Graduate portfolios

Reduced to an essential visual vocabulary, form, color, gesture, shape, and materials assume a "constructed language." The work diverges and integrates around two archetypal polarities, figure and land. The figurative component of the work is often read ambiguous in its shape, while also associating to the elemental forms of landscape, as the insinuations of landscape associate to the body. These visual elements are supported by the use of materials that seem in opposition to each other, yet are essential to human existence both physically and environmentally. The materiality of the work can be broken down into three sub-sections: natural material, intermediate derivatives from natural, and synthetic materials. Initially within my work, in particular with drawing, natural materials become the foundation and assist with respect to excavating an archetypal association, allowing instinct to prevail over intellect. Within sculpture, shape as it associates to my drawing aligns conceptually, taking on form; synthetic materials prevail but retain natural organic form. The materiality of the sculpture relates to how synthetic materials have been utilized within a 20th century paradigm to simulate environments based on an association to natural structures; for example, exterior protection, insulation, and internal configuration. It is within the context of the works' materialization where process has informed my artistic conceptual direction.