Unity
54" x 42.5"
Acrylic Paint and Broken Glass on Linen


This was my cumulative project, to be completed as part of the graduation process. An art thesis paper, if you will. It has to do with the evolutionary idea that all things are composed and were formed of the same particles, stardust, chemicals; and also the idea that living beings are expansive universes within themselves.  This was the most time-consuming and ambitious project I ever attempted, and I'm extremely proud of it.  All of the six canvases were made by hand from lumber, as was the glass broken by hand.  Up close and personal, you can really engage with the dimensional layers of color and texture I achieved using glass bead and iridescent mediums. 

More Recent Work

 Drawings:

Bring Me Back
19" x 12"
Graphite & Colored Pencil on Paper

I know I've already posted this one, but I've just now actually measured the dimensions, so there ya go.

Coffee Ring- Self Portrait
19" x 24"
Graphite and Coffee on Paper


A little experiment here in trompe l'oeil drawing.  And a rather accurate portrayal of myself sitting down at a desk, about to begin a drawing. 

 

Injury- Self Portrait
13" x 14"
Colored Pencil on Paper


This was the first drawing in which I attempted to achieve accurate skin tone via colored pencil. The result is beautiful, but the process was intense. Hours and hours to achieve this. It's titled Injury because that was the assignment, and I chose to put a spin on the typical by drawing all of my self-inflicted injuries.

Polaroids in Love
15" x 24"
Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper


Two inanimate objects, caught in an expression of love. It's a little funny how this composition worked out, because the camera on the left is one I've owned for years, and the one on the right is one Steven happened upon. Symbolism of our relationship via Polaroid cameras, perhaps...

On the Rock- Self Portrait
72" x 36"
Charcoal on Paper

In this self-portrait, the figure is life-sized (I'm about 5'1") and so the entire piece is considerably taller than me.  My head is maybe a little out of proportion, but given the scale I'm pretty pleased with it. 

Paintings:

Reflection
12" x 12" each; 3" spacing
Oil on Canvas


This piece was created out of exploring hue contrast. Each individual canvas consists strictly of only four pre-mixed colors applied in varying thicknesses to create different values within the same hue. This piece was very technically challenging because I used a lot of medium to give the globes reflective surface, and though it's been about three months since it was completed, both canvases are remarkably still not completely dry.

Vertigo
19" x 37"
Acrylic on Unstretched Linen

I love working non-objectively.  This I found especially interesting because I worked on it stapled to a piece of sheet rock, which I cut it free from upon completion.  Due to the heavy layer of gesso I initially applied to the linen, it has a remarkable stiffness and strength to it that is as much a part of the piece as the painted marks on it. 

Animal
25" x 24"
Acrylic and Dimensional Fabric Paint with Mineral Eyeshadow on Unstretched Linen


Tentacles and Feathers.  Fun squirmy things. Not entirely sure this is done yet.

Pheonix
12" x 12"
Acrylic on Canvas


This was painted at Live Art Fusion on May 16 at the 841 East Lounge in Huntington Station, NY. Lots of layers of color, and some playing around with the palette knife.

Working in Three Dimensions

Working three-dimensionally is not something I do often.  This year I have made more sculptures than ever in the past, but even so they are few.  

 Doc, 2012

The shoe.  Quite a daunting task, and much more difficult than you might think.  The assignment, clearly, consisted of re-creating a shoe that you own.  I went for a favorite of mine, the vintage floral Doc Martens.  The materials used consist only of mat board (a thin, non-flexible composite paper board, thinner than corrugated cardboard), masking tape, and hot glue.  Painting the piece was not required, but, I mean really, the pattern is the best part of the shoe.  This was an enjoyable challenge for me, particularly because Doc Marten boots have such an iconic shape, it would be very obvious if I failed to emulate that silhouette.  Here is an image of the piece next to myself wearing the actual boots:

The Illusion of Danger, 2012

This is my favorite sculpture I have ever made, and my first attempt at abstract sculpture.  To introduce this assignment, my professor simply stated, "Create something that consists of only the elements of line, form, color, and space." This vague offer of guidelines was a thrill to wrap my head around.
The materials this piece is composed of are primarily 18g aluminum wire, the smaller spiral bits are jewelry-making parts, and the spikes are found plant material. I have not the slightest idea what these things or the plant they come from are called, but I see them around this one nature preserve a lot.  My main idea behind the piece was to create a sculpture that, aside from being aesthetically beautiful, had the presence of being violent or intimidating but in reality is actually extremely delicate, even frail.  If you were to to give any of those spikes a squeeze, it would immediately crumble in your hands.

Ceramics:

Drink Me, 2010
4.5" tall

Small tea-mug constructed from white clay with low-fire glazes.  Mostly slab construction with some coil work as well.  The string of the tag form the handle.  I believe this was my first ceramics project and I was (am) rather proud of it.  It is 100% functional as a drink vessel.

