Portfolio 3
For portfolio three I made screen prints of myself in the creative process and then collaged them underneath the corresponding piece of work I did. The self-portrait of me shooting myself with a camera is underneath a photograph I took. The self-portrait of me painting is underneath a woodcut print I made. The self-portrait of me writing is underneath a page from a screenplay I wrote. To see the screen prints, I ripped a hole out of each work on top.
This semester for me has been all about finding a place of inspiration, a place where I can create comfortably. These prints represent my struggle of discovering my identity as an artist. As an artist I don’t take myself seriously because often times, I find myself stuck, paralyzed, griped with a fear of properly executing ideas in a way that people want to stick around for. Creativity is my identity, as well as my struggle with it. I have trouble coming up with ideas or executing them.
So the idea behind portfolio three is a behind-the-scenes look at my creative process. The ripped hole acts as a window for the viewer. I want the viewer to break through the work and see the frustration behind my creative process and how intimate it can be. Each screen print is printed twice, once with black ink and then with red ink. The inks also don’t overlap exactly to create a frustrated, limbo type of atmosphere.
Portfolio 2
The current pieces in my second portfolio are dedicated to my grandfather Yuen Lee, who passed away on March 30 at Mt. Sinai hospital. Prior to his death, I was struggling with making work for the portfolio. I didn’t know what I wanted to draw. I never fell in love with an idea and went wholeheartedly with it. I like drawing people and figures, so I did that. But my art lacked the emotional response I was looking to create. How was my work going to attract viewers for more than a few seconds? What is going to make them stay? I didn’t know what I wanted to say with my art. I still don’t, and I have to work on that as an artist by constantly researching other artists and developing my own style and narrative through art. After my grandfather died, during that period of grieving, I had the desire to draw something for him, with him, about him. I had something to fixate my work on, and I think that shows. My problem before was that I was all over the place with ideas and no real desire to draw them out. I think I still have that problem, but I learned that I have to create art that is meaningful to me. Otherwise, I lack drive, and a “driveless” Brandon is not a creative Brandon.
My work is based on the Miyazaki film My Neighbor Totoro. One of the fondest memories I have of my grandfather is watching this film with him countless times. For a serious hardworking man, it would always bring out the child in him. In the work, my grandfather and I are fishing with Totoro, a giant friendly cat. The first piece is screen print of the drawing I did, painted with watercolor to elicit a fantastical mood. The second piece is a screen print of the same drawing, layered with a screen print of splotchy color to represent a fleeting or vanishing moment. If I had more time, I would experiment more with color and layering color with silk screening.
Portfolio 1
I grew up in the small town Lynbrook, New York with few people to talk to and not many connections to the “real, adult world,” and for a large part of my life, that was enough. Life was relatively simple, and that simple, suburban life was enough for me. Just give me a pencil to draw with, a movie to watch, or a book to read. When I started college two years ago, I had no idea the person I would become. I discovered social interaction, which would evolve into friendships. I became fascinated with people, individuals, human beings, and all I wanted to do was never leave: never leave Manhattan, never leave conversations, never leave the idea that this world is filled with billions of people with individual stories.
Then, I fell in love with film. Filmmaking and photography are ways for me to share my “eye” and my mind to evoke a feeling or a wave of feelings. I create stories, or narratives, that grow as I rely on my conscious and subconscious to invent and transfer my thoughts to images. As an artist, my mediums use to be pencil and paint, but now, I find myself bored with drawing and painting, especially still-lifes. That was the “Old Brandon,” and “New Brandon” is a film person trying to connect with people often and intensely.
My process involves watching and talking to people. I like creating honest and genuine art, and I try my best to do that by capturing parts of the human condition. Lately, I’ve been making work that has to do with sadness, vulnerability, and angst. In terms of composition, I use dark colors, expressive gestures, lines, and negative space. My newest screen prints definitely reflect where I am at in art and in life. If I could sum up the work in three words, they would be hidden, vulnerable, and tiring. The pencil-faded look and the reddish pink patterns add to that. Why I am making wok like that, I am not sure. But I think it has to do with my want to capture human emotion, and the general emotion is sadness because I’m growing and changing too fast. My wants don’t fit where I am in life, and I am lost.
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