Senior Exercise Artist Statement
April 16, 2010
Freefall
…Ingrate, he had of me
All he could have; I made him just and right,
Sufficient to have stood, though free to fall.
(Paradise Lost, III, 97-99)
-God speaking of Adam
I chose to do these 4’ by 4’ pieces in charcoal, because I have always loved drawing, I drew emotions before I could read or write; drawing has always been my primary form of expresstion. I also realized that plain black and white drawings might lack that certain visual impact which only vibrant colors produce. Considering this, I experimented and eventually decided to paint the figures initially with acrylic paints, and then apply the charcoal on top of this under-painting. Although this was a mixture of medium that I had never before tried, I am very pleased with the balance of eye-catching color combined with the definition and accuracy of the line drawing. I had struggled with painting up to my senior year, but my practice work from the first semester, including the book cover I painted for a Kenyon professor, helped develop my hand and eye so that I could successfully manipulate the acrylic paint in a realistic manner. I love working directly with my hands. Charcoal allowed me to get dirty while remaining precise, and helped me to infuse each piece with a dark and dynamic vividness. The charcoal on Satan is a perfect fit, for it suggests the inferno of Hell. Charcoal is essentially compressed plant matter; it is the stuff of life, and it seemed to fit perfectly within this exploration of the human condition.
My senior exercise took seed the first semester of my first year at Kenyon, in an English course that investigated Satan's fall from Heaven in John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost. I was enamored with how human Satan acted; how his greed and insecurity led him to turn against his omnipotent creator. I was also taking Drawing I during the first semester; it was in this class that I first discovered how professional and rewarding art can be. During my junior year, I took an entire class based on my favorite book Paradise Lost, and I took Figure Drawing second semester of that year as well. It was in this figure drawing class that I realized how much I loved drawing the human form. The final project of that class, a charcoal life-size self-portrait, was the first time a piece consumed and drastically changed my life. Art became an entirely new enterprise after I struggled and finally completed my piece. I felt so rewarded after finishing that final piece, that I began thinking of art as a post-graduation profession. I took an intensive figure drawing class over the summer so that I would not lose my touch, and this constant practice paid off in my final show.
There are many artists who have inspired me in my work, none more inspiring than Kehinde Wiley, whom I admire for his concentration in figurative work. I am drawn to his ability to connect the classical past with the modern, rendering modern-dressed black males pulled off the street in renaissance posses usually reserved for the white aristocracy. Finding the connection between the classical and the modern has been a goal of my show, and something I find very important in contemporary art. Lucian Freud is another great influence, for his dark and psychological portraits are so deeply rendered that they seem to capture the models' very essence; I strive to render my figures with as much vitality and expression as Freud does. The vibrant and dramatic lighting found in many of Caravaggio’s works serve as inspiration in my show. I tried to incorporate a dramatic lighting in each piece, because it brings out each feature of the figure, and it heightens the shows visual impact.
I judge my own pieces based on their visual impact and their attention to detail. I have always thought that it is by the smallest details that artworks succeed or fail. There is the initial impact, which is important, but it is equally important for a work to look just as good when a viewer steps close and examines each and every detail. I have been focused on examining the details of each figure in my series, making sure there are no unintended lines or strokes, so that they will remain impressive when a potential buyer or application reviewer examines them close up. I am also very attuned to the colors I use, using a lot of complimentary colors to enhance the vibrancy. I chose tones that reflected each piece's specific psychology. For example I depict Satan with fiery hair to invoke Hell, and painted the background green to suggest and enhance his envy of Adam and Eve. The process of creating this series has been by far the most trying and challenging academic struggle I have faced at Kenyon, but it has also been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.