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Penguins Playing Sports

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Fruit has a deep connection to humanity that spans cultural, historical, and even symbolic dimensions. Fruits have a rich symbolic meaning in mythology, religion, and folklore. In many cultures fruit symbolizes fertility, abundance, and the circle of life. Artist have also used fruit to explore themes of beauty, abundance, and passage of time. Fruit serves as a symbol of nourishment, vitality, and interconnectedness between humans and the natural world

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Abigail Torres
2D Mixed Media
Artist Statement
“Unearthed”

In this mixed media collage, I attempted to respond to the prompt, “envision another world, one in which the laws of reality do not apply”. Taking inspiration from the natural world around me and my own experiences with nature, I tried to surreally depict a world in which humans and nature harmoniously coexist. In an attempt to express that harmonious relationship, depictions of humans and natural spaces flow freely into one another throughout this piece, and biomes, flora, fauna, and humans all interact in atypical ways. A penguin wanders across a barren desert, a cowboy crosses a mountain range that traverses the sky, and a man bows his head while praying to natural forces and systems rather than a human-like deity. By creating this piece, I intended to prompt viewers to reconsider their own personal relationships with nature and reflect on how they fit into the ecosystems in which they live.

I began creating this piece by browsing magazines for images that fit the themes I wanted to explore, and primarily used images cut from national geographic catalogs. After selecting images that I felt met my criteria, I began to create the collage by laying out the main background images in different ways, trying to find a balance between the biomes they depicted and the main colors used in each image. Once I was satisfied with their arrangement, I layered smaller photos on top (including the penguin, the praying man, and the cowboy), and then glued the images into place by coating everything in layers of clear matte Mod Podge. After the Mod Podge had dried, I used acrylic paints mixed with varying amounts of varnish to blend some of the images into one another. Using less varnish kept the paint more opaque and blended images more seamlessly together (the skies in the top left and right images) while using more varnish made the paint translucent when applied (the rays of white light encompassing the children in the top right image). This process allowed me to incorporate many different images and elements together, while still ensuring that the collage was cohesive and addressed the themes that I had chosen for the piece.

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This mixed media piece explores the basis of Christianity in a metaphorical, other worldly space. It invites the viewer, regardless of beliefs, to interpret what faith in Christ might look like in a personal sense. The heart and earth hopefully helps the viewer grasp the beauty of the connection between God and man. The light from the cross offers a moment to experience a sense of hope, joy, and love.

I first began by deciding what element of art I wanted to play with, which ended up being scale and perspective. I looked up images from a worm’s eye view, then brainstormed ways the piece could “transcend” this world, coming up with different combinations of collage images. Once I came up with my idea, I used colored ink and paint to create my background and the light source, playing with different patterns and colors. Finally, I glued on the collage pieces and used colored pens for the heart and light streaks.

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In my art titled, “New Life”, I explore the balance between humanity and nature. The lightbulb falling from the sky with the lizard creature presents the idea of a “new life” forming when the bulb hits the ocean. I made the background of this piece with green and blue acrylic paint and it is meant to represent the pollution in our society that can cause the world to end. The artwork is meant to show the after effect of world destruction and the surreal flying lightbulb bringing life back to the planet. I used depth in this artwork by stacking foam underneath each collage piece to show the perception of how the trees are getting smaller and the mountains are behind the ocean. The lightbulb is the piece that’s the most high up, showing its falling from the sky. I intend for all the viewers of this piece to look at this other world art and want to keep the life and environment that we have on Earth and not ruin it.

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My artwork explores life in outer space with real-life aspects. The theme of the project was to create an alternate reality where the laws of life on our planet don’t apply. While planning ideas I wanted to make outer space look like earth since it is unrealistic. I added earth aspects to a galaxy background trying to create space. I created my artwork by starting off with a mixture of pouring ink and mixing media to use as my background. I tried to make the background look like a galaxy but unfortunately, the colors blended making a black background. The next class, I re-did the pouring ink adding blues to bring out the color more. After that, I glued on a moon and designed my rocketship houses. I was initially planning on adding trees but I didn’t have enough space so instead I added paths and a street to make it look like a neighborhood.

