Digital Commons Network^™

Art399 Portfolio, Eric Abarbanell

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My two dimensional art has a lot of sharply contrasting values and a sense of humor (and dark humor) to it. My three dimensional work follows the same lines but I also incorporate as much light and shadow as I possibly can.

My influences are mostly based in my childhood and pop culture. Early cyberpunk works like William Gibson and Max Headroom; lowbrow and outsider art like Frank Kozick, the artists of Heavy Metal Magazine, and independent comics; and dark surreal art such as HR Giger, Masahiro Ito, and Heronimous Bosch.

I try to first find art and references that …

Gretchen Ruth Art399 Portfolio, Gretchen Ruth

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My work comes from a place of tension between trying to understand the world and being understood. My current focus is making work that has more centralized and serious concepts. Despite some naturalistic elements that are often seen throughout my works,

I intentionally combine these elements along with imagery that brings the viewer to a made-up or dream-like reality . One of the most important aspects to these types of works, especially more recently, is my use of color. Throughout a lot of my work, I utilize form and proportion as well as color to emphasize the ambience of the …

The Lens Of Suicide, Chad Reeder

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have been shaped by loss. My art is deeply personal and is directly informed by the effects of suicide. I make art as a way to confront the reality of losing many loved ones and as a way to reconnect to the world by seeking friendships through conversations about suicide. Through photography and video my work challenges the stigma of suicide in order to save lives. I do this formally through different perspectives of light, pattern, shape and form. Additionally I print on larger format so that the viewer is overwhelmed as I have been with dealing with so …

Kerrie Pullen Art 399 Digital Commons, Kerrie Pullen

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Paper is a material that is all around us and has been telling stories for centuries, blurring the line between dimensional planes. I began using paper for its obvious function – to draw upon and express thoughts and ideas. Communicating is a vital part of the art process, and the more I drew the more the images and ideas created took on a new function, a new language. I’ve come to realize that drawing is a highly fluid process that resists categorization. I cut and layer paper, drawings, mixed media materials, and 3D elements within my large-scale works, maneuvering multiple …

The Protectors, Keimya Harris

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

Many black people like myself loved seeing someone that looked like us in the media and print. It was rare and few to see shows and media that embraced black culture no matter how big or small the role was. As a child in order to cope with the minimal amount of black media and print I decided to create my own stories and make black characters the forefront within my stories.

When creating The Protectors it allowed me to create a new narrative that challenges having a white person as the main character and eliminates the trope of a …

Rule, Kendra Lobb

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

I struggle with the need for control. I feel this was due to being raised in a broken home, where all important decisions were dictated by others. The feeling of being trapped in situations that I did not choose pushed me to find a place where I got to make the decisions and rules. I have found this in my art practice. The process of creating art allows me to make a controlled world that has order and to share it with others. I want to give my audience choices in how they interact with my work, giving them the …

Lingering Space, Makayla Tapp

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

Lingering Space

Since I was young, I have had a fascination with childhood memories that I should have been too young to remember.. Over the years, these memories have changed and warped, yet the strongest memories that have remained the same are those of my parents, and the spaces they inhabited. As my memories of my parents fade, I begin to lose details, such as the way their voices sounded, the way they smiled, the way they laughed. But the pieces that linger are the spaces I remember them being in, the homes they lived in, the places where we …

21st Century Revival- Ba/Bs Senior Show, Kirsten Moore

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

Growing up in Kentucky, I had no choice but to acknowledge that I was smack dab in the middle of the Bible Belt, where culture is in many ways defined by Christianity and there is a church on every corner. These deep southern and Christian roots have defined who I am and how I view the world, inspiring me to examine the roles these two factors play in my life as well as the lives of others through my art. 21st Century Revival takes a dive into this specific culture, questioning how southern Christianity has impacted the lives of those …

Nos Vamos Mañana, Karen Colorado

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

Growing up, I always hated moving. Every moment leading up to that move is a celebration, then a goodbye, then a memory. We wonder what we will do with the things we take with us, as well as what will happen to the spaces we leave behind. The first time I moved I didn’t know any of these things, nor did I think it would change my life completely.

My work is a reflection on my experiences from moving to America and what I have learned. I strive to challenge people to think about what makes a house a home …

Life Isn't Fare, Eric Abarbanell

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

Born too late for the space age, too poor for space tourism, and too early to explore the galaxy, I’ve turned my obsession with sci-fi pop culture into a design career. A steady diet of bad films and cheesy sci-fi left me feeling like the world lacked something. It lacked pageantry and fun. We all share pop culture, and it gives us a sense of a world that’s more fun than the one we live in now. The movies, toys, and games of my youth helped shape my sense of what the world could be, a world that could be …

Fight Or Flight, Kiley R. Cox

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

Content Warning: Trauma

Birds are beautiful, fragile, yet strong species that defy the laws of gravity. Birds have been used as symbols throughout history, and have been a huge influence within my work. To me, birds are the most relatable and enviable animals to humans. We long to adopt their risk taking behaviors, their romantic way of mating with one another for life, or even just their ability to fly and go wherever they wish. To be a bird and not care about anything in the world would be liberating. People as a whole are a lot like birds; we …

