Rough Draft of Statement

My work comes from the deepest parts of my mind. I never know what I will do and what I want to do, I just do it. I don’t like doing preliminary sketches even though artists in the past have gotten their inspiration from doing this. I like to work from moment to moment. I love the thrill of thinking of new things on the spot without any preliminary thought. I do what I think; if this doesn’t work out I try again. I go through this process until I come to a work that satisfies me. It can take many failed attempts and different views to come to a conclusion that I can be happy with. My mind shifts in and out of different mediums when it comes to my work. I paint, photograph, project, collage, film, and combine to get my point across. It can be quite difficult if you don’t have a set medium you work with. I have worked with many mediums but I am not an expert at any of them. I seem to drift like an elementary student on a Friday afternoon at school. I can’t stay focused long enough to fully grasp on medium. I wouldn’t say I am a bad painter or drawer I just lack the various skills that experts have. This doesn’t always happen for my artwork sometimes has a hard time in finding a voice. I can think of many things in my mind, but all of these points don’t make it to my work. They get lost in translation along the way from my mind to the piece. This is the most difficult problem with my work. I have had successful work especially in my photography. I am fascinated when it comes light and shadow. I love the idea that shadows are remnants of something that was once there or is there, but not in view. I guess my work is the remnants of the idea that was in my mind. They were the idea in my mind and are the only note of what was actually on my mind. I find my work deals with what is on my mind. It maybe something deep in my mind or an idea that just popped out of nowhere. I work with objects or subjects that are not human. My work is often small, but I have ventured into larger work from time to time. I like to work abstractly with various styles and ideas from the norm. I like realistic art that is abstract. That is why I am drawn to the impressionist painters. I love the use of color and brush stroke to paint what was in the painter’s mind. Up close these paintings feel very abstract but far away they come alive with mages of people and their lives. I love creating work that has a whimsical childish style to them. I love taking old children’s books from the past and change them to say my own story. I love making them seem cohesive even though I have cut, pasted and added color. I love having the viewer not realize that what they are looking at is actually not part of the original book. I like to fool the viewer into seeing my work. I don’t want them to say that is that. I want them to make their own interpretation even if it is completely opposite of mine. I am not afraid of people not getting my work. To me, my art is part of me; as long as I am happy with it, it is okay. But that is not what art is for, or at least that is what we are told. Art is our statement to the world. Art is meant to be seen and liked; at least famous art works that way. Art isn’t meant to be understood completely by the viewer. You want to have the viewer leave with questions running in their mind. I like having the viewer have more questions than answers when it comes to my work. I guess because I always have more questions when it comes to art. I have always had a difficult time when it comes to analyzing work. Why can’t I just like art aesthetically, I guess that is like an astronomer saying that why can’t they just look at the stars. We need to know about art so we can learn from it. I don’t necessarily need to have all of the information handed to me on a silver platter, but tid bits that clue me in on how the artist might think

20 Words and Artist

My work is:

Intrinsic
collective
multilayered
social
varying
childish
interactive
vulnerable
crafty
simplistic
antiquated
colorful
joyful
connecting
incomplete
confusing
stowed
compact
textured
quiet

Carlo Zinelli

The artist that I admired the most is Carlo Zinelli. Many people have looked over the art created by "outsiders", but I have found its simplistic beauty to be amazing. I was lucky to have discovered a book in the library during my freshman year. The book highlights work by "outsider" artists that have made a name for themselves. Many of outsider artists are actually prisoners of the mind. They were metal patients at institutions or prisoners at a prison. Outsider Art also includes many other artist considered to be naieve. This category includes children and adults.

I just love th birght vivid colors used by Carlo Zinelli. He used alot of patterns or similar shapes over and over. His work is similar to abstract expressionists, in which he leaves no spcae empty. He used simple supplies that anyone could use. Often paint on paper or cardboard. His style is very interesting for you don't know what he is trying to get at. Many of the Outsider Artists from his time created similar styles in work. The Outsider Artist has slipped away from the scene, for many of the hallucinations used by the artist have disappeared with psychopharmacology.

My older work was very similar to Zinelli's style. The picture above is a piece that he has influenced. My newer work isn't aesthetically similar and doesn't have the same ideas, well maybe a little bit. Can't I just admire this artist for his work? Do I actually have to share his ideas to admire his work? My work is mostly simplistic on the outside but deeper in my mind. To me my work has to affect me not necessarily the viewer. I do love bold color with simple black and white, which is a main part of Zinelli's work.

The end of the semester is coming quickly and our plans for vacation are dancing in our heads. But before we can make our dreams reality, we need to complete one more project. I have jumped from project to project with no correlation between the first two. I went from small as book to a wall hanging and projection. I have thought long and hard about what I wanted to do and I have found my inspiration, my grampa.

It has been in the past few weeks that my grampa took ill and died. He lived to the old age of 79 and lived a fulfilling life. I have been tormented between completing schoolwork and grieving for my grampa. When he was ill, my mind was filled with memories with him and I realized he meant a lot to me. He has always supported my wishes and dreams. He was proud to have me as his granddaughter. All of my memories of my grandfather are precious to me and I keep him close to my heart.


The image that will be in my mind forever is my grandfather napping in his old beaten up armchair. It is this red vinyl chair, that, well lets just say had seen better days. He always took an afternoon nap on the couch. I wanted to do a project that my grampa has inspired me to do. I want to go and take pictures at his home. I can remember all of the quirks of the home and the remnants of the past that linger in all of the corners.

I want to take photographs and either make prints of them or use them to influence another piece. I thought about doing an etching of my grandfather’s chair or home. But I think photos would be the best idea to get my point across. I would like to have three to five prints of images that remind me of memories with my grampa. I have so many memories at that house and now is the time to document all of those memories.


My family doesn’t have the finances to keep the home and they have made a decision to most likely go ahead and sell it. I wish we could keep the property in our family. It is right on the lake, with a large yard that always has shade in the hot summer. I want to remember it the way it was and not the way it is going to be, empty like my heart. So that is why I have made a decision to document my grampa’s home. This is a way I can work on my schoolwork and still grieve for a man that I have loved and lost.

The photos will be taken with a Pentax camera with Ilford HP5 black and white film. I plan to take from a range of 5 to 20 rolls. This all depends on how much time and how I feel in my grampa’s home. I would like to develop all of the rolls, but I might label and choose specific rolls to develop for the class. I will try to print them at school, but I might have to go to an outside source. If I can’t print them at school I might opt for doing an etching of one of the negatives.