Digital Commons Network^™

Natural Aspects, Kaylie Riley

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Kaylie Riley

I can never seem to get away from the natural world. Almost everything I do whether intentional or not I always seem to make my art about nature in some way, shape, or form. I have always felt a connection with nature and it is where I am the happiest and I am afraid of losing it.

In my body of work from past to present the formal elements are earthy and organic and even in my graphics work I incorporate rounded shapes and corners. My color palette is usually neutral colors or softer colors more like pastels …

Roby Joe Dream Boat, Roby Blackwell

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Love is everywhere, we see it all the time. It is something that I myself have even become obsessed with. Showing love through a surreal childlike eye with a twist of tongue-in-cheek, I desire to evoke the sense of complication through maximalism. My generation really inspires their endless influx of media; how Instagram profiles have turned into perfectly planned out color schemes, with set saturations and grain levels. I make work about millennials, the love within us. Exploring how we portray ourselves on social media, and the fantasy of how we portray this curated life, combined with pop culture is …

Exploration, Jessica Free

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My art explores the realm of beauty using form, shape, line, and color. I am interested in using geometric and organic elements to visually balance the artwork in the eyes of the viewer. As an artist, I want my art to communicate balance to the people viewing it. I often apply asymmetry in my artwork. Asymmetry grabs the viewers’ attention and connects all of the elements in the pieces by drawing attention towards the subject of the art piece. I also like to emphasize texture in my art, as a subject matter. I love the visual texture and the diverse …

Professional Blend Vii, Emma Wilson

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have always been an artist ever since I was a child. My mom was one of my influences to become an artist because she always made arts and crafts with me. My aunt, Janet Wilson, is a very skilled self-taught painter and was also a large influence on my artistic life. I thoroughly enjoy the art of photography.

Tara Chisholm once quoted, “Photography is the beauty of life captured.” My photography is very sentimental because it’s mostly about family. Family is so important in life and so is being able to snap shoot memorable times. I explore the concept …

Twinkle Bhojwani, Twinkle Bhojwani

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Being a young designer, it is sometimes inevitable to not have a fickle mind as I try to grow. I want to create aesthetically pleasing work by pushing my brain to move beyond my first idea in order to develop original approaches to the challenges that arise, and that is why I design. I see poor design that evokes an emotion in me to want to fix it.

The way things are designed, whether good or bad, communicates just as boldly as the message or the idea. I use my designs to evoke an emotion by pushing ideas, manipulating line, …

Androgynous Mothers And Social Discomforts, Part B, Kora Carlson

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

The sun is our grandest mother. No one really knows who our greatest grandmother is anyway. But we know that they rose and fell each day, just like our view of the sun. But some days, their lights completely disappear. Those days, dark clouds come carrying storms and rain always finds its way down. Other days our skin smolders with how bright the shine. Bright she burns, so bright we burn. I think that this heat will never slow down.

What I mean is, I’m a grounded space cadet. I’m extremely fascinated by the act of bewildering. I want to …

No Real Memories, Emily Netherton

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Memory is a complicated thing. We often long to hold unto the past, but struggle to actually remember it accurately. We place such importance on memories that we continually collect artifacts to remember things by. We take pictures to remember moments. We hold onto personal items to remember people. We often display these artifacts and spend so much time with them that we place more importance on the objects than the memories associated with them. Hang photos and display momentos, and constantly live in the past. In my work, I focus on reconnecting those objects to the memories, and addressing …

Professional Practices Portfolio, Sarah Cox

Professional Practices (ART 399)

As human beings, we want to look away from something that makes us uncomfortable, but we can be enthralled by it. I am currently creating work about the idea of restriction and confinement, specifically addressing body image. There is an underlying theme of the attraction-repulsion concept. Confronting audiences with less than desirable imagery creates a tension between my work and viewers. Creating that relationship fuels my work and allows me to cross uncomfortable boundaries and discuss our bodies in a contemporary way.

I use charcoal and graphite to create work, occasionally with a limited but vivid color palette with soft …

Professional Practices Final Portfolio, Ashley Schell

Professional Practices (ART 399)

There is a bittersweet beauty in the nature of average everyday life and simply existing with those around you. I use this mindset to explore my own past and present growing experiences in a tight knit, conservative southern region of the United States, I create artworks that help me better understand my relationship with myself and the individuals that surround me. By forming connections between my personal life and my relationships, my artwork has allowed me to explore where I physically exist in the world and who I am as an individual. My artwork embodies the specific experiences and external …

Jay Schroeder Pro-Practice, Jennifer Schroeder

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My Art is mainly reality based, focusing on social commentary or narrative. Often covering themes of depression, disorders, disability, dilapidation, inequality, and struggles. I provide art that people can connect to on a personal and emotional level. Experience with bigotry and struggles with disorders and learning disabilities has influenced me to explore art that is unapologetically honest. With the goal of reaching out to people so they can see the good and the bad in the world, creating something they can relate to and connect with, so we can all stand together in solidarity.

