Scroll to view two CAS Visual Arts projects.

Pattern for Chair, 2021

Acrylic paint, textile, chair

21 x 31 x 21 inches

Creating a pattern is like solving a puzzle that has yet to be created. I both create the puzzle and solve it. I find satisfaction in inventing something that just barely makes sense. I try to create patterns that balance on the edge of chaos and predictability. For this piece I was largely inspired by op-art, the shapes and designs of utopian architecture such as Arcosanti, Sarah Morris’s use of color, and some of the ideas of the arts and crafts movement. I like the idea, especially present in the arts and crafts movement of the mid-1800s, of rejecting machines as a means to accomplish everything. Artists in this movement believed that the connection between the artist and their work, formed by the labor put into the piece, was vital to creating art that is both effective and visually alluring. Nowadays patterns can easily be created by a computer and reproduced perfectly again and again by a machine. Just like in the mid-1800s with the proliferation of machines with the industrial revolution, with today’s incessant use of computers there is value in creating a pattern completely by hand. The time* spent laboring over carefully painting each individual line, and mixing each color (yellow, bright green, navy blue, black, red, bright blue), becomes apparent through the pattern’s small imperfections. Every inch of the paper was touched by my brush in my hand. Finally, I used this pattern, which I hope is visually intriguing, to renovate something highly practical -- a chair. This embodies the effective side of the arts and crafts movement, complementing the allure. I can sit in this chair in class, to eat meals, call friends, do homework, listen to music, contemplate, and maybe even create another pattern and another chair.

* Time measured in albums I listened to while working on the project. Mostly revisited old favorites, but also listened to a couple new albums. In no particular order: Mermaid Avenue by Billy Bragg and Wilco, Wish You Were Here by Pink Floyd, XO by Elliot Smith, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco, At War With the Mystics by the Flaming Lips, Animals by Pink Floyd, Bookends by Simon and Garfunkel, If We Make It Through December by Phoebe Bridgers, lots of Beatles (Let It Be, Magical Mystery Tour, Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Revolver, Help, Please Please Me), Mermaid Ave Vol. III by Billy Bragg and Wilco, Tea for the Tillerman by Cat Stevens.

Click images to enlarge.

An Aquatic Lens, 2021

Digital photography

Dimensions variable

I spend a lot of time in and around the ocean. I love to surf and play in the waves, study marine organisms, and sit on the beach and gaze out at the horizon. It only felt natural that I would use the ocean as a subject for my project; it's like a second home. And since we spend so much time at home these days, why not explore it in more depth? In an effort to discover new nuances of the ocean, I chose to incorporate common household objects into my photos. Blending indoors and outdoors and industrial with organic. I found that the light and currents in the ocean have a certain way of manipulating these mundane objects into dynamic subjects. A vase, a mesh bag, a bandana, and a glass dish become delicate and curious when shot in the ocean. I chose these objects because they effectively utilize the unique light and movement of the ocean. The vase and glass dish highlight the ways in which light refracts in and off the water. The mesh bag and bandanna move with the currents, and the photos of them illustrate the ocean’s incessant movement.

I shot my images using a GoPro. I want to capture the energy of the ocean. In order to best accomplish this I chose a camera that is able to submerge in the water. It was also a challenge to figure out how to best utilize this camera, which is made mainly for filming extreme sport POVs, to create captivating photos. Because the camera has a fisheye lens I found that in order to create more dynamic shots I had to be close to the subject. This lens has a way of bringing you even closer, into the same visual space as the object. This allowed me to share the intimacy I feel with the ocean to the viewer.