Yue Liu

Portfolio 3

The third portfolio is about Phone Obsession. It is a profile of the most familiar behavior of the contemporary society. Also, it could be my self-portrait. I choose screen printing, monotype and hand painting as the medium of this artwork. This art work includes four pieces. The subject in the first piece is the same with the rest three pieces, which is a left hand holding a cellphone. The wrist is in a handcuff with is connected with the cellphone by the chain. The APP icons of Instagram, Twitter and Facebook seem to come alive and they spread their roots to grasp the veins of the hand. Those two carrots are hanging by a wood stick, as the donkey tries so hard to bite them through its big open mouth. Meanwhile, the little man at the right is crawling on the ground, while the animated phone figure is waving a whip to control the man. Both the donkey and the man are tied and control. The roots of those APPs and the vein merge together. The second piece brings the question to the owner of this hand. “Is the hand still my hand?” The phone is tightly stick to the palm. The fingers and the roots blend together. The third piece is divided into two parts by a diagonal line. “My world” and “Your World” are separated by silence when we use our own phone. The final piece tells us to stop the phone obsession. We shall not be control by the mobile devices.

 

Portfolio 2

 

The name of my second portfolio is My Journey. Everything in this project is based on airplane. Why you go there? What is waiting for you in the destination? How the journey surprise you and why we should leave where we have been occasionally? Therefore, I make a hand book named My Journey to tell the story about my past, my present and my upcoming future. The eight pages includes six stories. At the age of eight, I flied from my hometown Chengdu to the Southeast Asia country — Singapore, where was the place my dad worked for three years. Chengdu is the home of Panda, while the Merlion is the symbol of Singapore. Several years later, I worked abroad in South Korea for three years. That job brought me to a lot of cities in the world. I met different people and cultures. I kept travelling. During that period, my path had crossed with my husband’s path again since we were high school classmates. However, after graduating from the high school, he went to New York, while I stayed in Chengdu. If I didn’t travel that much, maybe we wouldn’t meet again. Working abroad always brought the stranger much loneliness. It made me cherish my family more than others. Fiji Island is very important to us since we had a very good memory on that little island. The incredible gradual blue water, the spectacular sunset and the meteors sweeping in the night sky, etc. everything was unforgettable. We got married on May 1, 2013. I went to Hunter College on Jan 29,2015. I never knew that I would go back to school again since that was not usually happened in China and any other countries outside of United States. It was excited but difficult. Finally, the last page is the echoing with my first portfolio, the upcoming of my future.

I am satisfied with this subject. It means something important to me and I love to do it. Although something difficult happened during my first stencil. I know the reason why I failed is that my printing size is too big for the stencil and also mixing procedure of the very thick black ink. Every step must be followed that a good result will come out. There is one more thing I learn is we should keep walking but not stand in the original point, then our life track will be changed as we wish.

 

Portfolio 1

This is my first printmaking portfolio. The initial assignment is to make interesting drawings by using two colors and multiple shapes. My method, Cubism, is to choose the interesting lines and shapes from the templates to build my own composition which I learnt from my previous painting class. After finishing the drawings on a tracing paper, I have to use the opaque ink to make transparencies. Before I coat the silkscreen with photo emulsion in the dark room for overnight, I have to check the transparency of the screen through light. If the screen is not clear, I have to degrease it before creating a stencil. (The second time, I wait about an hour by using the fan to make the screen dry faster.) When the coating process is done, I can start to expose my images. I make two stencils for the first time. I mix the blue ink and turquoise blue ink to paint the first layer. For the second layer, I put yellow ink on the left and red ink on the right, then push the squeegee directly on the stencil in order to create the gradual yellow-orange-red colors.

The next step is to put my own narrative into the unfinished pieces. Besides those processes, I believe the artist’s own story is more important. Why I make this drawing? What messages I want the viewer to receive? I have to ask those questions to myself frequently. The artist’s creative enthusiasm may start from their own experience, from artists own diseases, like Charles Demuth and Frida Kahlo, they created their us through their feelings of pains and hurts; from some historical events happened during the unique period, like Pablo Picasso depicted the very famous Guernica, 1937; from somebody we will never forget in our life, or even from a dream, like Jim Shaw’s hundreds of dreams. However, my creative enthusiasm is the shift of my role to my family. As a post-80s generation, I am willing to build a family of three people. This is an unbelievable, newly and exciting transformation to me. I have always think about what does my baby look like? Is it a boy or a girl? What will he or she see from the first sight? What’s in his or her dream? I am extremely curious! Therefore, I weave those colorful dreams for my baby. I use multiple colors to create something like a baby music mobile to attract baby’s attention. The leaf, the heart shape, the circle, the star, the quincunx, etc. Those interesting shapes construct a universe for the baby. Then I make the third and fourth stencils to create the music mobile’s and the baby’s outlines.

