Brittany Borcher

Artist Statements

Untitled

Art is made up of many elements; line, shape, form, color, texture, visual space, just to name a few. Artist may combine any combination of elements together so that they may interact with each other in a visual composition. Untitled is a study of six artistic elements and how these specific elements may be combined to create a visual statement both individually and as a whole. The concepts of these six elements are defined as:

Line – a mark or stroke long in proportion to its breadth

Shape – the form of an object or its external boundary, outline, or external surface

Form – shape, visual appearance, constitution or configuration

Color – the quality with respect to light reflected determined visually by hue, saturation, and brightness

Texture – the visual and tactile quality of a surface

Space – the illusion of depth on a two-dimensional surface

As an artist and a visual thinker, I am most curious about how these six specific elements play off of each other; which elements pull at each other and create visual tension, and which elements support and nurture one another. While not scientific in nature, Untitled begins a conversation about the importance of visual elements in art and how they support an artist’s visual communication.

Odd Bird Paradiso 

I am interested in combining different types of conventional art-making methods and styles together to see how they interact, and redefine traditional methods. Odd Bird Paradiso combines the traditional styles of self portraiture, history painting, and landscape painting with the methods of screen printing, paper collage and ink drawing to create a lively progression from one paper collage to another while pausing to consider other methods in between.

 

Codependent

Personal growth cultivates strength, achievement, and piece of mind.

Experience and awareness are vital components of personal growth. We gain experience from, not only personal endeavors, but also from family members, friends, and surrounding communities. For example, siblings may share past experiences, troubling or joyful, with one another in hopes of preparing the next in line for the future.

Those without strong community in their lives may find it difficult to navigate uncharted emotional territory. Because each experience is unique and undefined, completely new, the opportunity to analyze personal reactions and behaviors might be lost. Also lost, may be the opportunity to draw conclusions about experiences and to then develop personal awareness. Without awareness, we run the risk of stunted personal growth and continually repeating cycles of the past.

Codependent is an emotional narrative about behaviors that existed within a co-dependent relationship. In this work, two figures cut from tarlatan cloth, a delicate, fibrous material, were used and allowed to naturally deteriorate and shred through the printing process, to become “undone”. My hope is to provide insight for those without stable community to garner information from and to encourage overall personal introspection.

Shelly Leung

How Do We “Read” A Human?

The pieces begin with monotype prints that were a meditation on language and the abstraction of reading characters, specifically Chinese characters because they began as symbols and evolved into abstract signs that point to real life signifiers. Each character is written, first, in legible “correct” stroke-order moving towards calligraphy, which are layered one atop another. All characters are reversed to further the abstraction of the images.

This meditation on language, being a human construct, has led, ultimately, onto a meditation on the human where diverse characteristics of different ethical backgrounds are grouped into one frame, in order to create a “universal human” that is strangely non-symmetrical in the traditional sense of “attractive” human appearance and causes the audience/viewer to delay from moving from the image.

The human has been deconstructed into its component biological aspects to question whether we are all, indeed, the sum of our parts. The hints of humanity, the radiating shape of the human skull is kept in tact for this reason. The blood and tissue serve to signify the human, and the thin tracing paper and vellum are symbolic of their delicate nature. Layered one atop the other, they serve in the same sense as the monotype evolutions, but as a reading into the human identity in terms of its biology.

Finally, the human skull as an amalgam of different humans over evolutionary eras return to the evolution of the language and is meant to be “read” as the human that does not look “normal,” thus questioning how we come to the conclusion of “being human.” Is it that the relative shape of the skull signifies humanity or that, having taking particulates from different “classes” it must ultimately remain human, as no part was ever taken from a species outside humanity. The edges of the skulls are “precisely” cut where as the hearts are ripped to signify the literary symbolism assigned to their biological counterparts. Where the head is logical, the heart is emotional.

