A Statement

With my art, I like to evoke empathy and communicate with my audience. If my audience feels an emotional response or feels enlightened by what is presented, I consider my work successful. More often than I not, I like to provide a different set of eyes, a different perspective for audiences to explore. This stems from my diverse background and seeing differing cultures through different sets of eyes. With this as my inspiration, I will continue making works that are valued by the public on an individual emotional basis.

A Statement

my goal when making a piece is to let the viewer into my world. I want the viewer to see what I see as I see it, and to feel what I feel when experiencing it.

A Statement

I was born at the end of an era of typewriters, letters, and rotary phones: methods of communication that demand a physical and tactile presence. Growing up in Pennsylvania’s coal regions led me to investigate the Industrial Revolution and its demise. I document what is lost in transition and question our blind faith in progress.

While wandering through abandoned factories, mines and ghost towns, I became fascinated with the empty spaces inside, heavy with the weight of abandoned technology. The typewriter (an “individualized press”) as well as Taylorism’s “Time and Motion Studies” ironically standardized the motions and communications of every operator. I have found a direct connection to these actions through the historically commercial use of printmaking.

In response to the anxieties of separation from the physical world, I render the fading remnants of industry through outdated forms of media and communication

A Statement

I try to take every opportunity to do the best I can, but in having to write this statement I realized just how difficult I find it to articulate or actually allow myself to focus on things that I conditioned myself to believe I am not good at. In turn, those thoughts lead me to think that I surround my life with barriers or even veils. Then, I realized that those same barriers and veils always seem to find a way in my work. I work intuitively for the most part. I don’t start off with big concepts, just a few ideas. I go with the flow of things during the process of creating, and then look back and question what is there.

I currently work with childhood imagery by using pictures from the past and the present environments that surround me and have surrounded me. I have come to realize that these current works are perhaps manifestations of how I currently view myself, and not so much about the pictures or my present surroundings. Yet, these images and environments help express my ideas. The faded shadow/silhouette in the video expresses the uncontrollable. I realized that the person in the video is not in control of the situation she is in, and perhaps that is an expression of how I presently feel. I do not feel in control or safe in my present circumstance. The layers in my work are like the patterns that make up our memories. These patterns are distorted and reside on different planes, and provide an image that is true and yet not true in its translucency. The imagery used is of the present, but is put in a sort of distorted context reflecting on both past and present. The images are from the present, and my memories are from both past and present. The undefined spaces between the two are those barriers and veils that seem to manipulate the present. Many of the images have varying layers and translucencies that seem to be symbolic of different feelings, but I feel I need to further investigate this idea. Some of the memories are very fragile and in these I intentionally leave all layers undefined, where they all seem to meld into each other. These also usually deal with loved ones and the idea that all things fade out and cease to exist. I believe that my work will always be inspired by my life and how my psychological make-up causes me to view things in my perspective. I am trying to view the work from a different perspective, but realize that I still view it through my attachment to the positive and negative thoughts that I seem to constantly create, rather than viewing it from a detached point of view. I am not sure if I will ever be capable of detaching myself from my work.

A Statement

“These pine trees smell like cleaning products.” I’ll be honest. I’m worried about everyone. This includes myself. As I attempt to navigate the adult world, with all of its structures, I’m finding a few things to be alarmingly apparent to me. Most prominently, I’m not very good at this sort of navigation, and many people who seem to have an easy time with this are also either admittedly and openly unhappy, or at least exhibit such behaviors with a certain level of acceptance of reality as being some sort of harsh wake up from innocent dreaming. Many of our own experiences are relatable only to commercial products, as these comprise most of our contact with things that fall outside of the moderated margins of ‘normalcy’. The other thing I can’t help noticing is that in instances where I’m doing right by society’s standards, I catch myself starting to slip in those directions. These structures that have imposed themselves upon our very thinking have very little to do with reality, however. They have little to do with ourselves, or each other. They have little to do with how we truly experience life and reality. In fact as far as I’m concerned, one of the best ways, then, that we can relate to true reality in our experiences is by thinking the way we did as children, before many of the structures had been constructed in our minds.

Using Carl Jung’s psychotherapeutic methods as a guide, I’m using my art in visual, experiential, and per-formative ways to help people reestablish their connections with other people, with their environment and their experiences, and with their self. I can only hope that my efforts are fruitful, because I consider it my primary ‘adult responsibility’.

A Statement

I draw, paint, record music and videos but not to impress. I am always striving to be better but never to be good. I don’t believe in “good” art and the only bad art in my mind is art with the wrong intention such as selling a product even if that product is you as an artist. My life motto is ( Make. Do. And Make Do. ) The make is my art, the do is activism, humanitarianism and general productivity, and the make do part is the rest of life taking whatever hand is dealt to you and using critical thinking to work with it.

Jeanette statement

Art has always been something intimidating but fascinating to me. Not because it is difficult, but because it has no central point of view, which is a difficult concept for me. Creating something completely unique is a chance to disregard common rules and conventions, and a chance to express my personal thoughts and ideas in a new way. It is a way to do so without worrying about “right” and “wrong,” but only about what effectively expresses the ideas I wish to portray through art. it is through art that I am able to step outside of the expectations of others and create a method of exposing any and every aspect of myself, from my point of view.

John Statement

I often think of how everyday materials will work rescaled in nanometers. Mostly I am concerned with the reconstruction of molecules in an object and giving it a strange twist in function. My goal as an artist is to use nanotechnology to inspire.