I use the black and white background to create the contrast. The dark background can be the color of the baby’s hair, while the white background can be the color of baby’s diaper. I find it interesting to play with those colors and composition. After using the mixed media of the color ink, watercolor paint and Tombow acid free markers, I definitely find the charm of screen-printing. The gradual process of mixing color is very natural and efficient than hand paint. The inclining music mobile creates a movement of those hanging decorations, which makes the asymmetry composition more interesting. Those decorating toys look like floating in the air, here is to stimulate the imagination of the baby.

Finally, I think this is a good experience to learn the printmaking techniques.

Yue Liu’s Image List

Shelby Lynn Peake

Portfolio 3

I create mixed media artworks, primarily street art through my illustrations. In a search for new methods to create a voice for my own self-identity, I often produce work using bold graphics and highly saturated colors in reference to pop culture and its dominant authority over representation. In this case, the principal technique of individualism relies heavily on cartooning.

In that context, my mixed media artworks demonstrate the subject of race and its reflections amongst my life primarily through character and hue. The materials for my series of works consist of screen prints with watercolor monographs and pastel, making the presence of color a substantial factor in evoking emotional weight. However, these colors are contained and highly concentrated as masses of hair, illustrating the prominence of racial identity through my own cultural makeup and where it is most sensed.

In regards to personal experience, my works are inspired primarily by my own experience as a young mestiza. Mestiza, in Latin America, refers to a woman of mixed race, especially the offspring of a Spaniard and someone of European descent. In Borderlands/La Frontera, Anzaldúa describes this tedium of agony of being mixed through “internalized rage and contempt, one part of the self (the accusatory, persecutory, judgmental) using defense strategies against another part of the sold (the object of contempt)”. Throughout her scholastic practices, she recalls: “Most of this goes unconsciously; we only know that we are hurting, we suspect that there is something ‘wrong’ with us, something fundamentally ‘wrong’” (67), referring to her third world identity and tongue.

Predominantly inspired by storybook illustrations and multicultural authors (Gloria Anzaldúa, Gabriel García Márquez; etc), I relate to my contemporaries through their message of self-acceptance by dividing colors from text. The text symbolizes my confliction with the self while the colors represent my recognition. With all elements put into consideration, the series of works portray my approach to self-love and pride for my ethnic background and the sensations which carried me to that maturity.

 

Portfolio 2

I create mixed media artworks, primarily street art through my illustrations. In a search for new methods to create a voice for urban minorities, I often produce work using bold graphics and highly saturated colors in reference to pop culture and its dominant authority over representation.

In that context, my mixed media artworks demonstrate the subject of race and its reflections amongst gentrified environments primarily through the figure. The materials for my series of works consist of a collograph print with magenta oil-based ink and decorative paper, alluding to Kehinde Wiley’s “Renaissance” paintings of urban minorities and Morimura’s appropriation photographs. However, these prints are demonstrated over a form of expressionism, placing a primitive stencil onto a layered coat of oil paint, acrylic, colored pencil and crayon.

In regards to personal experience, my works are inspired primarily by the Syrian Civil War and its relativity amongst my closest families. The woman, which the collograph depicts, originated from an image of a Syrian refugee settled amongst a mound of destruction. I wanted to take her identity and refine it, contrary to mass media coverage, placing her gallant appearance against an artificial, but almost impressionistic representation of prosperity. The colors, which I chose carefully over the decorative paper, are heavily enthused by Monet’s Water Lilies, which signify a sanctuary into a peaceful meditation.

Like previous street artists before my work, from Swoon to C215 and Escif to Banksy, I relate to my contemporaries through their message, vibrant colors and audacious stencil technique. Connecting to their common message of political activism, my art seeks to reach out to those disenfranchised by the television and newspaper outlets. All such works retain the physical capability for the demonstration of wheat pasting, relating to the art form’s historical reputation of rebelling against authority.

 

Portfolio 1

Shelby Peake (1995, Pasadena, United States) creates mixed media artworks, primarily street art and films. In a search for new methods to create a voice for urban minorities, Peake often produces work using bold illustrations and highly saturated colors in reference to pop culture and its prevailing authority over representation. With a personal awareness of the consequences that arise from social hierarchies and their dogmatic circumstances, her work acts as a tool for activism and celebration of the self within specific borough settings.

In that context, Peake’s mixed media artworks demonstrate the subject of race and its reflections amongst gentrified environments primarily through portraiture, contrast in wordplay and location. The materials for her works primarily consist of screen printing with acrylic ink and the method of wheat pasting, alluding to flypost propaganda and commercialism. These wheat pastings are often demonstrated in the form of vandalism or graffiti, often relating to the art form’s historical reputation of rebelling against authority.