Lost And Found, Kayla Chinn

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

We often do not value moments until they become memories or we do not value memories that come from difficult moments. Within Lost and Found, I explore how we lose, gain, or fabricate memories to protect ourselves from traumatic events. My constructions present these difficult experiences through the comfort of repurposed objects and handmade soft sculptures. Both of these artistic processes have become a way for me to cope with the loss of many loved ones. The women I have lost used sewing to help others feel comfortable in their own homes, to make the discomforts comfortable. The discomforts being …

Macy Kendall Art 399 Portfolio, Macy Kendall

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Since a young age, I was interested in art; I remember drawing with my older cousin and being inspired by her because I thought her simple doodles were amazing, while she was drawing nothing more than doodles, I saw something that looked like hyper realism to me. Furthermore, my free time as a child was spent either drawing or coloring and I was obsessed with cartoons and movies, which led me to know more movies and reference these same movies to which others haven’t even heard of by the time I was in high school. Consequently, the saying, Practice makes …

Daisy Slucher Art399 Portfolio, Daisy Slucher

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I am primarily a painter but use other mediums, such as videography, to further explore themes and flesh out my ideas. I make work about the over-sexualization of the female body that asks, “how can I give power back to the woman?” I defy the notion that women are sexual objects by portraying female figures in my paintings holding a confident gaze with the viewer almost challenging them to keep looking. Most of the figures are partially undressed to communicate the idea that a naked woman does not mean she is performing a sexual act or wanting to. I use …

Keleigh Mabry Art 399 Portfolio, Keleigh Mabry

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I have always wondered what it’s like in other people’s minds. Sonder - the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own. The comfort I find in realizing everyone’s lives are as terrible and beautiful as my own has been an inspiration for my artwork. I began journaling in 2019 and taking psychology courses my Sophomore year. I've learned that these things naturally go together for me.

Our beautiful and complex lives can also be laced with mental health issues. Depicting mental health in visually intriguing images drives my current body of …

Thank You For Your Service, Jon Dufriend

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

This show is a visualization of my experience returning home from war and using art to breakthrough instead of letting the experience break me. The pop-art style of this exhibition is intended to reflect the optimistic nature necessary for my recovery. I have used this style throughout most of my work to display heavy topics in a way that engages the viewer. This show will be a multimedia explosion that will showcase the skills I have learned while using my G.I. bill to earn my BFA at Murray State University. The goal of this exhibition is to give the viewer …

Kathryn Huttunen Art399 Portfolio, Kathryn Huttunen

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Kate Huttunen

Artist Statement.

The overall themes and concepts of my work are my personal self-reflection and memories of black and white culture as an adopted woman of color as well as how society views me and how I view society. When I just began pursuing art I started with using digital media such as video and digital photography. Recently switching to spending more time painting I feel I can portray certain emotions better with that medium than with digital. With digital media, I’m focused on showing the failures, triumphs, and struggles that come with adoption as compared to painting …

Gracilou Ackerman Undergrad Photography Collection, Gracilou Ackerman, Gracilou Ackerman

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Days go by, rain comes and goes; buildings are built, occupied and abandoned. Walls that were once so vibrant with life are eventually silent. Generations upon generations witness the same subject with different eyes, perspective, and time. Minds are stimulated with excitement through the curiosity of our senses. Restoration and revitalization are a necessity to honor the enchantment that has once taken place. Constructing an infinite memory out of a perennial location is the goal to be achieved throughout the artwork.

I use photography, collage, and audio recordings to remember the industrial infrastructures that once held such importance. The now …

Kirsten Moore Art 399 Portfolio, Kirsten Moore

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My work questions our perceptions of space and time. I am interested in the way my personal experiences and choices are both shaped by time and are constantly changing. This ranges from broader struggles with health and identity to everyday decisions about fashion or conversations with friends. Our perceptions of our individual lives change over time, and past versions of ourselves can intermix and influence our present selves. There is nothing more intriguing to me than blending multiple dimensions by overlapping realistic figures with a two-dimensional pattern and allowing them to merge into a single landscape. This transports the viewer …

Kaley Shackelford Art 399 Portfolio, Kaley Shackelford

Professional Practices (ART 399)

Ideas are like fish. You don't make the fish. You catch the fish. You have to convince them to come to you. You can catch ideas from daydreaming, or you can catch ideas from places. ~ David Lynch

We all participate in escapism in some form, and ever since I was a child, my vice was starring off into nothingness, dreaming of romanticized scenes, often landscapes loosely based on the familiar curving fields and dense, luxuriant woods of rural West Tennessee. This pastime has been a prime source for the ideas explored within my paintings, particularly the human relationship …