The hearts are distinctively created from shadowed information, left as abstract as the reversed Chinese characters. They can be translated into branches, as the blood vessels can as well, or into a “strawberry.” The heart, the emotional embodiment of the human is explicitly left to change its form, questioning how it is a human heart, or how a heart in general, in that shape, relates back to the identity of the human being as rational, but emotional being.

Evolution and Time

             The four pieces are in dialogue with each other as they are within the picture plane. A monochromatic palate is chosen to emphasize the relationship between and contrast the background space with the foreground objects. Each layer is a different value within the gray scale—darkening towards the foremost layer. The final layer is has lowest value and highest in saturation to propel it off the picture plane.

Repetition is used to represent an evolution while brushstrokes hint at Asian calligraphy. Each character is then inverted so that those literate in Chinese characters start on the same level as non-literate viewers. The pieces are viewed from the uppermost piece to the bottommost to escape Western influence in the viewing experience.

Tim Ascolese

 

1^st Portfolio                                       Oct 6, 2014

Cosmos                               A Meditation

Broad, flat organic forms, tinted pale blue, curve and float clockwise, in a vaguely yellow field speckled with faint rose and lavender dots.

The flowing line of these forms leads the eye into a place of distinct pink and yellow cloudlike washes. These transparent masses are overpowered by the thickening blue forms, which are made of slender, woven threads.

The dimensionality of this floating world is punctuated by a circular disk made of dark auburn swirls. A disk will continue to be a focal point, as the evolution of this realm begins to activate. The background becomes dominated by pastel rose hues that become hotter, as the organic forms elongate and begin reaching, chasing, trying to interact and connect. The movement begins to race around a vortex, with the shapes attenuating into mere grey, circling streaks. The rose background begins to lose its saturation, while the central eye almost dissolves under an expanding wheel of yellow-orange. The forms dissolve, while movement continues in a warm, pink pool, surrounded by imminent darkness.

Yet, the vortex maintains its essence and grows into a strong rust disk floating in clouds of vibrant pinks and yellows. This contrast renews and energizes the swirling streaks, which thicken and return to their woven forms, only now with darker, richer values in stronger, bluer, clarified relief.

Finally, the vortex disappears as the deep indigo forms curve around each other, as if they want to coalesce into a dark, cooling mass, and rest.

Final Portfolio Artist Statement

Dec 15, 2014

Mandala images are meditative tools meant to help the mind and spirit focus while attempting to reach a space of inner peace and harmony, a cosmos. In my prints, I construct mandala-like, circular images that invite the viewer’s eye to travel around flowing forms made up of textured surfaces and complementary colors.

The varied forms are organic, transparent and gauzy, opaque and dense, thin and linear, speckled and rhythmic. They appear to be in motion, or hovering between layers of space. I want the eye to rest on a tactile surface, then to circumnavigate the spaces by dancing along a flowing form, or be swept up in a swirl of enfolding masses. Tensions between forms, collisions, sparks, all enhance potential for the cosmic drama.

My source images are galaxies, clouds, Queen Anne’s Lace flowers, rolled up snow fences, craggy rock formations, flowing water, dancers, Matisse cutouts.

For the monotype accordion book I used inked tarlatan, wet tissue paper, sprayed water color paint, and q-tip drawings.

In the bound silkscreen portfolio, I cut newsprint stencils to make spiral shapes, along with photo emulsion stencils from my photographs of the flowers and fences. The progression of the galaxy images was accented by Matisse inspired turquoise and bright yellow Jazz spark cutouts.

The collagraphs were printed from inked egg cartons, cardboard package filler, tarlatan, hemp string, chenille fabric, and photo emulsion stencils of the fences,

Throughout, my color palette has been variations of primary colors, particularly mixed red’s and blues. I favored salmon/rose as a background for the silkscreens. In the last project I introduced browns. Yellows and oranges are accents for me.