In mention to revolution, her works are characterized by the use of caricature in an atmosphere of middleclass mentality in which acknowledgement of urban renewal plays a significant role. By taking daily life as subject matter while manipulating the everyday aesthetic of middle class values, her works references to the post-colonial as a form of resistance against the logic of the capitalist market system. As an artist raised up by multiculturalism and a keen sentience to mass media, Peake explores the contradictions of both race and pop culture within modern-day stereotypes and establishments.

Like previous street artists before her, from Swoon to C215 and Escif to Banksy, Peake relates to her contemporaries through aesthetic charm, vibrant colors and audacious stencil technique. Connecting to their common message of political activism, her art seeks to reach out to those disenfranchised amongst an era of gentrification and economic disparity. With that said, Peake’s art emphasizes predominantly the topic of race and class, from what is seen as attainable to the very illusion of wealth within culture.

Shelby Peake currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Image List

 

Salma Hawash

Portfolio 3

My final portfolio is about the advantages and disadvantages for Muslim Women wearing a hijab (headscarf) in the US in this day and age. Each piece has a Muslim Woman in the center exhibiting different emotions that correlate with clip arts and texts around them representing the advantages and disadvantages.

Disadvantages: Unfortunately, there are many disadvantages to being a Muslim hijabi in the US in the 21st century. After 9/11, a lot of things have changed for us. Of course I was only 7 at the time but not much has changed since then in terms of social interactions and sometimes people have no mercy in yelling out “TERRORIST” at a little 13 year old girl that has nothing to do with anything. People usually move away on the subway and subway station just incase “you’re armed”. Surveillance cameras in places of worship are out of control now.

Sometimes the disadvantages aren’t just from society but also from within ourselves, which is what the Oreo dipped in a glass of milk and a lollipop represents. In my Islamic school years, they tried teaching us the importance of hijab using analogous objects. Of course I understand why they tried doing so- it’s easier for kids to understand concepts that way. But at the same time it’s very wrong. No human being should be compared to a lollipop that is protected by its wrapper or a cup of milk that’s never had an Oreo dipped in it.

Advantages: This one was a little hard for me, actually. I love my hijab and I take pride wearing it but in the 21st century and with the way media portrays Islam to everyone, it can be quite difficult from a physical perspective. That’s why I think most of the advantages of wearing hijab are spiritual (hence the healing heart). Some of the more physical things are the chance at more professional jobs such as being a lawyer or a doctor. Sometimes hijab can be an advantage since a lot of schools/workplaces would like that kind of diversity in their students and employees. Muslim women are more empowered all around now. The most important thing to me in this piece is the text- “human”. I wanted to put in text that opposes what the disadvantaged texts say and I think human fits best. People tend to forget that we are human beings like everyone else and that should not change based on pieces of cloth.

 

Portfolio 2

I went to an Islamic School and in Kindergarten, I began learning the Islamic prayer. I learned that it was more than just an exercise of moving up and down. There were specific verses and prayers that must be recited and they hold great meaning and value. In Islam, kids must learn how to pray by the age of seven, and learning from this book was all in preparation for that. For this project, I printed these prayer books that we used as children as a visual to learn the prayer with English and Arabic translations. Each pictures shows the movement in each step and the verses that go along with it. I also chose different times of day as the background since Muslims pray five times a day (they’re divided into different sections of the day depending on the position of the sun). Prayers start at sunrise and end before bed.

Portfolio 1

As an Arab-American born and raised in Brooklyn, there comes difficulty with figuring out which culture you belong to. I’m too “American” for the Egyptian side of me and sometimes too “Arab” for society and therefore, sometimes, treated as an outsider. There are differences between the way the two cultures interact, talk, dress, and act and I find myself stuck in between. My project is about struggling as a second generation immigrant to assimilate into Western culture without losing my own cultural morals and values.

My prints are of my birthplace, Brooklyn, written in arabic calligraphy on arabic and english newspapers to represent the different media that I follow as being a part of both cultures. I chose to sketch the lines and a faded/textured body to represent the feeling of indefiniteness or being lost. My color choices are red and yellow: Red to represent the anger that comes along with the struggle due to the many questions asked, racist remarks made, or criticism making me feel like an outsider of either culture; Yellow is a happy color representing the uniqueness and that culture is something everyone should be proud of. The bright, saturated colors against the newsprint creates a high contrast that brings attention to the word.

I want my viewers to understand the normalization of mixing cultures within the new generation. My pieces were influenced by society and now I want them to influence society.

Image list

Michael Lopez

Portfolio 3

In my final portfolio, I culminate my semester with work that is representative both of the gains I have made in the printmaking medium and the semester as a whole. Once again, I present self-portraits, but these are without a companion or figure on my side. I am the lone figure in the prints, which draw their inspiration from students’ work in our class and renowned printmakers.

Although these prints stay true to the simplicity that I have always employed, the process was far more engaged. I return to a smaller sized figure on a white field, printing six small bands across the paper and overlaying them with an outlined drawing of my face. The process was longer because it required six individual layers for each color in a far more additive process than my previous works. The repetition of the same figure multiple times and in different editions draws its inspiration from Warhol’s Marilyn Diptych.