I have experience with 2D and …

Amillia Cecil, Amillia Cecil

Professional Practices (ART 399)

A porcelain kitten with an opening in the back to place my most valuable things. This is what I cherished the most as a child. The vessel to everything I cared for is what I held most dear. The reason to why I create can simply be stated that I am sentimental.

Through the investigation with manipulating glazes and clay, my ceramic work suggests a playful representation of sentimental values. I want to make a connection between myself and the viewer as I create functional pieces that have been individually treated with the utmost care and a fine attention to …

Finally., Jade Simpson

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

I create graphic design pieces with the goal of inciting a feeling in the viewers. I have found through the years that creating a well developed color pallet is a major part of my process as an artist. This is because color can help enhance the specific emotion or idea that I am pushing for. I enjoy designing a variety of posters over subjects from music to commentary on social issues. The reason I choose the topics of mental health awareness, suicide awareness, gender roles, domestic violence, drug abuse, and other similar topics is because I want people to stop …

Finally., Tiffany Day

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

Tiffany Day

Trash has become part of our everyday scenery. Check the Highways. Litter Breeds Litter. The physical effects on nature made through human intervention, drives me to document the aftereffects of what those interactions cause. Whether it be forgotten buildings in the middle of the woods, or plastic bags caught on broken tree branches, I capture images of the environment in disrepair. Through exploring ideas such as human interaction with nature, I hope that my work heightens my viewers’ awareness of the global climate crisis as they move through nature every day. I pay attention to everyday evidence of …

Finally. Ba/Bs Senior Exhibition, Emily Glowicki

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

My most recent work delves into the relationship of sculptural form and ceramic tradition and how we perceive amorphous beings that exhibit resonance of the recognizable. I’m interested in where we draw the line between form and function in ceramics and how we can explore both possibilities through the creation of ambiguous three-dimensional representation of these ideas.

My work addresses these ideas through both sculptural vessels and nonobjective forms that leave the realm of the vessel completely. This exploration of form and fluidity started with single word: torpid. Torpid, according to the dictionary, is an adjective to describe slow, sluggish, …

Rural Roots, Kayleigh Doyle

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

A box of old family photos was gifted to me from my grandmother and I was inspired by these unique moments from the past. While researching I found that a plethora of information on these family ties and rural roots had been forgotten until the photographs had been rediscovered.Through printmaking and painting the themes of preservation and the preciousness of memory are explored. The process of printmaking is important due to its ability to exist in multiples much like the photos from which my imagery is drawn from. Painting, on the other hand, speaks to the singular preciousness that is …

Finally., Ana Wahlers, Ana Wahlers

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

Art depicting normal, everyday events are uninspiring because there is nothing to invoke a note- worthy emotion. When I create a picture, the scenes I make either come directly from dreams or are an attempt at imitating the atmosphere in them. Most of my dreams are similar and have a nearly identical emotion, but I don’t have a name for that emotion. I have two goals when making art. The first is for the feeling from my dreams to echo when I look at the picture. Since dreams are often forgotten and the emotions in them become distant, I need …

Finally., Larry Eakels, Larry C. Eakels Iii

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

I have always liked to create things and make interesting pieces of artwork. Making work in the design field has been very delightful and engaging for me. Learning about how people react to imagery even when its digital or print has been one of the biggest things, I have learned from becoming an artist and focusing in graphic design. I chose to do graphic design because of my experiences with past classes and pieces that bring joy to me. As well as, the aesthetic you can achieve doing design work. Being able to create sleek, clean, and simple designs to …

Student Group Exhibition, Larry Eakels

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have always liked to create things and make interesting pieces of artwork. Making work in the design field has been very delightful and engaging for me. Learning about how people react to imagery even when its digital or print has been one of the biggest things, I have learned from becoming an artist and focusing in graphic design. I chose to do graphic design because of my experiences with past classes and pieces that bring joy to me. As well as, the aesthetic you can achieve doing design work. Being able to create sleek, clean, and simple designs to …

Professional Blend Vii, Drey Reed

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Often times it appears as though people forget that art does not have to have some deep, internal meaning. While the amount of traditional media art I make is greatly slowing down, those that I do make tend to have either an obvious meaning or none at all. I’ve always been more into making and viewing art that is more aesthetically pleasing than those you have to find the meaning of. Now, however, my time is primarily spent on graphic design. While there isn’t anything that necessarily ties my graphic design work together, I feel this is a better fit …

Professional Blend Vii, Jade Simpson

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I create graphic design pieces with the goal of inciting a feeling in the viewers. I have found through the years that creating a well developed color pallet is a major part of my process as an artist. This is because color can help enhance the specific emotion or idea that I am pushing for. I enjoy designing a variety of posters over subjects from music to commentary on social issues. The reason I choose the topics of mental health awareness, suicide awareness, gender roles, domestic violence, drug abuse, and other similar topics is because I want people to stop …

Cameron Savage Fall 2019, Cameron Savage

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Cameron Savage

BFA: Printmaker

Scientists can trace the modern human’s beginnings to western Africa and map out migrations that moved hominids into the rest of the world. Mankind traversed a vast and unknown wilderness for the pursuit of food and resources. We have always been explorers, desperately searching for anything new. I’m interested in mankind’s thirst for knowledge of the unknown, and the possibilities that exist outside our little blue rock. Will Earth’s resources eventually be exhausted? Are other planets suitable for the continuation of humanity? Can civilization exist outside our solar system?