In the past year, my print work kept returning to the galaxy/mandala image. It has provided me with an abstract canvas on which to explore the techniques I have learned, while not limiting me to a concrete image laden with specific associations. At the same time, this image seems to echo my inner being and state of mind as I adjust to and embrace this new phase of my life as a retired, tired, public school teacher. The universes in my prints are spaces for reflection and contemplation. Just what the doctor ordered.

Tiffany Darnley

Created through natural processes, Natural Happenings is a series of monotypes based on Mondriatic principles. Using only the primary printing colors, magenta, cyan, and yellow, on a single plate, allowing the colors to mix naturally under the press creates a new take on a classic dialogue. Mondrian believed that red, blue, and yellow were the most basic colors necessary to represent nature in its most quintessential form. These purely abstracted pieces are created with this idea in mind, but left up to the viewer to interpret. When experienced, each piece becomes a landscape, or an object, or even a person depending on the type of viewer. The concept of the vertical and horizontal line are also addressed. This concept states that everything in nature may be broken down into the passive and active vertical and horizontal line. The blocks of black lines are used to visually balance each piece as well attempt to address this concept. The goal is to create an in depth conversation about nature and what one would consider a proper representation of nature. Although these are not colors commonly seen in our everyday lives, who is to say that it is not representative of nature or our natural lives. Every thing, and every color, can be broken down into a combination of any of these three colors.

 Pinpoint

Pinpoint is a series of prints and silkscreens that are meant to create a dialogue about color and meant to engage the viewer in a hands on viewing process. Prints One through Eight are taken directly from Natural Happenings. They are close ups of selective parts of all four pieces. Every piece may stand alone, or in a pair. It is up to the viewer to figure out where each piece comes from and the orientation of each piece.

The silkscreen blocks are meant to inform the viewer about how each colors works in relation to one another through the simplest means. They are also meant to create a cross relationship and dialogue between Natural Happenings and Pinpoint, besides the obvious connections. Depending on how each color is printed, a different color effect is created. This is done in the hopes that the viewer pays close attention to the color shifts in each close up, or piece in general. Each combination of colors, even from the same combination of colors, creates a different effect when mixed by hand or mechanically. The viewer should have a new experience with the colors in each piece.

This series is meant to be a fun experience in order to help the viewer break out of the habit of viewing art for less than thirty seconds. A lot of meaning and intent is lost when viewed for such a short amount of time. Even though each piece is left up to the viewer to interpret as he or she sees fit, the artist still wishes for their work to be appreciated, at least in the most elemental form.

Youngha Baek

 

Travel Under The Water

 

This is a series of events of observation of looking into the water. The small dots scattered across the prints stand for marine life characteristics such as fish, and water bubbles. The water movement is never static, which is clearly shown by the organic shape and the ripple effect of the water. The harmony of green, blue, yellow, and white colors that were selected in this painting evoke a feeling of a fresh summer day; the green color stands for sea grass, the blue stands for organisms, and the yellow and the white stand for lights.

 

Where is my home?

Theses four prints represent the identity of a Korean person who lives in New York City such as myself. The popular NYC sky views presented in theses prints show the overview of the city I live in, also known as the greatest city in the world personally. I dreamt to live in this city since when I was a child, the dream which I finally fulfilled. However, sometimes I get mentally confused about where my home truly is. The main reason is that I physically live in NYC, but all my family members and friends live in Korea. I feel that I am a stranger among those people who seem to perfectly get along with each other and my people aren’t have when I need them. Those Korean letters indicate my deeper personality and my nationality, which will never be changed. The letters are either falling down or spreading out of the city. This process manifests my struggle of fully adapting to this city, no matter how hard I try. The gold color represents entertaining and splendid side of NYC, whereas the black color represents my feeling that my emotional confusion and the struggle to adapt to life in NYC.

Stephanie Gamarra

Peripheries

The series entitled Peripheries is a visual reconfiguration and interpretation of a primary image that is attentively constructed to express a controlled environment. The conscious decision of a limited palette encourages experimentation with the outlying line or form that is created when dark rests on light. These alternative prints present a bold contrast that is more and more evident as the originating image is future deconstructed.

