I have been building and refining my fine arts portfolio since I was 13, with the works displayed here spanning from my earliest pieces to my most recent creations. While many focus on realism and surrealism, each piece is designed to convey a deeper, often hidden meaning. Art has always been my primary way of expressing emotions and making sense of my own experiences, and through my work, I hope to help others connect with and better understand their own feelings as well.
"Burst the Bubble", 2022 - In this piece I wanted to represent how for many, the bubble of childhood youth and innocence is often popped far before they are ready. The large, intimidating hands attempting to pop the bubble are all unknown to the young girl (a portrait of my young self), and are drawn in a rough charcoal style. The many hands are representative of uncontrollable factors that many children may face growing up. While the girl in the bubble is reaching out to pop it and eventually will, she is not ready yet.
"Among the Swells", 2023 - In this painting I used color to display the differences between childhood and adulthood, the fluid pastel sky being childhood and the rough black and white waves being adulthood. There are individuals on life rafts to represent how some are afloat and supported in this transition to adulthood. However, one individual is not supported by a raft. This is meant to represent feeling alone during the process of becoming an adult, where while others may have family or friends supporting them, the subject feels alone and helpless, lost in the sea.
"Youth in Pieces", 2023 - This piece explores the feeling of childhood ending, and while it may seem as if it has been broken into pieces, there can actually be beauty found within the chaos of this transition. In this piece I created a digital collage of childhood photos, which I then printed and painted over to create this mixed media representation of a feeling that everyone experiences in their lifetime. The pencil portrait of myself is cut in half to represent how the subject is stuck between two worlds.
"Unveiled", 2023 - In this piece I hoped to capture the feeling of being a teenager and undergoing a transitional period. In this self-portrait, the subject is lost in this transition and feels as if adulthood, and in this case her makeup, is forcing her to conform and forget the creativity and naturalism of childhood.
"Seen", 2023 - In this piece, I wanted to experiment with a 3D medium, texturizing gel. I painted over the gel to give it a concrete-like appearance and included beneath it paintings of multicolored eyes. With this piece ,I hoped to represent the effect of social media, and how it can feel that someone is always watching you. I included eyes in the “concrete” to create a literal representation of a digital footprint, where the eyes are the footprints.
"Rose Lenses", 2023 - In this piece, I hoped to create a play on words of the term “rose-colored glasses” and how idealism can be both beautiful and painful at the same time. The roses painted over the eyes of this self-portrait represent how idealism, while seemingly appealing, has its flaws and can do more harm than good. The petals falling down the subject's face represent her tears.
"Time's Shadow", 2023 - In this piece, I used surrealism and tenebrism to convey the conflicting feeling that accompanies one's teen years of running out of time while also being trapped in time itself.
"Marilyn", 2021 - This was an in-class study on monochromatic portraiture. I chose to paint Marilyn Monroe with a complementary color palette.
"Reflecting on Blessings", 2022 - This is a still-life piece that I worked on in my art class during my sophomore year of high school. My goal with this piece was to practice various textures: reflective surfaces, wood, glass, and fruit.
"Scenery Sketch", 2021 - This is a nature sketch practice taken from a sketchbook.
"Love Everlasting", 2019 - This was a piece I created for my grandmother. She often refers to her parents who have passed on as birds who come to visit her often; her mother is a hummingbird and her father an owl. In this piece, I included the two to represent her parents and wrapped them in branches in the form of a heart. At the bottom of the heart, I included an “E” and an “H” to represent their initials. I gifted this piece to my grandmother and turned my original work into this PNG to print onto a tote bag for her.
"Dawn in Yosemite", 2023 - This piece depicts a sunrise in Yosemite. I used Bob Ross’ landscape depictions as inspiration, and even some of his techniques when creating this piece.
"Timed Figure Drawings (Studio Work)", 2023 - These timed figure drawings were completed in a summer workshop at the Savannah College of Art and Design with a live model. Each piece has the time spent on it in the top right corner.