Themes and Ideas

This week I've been asked to talk about my own art work and the themes and ideas that seem to reoccur throughout my drawings and paintings. I have to be honest I really haven't thought about that very much! I do tend to gravitate towards portraits, drawing nature, and I have a fascination for old buildings. I tend to be very meticulous in my art work as well as most other aspects of my life, I blame that on my fathers OCD I swear it rubs off. I'd say that that is my style as of now, I like to try to render drawings as closely to the actual object as I can. I almost don't like to pin down my style though because right now that is constantly something that is growing and changing as I learn different techniques. I'm sure my themes will have changed years from now as well! But for now much of my drawings tend to stick to those three categories  portraits, nature, and old buildings.

Human beings are fascinating. We truly are. The amount of expression that can be captured in the lines of our faces is something that has always captured my attention. It's what makes drawing portraits so much fun for me. I think that is why I gravitate towards that theme at time. Most of my portraiture is in black and white, I think that pulling most of the color from the face really makes the individuals features speak for themselves. Seeing as my first two years at college I was a biology major I'm constantly looking at the face and seeing the underlying workings of it. I like how it is a bit of a puzzle to be solved, being able to make an image on the paper seem living and breathing, to make the image look as if it is oozing some sort of emotion.

My theme of nature I think is derived from this liking of people. Drawing things from nature often requires you to solve the problem of making the drawing on the page seem ALIVE. At least when you are going for realism which seems to be something I am consistently striving for. I think that my love of nature is also just a big part of me, many of my best memories have been made outside in the open. Nature is taken for granted far more often than not. I like to draw it because I think it is beautiful. And I don't just mean the flowers when I say that. I like unconventional beauty as well. I see beauty in simple things, even in ugly things sometimes. I think there is something to be said about things people consider ugly. The skull of a bird, bugs, the way grass shoves its way up through the pavement, dead leaves, all of it holds interest to me. It is a part of life and I tend to draw what is going on around me from the people I am with to the surroundings. I like to make the animals I draw quirky at times. Like my owl wearing converse or the topsy turvy bird I drew from a while back. That quirkiness gives the animals an almost cartoon feeling at times.

As for the old buildings! I like when there is history behind objects. For example, a hair ribbon looks like nothing more than a piece of ribbon until the owner tells you that the ribbon was from her grandmother who use to tie it in her hair for her when she was little. There are so many stories behind so many little things, the big things such as buildings have their own history and lives. Old movie theaters, churches, broken down buildings,  I love looking at the different architecture. I think the older a building gets the more character it builds. In that way buildings are very much like people! I usually take a different approach to this theme however. Less realism and more realistically conveyed textures and strokes. You can make something FEEL like it's real without rendering every little detail as long as you include enough detail to give a hint of each thing.

Basically my themes are objects and people with their own history and background. I like to convey that history through the portraits and drawings I do. While that is my theme now I can't say that that theme will carry on throughout all of my work. College is where you begin to figure that all out, it's why we take classes! The classes to me aren't just assignments, they are meant to push our boundaries. The classes I take now push me way out of my comfort zone! Not only do they do that but they are also constantly teaching me new methods and new ways to approach projects. I have been trying to stray from my meticulous nature and be a little more expressive when I paint, letting myself loosen up a bit! Not only that but I feel like my style is constantly changing because of all that I am learning here! SO, while my themes pretty much stick to these three areas, I feel that this kind of thing, themes and styles, they are constantly changing.