pieces of pieces

I recently completed a 12 piece series for Ms. Cooper's painting class, and I chose to paint things I have broken in my lifetime. It was funny looking back and it kept me interested (I'll put pics up later). This was a continuation of what I focused on senior year of high school..

I've had this concept of feeling incomplete and breaking away into pieces since sophomore year of high school. It started with my "Alzheimer's triptych" showing some old guy(Lou Reed) losing his mind/memory, literally. I liked showing the physical pieces representing as emotional pieces.

Alzheimer's Triptych - 22 x 38 in Acrylic on Paper

That continued to these "Self confidence" pieces where a girl rips away the ugliness to shine through her inner beauty. It's sorta gruesome to think of, but representing them without blood, gore and METAL keep them somewhat sophisticated.

Ripped 1 - 20 x 26 in Charcoal and White Conte

Ripped 2 - 20 x 26 in Charcoal and White Conte

Over the summer going onto senior year, all the seniors went for a month back to school to produce work for college auditions, like a head start. I chose to continue with the concept and came up with 3 self portraits. I felt really boring and wanted to be more open and confident. I wanted to break free of my self conciousness and just be myself. SOO I produced 3 portraits of me letting go of my inhabitions and bad feelings. Doing them made me feel a lot better. I also got to explore color! woo

Breaking Free Self-Portrait/ 22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

Letting Go Self-Portrait/22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

Falling Apart Self-Portrait/ 22 x 24 inches Acrylic on Canvas

I feel like the self-portraits are my strongest pieces. I had to continue though, so I did portraits of my friends breaking apart too! They had fun.

Blowing Away- 22 x 26 inches Acrylic on paper

Falling Apart 2- 26 x 32 inches Acrylic on canvas

Facing your pieces - 26 x 32 inches Acrylic on canvas

Pick up the pieces- 22 x 28 inches Acrylic on Canvas

I took traditional photo senior year, and to coincide with making my portfolio for college, I did more! This was supposed to be for a show called Progressions. I got the idea to make a story of peacefulness, to oH SHIT IM BREAKING APART. It has some of my quirkiness that isn't seen in the other ones

Progression- 12 x 22 inches Photo Installation

After seeing a Dash (another design school in Miami) senior show, I was inspired to do more installation work and have things coming out and displayed 3D.

Change of Scenery - 36 x 6 Digital Photo Installation.

To continue, I thought it would be cool to have photos of someone doing something, and then the photo being manipulated. Melissa has a lighter and the photo has been burnt With Jacob, he is cutting with scissors and look at that there are pieces where he cut! I miss being such a smart ass.

Burn away- 8 x 10 inches Digital Photo Installation

Cut Away- 8 x 10 inches Digital Installation

I'm really proud of my work in senior year of high school. It was a big part in helping me express myself. The Ringling guy who interviewed me saw my work and said I should go into Fine Arts. I want to minor in it because I don't want to lose that side of me. Part of me feels like I've improved in certain things here but I should really push myself to keep thinking and not just do technically good work. I want to have awesome concepts and keep going though I'm not sure which teachers can help me do that. I have time .

-Kristen


PS. I'll put up my college work soon! :P