heart iisummer 2022
polymer clay, acrylic paint, & glaze captured on a canon eos digital rebel xs 4.25 x 3 in. most of the pieces in this section are "macabre" because they involve realistic anatomy & the inner workings of the body. the heart especially fascinates me. i feel like it is one of the best representations of true humanity and raw emotion we can get our hands on. it has the power to hold so much symbolism and quite literally is what keeps us all alive. this is the second sculpted heart i created, as the first spontaneously shattered on me. that has to symbolize something, right?
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shelleywinter 2021
polymer clay heart on a plastic vessel and mason jar, micron pen on looseleaf paper, captured on a sony camera one of my favorite legends involves the potential possession mary shelley had of her dead husband (percy bysshe shelley)'s heart. it remained intact after he was cremated, probably because it was calcified. she put it in a drawer for safe keeping, and upon her death in 1851, it was put in his grave. i definitely would put the ownership and preservation of my heart in my will, giving it to someone for safe keeping. i think that'd be cool. this photograph was taken in a bookshelf next to an antique volume of percy's poetry, with a poem of his in the makeshift mason jar pedestal.
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the sword in the stoneaugust 2022
acrylic & rhinestones on canvas 18 x 24 in. i have a tricky relationship with my own pair of lungs. having chronic respiratory issues, they can either make or break how i'm feeling on any given day. on particularly emotional days, it gets increasingly hard to regulate my breathing (and naturally high heartbeat for that matter) and feels like i'm being stabbed. in the heart. and the lungs. and this piece depicts that! i also wanted to find a new way to paint blood. i had a set of red rhinestones from a previous project and i am very satisfied with the outcome of said experimentation.
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you see right through mefebruary 2023
charcoal on drawing paper 18 x 24 in. i certainly did not intend to include this drawing in this catalogue of works, but i am too proud of it to exclude it. this is another drawing class experimentation, done while working from an anatomical skeleton model. keeping with this theme of interior structure of the body as a representation as vulnerability, emotion, and humanity, i feel as if this piece for me reflects the feeling of being truly seen. bare ribcage, spine, and all.
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vanitasaugust 2022
acrylic on canvas 16 x 20 in. as an art historian (can i call myself that yet?), i enjoy incorporating different themes and types of works into my own practice. "vanitas" paintings "show the transience of life, the futility of pleasure, and the certainty of death", and were popular in the 16th and 17th centuries. i wanted to create one with classic genre imagery (ex. skull, curtain, candles) and involving my own symbols (ex. teeth, pomegranate, crucifix).
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