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This artwork is my own take on the Other Worlds prompt, and examines two creatures and their discovery of a different world being created around them.  Its storybook format brings life and intimacy to the seemingly simple moment being portrayed.  The character’s themselves are purposely vague, leaving their personalities open to interpretation.  The world being built around them and the text work to facilitate this.  The idea of this new world being entirely out of their control is simply a fact of life, and is meant to make the viewer ponder the changing world around us that similarly could not be stopped by any two people.

I started this painting thinking I would lay out the different scenes next to each other almost as a gallery.  After fully fleshing out my idea however, inspired by a similar sketch of two creatures I made in an earlier class, I needed something more compelling.  I was already adding text, so the next logical step was to create a book, and I started to gather images from magazines to put it together. I tried to find nature images that were similar in what they showed, as I needed all 6 pages, especially the last 3, to generally be consistent.  I then wrote out my text, and put it on small ripped pieces of see-through paper. My hope was this was to match the ripped feeling of the collage, and to continue with the “found” feeling I was going for.  Once I had drawn the characters on each page and glued the pictures to match the correct order, I began to put the book together.  I measured out and poke holes through each of the pages, then selected the green thread I would work with.  I experimented with several patterns for the sewing, but eventually decided on a connected dotted line, with two horizontal lines at the top and bottom to signify the start and end.  After signing the project in a white marker, I was very happy with the finished product I had created for the Other World’s Project.

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Kailee Castillo

2D Mixed Media

Artist Statement

“Fresh Off The Boat”

In my artwork titled, “Fresh Off the Boat,” I wanted to represent a surreal world that goes beyond the capacity of the world we live in today. The main theme for this project was to create an alternate reality that defies the law of life in our current reality. My intention with this piece was to explore a normal setting that we as humans are used to, the sea, and intertwine normal, every-day objects existent in our real lives. I want the viewer to feel familiar with a world that they think they know, but don’t fully understand .

I was inspired by the show, “Bojack Horseman,” as they had an underground world like this that mixed both land and sea to create an alternate reality that fascinated me.  I first started this painting by pouring a mix of light blue ink and a darker shade ink to create an ombre for the background, and chose to make a collage of different pictures to finalize this surreal world. I chose to complete this painting with a glossy finish and shading underneath the figures.

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Evan Bechard

2D Mixed Media

Artist Statement

“Splashes of Life”

My piece’s playful animals and faces hidden in the many splashes of color create a crazy fantasy world. It was made in response to a prompt centered around producing a surreal world that has a foreground and background, created out of the ink techniques our class has been practicing. The colored ink I chose to use seems to overlap all over itself, not allowing for any real foreground, but definitely still incorporating a lot of depth. The ink also all sits on a blank white background, which has black pen drawings to make it seem like outer space, with a planet, several stars, and a rocket ship. Everything comes together to make a very busy landscape that ultimately represents my creativity and gives viewers something interesting to look at.

I began the creation by using a pipet to drop drops of alcohol on yobo paper, and then following them with drops colored ink to make bright blends of color. I then did a combination of rotating my paper and blowing through a straw to make all of the dripping effects. After that, I glued several small and random cutouts from magazines onto the paper. Finally, I finished everything off by using black and white pens to outline all of the lines made by the ink, as well as using small little strokes to create a sort of 3-D effect. I also drew all sorts of little faces, doodles, and random lines in the piece. I didn't think too hard about each action, but instead let the organic ink shapes guide me.

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When asked to create another world, I thought back to my childhood and recalled the small things that brought me comfort. One of these enjoyments was board games, specifically Candyland because of its light, joyful colors and fun characters in an exciting environment. I selected aspects of the game that I viewed as most important in conveying the deeper meaning of happiness and the stress-free environment conveyed through candy; the most crucial being vibrant colors. I wanted the background of my painting to have a light and airy feel with bright colors that shaped the rest of my piece. Following the background, the house and accents needed to evoke cheerfulness through more bright colors that stood out.

The background was created by combining pink, purple, and blue ink with white paint, diluted with water. Then, I painted the focal point of my piece, a mint green house, using a variety of acrylic paints which were also used to make the lollipop flowers and the clouds. The last step in my creation was the polka dot walkway, resembling gum drops which was collaged with tissue paper. This step tied my piece together by adding texture and creating variety. Overall, this artwork is very nostalgic and reminds me of childhood happiness. I hope the Candyland-inspired scene allows viewers to recall times that bring them joy.