The major shift in this body of work deals with the shifting of the artist’s gaze. Originally meant to be a collection of works that would present prints with many different images and printed shapes within my face to show the varied ways I identify myself, I decided to repeat the images to make a larger presentation that has a meditative quality. Rather than looking outwardly to other people in my life as a source of inspiration. Answering the question of identity requires looking within, and this collection serves as the answer to that question.

 

Portfolio 2

The portraits in my second portfolio build on the images and themes in the first. The prints are derived from photographs–this time depicting myself and with my two closest friends in separate works. Although they are still self-portraits in the same style as the previous collection, there is a greater dynamism and interplay between these two works.

I stay true to simplicity; the purchase of an additional screen speeds the process and allowed me to create larger, more detailed works that depict not only faces, but also poses and even some situational details. The colors are selected with greater intention and contrast between the two is much more stark– the warmth of the blazing red with a dark black detail in the first portrait is opposite to the deep green and golden detail in the second.

Altering the process to make the works larger, the inclusion of body language, and the decision to put the two prints at play with each other changes the body of work from its predecessor. I stay true to the theme of providing a simplified view into my personal life while expanding on the portrayal of the “others” but putting them at odds with each other. Rather than all prints working on their own, these two prints are far more dependent on each other and are not a mere collection of events in the past.

 

Portfolio 1

In this portfolio, I portraits derived from photographs of myself with friends taken on my smartphone. The photos are from moments I have shared with people at concerts, gallery openings, and celebrations. Some are from the most memorable adventures and experiences of my life, and all of them are “selfies.”

Simplicity is the main ingredient in every part of the printmaking process: I take most of the detail out of the photographs by tracing over the images, accentuating some features and ignoring others. These sketches yield 2 to 3 stencils which I print on top of each other to create a simplified selfie. In these four prints, I played with different color ideas– the relationship between warm and cool color, a complementary color scheme, and metallic and gradient effects.

The process yields an inversion of the self-portraits taken on my phone. Rich in detail, the photos are a few of thousands from the endless span of time that lies behind me–most of them get lost in my cell phone’s memory storage and are rarely looked at after they have been taken or uploaded to some social media outlet. Simplifying the photos to basic shape, linework, and color fragments and reduces the visual detail, but transforms the photograph from mundane pieces of data on a smartphone into ambiguous archives of special moments with an invaluable figures in my life. What the prints lack in context, they make up for in the ambiguity of the characters and the moment displayed, whose identities and circumstances are mystery.

ImageList

Larissa De Jesus

Portfolio 3

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In my work, Post-internet Olympia I seek to portray a young girl who is being forced to be someone who society says she should be. Adolescent girls of this generation are under a lot of pressure to follow certain beauty standards that are implemented on a day to day basis by the media. Young girls becoming women at thirteen just to feel like somebody, just to feel validated or a sense of belonging. “Olympia” was a name that was associated with prostitutes in 1860s Paris and it is also the name of one of Manet’s most controversial paintings. Manet’s Olympia was particularly controversial not because of the content of nudity but because of her confrontational gaze and the details that indicate she is a prostitute, including her black ribbon, her jewelry and her sensual pose.

I decided to take this 19th century Olympia and bring her to a Post-internet setting, where young girls are hyper-sexualized by popular culture all over the world and with this in mind making a reference to Anime in the way that she is portrayed. In this piece, she is facing the viewer while her body faces to the left, thus making the viewer enter the drawing through her breasts, creating an immediate connection to sexuality and promiscuity. I added the henna tattoo, something that my generation is very familiar with, as a symbol of the ephemerality of youth and the yearning to stay young. A Post-internet setting where there is a new kind of Olympia, an Olympia that grants you access into her virtual, make-believe world, and you can’t tell whether she’s thirteen or twenty one because they all look the same from the other side of that news feed.

Portfolio 2

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In these three works I explore various aspects about my identity, from my nationality to my gender. The series speaks about what it means to be a Latina woman in the US as well as how the american culture has influenced me into having a bitter-sweet memory of home. The montage #1(Predominately Blue), shows with more clarity the flag of Puerto Rico coming out of the figure’s eyes yet differentiates from the other pieces in a particular way. The face is cut out from the Dry Point print and behind it is a face of a woman in pain looking away, suggesting that she’s looking away or rejecting the Puerto Rican flag. This work talks about the literal struggle and culture shock I endured when I first arrived in this city, from being sick constantly because of freezing temperatures to experiencing a misogynist and racist environment for the first time. The montage #2(Predominately Red), depicts a woman who is almost being consumed completely by “POP” colors, those colors representing mass media and popular culture. Suggesting that this “Popular culture” has taken over everything she sees, everything she says and everything she is. I decided to be very straight forward with this work because I believe this is a common crisis in the US, more and more we obverse “outside” cultures being swallowed by the American popular culture, with this work I want to bring to light the current problematic of culture ignorance in the US. Last but not least, montage #3(Red, White and Blue), Red, White and blue, the colors of the Puerto Rican flag and the color of the American flag create a woman who, in my point of view, is indecisive, confused and lost, a woman who has lost her identity. In this work I talk about the my feelings of wanting to go back to Puerto Rico yet accepting that this will never happen. New York has opened more doors for me in this year than Puerto Rico ever did, it has toughen me up and it has made me an independent woman but New York will never be home, I will always feel the wound of leaving my home and its memory will always live in my work.

