Art

My fascination with the human figure remains a prominent part of my work as a familiar and complex path to formalist traditions. But as I have sought to expand my engagement with representational figuration, I look towards themes of universal emotions and conditions - grief, remembrance, anger, affection and resolve. Within this, I often allude to socio-political content, art historical references or personal experiences. In integrating representational figuration with a contemporary approach, I incorporate techniques of drawing, painting and printmaking into narrative formats while preserving the figure as the protagonist.
I lean into gestural lines, expressive marks and abstract color fields to breathe life into the work and enhance the emotive context. I embrace the intuitive process as I believe it reflects and retains a certain spiritual spontaneity and response.
Recently, I have experienced deep loss. It is the grief associated with this that has informed these pieces. Grief is a process that can be present, historical, anticipatory or prolonged. I have been stricken by a wide range of losses –personal, societal, political and cultural - death of loved ones, risk of severe limitations to civil liberties and bodily autonomy, global wars and violence, xenophobia, brutal attacks on democratic ideals and even the inevitable passage of time have precipitated my personal and visceral grief.

This study integrates visual art with a public speaking assignment to explore participants’ experiences and perceptions of engagement in the Teacher-Researcher’s course at Lynn University. Using an action research design and with informed consent, seven students volunteered as participants. This study investigates these seven participants’ experiences and perceptions of emotional engagement with the visual art integration implementation, consisting of instruction, activities, and assignments. Participants’ prior academic experiences and perceptions of art and public speaking frames the analysis of their perceptions and experiences of emotional engagement with this art integration implementation. Emotional engagement is operationalized as participants’ experiences and perceptions of art, public speaking, immersion, artistic mindset, and benefits. The Teacher- Researcher analyzes participants’ art making processes and products for experiences and perceptions of emotional engagement. The art integrated implementation involved participants learning about art and belief systems (religion and philosophy) and public speaking through art. Participants created visual art, which served as a focal point of a presentation they delivered. The Teacher-Researcher is interested in learning about emotional engagement with the art integrated presentation assignment to refine future research and practice.

The Underlying of Being exhibition explores the complex relationship between the mind and body, delving into psychological effects at a cellular level. Art, science, and psychology contemplate the fundamental source of meaning and value: the human experience. The work emphasizes that our lives are not isolated but interrelated, reflecting a commonality on the most miniature biological scale. Scientific research confirms that cells can hold emotional experiences, a finding that is relevant to all humans.
The conceptual visual context derives from philosophical systems, scientific theories, and aesthetic judgments, abstracting from the ever-changing ebb and flow of being in the living world. The Underlying of Being exhibition focuses on the figure in abstracted shapes and layers of monochromatic colors, various papers, fibers, wires, glaze, and paints, producing sections of human narration sinking below the surface into an illusion or disillusioned visual physiological state of fluid within an imagined biosystems.

Loose-line is a visual style where dramatic lines are created with quick, swift strokes, often randomly overlapping each other. Loose-lines can be used to depict a subject and emphasize its actions. They capture the viewer's attention and provide them with an understanding of the narrative depicted through its implication or suggestion of action.
In this thesis I will examine, the loose-line technique and its components. I will show how loose-line has been used as a foundational technique for pre-visualizing painting, sculpture, and architecture throughout art history, and especially with regard to its role in the development of cinema and animation. And finally, I will apply the loose-line technique to contemporary visual compositions and reveal how merging rough sketches with 3D renders contributes to an innovative aesthetic style.

Dirt, Rust, and Non-Girl Stuff explores identity, mental health, and tradition. Considering the customs of my Cuban heritage, I choose materials and processes that reflect conventions related to gender identity, expression, and craft. These subjects are represented via assemblages that exist as stand-alone sculptures and installations. Each piece is composed of materials and objects chosen based on their physical characteristics and associations to craft or notions of traditional gender norms. The work hints to the viewer through metaphors created by material choice, found object associations, and the placement of each element. Each fragment of material represents a part of my identity. The porcelain acts as a metaphor for my body, often breaking, cracking, and shattering. Its fragility requires mending, stitching, and repair to become something or someone else. The crochet elements reference the women's gender roles and femininity that my parents yearned for me to exhibit. The metal tools and rusted objects are representative of the more masculine roles I took on to fulfill my father's need for a son. The work often exhibits the precarity, the needed repairs, or additions of femininity to the otherwise masculine materials to turn a too masculine body into a more feminine one. The arrangements are not motivated by order or beauty but by the tension caused by the divide between who I am and whom I am expected to be.

This thesis analyzes the creative strategies of African American female artists used to recreate the visual narrative of black female bodies in Western Art. Four artists are examined: Emma Amos, Adrian Piper, Alison Saar, and Simone Leigh. Emma Amos uses acrylics and textiles to address the strategies used by white male artists in the portrayal of black female bodies. Adrian Piper centers her performance piece on stereotypes to question racial stereotypes directed at black women. Alison Saar examines Topsy, a character from Harriet Beecher Stowe’s novel, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, who regains agency from slavery tropes. Simone Leigh interprets Harriet Jacobs autobiographical experience by using utilitarian objects and architecture to contest the ideologies of slavery. The perspectives of these artists are critical to understanding how they view themselves through their own lenses as opposed to those of the dominant white culture, addressing the origins of ideologies surrounding black female bodies. Examination of each artist's work shows that the black women’s lived experiences are not monolithic or stereotypical.

Deconstructed Cartography is comprised of two related and complementary sections that use mapping structures to explore the temporality of location through the lens of personal experience within places. This body of work uses both collage and a light-shadow installation to develop a narrative of place and time. My artwork focuses on deconstructing classical modes of representation through the lens of cartography and places an emphasis on personal experiences, narratives, and storytelling of place or locale. I am interested in road maps, water bodies, topography, shadows, and the various ways humans attempt to navigate or make sense of the natural world through lines and different mapping structures.

“Tomorrow is Saint Valentine’s Day” is a manic line of dialogue spoken by Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. I have chosen that line as the title of my thesis and exhibition. Much of my graduate work has emanated from scenes in Shakespeare’s plays. I make dimensional paintings, prints, and sculptures that leverage a wide variety of media, material, and processes. I have chosen the intense drama of Ophelia’s final appearance on stage to inspire this body of work. The drama and imagery of Shakespeare’s plays has been a profound source of ideas for me. They motivate me to connect with all available resources in an energetic way to create visually captivating pieces of art. My objective is not to illustrate any given scene but to leverage the text for a personal artistic experience. The result is an abstraction that captures the energy of a dramatic moment. The art I produce is an expressive record of my relationship with the literature.

Whispers from the Ghost House is the concrete manifestation of the mutable nature of childhood memory held within the nebulous forms of home. In all of its many incarnations home exists as a construction out of time and space that absorbs the accumulation of life performed around and within its walls. Home is idealized and sought after, both sanctuary and snare. The iterations of home I created are primarily constructed from repurposed materials with inherent histories; unstable and malleable. Cardboard and paper holds the plastic veneer of various mediums to shape, color, and mar surfaces. The home develops an identity as it absorbs each action and material, gradually becoming an entity as well as a receptacle, to both display and obfuscate the nostalgic and the unattainable. Each hardened home becomes a haunted being in which memories interlace and fade away as they transform into the wild twisted houses of reverie.

Reckoning is a body of sculptural work that explores the emotional resonance contained within memory through a combination of personal ephemera and handcrafted objects. The physical presence of this work underscores the importance of its materiality, in both the handmade and collected objects, in emphasizing their ability to conjure a memory. Reckoning evokes the intangible emotions and overwhelming sensations that accompany the act of remembering, and an inability to forget.