Peripheries

As a painter, my body of work often results in representative means involving the figure, yet exploring more abstract expressions that rely heavily on color and design to manipulate the rendered figure. To further my practice as a visual artist, I’ve turned to various forms of printmaking to experiment with the amount of authority one may lose when working in a new medium. The series Peripheries is a visual reconfiguration and interpretation of a primary image once attentively constructed to express a controlled environment. Through monotype I maintained a monochromatic palette allowing for experimentation with line that is created when dark rests on light. An application similar to painting, the manipulation of the initial press was in my possession until ghost images presented another dimension in value and as a result these alternative prints showcase a subtle contrast that is more evidently about form and movement as the original image of a landscape is further deconstructed.

Screen Printing was direct in its approach to exposing an image in that the outcome was much more graphic and bold in print. Through subject matter I embraced this effect and presented two self portraits juxtaposed along side and then physically collaged both portraits, interwoven onto a single surface, still creating an identifiable image. Unlike my previous set of monotypes, this body of illustrative prints exercised an emotional longing to focus on page placement and size of composition to achieve an orchestrated response of mild innocence or rapid violence.

The etchings in Peripheries showcase a centered practice from the first print as the comprehensible image to a chronological breakdown of the copper plate, producing an

outlying print of a deconstructed figure in space. This method of printmaking provided the least amount of control in predicting a final product however felt the most intimate in its physicality of carving into a surface and to a certain extent gave me the freedom to see how an assertive image can get lost in translation through repetition and time wearing down the engraved lines.

Marina Iskhakova

Rhythmic Nature

It isn’t very often that we would look at a tree in New York City. We would most likely glare at the floor in disdain because our train has not arrived in time. The beauty of our trees and flowers is lost to us. We can appreciate a walk through Central Park, as it brings us back in touch with Nature. This portfolio represents bits and pieces of the natural world. The trees are drawn with brushed swaying in different motions and directions. For a moment you can see a dancing figure. Trees and flowers speak through their movements. Wind moves through the leaves and rustles them. The branches sway and express their motions. Trees cannot speak, but the colors show their many emotions if they had them.

Nature is chaos. It is many colors and we can always recognize brown and green as dominant colors, even if they are buried within many. The texture here is meant to be rough and disorderly. It is very important to see the texture and touch it. Trees are rough and flowers are thorny. These colors clash together and give us a chaotic harmony. We have a repeated pattern in these works of constant swirling lines that represent movement and confusion, which is symbolic for life and the wind that drives us forward. As William Blake once said, “The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the Eyes of others only a Green thing that stands in the way. Some see Nature all ridicule and deformity, and by these I shall not regulate my proportions; and some scarce see Nature at all. But to the Eyes of the Man of Imagination, Nature is Imagination itself.”

Roses are beautiful but beauty doesn’t last. Roses wilt and we also die. The flowers have been painted nearly transparent at first. With the next print we see petals have become more saturated in color and more apparent in shape. However, this color also fades vastly in the ghost print. Beauty can fade. The color pink does not exist within nature. It is quite unique to our eyes but we have grown so accustomed to it. Pink is associated with love and so are flowers. Its value decreases with each print.

Just Another Family Story

A rose is very ephemeral. An immense process of constantly watering a single rose and taking care of it to make sure its petals grow beautifully has become a tradition among people. A rose, despite its thorns is beautiful to look at. We ignore its prickly nature and embrace its beauty. This rose in the beginning was given to my father on his 44^th birthday. It did not last very long and ended up wilting. Like many things it does not have a long life. However, taking a photo allows it to last forever.