Portfolio 1

Whenever I think about abstracting an idea, I think of Picasso. He says that it only took him five years to master a realistic technique but a lifetime to paint “like a child”. I was inspired by this city, as recent newcomer, I felt that this urge to run from it is what motivates me to make the best of this opportunity. For me, drawing what you hate is a lot more powerful than drawing what you love, and that is why I’m always drawn to speak about NYC and its energy in my work.

With the use of complementary colors on a grey and black pattern I intend to depict an abstracted scenery of multiple buildings that contain different kinds of people inside them thus creating a “balance” or an “unbalanced” environment; the balanced and unbalanced compositions and the mixture of the colors represent multiple ethnicities and/or social classes, the pink and green representing upper class and the blue and orange representing the lower class and second class citizens. I believe that these two prints in particular work perfectly with each other aesthetically and portray just the right amount of balance and imbalance that consumes my mind when I think about the way this city works.

Image list

Kristy Timms

Portfolio 3

brave

            For my final portfolio I attempted to combine the many things I have learnt within printmaking and experimentation over the last two semesters. This piece is called: Brave. While working on it, I pulled inspiration from the song “You Make Me Brave” which speaks about being called beyond the shore and into the waves, allowing them to crash over you without fear hindering you but instead courage being being your fuel. There is something beautiful about that picture. It is tangible and exciting, leading us deeper into this adventure called life.

My pieces have always tended to mirror the changes in my life or the different seasons I am in. As I graduate in a couple weeks, bravery is something I am needing, wanting and in search of. I am deciding to look at what is to come, all the uncertainty and unknowns, and instead of letting fear be my guide, allow peace to crash over me and for courage to bubble up. I choose to be brave.

I understand that this may be something personal that I am attempting to convey. I am satisfied with that though. I don’t feel the need for it to be clear, but rather allow room for personal interpretation to the viewer. I would prefer to my work to provoke a thought instead of narrow a direction. I hope this piece ignites a personal connection, whatever it may be with each viewer. I understand that with the color and wave texture the ocean is most likely going to be an easy connection, but my hope is that the personal revelation from it sinks in deeper.

Furthermore, simply being in this class has been a challenging and stretching experience outside of my comfort zone. Yet I am so grateful for it. I have been strengthened in different ways and I am happy that I decided to dig deeper in the exploration as I attempt to give volume to my voice through a different art form.

 

Portfolio 2

Homeland

            Immigration can be a tricky thing. Initially it is an adventure, then as things become more and more familiar, you settle, but at the same time start to slowly loose a grasp on your homeland – the one that has been familiar all your life.                                                                For this portfolio, I worked to capture this tension and personal divide I encounter after leaving my homeland, South Africa, almost seven years ago.                                                    The words are phrases, places, people or experiences of things I remember about my upbringing and the first 16 years of my life along the southern tip of Africa.                                       Nelson Mandela, the father and face of our democratic nation, remains to be a global representation of the strides forward we have made as a nation. His portrait covers the majority of the piece to show his strength and influence. The six colors used in the piece are the six colors seen in our national flag.                                                                                                             The layering of the piece was something I worked to attain and to represent the layered history and current status that our country has, which is far more complicated, layered and intricate than most would assume. Furthermore, the layering also reflects the interesting and no longer clear cut association I have of the country now. Although when I return for visits I feel at home, being so far away for so long makes me question my true current understanding and relationship to my homeland.                                                                                          Identity and association are two topics that I delved into when working on this portfolio, questioning what my South African reality has shaped into after immigrating to America almost seven years ago.

Portfolio 1

Perspective

            “Perspective is everything.” That phrase is tossed around and mentioned ever so often. But if we consider for a moment the weight of those words, and the magnitude of the one in particular, “perspective.”

This is an idea that I attempted to dissect when approaching this portfolio. Taking three colors and with two stencils, an intentional yet not overly complicated design, and doing every combination possible. Considering how I respond to each piece, the installation as a whole, and how my eye, and a potential viewers perspective changes with the different overlay of color.

Furthermore, the act of asking more questions than delivering answers is something this piece encapsulates. How does the viewer respond to one color being the dominant color, or what in fact makes the color most dominant? Is there one orientation of the piece that ‘makes more sense’ compared to the others? Would it have been more effective if there was a smaller or larger design on the square?

