Contemporary Drawing Practices

Process:

Plexiglass held in a curve with blue painter's tape.

1.5 inch clay skull placed in center.

Pieces of clear tape applied to curved plexiglass

Curved plexiglass painted over with Gesso, with five holes sized and positioned to line up with the skull from certain distances and angles, as well as over the clear tape.

Heads painted in Oils within those five holes, as a reconstruction of the skull.

Clear tape pieces peeled and reapplied directly above original positions, along with the parts of the face that were painted on top of them.

   

Right Profile, right oblique, and front-and-center, photographed as intended

    

Left Oblique, left profile, photographed as intended, and view of all the faces from behind the piece, the reapplied tape pieces faintly visible on the other side of the plexiglass.

Skull in anterior view and profile view

Ephemeral Mark on the Landscape

In the process of creating this artwork I considered and worked towards several different locations before settling on the one I would eventually develop.  Ideally, the location would feature an archway or opening of some sort, and the mark I intended to make would be to set a piece of Plexiglass some distance from that opening, and to paint on it in the shape of the negative space.  From a specific vantage point, my painting would appear to depict a setting on the other side of that entrance, in a sort of augmented reality.  

This is a mark on the landscape which aims to create the illusion of a different landscape (or underwaterscape) which existed during the Late Eocene, 40 to 35 million years ago, when the sea level was higher and Florida itself was lower, and the first fully marine cetaceans made their way across hemispheres from southwest Asia to North America.  I wanted to give the impression that the windows were an anomalous gateway into this period of time, superimposed onto our own current reality.

one of the many archways near the outer gate of Ponce Hall.  I intended to mount the plexiglass on the edge of the brick column in the left foreground.

The gateway to the Castillo De San Marco fort, from the inside looking out

the breezeway, looking out.  I wanted to paint the creature so that it appeared to be swimming through the entrance, its tail still outside and lit accordingly.

the windows near the elevator on the fourth floor of the parking garage.  This was the setting I decided to paint from and for.

the piece, with the finished painting, set up for photographing 

the larger panel showcasing the Basilosaurus, no background, ideal lighting.

one of many failed attempts to replicate the angle I painted towards

In an extremely fortuitous turn of events, the windows looking out from the third floor of Abare fit the painting almost perfectly, which was really nice after how badly the garage attempts turned out

My idea for this Spatial Tape Drawing was a sort of descending set of half-rings forming a caged space behind it against the corner of the wall.  This structure resembles several things at once, such as a simplified human rib cage, a set of not-so-ergonomic shelves, sound waves, or supporting hoops in the skirt portion of an overcomplicated dress. Each ring was created by taking a piece of tape and folding/winding it over itself, at such an angle that they formed slight curves, with moderate stiffness compared to an unaltered piece of tape. This folding also creates an alternating triangle pattern in the rings.   There are seven rings in total, the first being the smallest and curving into the wall rather than out from it, and the rest being all curving outward, successively larger and more or less equally spaced.  Ideally, the tape rings would have been totally stiff and ledge-like, but instead they sag a little and lose something of their curve, some worse than others.

Personal Response to "On Longing"

"The Body is the primary mode of perceiving scale"

The small dark twisted shape at the upper left corner is a person, far in the background

"Capacity of Objects to serve as traces of authentic experiences"

Illustration I completed for a client's book on her travels

"To have a souvenir if the exotic is to possess both a specimen and a trophy"

Shrunken Head at the Lightner Museum, which served as a
trophy of war in its native context and as a
specimen in its Western context

Memento

Progress and Final Product of the Memento project

The "hockey puck" of Super Glaze epoxy molded in a
peanut butter lid, prior to sanding its rim to get rid of the grooves

A tentative digital model of the piece's basic form

An early version of the paper portion of the sculpture,
displaying a montage of the artwork that I associate with my memory

The paper cutout of a human figure (representing myself)
 laying on the center of the resin "hockey puck"

The base, figure cutout, and paper element of the "complete" sculpture, seen from below

The paper element, being a crumpled printout of the collage with a coffin-shaped hole

Artist's Statement: This piece serves as a representation of my memory, and of my feelings in the wake of it.  While working on a project for my drawing course, I was listening to a playlist of songs, which included "Skulls" by Bastille. Despite all of my musings on and exposure to death beforehand, it was this song which finally brought on my existential crisis about my mortality, and the subsequent feelings of hollowness, simultaneous claustrophobia and perception of overwhelming vastness, dread, and futility.  To represent these sensation, I depicted a tiny figure being forced to see and acknowledge the coffin-shaped hole hovering oppressively above. The paper surrounding the hole depicts a montage of the project that I was doing at the time, and its color and form communicate the overwhelming infinity of everything which is not the self, The clear base serves to give the viewer the perspective of the tiny figure. Fitting with the title of the project, this piece acts as a Memento Mori. 

Map Relief Sculpture

Progress and Final Product of the Map Relief Sculpture project

Digital model, which served as a guideline

Egg-crate in the assembly process.
The cutouts are based on the digital model

Paper towels being applied to the finished egg-crate
using water and a large paintbrush

Additional layers of paper towel are applied using
watered-down Gesso and a paintbrush, which
was then drizzled with wood glue for texture,
and painted over with more Gesso

Finished product, with ink representing submerged earth, and three

of the four faces given solid sides of

 paper (the side facing up is still "naked"). 

The relief sculpture is laying on its side, 

with the top-part facing the camera.

Viewed from the left side, top-side-up

Top-side-up and viewed from the front, displaying the "naked" side

Artist's Statement: Indulging my predisposition for literal interpretation, I created a model of a geologically plausible seaside cliff, covering certain sections of the white form in ink to represent areas covered by water.  The egg-crate method posed some disadvantages, such as the visibility of the egg-crate itself despite the layers of paper towel, and given the opportunity I might have used a different method

Soap Carving

Progress and Final Product of the Soap Carving project

Platypus #1: Pumpkin Scented Soap

Early stage, carving based on the flat
 underside of the plastic platypus

Viewed from above, at a somewhat later stage

Nearly finished carving, compared to the soapbox and excess soap

Platypus #2: Apple Berry Scented Soap

One remaining progress picture, depicts nearly-finished
body and unfinished head, prior to the damage done to it

Both

Depicts mostly-intact Pumpkin Scented sculpture,
the plastic platypus, and the damaged and incomplete
Apple Berry Scented sculpture, viewed from above

Switched around for some reason, and viewed from a more oblique angle

Artist's Statement: As with the Masking Tape Shoes, the objective of this piece was accuracy and detail.  I was unable to replicate my initial success in fulfilling this objective, as demonstrated by the forlorn-looking Apple Berry Scented platypus in comparison to its Pumpkin scented predecessor