Contemplating these questions and being influenced by …

Sweet Sunshine Bakery, Sarah Guinn

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Everyone has memories they hold dear, something from long ago, simpler times. Those memories give us something to go back to, an image, a place or a feeling to brighten our days. For me, those memories take me to my grandmother’s kitchen, where I was introduced to baking. Ever since, I’ve had a passion for desserts and know the best ones are always made with love. Sweet Sunshine Bakery combines my love for desserts and branding. Just like desserts, brands are built with the same passion, the same attention to detail and the same drive to connect with others. Brands …

Fine Particles Of Solid Matter, Lu Colby

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Today, women make up almost half of the labor force in the United States at 46.5%. Yet statistics show that compared to men, women spent more than twice as much time preparing food, and doing interior cleaning, and over three times as much time doing laundry as men did on an average day. Even with these domestic obligations, women are still pressured to pursue a higher education, advance in their careers, and be self sustaining. With these Second Shift expectations, women in American society today feel more pressure than ever to find the balance between domestic roles and progressive philosophy …

Cameron Savage Fall 2019, Cameron Savage

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Cameron Savage

BFA: Printmaker

Scientists can trace the modern human’s beginnings to western Africa and map out migrations that moved hominids into the rest of the world. Mankind traversed a vast and unknown wilderness for the pursuit of food and resources. We have always been explorers, desperately searching for anything new. I’m interested in mankind’s thirst for knowledge of the unknown, and the possibilities that exist outside our little blue rock. Will Earth’s resources eventually be exhausted? Are other planets suitable for the continuation of humanity? Can civilization exist outside our solar system?

Contemplating these questions and being influenced by …

Apitt_Proprac, Allison Pitt

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have always been an “outside-the-box” kind of person. I feel like I don’t fit into the mold of an “artist”. However, I’ve used this aspect about myself to use it to create my art. Unlike the others in my classes, I haven’t found myself fascinated by one idea or material. As a future art educator, I feel like this change is something I can use to my benefit to adapt and relate to each student and their unique backgrounds that come through with their art. I hope to inspire my students to be their true self, and let their …

Koryn Hatfield, Koryn Hatfield

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Creating art allows me to delve into my mind and acknowledge specific memories and associations I have made with people, places, and events in my life. My works are created in a stream of conscious state and involve me recording my thoughts in a visual dialogue. The process itself then, becomes important because it is during this time, I uncover these parts of myself and my life.

My goal is for the viewer to make connections within the work but still be left in a sense of wonder. One of the most recognizable aspects of my work is my use …

Scattered, Sarah Mccann

B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499)

I have been dealing with loneliness my whole life. I was given up for adoption at birth and brought from Paraguay to the United States. I feel a kind of loneliness for someone I have never met: my birth mother. In grade school I didn’t have many friends who would spend time with me outside of class. My brother was usually busy with homework and my mother and father were busy with work, leaving me a lot of time spent on my own.

My main emphasis in college has been drawing. I wanted to refine my skills that I’ve been …

Professional Practices: Cumulation Of Work, Sara Talwalkar

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I juxtapose sharp and organic shapes, which are inspired by ideas of plants, landscape and architectural design because of the clean lines and minimalistic forms. Line quality is used to show space, and enhance a minimalistic aesthetic, while the use of line and value in architectural drawings changes perspective and manipulates the viewer’s eye. As well as plants, landscape, architectural design, my work is about containers, containing space, and the manipulation of a man-made space. The geometric motif running through the body of work is primarily boxes and can be seen as a reduced form mimicking shapes one interacts with …

Talitha Cunningham, Talitha Cunningham

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have explored a number of ideas and media since starting my journey toward becoming an art educator. One that I seem to find myself returning to regularly is my interest in exploring mental illness. This derives from my experience with people in my life that have dealt with and continue to deal with mental illness, myself included. I want to raise awareness about mental health and the impact it has on the sufferer through my art.

I have touched on this idea in some of my past works, including a photo diptych that depicts the highs and lows of …

Tales Of An Idiom, Catherine D. Alexander

B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498)

Idioms are word combinations that have a different figurative meaning than the literal meanings of each word or phrase. With the figurative and literal opportunities of these idioms, I have created new narratives with size and scale, allowing my viewer to interact with my art.

Compositionally, when I was creating these photos I wanted the viewer to feel as if they were part of the stories told within them. I chose to use black and white 4x5 film photography, which is a large format camera that would allow me to achieve a life size scale in my photos and create …