Another Me
Sculpture with airdry clay, painted with acrylics
When it comes to anthropomorphic art, one of the various ways artists can express themselves is through depicting themselves as an animal character. I created my cartoony bear persona when I was getting the hang of being in high school as a way of expressing my pent-up frustrations with my physical health and classes in a lighthearted way, and the depiction of myself stuck. Bears are fat, strong mammals with big personalities that deeply care for themselves and their families. As a fat person, I admire the strength and protectiveness of the animal itself, while also finding them to be very fun and expressive to create in my art. I created this sculpture not only to make something cartoony and fun, but to express a part of myself wherever I put it.
Something Primal
Pyrography on Basswood and Birch
Cave art is the earliest depiction of anthropomorphism in art because it is the earliest form of art we've ever recorded. Art depicting animals isn't always necessarily anthropomorphic, but there is something deeply human about depictions of animals from said time period. When someone asks me what my favorite piece of visual art is, I often respond to them that it is the Chauvet Cave Bear painting. Estimated to be around 30,000 years old, the Chauvet Cave Bear painting depicts a bear with soft features and an almost gentle pose. Bears were an incredibly dangerous animal to encounter during this time period, being an animal that could greatly overpower humans if they didn't take one on as a group. However, you can tell that this early painter cared deeply for the animal. The linework showcases something soft, gentle, and empathetic in nature, a form of anthropomorphism through the humanization of something wild. When working on these pieces, I knew I wanted to create them on a natural medium like wood and take inspiration from these earliest depictions of animals and anthropomorphism in art.
Stripes
Performance Art
When developing many of my portfolio pieces for this year, I knew I wanted to include recordings of the work I did in Performance Art, as the work heavily relies on the body. I knew I wanted to create work that connected my body to anthropomorphism, as it is a big part of my depictions of the self. Our final piece, "A Performance that Asks a Burning Question", had me asking myself, "How can I embrace my body in the art I create"? This led me to ultimately decide to paint stripes on myself along the stretch marks of my body, showcasing how features that are socially regarded as unappealing are actually a naturally beautiful and vibrant part of our bodies. Stripes connect my physical body to my work while also being a public showcase of acceptance towards my body and its wild and beautiful traits.
The Connection We Share
Ink-based Printmaking and Hand Embroidery on Fabric
One of my other goals for the work I wanted to create this year was to make something out of my comfort zone, ultimately picking up learning how to translate my work to hand embroidery and fabrics in my 2D surfaces and forms class. I wanted to incorporate block printing onto fabric in the studio to tell a narrative about connection through shared experience, particularly the experiences of finding connection through trans identity. As a person who has been openly nonbinary for many years now, many of my friendships have become closer as we find connection through the shared experience of figuring out our identities and selves. The process of connecting each thread by hand showcases how we find our sense of self through the actions we take to connect ourselves to others and our own bodies, a long, winding process that builds a connection to the other threads we have on hand.
Make Trash Art!
Pyrography on Basswood, painted with paint markers
After creating many pieces with heavy themes over the past year, I wanted one of my final pieces to be fun, experimental, and a little more wild and unpolished. When purchasing the wood I needed to create the Something Primal series of works, I picked up extra wood for testing and experimentation. Make Trash Art is what the title says it is, it's work that's fun, expressive, cartoony, experimental, and ultimately a depiction of myself and my work in a lighthearted way. One of my primary beliefs as someone who is pursuing teaching is that anyone can create art that means something, even if it may not be considered great by what is considered to be the fundamentals of what makes art appealing. I will always encourage myself and others to take risks with art. It's part of the art itself to create with unlimited hopes and potential, regardless of how the final product turns out.