The process of printmaking images onto paper allows us to embed our memories to last forever. To take care of each detail of the image to develop it takes just as much meticulous planning as bringing the real rose to life. I wish to show my father and my family, that despite anything, a flower may not last very long, there are still ways of overcoming its limitations and bringing its beauty onto paper, where it will last forever. The process of each portrait is done carefully. I used my family photos and edited them through Photoshop. The contrast between black and white has to be strong to burn the images onto the silk-screen. I printed my family photos on regular printing paper and dabbed each image with vegetable oil. It makes the paper more transparent and the image easier to burn onto the screen. All of the darkest areas on the screen will open when we apply photo-emulsion onto the screen. After this lengthy process was complete, the images were put under the silk-screen and exposed to UV light. This is a process to bring the rose back to life and archive it to last forever. Along with this image I have the image of my family. I printed the images on different colors of paper to see how lighter colors and darker colors interact. On darker red paper, the peach color ink invoked an emotion of anxiety. The image of my parents in the light and playful color blue on white paper was more calming and less anxious. There are also images of my brother and I in different gradients of color. It is meant to depict that we growing and leaving our past behind.

 

Stewart Stout

 

A Visit

 The color scheme of A Visit is monochromatic, with the use of only one hue, blue. Different shades and tints are used to give priority to various parts of the prints. The different shades of blue are used in organic and geometric shapes that overlap and together create symbolic meaning. The lines are sharp and the silhouettes have little or no detail, but the low contrast in tones allow your eyes to linger without bouncing off the page.

 

Stewart Stout

Graphic Design Workshop

Prof. Jiyoung Park

December 16. 2014

Artist Statement

My recent body of work consists of a series of monochromatic monotype and screen prints of male nudes. All of the prints include a solitary figure in an undefined space that has little to no detail. Sometimes the figures are anchored by the ground and sometimes floating in space. The figures themselves are mostly formed with the use of basic shapes and silhouettes, consisting of one to three hues of blue.

The use of a monochromatic blue color scheme is used to create a sense of solitude, silence and calm. Rather then placing the figures in a defined space, I use the floating, monochromatic and low contrast space to create a dream like atmosphere. While some of the images use religious iconography, in general they rely on the cool colors and transparency of the inks to reinforce the spiritual and meditative message of the prints.

Most of the figures in the prints are based on photographs of queer men, many who are living with HIV/AIDS. In this and much of my work in other mediums I am interested in portraying queer men and women in a way that challenges the dominant narrative that paints these groups as wicked or sick. In my work I am both dealing with my own desires and dreams of the people depicted and addressing the broader communities notions and perceptions of queer bodies.

 

 

Meiling Jin

Professor. Jiyoung Park

Meiling Jin

Artist Statement

Portfolio 1: Color, Forms, and Placement

For the blue pieces done with monoprint and stencils: the gradation in intensity of the cold blue color is created by different degrees of value. The value of the color decreases towards the center as the strong blue gets pale and becomes white eventually. This gradation was meant to create a three-dimensional space for the viewer, and to enhance this feature I added both 2D and 3D geometric shapes to this swirl of blues. These shapes also serve to enhance the movement of the whole piece by creating contrast between the fluidity of the blue and the rigid structures.

For the puzzle pieces done with monotype, silk screen, stencils and collage: initially I had a big fat rectangle drawn on paper, and I cut it into many different pieces and assembled them back together, only leaving the pieces not completely attached their neighbor. Then I used this newborn image and casted it on the silkscreen using photo emulsion technique. When printing I used different colors and printed different sections of the image, and most of the time I overlapped lighter colors onto darker colors to create depth and the illusion of image within an image. Other than overlapping colors, I did the same with shapes by cutting out a part of a print and transferring it to another one. As the placement of an object changes, it can be viewed as a harmonious part of the work or its focus of attention. I also used stencils to block off some part of the image on the screen, which helped to add different styles of forms and to create comparison among colors.

Professor. Jiyoung Park

Meiling Jin

Artist Statement

Final Portfolio: What is it?