Not only was perspective a theme I wanted to delve into, but I believe it goes hand in hand with preference. The former often defines the latter. I approached it as almost an experiment to see what different people would be drawn most to. What creates the attraction, what personal response does one person have compared to another.

Perspective and preference are defining aspects in art and life. Their concepts will most likely forever be explored.

Image list

Judy Yu

Portfolio 3

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I entitled this Final portfolio Switch On/Off, which states for on and off mode of me. Switch on mode is the regular and the daily side of me. Switch off mode is the other side of me, which only will appear outside of school and only those who are close to me will know this side of me. I was inspired by a Japanese entertainment show; it is mainly about the transformation of the girls. The show talks about Tokyo’s nowadays fashion and beauty. How girls looks like after their appearances were transformed.

Through this project I want to show audiences the other side of me, which they are not familiar with. A print of three portraitures of me, but each looks totally different. In regular day I don’t dress up like that, yet if there no school, that is how I look like. People might feel unfamiliar with, but to those know me like my friends, they are familiar with it already y. They often said I have variety sides, for example when I wear a dress, I will behave more like a girl; when I dress up more like a hip hop style, my behavior will be more boyish.

I actually did two prints, one is using the stencil and the other one is using Any Warhol’s commercial illustration technique called “blotted line”. For the screen print, I only did one layer of black, but this time I tried to use a different medium. I used watercolor and my cosmetic to apply the color. The second print, I used black ink and watercolor. For the background, I did repetition of pattern with the market and watercolor.

 

Portfolio 2

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In my second portfolio I decided to do about a K-pop star that I admire a lot, but before I talk about my role model, I want it to give a little background about what K-pop is. K-pop is a tremendous tendency in the world right now; it is taking over the world. So, what is K-pop? K-pop means Korean pop is a term that was being use in South Korea Music industry. It refers to all genres of popular music and it expanded its popularity starting in the late 2000s. I personally got impact a lot by K-pop, I have tons of Korean pop songs inside my phone and it is my daily routine to listen to it on my way to school. Although I don’t understand Korean but music is a worldwide language, you don’t need to understand the language; you could just listen to the music and enjoy the rhythm and the beat. Similarly, K-pop starts bring a fresh sense to fashion, therefore, it had influences my everyday apparel.

In this series of work I chose to do a portraiture G-Dragon (Kwon Ji-Yong), because I got inspired by him frequently. For instance I studied fashion design because of him; I was often inspired by his style and outfit. He is a fashion icon, whatever G-Dragon wears; it will become a trend on the market. Yet, he is also a talented artist. He was well known as a leader of a K-pop male group, Big Bang. Whenever G-Dragon publishes a new song, which song will take down the first place in the music industry, most of all I never miss any of his songs. Due to his popularity, everyone in South Korea or Asia knows who he is. However, everybody knows him because he is a K-pop idol, a star, a fashion icon. But without all those titles, do their even know who he really is? I bet some people recognize his face but they might not know his real name! For that reason, I did two prints of G-Dragon; the white paper print was the one that used pastel colors to create an illusion of him on stage or in public, the hash tags and the icons of the social medias                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  him were to shows how famous he is . The other print was printed with black background to shows the audiences, who he is when he is not in public, so I printed his real name. Also, I draw dots all over the portraiture to create a comic style. I want to show a contrast in between these two prints.

Portfolio 1

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The inspiration of most of my works is people or things that related or surround by me, for example: family, friends, pet, etc. For the first project my subject is my dog, Tweety. Why a dog? I selected my pet because she is the most cherish thing I ever had in this world. Tweety just passed away, but she is always in my heart. She is not just a dog, yet is my best friend and family. When she passed away I was not there with her, so I decided to use the last photo that I took for her to do my first print. In my series, I did two prints with different background, and I also did an enlarged postcard that I wrote to my dog. The reason why I want to do a postcard because I want tell her how much I loved her and glad she was my dog.

So I used Tweety’s portrait for my first stencil and I printed two colors: black and pink. At first I hand draw, then I use ink pen to transfer it on transparency paper. I think my transparency is a bit too dark, but the final result is fine. I didn’t play around with layering because of the lines. If I did multi-layers, it will be so confusing. Then, for my second stencil I did a frame for the cover of the postcard, and my hand script for the back. For the postcard, I did two separate prints; at first I printed the dog, then the frame on the same paper; after that, I printed my hand script on the other sheet of paper and last I glued both and stick it together. For my other two monoprints I used different media to create the background; watercolor and marker, both of this were my often use material. For the black print, I used watercolor to build up a dramatic heaven background so it looks peaceful and soft. And for the pink print, I am focusing on repetition of line; therefore I used black maker line with a pattern of flower and fulfill the whole page.

Throughout my first series of prints, I tried to create my feeling of love of my dog. It was my first printing, and I still got a lot to learn. Hopefully for my next print I can explore with more colors and layers.