 

Mad Hatter, 2010
4" tall

This mug was done immediately after the previous one was completed, sort of as a charming Alice in Wonderland-themed tea set.  White clay; slab construction; low-firing glaze.  Also completely functional. 

Ganesha, 2010

5.5" tall

My personal favorite ceramics piece.  The elephant god is hollow and partially filled with clay beads, so it jingles when you shake it.  Pretty nifty, eh?  This piece was made from red clay, a low-firing metallic glaze, and the detail is done in genuine 24kt yellow gold.  This Hindu god of success was quite a success, indeed. 

Whimsical, 2012

This is the only product I have to show for an entire semester of ceramics class this year.  White clay; coil construction (ceramics code for "tedious as hell").  My vessel was not, due to faculty missteps, able to be glaze fired.  Rather than leave it looking entirely bland, I chose to paint it with multi-surface craft paints instead.  Its difficult to discern by the photographs, but the main body of the vessel is painted in thin layers of pastel pinks, blues, purples, and yellow.  The blossoms are treated in the same lightheartedly colorful way, in  varying combinations of powder blue and canary yellow. 

Sold

Wise has finally and officially been sold and shipped off.  It took me a while to let go of this one.. it will definitely always be a favorite of mine, and the first very ambitious project I ever undertook.  It took work over nearly an entire school year to complete, and is one of the only pieces whose work saw me through a birthday;  I was 16 years old when I began the drawing and had turned 17 by the time it was finally finished.

More Digital Art

This piece was done about a month ago, and is one of the projects I was most fond of.  I improperly used a scanner to get the feedback effects found around the edges, and laid over that scanned pieces of a cd case (Portugal. The Man, which was very beautiful to begin with) in layers as well as a sunset from a polaroid picture of mine and a scanned image of an Om pendant. After laying them together I also adjusted the hue and saturation in different areas to increase and decrease emphasis.  I really enjoy how this came out. 

This was, in essence, my final project for the Electronic Illustration course.  For the first component, I sampled portions from an image of an ocelot (it's fur) and human skin.  I used and edited these samples using Photoshop to turn them into repeating patterns.  I then formed this composition of setting, woman, and ocelot in Photoshop, and used various Transform tools, Displacement filters, Masks, and Retouching tools to apply the patterns to the woman and the cat. 

The idea behind the image has to do with the human tendency to put themselves above other living creatures to the point of practically considering them furniture, when in reality we are all animals of the same planet.  I chose the opulent background space because I personally have found this attitude to exist more frequently among the wealthy.  

Just Sold

Vignette from Wheatfield with Crows by Vincent Van Gogh
and 

Dancing Thoughts

Officially sold as of today. Wise (featured in Drawings 2010) may also be purchased soon. 

If you are interested in buying one of my pieces please contact my representative Sal Albanese via email:

603fishead@gmail.com

Digital Art

To be honest, I'm not a big fan of computer art, nor am I very familiar with the software used to make it.  These works were done in an Electronic Illustration class I took this semester.

Tracing of a butterfly. Very simple; part of my first assignment in Illustrator.

The much more involved portion of the same assignment as above.  Traced from a photo using Illustrator.

This assignment was to create a monument (or in my case, anti-monument) for our school.  I chose to address all the paraphernalia typically strewn around campus.

This was probably the Illustrator project I enjoyed the most.  We had to design a site-specific tattoo. From a distance it looks very cheery and Disney, but when you get closer you see the message is not so optimistic, and Jimminy Cricket weeps with sadness.

My first ever attempt at Photoshop.  I took Anne Hathaway and the parasol and composited them into a Monet painting.

This was a digital painting made using the brush tools in Photoshop.  The message is one of encouragement to "take the leap" and pursue your own adventure.

The assignment was to take an image of someone sitting at a desk and use various retouching tools to make them "disappear". Pretty nifty. 

This was a simple landscape composite.  I added the gerber daisies in the foreground and of course the mushroom tree. 

Just Finished

Bring Me Back
Graphite and Colored Pencil on Paper

This piece was done for an assignment titled Family Myth.  To elaborate, my family myth is not one specific story, but dozens all from memories of one place: Orlando, Florida.  My mother bought a timeshare down there I guess a year or two before I was born, and we all went there at least one week a year, every year.  Sometimes we'd go to Fort Lauderdale to see her best friend, but it was always Florida all the same.  Disney World, Universal Studios, Old Town in Kissimee, all places that forever hold a fond place in my heart.  Because of the frequency of our trips here, Florida began to take on this almost mythical standing for me emotionally.  I am compelled to go there, always. In fact, I went there even just last year, and have plans to return in just over a month... Succumbing to the pull of nostalgia, yes, but I enjoy it. 