Kendra Lobb Art399 Portfolio, Kendra Lobb

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My work is about control and freedom brought on by options. Growing up in a broken home, I felt like all the decisions were made for me. The little freedoms I had through choices were limited, and many of them seemed trivial. The feeling of being trapped in situations that I did not choose pushed me to make a place to vent. The process of creating art allowed me to make a world that had order and power. I could go into autopilot, becoming absorbed in the process and forget reality. I got to make the rules and decided what …

John Gee Art399 Portfolio, John Gee

Professional Practices (ART 399)

My art practice is grounded in photography, specifically fashion photography. I shoot digital mostly and sometimes shoot film to get the natural colors that aren’t achievable through digital without post processing. I have grown to love portraiture because working with people, capturing their current state, and styling them in ways that are appealing is what I have found the most joy in since starting photography. I’m a very detail-oriented person and perfectionism is a trait that has carried over to my photography. Styling my subject, picking out interesting color combinations and color palettes not just in the outfit but in …

Kayla Chinn 399 Port., Kayla Chinn

Professional Practices (ART 399)

I am someone who struggles to let go of the past, something I did not fully understand until studying another artist who struggles with the same thing. Being an individual who latches on to my childhood and past experiences is difficult as I continue to age. My work tells the stories that come from my lifetime and how they have affected me as I grow older. My approach to my soft sculptures helps drive those overarching feelings home as it is an homage to my late family members who were huge inspirations to me and my work, these women often …

Amanda Cohoon Art399 Portfolio, Amanda Cohoon

Professional Practices (ART 399)

“That's why sometimes I feel nostalgic over something I haven't lost yet, because I see its transience.” This quote comes from a conversation between Sigmund Freud and the poet Rilke. It was said in a conversation about the inevitability of how one day everything will dissolve into meaningless and the fact that impermanence is a very real thing. Growing up I encountered a lot of loss within my family, so centering my art around my family is my way of never letting them go. My whole life I have been surrounded by such gifted storytellers, always going on about days …

Portfolio, Cassandra H. Carroll

Professional Practices (ART 399)

There is something beautiful in the broken wings of a dying butterfly. Embedded within our scars are symbols of hardships and victories. Throughout life there are hardships, but there is often a beauty to the changes that occur as a result. These beautiful adaptations and transformations inspire a childlike curiosity in me that drives my work. My imagination likes to wander through the forest and the depths of the sea and use the curiosities I find there to explore pain and pleasure, growth and decay, and the visceral reaction they provoke.

I want to share the comfort that the truth …

Ba/Bs Practicum Group Exhibit, Jasmine Groves

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

In my art, I utilize patterned fabric, domestic objects, and portraits to achieve my desired results. My body of 3D and 2D artwork focuses on domestic spaces and the physical sensation of fabric surfaces (clothes, sofas, curtains, stuffed animals etc.)

I often find inspiration when I look through my family’s photographs from the 1960s and 70s. My great grandmother was a seamstress, and encouraged all of her female descendants to make their own pillows, quilts, and even wedding dresses instead of purchasing them. Also, the 1960s and 70s were an incredibly important time for Black America. The visual culture of …

Dwells Coffee House, Amillia Cecil

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

I thrive through the creation of minimal and concise designs. To me, I find the beauty not only in the finished design or shape but throughout the process as well. Through my delicate lines and dramatic forms, I am able to create connections with my clients to not only fuel my passion but cultivate their dreams. My love for design is found in illustrations, branding, and typography. These are the skills that I have been honing the past few years. Illustration allows me to combine the commercial use of design while also having creative freedom. Through delicate lines that vary …

B.A./ B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit, Conner Murt

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

This work is a study of everyday spaces and activities of daily living that are often overlooked. These photographs capture raw moments of people’s lives, without artistic fabrication, communicating a sense of candor. I create photographs of interior spaces that stand out mentally to me and which include objects with unique characteristics. I illustrate portions of a given location, but intentionally do not give away all of the specifics of the space. There is an absence of a figure, yet symbolic fingerprints are apparent in these very personal spaces. Although the individual is not the focus, the space or environment …

Spectrum, Archie Hardesty

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

Through research I have explored what exactly speaks to queer audiences and can also be embraced by non-queer audiences. In this exhibition and accompanying magazine, I want to create a queer magazine that intersects feminine and masculine gender performance, specifically how the two performances can live within one person. Creating colorful and dynamic shapes and pieces in this magazine is key. The viewer should feel engaged looking at the layouts this presents, but also feel informed and educated as they read it.

Spectrum is meant for those who relate to queer life, but also for those who are wanting to …

Pompeii: The Lost City, Mallory Rice

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

Knowledge has always been important to me. Learning new things is exciting and I want to use the graphic design skills I have acquired to bring that joy to others. In order to combine my interests in learning, historical events, and my passion for design I have decided to create a traveling exhibit centered around the rise and fall of Pompeii.

By presenting information in an exciting way I expect to maintain an audience. In order to keep my audience engaged this exhibition includes a variety of pieces including digital timelines, informational pieces, and photographs to emulate a museum exhibition. …