pretty complicated for myself. I created a pattern using triangles to represent the number on my phone for each person then I repeated that pattern across the paper for one line and reversed it for the next line. The black triangles are corrections and the pattern ended when I missed a triangle.

Pen on paper approximately 50x30 in
Winter 2010