I'm actually not sure of the dimensions at this moment. The second my professor saw it, it needed to go in the showcase at school. He also gave me a high five and said, "that's a neat little drawing there, kid".  Quite the compliment from Dan Gilhooley. It's rather satisfying. A lot of time and revision went into this.

Recent Paintings

Dancing Thoughts
36"x41" Acrylic, Dimensional Fabric Paint, and Crackle Paste on Primed Paper

This just makes me happy to look at.

Disenchanted
12"x36" Oil on Canvas

There is a lot of symbolism in this piece, and a lot of the detail is difficult to capture in a photo.  The figure represents Alice, grown and far from Wonderland, coping with reality.  She holds a rose before her face to represent our inherent desire to mask the ugly truth with romanticized notions.  Her dress is torn, and from it spill forth lots of little creatures; her anxieties taking form.  Off to the right, mostly hidden in the sea grass, is an overturned teapot and two broken cups to symbolize that she has forgotten and neglected her past, and with it lost her ability to view the world in a magical, child-like way. 

Escapepacse
18" Diameter Acrylic on Canvas

This piece discusses dreams... the upper portion being the archetypal dream of being put in a threatening situation, and suddenly finding fight and flight both failing you.  The face on the left is the dreamer, speaking to herself in smoke and mirrors, so to speak. This has to do with the fundamental nature of dreams, which is our subconscious communicating with our conscious, but usually in nonsense, riddles, and symbols.

Piovra
16"x20" Mineral Eyeshadow and Spray Paint on Canvas

This was a successful experiment, mixing mineral pigment makeup with brush conditioner to create a paint body.

Some Recent Drawings

Concern- Self Portrait
16"x7" Graphite on Paper

Suddenly Sad- Self Portrait
20.5"x13" Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

Take My Hand- Self Portrait
13.5"x11.5" Graphite on Paper

This isn't really as effective unless you see it up close and personal. It consumed hours of my life. 

Drawings- 2011

Fallen
9"x12" Charcoal on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life.

Desperation
9"x12" Charcoal on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life.

Have Some Cancer?
8"x10" (each) Graphite on Paper

In Lieu of Crucifixion 
13"x20" Charcoal and Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life. My professor set this pose up around Easter time. I think if he could, he would love to crucify Dennis (the model) for a drawing, but he cannot so instead he had us draw him inverted and reflected in three huge mirrors.

Madeline in the Mirror
13"x20" Charcoal and Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life.

Madeline
13"x20" Charcoal and Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life. One of my most successful.

Surprise
9"x12" Charcoal and Soft Pastel on Pastel Paper

Drawn from life.

Paintings- 2011

Apocalypta

9"x12" Acrylic on Canvas

Crawling forth from the Primordial ooze, the rebirth after the Armageddon. 

Clarity and Understanding
9"x12" Watercolor and Ink on Watercolor Paper

Philosophy.

Green Skin- Self Portrait
12"x16" Oil on Canvas

To this day, I'm still not entirely sure why I chose to make my skin green. It just sort of happened that way.

Human Perception
12"x16" Acrylic on Unstretched Canvas

Man is a universe within himself. A system of interacting organs, vessels. Beyond that, different types of cells. Beyond that, nuclei, mitochondria, ribosomes... Every human being, every living creature is a universe of smaller ecosystems.

Lady in Blue
19"x19" Acrylic on Paper

This was painted while I was snowed-in at my house for three days by myself. 

Primary Apples
8"x10" Oil on Canvas Board

Study painted using only Titanium White, Cadmium Red Hue, Cadmium Yellow Hue, and Ultramarine Blue, with a palette knife in place of brush. 

Steven at David Weld's Sanctuary
16"x20" Oil on Canvas

My boyfriend, silhouetted against the sunset at a nature sanctuary, which has been unfortunately corrupted since teenagers have begun drinking and throwing parties there. It was, and mostly still is, a very beautiful place, it really is a shame...

Still Life with Lava Lamp
14"x18" Oil on Canvas Board

Still Life with Blue Scarf
14"x18" Oil on Canvas Board

Still Life with Ominous Objects
16"x20" Oil on Canvas Board

My professor saw a cult-like significance to the items in this still life. I only chose them because they were things I liked and thought would create an aesthetically pleasing composition. 

Still Life with Paint and Brushes16"x20" Oil on Canvas Board

Sunset in Patchogue
16"x20" Oil on Canvas

Down at the docks in my old hometown. Lots of fond memories of that place.

The Long and Winding Road
11"x14" Wall Paint and Dimensional Fabric Paint on Canvas Board

Wall paint has a very soft body, so its movement is very liquid. I enjoyed working with that a lot in this piece. The title was given by what Steven saw in it: a path through life... wandering, treacherous, but beautiful all the same.

Wave Abstract
8"x8" Oil on Canvas

Another favorite of mine. Photographs don't do it much justice. Strongly considering making several more of these with different color palettes.