Senior Exhibits 2019

Your everyday emotions and actions are sometimes the most intimate things about you. What drives you to feel what you feel and do what you do? Everywhere you look, you see what may seem like small emotional interactions in everyday life—like picking up your child from school or going out for ice cream—but if you look deeper, those actions and emotions may just tell you the most important things. They may aid in telling you why someone makes the decisions that they do, or why someone feels the way that they do about something.
I aim to capture those simple, intimate emotional interactions amidst everyday life. Throughout all my work, I capture this sentiment, whether the object I am shooting is alive or not. I love seeing how simple things interact with the hustle and bustle of everyday life, and I seek to find out why we as humans are the way that we are. I believe that all of us are so marvelously made in the image of the God who created us, and because of that, I seek to find connections back to that belief within my work. Digital photography has quickly become my medium of choice, especially street photography, because it is a quick way to snap the intimate moments that happen in the blink of an eye. I usually have my camera with me so that I can be ready for that at any given moment.
What you are experiencing now is my street photography series titled “Embodiment”. This term is defined as “a tangible or visible form of an idea, quality, or feeling.” Using that definition as a reference point for my photographs, I created a series of nine different photographs that embody the Fruits of the Spirit. These are a set of nine different character qualities that are outlined in the Bible. They are as follows:
- Love
- Joy
- Peace
- Patience
- Kindness
- Goodness
- Gentleness
- Faithfulness
- Self-Control
Each of the photographs in this series are documented through the street photography style. I have not posed anyone in these images. I do not know anyone in these images. I simply have been in these places, with my camera in hand, looking for the intimate emotional interactions of everyday life. While taking the photographs, I have been thinking about how they could relate back to the Fruits of the Spirit. I have numbered the photographs instead of titling the nine qualities. Just as I seek to understand why humans are the way that they are, I want my viewers to pursue this through their experience with my art.
In closing, I ask again: What drives you to feel what you feel and do what you do? Is it by chance that you are the way that you are, or is there a deeper driving-force that shapes who you are? For me as an artist experimenting with these questions, I have seen a deeper meaning within the simple, every day actions and emotions of humanity than what is seen on the surface. I hope that “Embodiment” will help you think about the simple emotions and actions that you choose to display, and, most importantly, help you see that you are marvelously made.

Seven

“Out of Nothing” is a photography exhibition that walks the viewer through the story of creation. The Bible illuminates how our world came into being through God speaking it into existence over the course of seven days. My photographs bring form to this extraordinary event. We recognize the trees, the water, the magnificent landscape around us today and it is awe-inspiring. To think about this creation in its purest form, just seconds after exploding into its splendid nature, merely reflecting its Creator, is almost daunting to think about.
These blurry, fuzzy, abstract photographs speak to this idea of the incredible task of bringing form to such a miraculous event. How can one know how this event took place? I hope this wondering and questioning of creation, and its evidence all around us today, fuels the viewer to investigate my photographs.
I chose to photograph in an out of focus and abstract way to evoke a feeling of beginning. The start of something coming into form, filling itself out. Searching for its beginning and end, still finding its edges, edges that are ultimately drawn in by its Creator. These images also draw the viewer in as they contemplate the subject itself. The photographs are just recognizable enough to be relatable, but altered enough to draw back on the idea of something coming into form.
I am drawn to the contemporary photographer, Uta Barth, who also photographs in a nondescript way. Her aim is to provoke her viewers into the act of looking and the process of perception. She creates images that remind us of the subtle passage of time, and the instinctive pleasure of seeing. I long for my viewers to be drawn into my photographs in response to their own beliefs and experiences. I allow for this by the use of blur and abstraction which removes any recognizable features that could distract the viewer from the event at hand.
What we see around us has origins. Origins that people everywhere have thoughts about, but no matter the stance of the viewer, I hope they can wrestle with the genesis of creation as they investigate my photographs.

Rest

Stars

Fish

Recompense

Five

When I tell friends and family that I make art about witches, no one seems surprised. As a child, I was obsessed with fantasy and magic, going out into the woods behind my house to look for evidence of unicorns, fairies, and dragons. I'm reasonably sure I never found any, but that love has stayed with me to this day and is the most significant influence in my art.
A second, but no less significant influence on my art is my fascination with history. My grandfather is a huge fan of the History Channel, and would frequently watch it in the evenings when I was young. I would sit with him and learn about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire; about the struggles of Boudicca and the Iceni people of the British Isles; about Ghengis Khan and Alexander the Great; and about the Malleus Maleficarum, and the 50,000 people burned to death because of it.
As a young teenager, I dipped my toes into both the textile and digital arts. Digital, because I couldn’t not experiment with it, having grown up in the digital age. Textile, because knitting is portable, relaxing, and kept me focused in class. While these two art forms may at first seem diametrically opposed, considering one is the most cutting edge and new while the other is almost as old as the human race, to me, they aren't at all. Textile arts is my bridge to the past, and my best attempt at real-life magic -- taking just a few pieces of string and creating something that didn't exist before. Digital art is my connection to the future. It’s a whole new type of magic. After all, what is more magical than art that is utterly intangible, but still somehow exists?
For this particular work, I want to capture the devastating effect that witch hunts had on medieval communities. Women who were once trusted and respected healers, midwives, and wise women were suddenly being accused of using magic to try and hurt their neighbors, and of worshiping the devil. These women went from being influential community leaders to being tortured and murdered. I chose to paint a triptych to help tell these stories. In the center panel is a medieval wise woman. She has medicinal herbs drying on the wall behind her and is knitting using homespun yarn. She is at peace. To the right, she is being dunked, which is the practice of repeatedly putting someone into the water to see if they float or sink. To the left, her trials are over, and she is being burned at the stake by the villagers she once cared so much for. Surrounding the work is a scrolling pattern that encircles four herbs associated with the dead and funerals: mullein in the top left, wormwood in the bottom left, marigold in the bottom right, and asphodel in the top right.
When viewing this work, remember to appreciate the magic in everyday things, because you never know when they might be gone.

Senior Exhibits 2019

Items in this collection

One

Seven

Rest

Stars

Fish

Recompense

Man

Five

Witch Hunt

Seperation

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Items in this collection

One