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HyeChin Chi

Portfolio 3

I like travelling. I like it so much that I believe life without travelling is hell.Travelling is the driving force behind my life, and it always brings positive thoughts, and also provides a breath of fresh air. The biggest catch of travelling is the fact that I can meet many people. Just the thought of times spent interacting with people with different cultures, using different language, meeting people from very different walks of life, talking, sharing memories, and the same time, bring happy and magical feelings. Far away from their daily routines, most people whom I’ve met during travelling were relaxed and free. Therefore, people I met during travelling were always relaxed and open to everyone. I like these things.

As I always meet the same people repeatedly in my ordinary life, I make exceptions during my travels. I become a different person. I become talkative, make people laugh, and sometimes help people. Finding your other self is another catch travel can provide. Up to now, I have travelled many places than normal people, but I still have so many places I want to travel to, and I also want to meet more people. By communicating with these people, I hope to see the world in a bigger scope, and through their life stories, I hope to help people in need without any conditions. World… Earth came to my mind. So, I used acrylic paint to make the backdrop to depict the sea that takes up half of Earth, and used silk screen to express the people I will meet in the future in abstract form. The reason I expressed people abstractly, is because I do not know who I will meet and what will happen in the future.  Travelers do not have precise plans and go as the wind or the star commands, which means that travelers go where nature leads them. Therefore, I used colors such as green, yellow, light blue, and white to express the natural feeling. I used dots and lines that look like contour lines because I thought of the course of my past journey has followed up to now and my future’s footprints.

Portfolio 2

I have traveled every weekend on my parent’s back since I was a year old. My parents loved a travel as much as they went on a picnic to the mountain and amusement parks nearby when they couldn’t go far away. I have not dreamed of my life without travel by the influence of parents. Travel is my energy as well as driving force of my life. I can say that the works of this time are my traces or memories of my travels. I have felt and experienced too many things traveling 45 countries so far and each country has its own exclusive colors and feelings that I felt. So I expressed that my memory for travel was always vivid, happy, merry and valuable by using various colors to the background. The travel was my trace and past that already passed at the same time, so I would like to express the dim feeling like old film by coloring with roller to the acrylic panel and spraying water on it and scratching.  After that work, I printed my foot print, those who I met during my trip and the experience of not whole but partial travel using dry point on the printed back ground.

The shape of pinwheel was created from very personal feeling. Pinwheel turns violently by the strong wind, softly by the soft wind and it stops when the wind stops so does my trip.  Not tied on one place but flows freely along with wind, sometimes slow walking but stays for a moment by good ties. I think that my trip is ‘like pinwheel’. The thing to be desired in this work is that I didn’t do individual work of colors of memories of each county that I left my footprint as I had no time in reality.

Portfolio 1

The key theme of my work is mainly about ‘me’. It can be considered my self-portrait. This is the question that I asked myself a long time ago. “What is it that I know best of? The answer to this question came out in less than 10 minutes.   It was “me” that I know best of. Since then, the theme of all of my works has been ‘me’. And I have found my expressions for work grown richer than for any other theme and an object. My works proceeded so smoothly, without bumps and humps.  Who else can know ‘me’ better than me?

In the work this time, I wanted to express my innate personality, character, desire to escape from my character as dull as achromatic colors, and ideal character as well as my past, present and future at the same time.  With achromatic colors and several touches of layering, I expressed my past in which I was hard facing tens of thousands of events and personality formed by them.   And then, I wanted to show myself restring my own colors bit by bit, being different from whom I used to be when I was colorless, using subtle pastel colors, though not strong color.   Finally, I wanted to create the ideal character of me wishing for being more active, having more diversity, and more talents by filling as many colors as possible in one space.  Here, I needed stencil work cutting paper to the shape and using a brush because it was difficult to imbue various colors in the small space of a silk-screen. Here is my hope. I desire the audience appreciate my work, have curiosity of me and thus give a second look at my work.

Chi. Printmaking image list

Carly Reeves

Portfolio 3

I have created a series of three screen prints which illustrate a scene from the novel, Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist by Sunil Yapa. The print describes the life of an ordinary banana, highlighting the negative aspects of globalization. The print is a single sheet, 14 x 20. It includes mostly typography, with small doodle-like images. It is oriented vertically and read by following the arrows, which run down each column, from one clause to next. The edges of the piece are torn in such a fashion that makes it feel diaristic.

I created this print by drawing the image on acetate with 5 million different kinds of markers. (It was hard to find the right combo of pigment and pen size to accentuate the large amount of text.) Then I went through the screen printing process as normal. I burned the image on to my emulsion-coated screen, exposing it for about 40 seconds. This amount of time seemed to be perfect for the delicate lines I was dealing with. In my First Portfolio I exposed a little bit less than appropriate and had to use screen filler because there were spots all over where the emulsion did not fully develop. In the Second Portfolio I exposed for too long in order to avoid the dots but it ended up ruining some of my fine lines. However, 40 seconds seemed to work well for the kind of line I have been consistently dealing with.