These pieces are created with silkscreen, nomoprint, monotype and collage. First I would like to mention that this folding form of the portfolio was meant to engage people to walk around the illustration for more detailed look on the background colors as well as the different displacement of the main object on each piece. For the background, I tried to accomplish a warm tone with different color combinations by adjusting intensity and transparency. I was especially inspired by one of Henri Matisse’ work: Zulma- a female form reduced to its essentials in blocks and a few defining lines. What I did with my object in focus was something similar. I used very unsaturated green to print most of the outer part of the body, and made sure this color come out unevenly for a more textured feel and depth. Then I printed the center of the body with a very saturated and warm orange, which came out way to bright while I was hoping for a more yellowish orange. This created a significant contrast between two colors of the object; with the center piece protruded way more than the body piece, which is just the opposite of what I went for. Like Matisse, I used pencil to specify the important outlines, thinking the viewers are now able to identify the actual object for this printed silhouette- a bulldog. To my very surprise, most people in the class thought of the prints as very sexual and mysterious for the only recognizable scene of the whole piece was the orange tongue like structure and the “cleavage “at the center. I wondered if it would still seem sexual to the viewers if I chose to use another color for the center part. However, the reference of tongue was just inevitable to trick people into believing that this object was not a cute puppy.

 

 

YongNam Kang

Yong Nam Kang

Artist Statement (First Portfolio)

Normally the art I produce is from pen and pencil. This is because of my love for fine lines and details. I believe that I achieve these lines and detail most efficiently through pen and pencil which is very accurate and controllable. For this I’ve decided to use lines because it is the most important aspect of my drawing. I’ve used monoprints and created a variation of two pieces. These four pieces represented exploration for me as it was my first time using this type of medium and process. For the first piece I’ve used primary as well as secondary colored lines, each with its own different width. Using very angular overlapping lines I created depth and emphasis to certain lines. The variation of this pieces uses the same image but is added texture through brush strokes. The third piece I used dark blue and black lines to create a shape. By using these dark lines I created a sense of depth as the black lines represented a shadow. Further by adding overlapping and intersecting lines within the shape, the illusion of depth appeared more strongly. For the variation of this piece I used a mixture of orange and black to create a background to limit the visual limits/size of my work as I found that without a different color the work looked borderless as the background of my work merged with the whites of the remaining parts of the paper.

 

December, 15, 2014

Artist Statement (Final Portfolio)

For this portfolio I’ve continued my theme of “home” from the previous portfolio. This trip back home to the Jeju Islands back in South Korea was one of the most influential and moving events that happened in the current part of my life. Unlike the previous portfolio I’ve decided to make and represent these pieces around one clear defined subject. What I chose as a subject was my aunt who has passed away. This work represents my memories of my aunt. Three pieces were created from stencils of birds which I’ve drew out of the photos I’ve taken during my trip. For its color I’ve mixed white within each of the color to lighten the intensity of the violet, red, and green background of the pieces. For the fourth piece I chose to incorporate my favorite type of art which is pencil drawn portraits. These flying birds represent the fleeting/escaping memory of my aunt in my head. The portrait directly resembles the remaining memory of my aunt’s face in my mind, as I drew her portrait through memory alone. The vagueness and unfinished look of the portrait represents the lack of remaining memories of my aunt. I’ve incorporated my surrounding (pencil, eraser, eraser shavings) to act as a period/closure to the piece. Due to the fact the drawing of the pencil is very defined and detailed it gives off the sense that the piece is finished and that me, as the artist wanted what was on the paper to be that way, including the unfinished portrait of my aunt. My goal of this piece was to dedicate something to my deceased aunt, who have took care of me in place of my parents growing up. I wasn’t able to see her face nor give anything back before she passed away and that is what fills me with remorse. This piece was one of the most emotional pieces I’ve created as it became the tool/medium to transform the sorrow of losing a loved one and the feeling of remorse, sadness, lose, and absence that follows along with it into something creative.