In
approaching a painting, my goal is to explore the male/female dichotomy
in a formal and accessible environment. While important to me that the
viewer establish their own account w ith my work, when painting I
attempt to express underlying fragilities of human relationships while
pushing them together to tell a story . The recurring themes of
isolation, confrontation, sexual tension, anxiety and separation
reference modern interpersonal issues that men and w omen face when
confronted with an ever changing social and economical climate. From an
aesthetic standpoint, it is my intention to seduce the viewer into the
canvas. The scale, abstraction and color relationships are intentionally
implied to distill artistic sty le that could otherwise conceal
underlying dialogue from the viewer. In terms of process I usually work
on several paintings concurrently and enjoy exploring metaphoric sty le
in an attempt to reinforce the theme and to deepen the content with less
literal connotations. The partially revealed, ethereal figures, for
example, reference the diffusion of the individual within the context of
an interpersonal struggle. The figures often appear to gaze
introspectively , cautiously withdrawn and entrapped within the overall
architectural structure. Ultimately , through these techniques I attempt
to create the canvas as a mute static presence within itself, polarizing
the figures in relationship to the viewer. Ultimately , this hopefully
allows the viewer to gaze upon the paintings from a somewhat clinical
and examining standpoint, while drawing their own questions and
conclusions to the work.
Statement of Purpose
In response to the current
American penchant for “reality” TV shows, the news, and
celebrity biographies, I wrote “Living By Imagination” to
illustrate (from my own experience as well as the
perspectives of such people as Czeslaw Milosz, William
Blake, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt) the validity and
indeed necessity of utilizing imagination in order to plow
through life. I touch on the imagination’s role in such
universal human preoccupations as religion and love, and
present many ways in which lack of imagination can lead to
despair, intolerance, and lack of purpose in living. I
believe we are due for a rebirth of belief in the power of
imagination as we plod along in our technologically
hyper-motivated world, a world in which everything is seen
as increasingly relative, and we must supply the rules for
ordering that relativity.
Alone
Ted Gournelos
Statement of Purpose
Visual art, conceptually
based or not, should not need a manual for it to be understood. To
involve an audience an artist must touch them, move them, make them
think or feel. My work uses several different techniques to achieve that
goal, but all of them can be called a form of personal contact. The
pieces are parts of a larger conversation, and one that I do not
consider successful if it has not touched in some way even the most
unsophisticated child. As John Dewey suggested, art is fundamentally an
experience, a communicative process that confronts social realities
through metaphor and participation rather than demagogic or Manichean
politics. Rather than becoming overly intellectual, therefore, “Alone”
connects on multiple levels with its viewers, and tries to pull them in
rather than push them away. Drawing from Do-Ho Suh’s exploration of
contemporary political ontologies and Alfredo Jaar’s commitment to
visceral social commentary, the piece attempts to place the individual
viewer in an environment of isolation at the same time as it creates
community. This ambivalence is key to any experience of “Alone.”
Subito
Vassiliki Rapti
Statement of Purpose
Subito is an experimental
poem that is the result of ludic activity. It is an open game in which a
subject speaks with an object, which, in this case, happens to be a doll
named Phoebe (=Full of
light,
like Apollo as Phebus). Phoebe ultimately comes to live and switches
roles with the speaking subject. In this endless game of role reversal
the initial speaking subject goes through a trance and comes to terms
with its inner desires and fears to finally fully submit itself to love.
Lyrical and philosophical, this game continues on the level of language
(a mixture of English and Greek with allusions to Greek myths and the
Orthodox tradition of the Holy Virgin) by evoking vivid imagery while
drawing the reader’s attention to its inner symmetry, mainly illustrated
by acronyms reminiscent of Byzantine hymnography.
Soliloquy
Robert Tanner
Statement of Purpose
Soliloquy is a musical work for solo clarinet composed in 2004. While
the piece is meant to
assume
an improvisatory character in its performance, its compositional
structure may be best
characterized as a modification of the theme and variations form dating
from the eighteenth
century. The theme consists of a series of brief motives which are
combined to form phrases; in
each
variation, the motives are manipulated through numerous means (e.g.
transposition,
rhythmic displacement, inversion) and recombined to form new musical
material. Transitions
between variations are continuous and at certain points, variations
overlap to further obscure the
overall form. The melodic and harmonic language of this composition may
be described as atonal or posttonal. These terms are often used
interchangeably to denote the absence of a central pitch (tonic) or
hierarchical relationships among harmonies characteristic of music in
the Western
concert traditions of the
seventeenth century through the early twentieth century. Abandonment of
conventional tonality in concert music began when many composers of the
early twentieth century such as Arnold Schoenberg (1874-1951) and Edgar
Varèse (1883-1965) wrote works in which traditional relationships were
not the primary organizing principle. Although Soliloquy was not
conceived as being a part of any specific post-tonal tradition, it does
present another alternative to traditional tonality in addition to those
employed by composers of the last several decades.
Oppenheimer
Anthony Rhine
Statement of Purpose
This
play was written with the intention of bringing to the world a bit of
the soul of the man who died being known as the "father of the Atom
bomb" a title Robert J. Oppenheimer came to detest. A brilliant
physicist and a gentle man, Oppenheimer dedicated himself only to the
needs of his country, even when it went against his own moral position.
In the final hour, however, that government maneuvered politically to
destroy him personally, by stripping away his security clearance on the
eve of its expiration. The docudrama by Heinar Kipphardt, (trans. by
Ruth Speirs) entitled In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, used some
of the transcript of the congressional hearings to depict their ultimate
outcome, but Oppenheimer went to his grave with a detestation for the
play that manipulated his life and his associations as adeptly as the
hearings did. This play attempts to honestly depict the man. Using
actual letters and writings from Oppenheimer's life, the play is framed
with the man's own memories, and hopefully, therefore, his soul.
Change
James Davis
Statement of Purpose
Change (Leaf Pile) is a
sculpture consisting of 6,000 “leaves” made from computer generated
inkjet
prints. This piece highlights the beauty of nature with its infinite
possibilities and chaotic
behavior especially in relation to permutations of color. With the
changing of the seasons, you
can
see leaves go from striking greens to a mixture of yellow, orange and
red hues. This dynamic coloration in a real maple leaf is a product of
the intricate genetic makeup of the tree along with
the influence of
the unpredictable surrounding environment. Additionally, this work
allows the viewer to see the changing color of leaves that would
normally occur temporally across an entire season in static time,
therefore portraying nature’s full complexity all at once. This piece
captures the myriad of color possibilities, both existing in nature and
artificial, therefore producing a visual cornucopia.
Eye of the Beholder
AmICHeM
Statement of Purpose
I believe that my art is a unique representation of
me…the aesthetics of my life and my experiences. Within my repertoire
are works both on canvas and paper, but my preferred medium include
mixed media on canvas. My art is not about what others want me to see
but more about what it is that I see and feel…beyond the ordinary.
Whether it is spirally, backwards, or upside down…I incorporate my
ancestry and soul into each piece. Novelist Emile Zola quoted that as an
artist, he was to live out loud. I too as an artist convey the same
sentiments.
Caroline’s World
Stephanie Shonekan
Statement of Purpose
"Caroline’s World" is a
short story that considers class and race in contemporary United States.
The main character, Caroline, struggles with issues of identity while
maintaining a façade of perfection in her insulated, idyllic, suburban
world.
|