After burning the image, I went forward with the printing process. I consciously decided to do a small edition because I did not like the idea of mass producing a critique on mass production. I ended up with an edition of three prints with an Artist’s Print, as the paper was cut slightly smaller than the rest.

I created the I am a Banana print because it contains an important and strong message that I want to share with the world. I hope this print makes people think about their food and other products in a new way. I want people to learn something from the narrative I am sharing. It is mostly about spreading awareness. I do not think this print is going to stop globalization, but the goal is that it will inspire the people to try to make a difference.

I am most influenced by literature. This narrative comes directly from the novel, Your Heart is a Muscle the Size of Your Fist by Sunil Yapa. The banana narrative came from a short flashback conversation between a character and his mother. It was not a huge part of the plot as a whole, but it stood out to me as one of the best ways to understand globalization because it deals with a day to day occurrence: eating a piece of fruit. The scene is played out in the novel as a game between son and mother. In a way to educate him, the mother helps her son imagine exactly how the banana came to be in her hand, from a humanitarian perspective.

Through this edition, I want people to understand something about globalization and how it affects humanity. The print is intended to illustrate the complexity behind a simple banana, but it is also supposed to induce this kind of awareness amongst other globalized markets; i.e. clothing, technology, etc.

 

Portfolio 2

LITTLE AND BIG LESSONS TAKEN FROM MY TIME IN NYC

I have made a series of prints, which each fold into a small book. The pages contain doodle-like illustrations depicting lessons I have learned since I moved to New York City last August. The piece is produced using the screen-printing process. The edition is printed using strictly black ink and color is added by hand in the form of metallic gel pen.

To create the book, I took one sheet of large paper and mentally broke it evenly into eighths. Each eighth became a page. The lower and furthermost left-hand eighth of the paper became the back cover and on its right is the front cover. Then pages one and two complete the lower the half of the paper. Pages 3-6 are printed upside down, with three above two, four above one, etc. I printed on one side of the paper. Once printing process was complete, I tore off the excess paper and folded the piece into eighths. Then I unfolded it until it was only folded in half. Starting on the folded edge I tore/cut the paper halfway so that when the paper was completely opened there was a cut beneath the two upper middle eighths and above the two lower middle eighths. Then I folded the paper in a weird way, so that it became a small book.

I wanted to create this piece as an expression of the importance of self-reflection. I hope when viewers interact with my book, they will relate to it and be able articulate lessons they have learned personally. This book is a way to visualize the things I have learned so that I can better implement them into my life. I hope from reading these lessons others will also implement their importance into their own lives.

I am most influenced by the abundance of strong individuals I have encountered in my life. However, child book artists and other illustrators, like KT Smail, have played a large role in my creative process. I feel that my art relates to my contemporaries in that there is an importance given to line. Color is used for minimal accentuation. This is similar to many contemporary illustrators. However, it is different in its subject matter and promotion of self-progression.

 

Portfolio 1

A BOOK OF EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: VOLUME ONE

I have made a series of prints, which each fold into a small book. Every page contains an illustrative image of someone I have found to be meaningful in my life. Included with each portrait is the true name of the individual and the character trait that they possess, which I most admire. The piece is produced using the screen-printing process. The edition is printed using strictly black ink and color is added by hand in the form of pen and water color paint.

To create the book, I took one sheet of large paper and mentally broke it evenly into eighths. Each eighth became a page. The lower and furthermost left-hand eighth of the paper became the back cover and on its right is the front cover. Then pages one and two complete the lower the half of the paper. Pages 3-6 are printed upside down, with three above two, four above one, etc. I printed on one side of the paper. Once printing process was complete, I tore off the excess paper and folded the piece into eighths. Then I unfolded it until it was only folded in half. Starting on the folded edge I tore/cut the paper halfway so that when the paper was completely opened there was a cut beneath the two upper middle eighths and above the two lower middle eighths. Then I folded the paper in a weird way, so that it became a small book.

I wanted to create this piece as an expression of the importance of self-progression. I hope when viewers interact with my book, they can be inspired by the traits of these individuals, but furthermore that they can identify the extraordinary people in their own life. I hope that through this piece, the people in my book are deservedly recognized for the positive influence they hold in my life and their general amazing-ness unrelated to me. Through viewing my book, I hope that people understand the importance of self-progression and how that relates to relationships.

I am most influenced by the abundance of strong individuals I have encountered in my life. However, child book artists and other illustrators, like KT Smail, have played a large role in my creative process. I feel that my art relates to my contemporaries in that there is an importance given to line. Color is used for minimal accentuation. This is similar to many contemporary illustrators. However, it is different in its subject matter and promotion of self-progression.

PMH Image list format

Brandon Lee

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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