Senior Exhibits 2020

As a child interacts with the world around them, there is a sense of amazement, but as we grow older, we can lose that quality. I wanted to create a body of work that allows the audience to rediscover what it is like to look at the world around them with child-like awe and wonder. One of the places where I am especially able to see this myself is in nature. By choosing to capture the outdoors through the use of simple materials, I invite the viewer to take the opportunity to be reminded of their inner kid and see the beauty in the world as they interact with my show, Thinking Inside the Box, A Journey.
We are all on some type of journey, both literally and metaphorically. When I reflect on a hiking adventure or nature exploration, I think about how you stop to rest at the end of a day’s trip. You enjoy one another’s company around the campfire as stories are told, and you look in fascination at the creation around you. This is what I hope the audience is able to achieve from my work as well. The viewer will have the chance to stop, rest from their day, and travel back to what it was like to be a child as they can take a moment to reflect on what their own journey has been like from their youth to today.
In keeping with the theme, I chose to use materials from my childhood to show how one can push their capabilities and elevate what their resources can do. A kid can look at something and see its potential and possibilities. Thus, I selected a simple, everyday component that from the outside may not look like much but an element of surprise is awaiting on the inside. By making it a structure you can enter, the form engulfs you. Therefore, you are reminded of how your creativity and imagination surrounded you when you were young. There is also a level of interactivity with the piece as well so that the viewers can be involved in the creative process.
I have a fascination for the outdoors and a passion for the arts, and it brings me great joy that I get to combine and share my interests with the audience. I hope my work provides the viewer with a place to stop and rest for a moment and offers them an opportunity to reflect on youthful wonder and the simple joys of life. I want to invite the audience into an experience they can participate in that leaves them inspired to see art, nature, and the simplicity of childhood for its beauty and moves them to go forth and create.

[1.2] Outside Front View

I am a Graphic Designer, photographer and illustrator. I have a passion for the imperfect odds and ends that society often dismisses and discards. Finding beauty within imperfections is what really scratches my itch. My primary subject matter are people and objects that society often looks down on. As a person bored with the mundane of the natural world, I often change colors to vibrant hues. This combined with my favorite drawing technique, hatching, is my style. My series titled Every Body consists of 18 men and women illustrated using this style. I aim to make a statement that all bodies no matter how big or small are beautiful works of art.
These 18 faceless illustrations ooze confidence with their various statures, colors and lines. Keeping these figures anonymous takes away a personal identity, only leaving a decorated body and its expression. This also helps the audience better relate to the figures by keeping their identities unknown. Some of these types have had their time to shine through various cultural ages, with their differing canons of beauty. Although, many of those same types have been labeled with negative terms today though social media. “My hope is that this reframing of beauty will create a feeling of self-acceptance in the viewer, countering the narrow vision of beauty that our social media driven-age seems to insist upon.” I want you to compare yourself to these illustrations in a positive way while embracing your own ‘imperfections.’ As a whole, this show is about how ALL people struggle equally to love their own form.
I decided to use pixels as my medium to create Every Body because this is what the media constantly uses to tell us what we should and shouldn’t look like. I’m using these images to show the beauty in all types of bodies by abstracting them with the same drawing technique and similar hues. The hatching technique is used to emphasize and embrace the curves and structures of the human forms like we should embrace ourselves. Rather than neatly hatching and cross hatching to depict a naturalistic scene like Dürer, I am breaking down the photos into line and color, while skewing those hues that we normally see. This style separates the viewer requiring them to take a step back to look at the figures as works of art instead of pointing out the flaws of a photo. This repetition of line and color creates shading and accentuates their shapes while amplifying the tone of boldness and self-assurance. They are all framed in varying sizes to emphasize that we all have different body types, and they all are beautiful.
With these illustrations, I have conveyed that not only should we celebrate all types of bodies, but we should also love the one we were given. Using a variation of lines and an array of bold colors, I have depicted various shapes and sizes to create adoration for the ‘imperfections’ and to encourage you to love your body a little more. With this series of illustrations there is nothing left but an anonymous technicolor figure created with lines forcing you to focus on what they really are, imperfect masterpieces. I hope that you walk away loving yourself and embracing all the shapes and colors that make you, you.

[2.6] Every Body

[2.7] Every Body

[2.4] Every Body

[2.5] Every Body

[2.8] Every Body

[2.3] Floor

I have always been interested in creating art to capture moments that otherwise slip away. When I was young, the drastic change in environment and culture following my family’s move to the United States from Chernivtsi, Ukraine shaped me as an artist. This monumental experience compelled me to focus on work that reveals an individual’s story and highlights their relationship to their environment. The body of work “Experience of Being” does just that, - it explores my personal perspective on a world we all share.
The works in this show communicate importance and indifference, simplicity and complexity, discovery and loss, accomplishment and shortcoming. All of these emotions and experiences are unique to each individual, yet they are known and understood by us all. One of the photographs, for example, explores the theme of loss, picturing a pair of mismatched, empty chairs that leave a trace of their owners’ former friendship behind. Another image portrays a lush, overgrown, and trackless path whose untamed branches are swaying in and out of focus; it combines the idea of growth and uncertainty, which often go hand in hand.
My goal was to express abstract ideas in visual form. I photographed in a way that would place the viewer within the scene, as if it were they who are looking back at their crinkled linen bed sheets or admiring the stillness of a backyard landscape. The painting in this body of work captures a simple moment: sunlight beaming through the blinds and transforming the bathroom sink into a mesmerizing abstraction. Using a compilation of photographs, paintings, and sketches, I shared my perception of daily reality. I arranged my artwork in a didactic manner, meaning the layout, scale, and presentation of the pieces are intentionally articulated to emphasize the meaning of the work as a whole. This style of installation expresses the flowing nature of time and thought, and the reoccurring color of green communicates life, growth, and balance.
“Experience of Being” reveals my perception of existence in order to create connections with the audience and highlight the fact that we are all united through our shared experience of life. I want to bring the viewer into a heightened sense of awareness of the sensations of living and cause them to ponder about how that awareness, or lack thereof, affects their relationships with people around them. I believe that if we truly tried to understand one another, we would be a lot better to each other. My hope is that looking through these works the viewer will find moments they relate to, maybe even lived through themselves, as well as moments that seem foreign or unclear. Maybe they will learn from one thing yet dismiss another, - but through this communication there will be connection.

Senior Exhibits 2020

Items in this collection

[1.2] Outside Front View

[2.6] Every Body

[2.7] Every Body

[2.4] Every Body

[2.5] Every Body

[2.8] Every Body

[2.3] Floor

[1.9] The Journey Through

[1.2] Familiar

[1.7] No Name

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Items in this collection

[1.2] Outside Front View