From various electives and individual work
Personal Gallery
The portrait focus of my artwork is based on the theme of teenage experience and view of myself, both in today’s society and a big family. My artwork relates my feelings about certain issues I personally have dealt with as a teenager in today’s world. There are so many things that I wish were different, such as body expectations, academic pressure, sibling standards, peer pressure, social media, poor food relationships, covid, etc. My artwork encaptures these, encompassing each issue under one experience. I use these pieces of artwork as a way to cope with what I personally can’t really change, but they also call awareness to things that are otherwise rarely mentioned. These struggles have caused a lot of personal reflection and growth as I have learned how to deal with feelings, such as insecurity and sadness, that are fairly new to me. I only ever paint or photograph myself or my sisters because I do not want to speak for anybody else. In keeping each piece a portrayal of myself, or the girls who look nearly identical to me, I do not place assumptions on what other teenage girls may be feeling. These pieces are completely by me, for me. Although I believe I speak to teenage girls as the main audience, I wish to only depict my life experiences.
My artwork, consisting of mostly acrylic paint, photographs, and digital, portrays a glance into my mind. I focus on these three mediums the most because I love the bright, vivid colors of paint and the fluidity of lines; I love the realism found in photographs and bringing an idea to life; I love the modern connection of art and the digital life in graphic design. I played around a lot with portraits and realism and devoted a lot of my time to creating pieces that fit together, both loosely and tightly. My paintings never were oriented around looking extremely realistic or photo-like, rather, I enjoy when paint strokes are more visible and the backgrounds are more abstract, this makes me view my artwork as more unique and special to my story.
The main image from my insecurities series. We direct a lot of our attention to our outward insecurities, even though many people would not recognize them. It can often feel like our imperfections are written on our face!
Part of my insecurity series, I focus on my struggle with acne.
I was insanely busy my senior year as I was unexpectedly appointed Student Council president. I felt that I was always doing everything to please others, which left me in a place of desperation and confusion. In this self portrait I dressed myself in my school uniform. Acrylic on canvas.
The constant struggle with eating the "healthy option" is depicted in this self portrait. Acrylic on canvas.
Angles can change the entire perception of how we view our own bodies. Although internally it is all the same, we put so much focus and attention into our outward image. Acrylic on canvas.
It is easy to put on a mask and hide our feelings! Acrylic on canvas.
An exceptional sunset over the lake in Milwaukee. Modeled after a picture taken of my sister and I before school. Acrylic on canvas.
A lot of my work focuses on growing up with sisters that are often mistaken for you. I wanted to focus on our small differences that keep us as separate people.
What do you respond with when someone compliments your sister to you?
Another depiction of being mistaken for your sister, causing a sense of confusion with identity.
There is often a lot of criticism surrounding women and makeup, especially when speaking of age. I wanted to show that women are rarely accepted for their looks and receive ridicule even at a young age.
My wonderful late pet, Hershey. Acrylic on canvas.
Honing in on the struggle between speaking free and speaking "like a lady", I have come to find that when speaking as society wishes us to, it's absent of importance or depth, hence the representation shown in the bubbles.
We all reach an age where we feel we do not recognize ourselves anymore.
A piece of crumpled paper. Product of ARTS 111: Intro to Drawing. Graphite on paper.
An old cardboard box. Product of ARTS 111: Intro to Drawing. Graphite on paper.