BRINGING LOMBARDI HOME!

Today, Packer fans living with the pathogenic, and highly communicable "Packer Fever", take a sigh of relief. The newly crowned Green Bay Packers brought home the trophy that bears the name of the man who brought initial honor to our humble, but prestigious state. My goal was to honor the achievements of the green and gold, and Lombardi himself. I achieved this by incorporating a ghosted image of Vince Lombardi into the trophy, and placing that trophy in the hands of and edited image of Ben Rothlisberger. Ben Rothlisberger, our hated opponent in Super Bowl XLV?! Yes, ironically the only picture I could find of someone holding the trophy was of Rothlisberger, so I place Aaron Rodgers' face on his body. The asymmetrical symmetry of the image puts the foreground into perspective, and the Green Bay colors incorporated into the scheme add a sense of unity. The angled hand holding the trophy also draws your eye up in the trophy, and through the rest of the piece. I wish I could have found a more high quality image to work with, because it would have been cool to print it onto a poster sized paper. But overall I think my piece displays my message well, and illustrates the pride we Wisconsinites have in our Packers. Go Pack!

Senior Gallery

My progress over the past semester can be fully mapped out with the exploration of the space I designed. With interior design elements that are ambiguously incorporated within each piece, I created a connection; the curtains hint at the comfort of home, the netting reveals a connection to the methods of overfishing, and the the crazily painted board with my name on it is similar to the colors used in my early works. These elements are symbolic of my metamorphosis into an experienced artist. I've transitioned from being an artist primarily using drawing tools and mark-making to create art, to an artist utilizing the aid of digital media to create my pieces of art. Art for me isn't about creating something that appeals to others, or the desire to achieve profit. For me, art is about the passion, the feeling, the emotion. When I look at a piece that I've created, I need to feel some sort of overpowering emotion in order for my work to be successful. I've discovered this powerful experience over the 4 years of my involvement in PHS's art program, and its has been essential to my development as an artist, student, and man.

Home Isn't A Place...

Home, for everyone should inspire feelings of warmth, comfort, and happiness. It is an unscathed memory of the past that remains in our minds for the rest of eternity. A house, technically may become a home, but a home is not defined by the material house itself. A "home" is defined by the people who live there and lay their hard-working hands on the objects within. Their influence, and presence is the heart and soul of a homely atmosphere. My mom, dad, sister, and dog all make my Victorian-era house into a Modern-era home. Each of the backgrounds they are portrayed in, illustrates their usual dwellings and activities. For me, imagining them in those place will send my thoughts hurdling homeward from wherever in the world I am. The colors I used are warm, inviting, and hint at the tones of human flesh. This, therefore, aids in the comprehension of my "Family make a house a home" message. Also, the heart image on each of my family members shows that home(family), is where the heart is. 

Half of a Green Face Mounted on Plexi-Glass?

For my free choice, I decided to dabble in the 3D world of artistic expression. I have always wanted to try my hand at sculpting, but the opportunity never really presented itself to me. This was my chance. I wanted to create a face with a expressionless or stoic expression, and for the color of the clay itself to model the feeling of the subject. I chose an eery green, and I believe it fits well with the black and clear composition of the rest of the piece. On another level, I decided that water running down over the face would add another aspect to the overall complexity. This was an a,most overwhelming challenge for me, as I set out to hand-make the frame, pump-housing, and water-tight base. Everything that could possibly have gone wrong, went wrong, and I almost abandoned the whole thing. But thankfully, a spare pump was found and utilized, and the whole thing started coming together. The piece uses asymmetrical composition, and movement to capture my emotion.  

Social Justification

Overfishing is becoming a huge problem for the global population. With numbers of fish stock rapidly and exponentially decreasing, the worlds oceans are being netted into an oblivion. How would we feel if our populations become caught in the nets of some other species, causing our culture to teeter on the precipice of extinction. My piece illustrates this idea, and opens your eyes to the problem before us. I used movement, and similar colors to tie the images together, and create what I think to be a strong and meaningful piece of propaganda. To add a personal flare to this image, I added silhouettes of people I actually know in real life, and put them in the path of destruction before the net. I even created a logo for an imaginary foundation against the overfishing of the world's oceans.

"Bearly" a Portrait

I know it's blurry, but even on the manual setting it was out of focus due to the curvature and texture.

I used pastels, charcoal, and pencil to create my drawing. I used collage to for an interesting background, and added fur for added foreground texture. The three tears in my face, and the hanging nude of myself draw the eye down and to the right, causing movement.

I am a Bear. Ferocious, tenacious, powerful, and hungry. These traits are all within me and a part of me. In my self-portrait I am within the skin of a bear. I take on the essence of the bear, and mirror it's savagery in my face and body language. But, sometimes, this power cannot get contained and gets the best of me. It "tears" out of it's resting place within me, and sends me on a rapacious rampage. I end up clinging for dear life, on the edge of destruction or on the teeth of my destroyer. I in the end, will most likely be my own destroyer. I, the bear.

Free Choice

Our class was given the task of creating a free choice piece that would fit into our individual chosen portfolios. Being torn between the world of 2D Design and Drawing, I decided to incorporate elements of each into my project in order to create flexibility. The design and use of space makes the piece move and blend with the background, and in essence ignores the complexity, or in this case simplicity, of the foreground. In order to create a thought provoking foreground image that contrasted with the simple colors and shapes behind it, I decided to use a flowing image of a "ghostly" woman. By using sketch 'n wash pencils I was able to render her and skew her lines with the "wash" feature of the pencils. Also, by adding a smudged handprint in white, I was able to add an other element of contrast. The rules of thirds is strictly followed in my piece, and other elements such as movement, contrast and color are seen throughout. I used my time in class wisely to create my project, and even came in most mornings on my free period to create the substrate and the drawing itself. I love how it turned out, and in all honesty I wouldn't change a thing on it. I used all sorts of media on it, such as: paint, tissue paper, charcoal, pastels, and pencil. By using all of those media, I was able to create a simple, yet engaging, piece with complex methods of construction.