Smaller Drawing Challenges

Glass Paintings

In this project, I endeavored to depict the way human imprints are made on every object we use, whether physically touched or not. It was an exploration of the impact of our bodies and hands on utensils and instruments of decoration.

I started by painting human figures, hand shapes, and abstract designs with acrylic paint on glass cups and jars of various shapes and sizes. The purple, gold, and baby blue colors were used to portray the royalty and conceptually increased worth of the object by use of such hues. On top of the acrylic paint, I painted repetitive spheres and created a dripping effect with gold and light blue oil-based liquid alkyd paint. On two of the wine glass handles, I twirled sparkly, sticky string to add more detail. This layering method resulted in extra texture and vibrancy.

For the layout, I put a stool on top of a corner desk and covered it with a large white cloth. Placing the purplish golden glasses on the top and the bluish golden ones on the bottom in a repeated pattern gave unison and variety. I also placed string flowing from top to bottom – touching every glass yet continuing – and beads filling and falling out from inside the glasses to integrate all the glasses. Overall, the cloth, strings, and beads falling toward the ground created a downward movement, so the audience's eyes would follow the distinct directions taken.

Doing this project allowed me to experiment with using various materials to produce a unified aesthetic and statement. It would be fascinating to enlarge this piece by creating more of the painted glasses and arranging them in divergent ways.

lines lines lines

Taking inspiration from Gabriela Albergaria's work (as I mention at the bottom), this piece adds human marks to the nature's communication to convey the ability for humanity to respond to nature in an unsophisticated, direct way.

I found these pieces of wood on sandy Santa Claus Beach where my friends and I rested under the glimmering sunlight. These wood pieces caught my attention, and I picked up several of them with differing sizes. When I came back to the studio, I picked up a white sharpie and placed it on the wood. Then I started rotating the wood in circles, using the object itself to create the lines. I think the white lines brought unity among the pieces of wood that were covered in white and the others that were not.

I brought further unity as I used my hands to take out some of the white bark alreadly peeling away from the fourth piece of wood (with both white bark and brown underneath). As I laid out the wood pieces from biggest to smallest in length and from white to brown, It was a transitional piece of wood, leading the audience's gaze more smoothly from short brown to long white and vice versa.

This was a simple piece, but involved a lot of spontaneity and allowing nature to speak for itself. I personally enjoyed the humble adventure it took to find, mark, and arrange on existing nature. I wonder if my arrangement and drawing on the piece increases its value or is merely effective in bringing human attention to dispersed, broken forms of nature we tend to overlook.

To Resurrect

Made out of cut-out cardboard and acrylic paint, these four-winged butterflies signify the result of renewed life when one chooses to die to oneself. The cardboard was difficult to cut with scissors and the wings turned out to be simultaneously more flexible and fragile, because I did not use an adhesive but rather I cut half of the cardboard down the middle to connect the two cardboard pieces. I learned that I could try using different cutting tools when working with cardboard and that cardboard is a great surface and tool to create detailed 3-D objects.

For the future, what I have in mind is creating many of these same butterflies with varying sizes and shapes and hanging them from branches of a tree with strings. It will be an interactive piece, with people able to walk amongst the butterflies, being sucked into an atmosphere of freedom as the butterflies freely dangle with the breeze.

To Stretch Deeper Into Earth

On a bed sheet I thrifted from Goodwill, I cut a hole the size of my head and then painted intertwined root-like lines with a thick brush and lots of mixed brown acrylic paint. It was a simple, cathartic process, for I used my whole body's natural movement and repeated lines to connect and grow the image onto the bed sheet. Working on fabric was fascinating and created naturally fragmented areas that exposed the texture of the cloth, particularly when most of the paint was used up on the brush. This challenge made me want to experiment with paint on different kinds of fabric more often, to see all the diverse effects that can be created. After letting it dry, I put this piece over my head to see if it would cover over my body and other people's for a future photoshoot. In my opinion, the simplicity is what makes it striking. If worn outside among trees at golden hour, it would feel more at home and accentuate the earthy atmosphere it creates. I am excited to go further and continue this project by documenting my friend Zoey who is a true lover of nature and passionate about protecting forests and caring for God's creation.

The Meaning

Since coming back from South Africa, I have been feeling the weight of the world unlike ever before. The oppression, inequality, heartache, poverty, and hopeless situations people all over the world are living in became more real to me as I got to love and know these people for myself for over two months this summer. Thus, I wanted to represent how my heart is being stretched deeper into the earth-- feeling and understanding the reality of deeply rooted evil with good and beauty intertwined and being victorious in the growth process. For me, trees and their roots have always symbolized being established in truth and grounded in God's love (Colossians 2:7-8). The evil draws me toward the hope I have in Christ and to cling even more to His promises. This piece was a testament that I will never stop desiring to see brokenness and beauty together in our world as I root myself in Christ's heart for His people.

Two Inspirational Artists

Gabriela Albergaria

I was inspired by Gabriela Albergaria's straightforward yet creative use of literal pieces of wood, branches, and trees to create her so-called gardens. She says her work involves "nature manipulated, planted, transported, set in hierarchy, catalogued, studied, felt and recalled: gardens." The material itself speaks boldly, and the artist effectively utilizes specific forms of drawing, sculpture, photography, and installation to define, develop, and emphasize even further the meanings that derive from the material. Her ideas clearly derive from pre-existing ideas of gardening and "landscape as an allegory of the world". I enjoyed her contemporary and simple take on the link between humanity and nature as something more organic.

As you can see, my "lines lines lines" piece correlates to Albergaria's work, as it uses existing pieces of wood and human marks on it to construct a simple connection between me and the nature I encountered.

Cynthia Kampelmacher

Kampelmacher's approach to photographs as a "residue of an experience" was inspiring. She allows herself to use different techniques and materials to freely move "into or out of the surface of the image."

What fascinated me that most was that this liberty she takes also speaks of the limitations of the visual presentation. The coexistence of liberties and limitations in art is something new to be aware of as I produce my own work.

Like Kampelmacher, I love to use photographs as a documentation of the exact time, space, emotion, and thought and furthermore, as tools to extricate truth and enrichment for others. In my Gladiolus project, I was able to take small baby steps to effectively use presentation-- of not only individual photographs, but them as a unified, powerful body of work.