Drawing on objects

 

Keep Your Eyes Off Me.

Clip Studio Paint, makeup

Flesh

Rainy day fun

paint markers

Property of

paint marker, bike

Ephemeral Landscapes

Ripple

Water, wood

Muddy

Mud, tire

Water line

Mulch

Cardboard

 

Garbage Critter

Gouache, paint markers, paper

14.5” x 11”

UPS: Universal Postal Service

Gouache, paint markers, cardboard, glue

15” x 10”

Play house

36”x 27”x 32”

Acrylic paint, hot glue, cardboard

For the first three cardboard pieces above, I wanted to explore all the different ways we utilize cardboard. Cardboard, specifically boxes, are most commonly used for mailing or moving purposes, and eventually end up in the garbage.

Garbage Critter is a playful look at how individuals discard common cardboard boxes after a single use, despite it still being functional. Wild animals often find human trash to be quite useful and crucial to their survival in our mostly urban or suburban institutions. We commonly view racoons, rats, or possums as pests and disturbances to our communities despite the fact that us humans are the ones invading their homes.

With the rise of online shopping and companies like Amazon, packages and mailing have become extremely prevalent in our day-to-day lives. You can order clothes, furniture, or even groceries and they will appear on your doorstep within 24-hours. Reflecting on our current postal system got me thinking about the future of mail and the possible advancements in the industry. It seems a little silly to think of a future where we can mail things to the moon, but with space travel becoming more accessible to those outside of the science world, it's not far-fetched to say that UPS could have a mail spaceship in the next 50 to 100 years.

Play House explores how children often use cardboard boxes as tools to “play house” and utilize imagination. When I was younger I used to love when we received large packages because it meant I could create a little house of my own. Kids commonly imitate the adults around them in hopes to be more adult, and those cardboard houses let them live out that fantasy.

Wild Girl!

Gouache, paint markers, hot glue, cardboard

  9" x 13"

Patterns!

Gouache, paint markers, ink pens, parchment paper, cardboard

9.5” x 12”

Man made landscape

Gouache, cardboard, paper

9.5” x 12”

With the final three pieces above, I experimented with all the different ways in which cardboard could be used to make art. We do not often realize how versatile the material is in purposes other than mailing or continuing objects. For Wild Girl! I utilized stacking/layering to achieve a three dimensional effect, as if the character is popping out at you. When you remove the outside layers of paper on cardboard it reveals a unique striped pattern that is perfect for making prints. Both Patterns! And Man made landscape feature printing techniques, however applied very differently. To create the isolated patterns seen on Patterns! I traced the outline of the chosen garments on a piece of parchment paper then cut them out, creating a stencil. Conversely, I took a more loose and free approach, just stamping the cardboard wherever I saw a need for texture, not worrying about the patterns overlapping or blending together.

Ceiling to floor piece

 

Female Gladiator

Paper, charcoal, soft chalk pastel, tape

101” x 56”

When tasked with the challenge of creating a piece that spanned from the ceiling to the floor, my first thoughts were about larger-than-life figures. Not just figures who are enormous in size, but are depicted as super-human or possess abilities that surpass the ordinary human. The kind of figures you read about in fictional books or tall-tales. One of the biggest inspirations in my work is strong, powerful women, like wrestlers, dancers, or warriors. With the female gladiator in this piece I sought to illustrate the over exaggerated, blood-thirsty Roman gladiator and the overlooked existence of female warriors in ancient Rome.

I began by taking photos of myself with a dowel to use as references. Then I taped two sheets of paper on a wall and started creating a rough, charcoal sketch of my chosen pose. My goal with the sketch was to be loose, gritty, and messy while still showing movement and action. Once the black charcoal portion of the piece was completed I went in with a red soft chalk pastel. The red illustrates the bloodshed of the gladiator's victims as well as the iconic, red gladiator skirts of ancient Rome.

Although she is quite an intimidating woman, it is fun to stand next to the piece and pretend to be attacked.