Curatorial Rationale:
This year in art I chose to explore how, as an artist, I define self, myself, in particular. Through intimate explorations of things that are in my control, such as career choices, as well as things that are not in my control, such as home, I explore and define myself, my world and my choices in this world. Mixed media seemed to lend itself to this exploration, allowing me to incorporate and be inspired by everyday items, which, because of my choice of abstract expression, are more symbolic in their meaning within my work. In order to convey my message of self exploration, which by its very definition travels down varied paths, as in the use of a single batik among a grouping of mixed media pieces, I employed several of the elements of design, including line, shape, and texture and color. Although on first approach, the viewer might see chaos, I hope that the overall impression, after close study, is one of organized exploration. In my three pieces relating to home, Memento, Built on a Sketch, and By a Thread, I use the element of line to represent how we are separated, the circle, as a shape to express how we intersect with each other within our environment, and color to express a particular mood within each piece: tranquility, unrest, emptiness threaded with hope, respectively. In my two pieces on career, The Movement of Sound and The Stings Still Vibrate, my explorations are wildly divergent in color and medium, although there are threads of commonality in the design element. My use of line in each piece is meant to convey my sense of movement toward the future. My piece, Zen, is a representation of self in the truest sense. Like the majority of the other pieces in this body of work, it is mixed media. The varied use of color represents my interests, some more dominant than others. The name implies simplicity itself, but on closer inspection, the zentangling unveils the truly complicated inner self that we all hide behind the shiny surface.
This year in art I chose to explore how, as an artist, I define self, myself, in particular. Through intimate explorations of things that are in my control, such as career choices, as well as things that are not in my control, such as home, I explore and define myself, my world and my choices in this world. Mixed media seemed to lend itself to this exploration, allowing me to incorporate and be inspired by everyday items, which, because of my choice of abstract expression, are more symbolic in their meaning within my work. In order to convey my message of self exploration, which by its very definition travels down varied paths, as in the use of a single batik among a grouping of mixed media pieces, I employed several of the elements of design, including line, shape, and texture and color. Although on first approach, the viewer might see chaos, I hope that the overall impression, after close study, is one of organized exploration. In my three pieces relating to home, Memento, Built on a Sketch, and By a Thread, I use the element of line to represent how we are separated, the circle, as a shape to express how we intersect with each other within our environment, and color to express a particular mood within each piece: tranquility, unrest, emptiness threaded with hope, respectively. In my two pieces on career, The Movement of Sound and The Stings Still Vibrate, my explorations are wildly divergent in color and medium, although there are threads of commonality in the design element. My use of line in each piece is meant to convey my sense of movement toward the future. My piece, Zen, is a representation of self in the truest sense. Like the majority of the other pieces in this body of work, it is mixed media. The varied use of color represents my interests, some more dominant than others. The name implies simplicity itself, but on closer inspection, the zentangling unveils the truly complicated inner self that we all hide behind the shiny surface.