Painting

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10217/180171

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Now showing 1 - 20 of 81

Open Access
Madelyn Brown: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Brown, Madelyn, artist
The artist's statement: First and foremost, I am a painter. However, during my studies at CSU I discovered printmaking, which has become a passion for me, as well. Painting and printmaking utilize completely different processes in their execution, but my love for both mediums has led me to discover new and unique ways of approaching each of them individually. As a native of Minnesota and its 10,000 lakes, I have a natural love for water and the many artistic elements that water can take on. I incorporated aspects of this in my earlier work, which included the process of pouring paint. By utilizing the pouring paint process, I found I achieved an organic nature through this approach that I found appealing. As I learned the art of printmaking, I combined two contrasting interests into my work. I combined my interest in organic shape with my love for geometric line and patterns. I incorporated these two diverse concepts into both my painting and printmaking.
Open Access
Rebecca Black: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Black, Rebecca, artist
The artist's statement: I am inspired by the light found in water and distorted reflections. I enjoy both the invention and emotive quality of underwater imagery. Water conveys multiple emotions, and often seems otherworldly. Water has it's own set of rules and conditions, such as weightlessness and disorientation, which allow me to explore ambiguity in my paintings. When my paintings are ambiguous, the viewer is forced to investigate the entire painting and form their own meaning to the piece. As light moves through water it forms varying shapes on the figure and the surface. These organic shapes interest me because of their line quality and the stylization they can bring to the image. Furthermore, water has vibrant and natural color that I adapt and exaggerate to set the mood within my paintings. I gather several sources of inspiration, compiling images from other artists, my own photos and life experiences. Using multiple images frees me from remaining entirely true to my sources. I paint from a source for an hour or two, then continue working for a while without the image, changing the form and placement of the subject to better convey meaning. Painting figures in my compositions allows the viewer and the artist to establish an immediate connection with the piece. The subject in the painting places the viewer either within or outside of the water.
Open Access
Julian Dillon: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Dillon, Julian, artist
The artist's statement: My current work explores the idea of painting as a three dimensional setting. As the process developed, I began to incorporate photography, video, and projection with painted objects and space. I term this cross-disciplinary approach "trompe méthode," or "deception of method", as inspired by the historical "trompe l'eoil," or "deception of the eye." These pieces represent domestic settings and behaviors, evoking both universal and personal interpretations of living spaces. The familiarity of the subject matter and the use of sculpture, painting, photography, and video provide various associations of both artistic media and living experience.
Open Access
Kristen Lowe: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Lowe, Kristen, artist
The artist's statement: My recent series "In the Interest of Weather" is work that starts from a photograph involving weather phenomenon such as thunderstorms and tornados. My intent in this series is to develop a strong sense for abstract forms, and how to combine these forms into an interesting visual idea. I like to find the image through layers of watered down paint, gradually building the surface with brush and palette knife as the painting becomes more concrete. The photos are grayscale, and I decide on a color theme as my first decision. I allow myself to stray from the photograph and focus on the materials: color, texture, paint application, and reworking the surface. Please view the work at first from a few feet back. I make my compositional decisions further away from the painting, and they are best enjoyed as a whole. After experiencing the space I have created, come up close to enjoy the details! The textures and accent colors of the whole as I finish a painting are often the marks make with the most energy, and are important in understanding the overall flow of the paintings. As an abstract painter I have struggled to find a balance between imagery that is referential or completely non-objective. I have discovered that what is important to me as an artist and a painter is the process of distorting and changing an image. This process allows me more freedom in the development of a dynamic image. I hope that the viewer will find a connection to this imagery in an emotional way. I created these spaces to be both alluring and ominous, hoping that the viewer shares my infatuation with the abstraction of natural phenomena.
Open Access
Kaylee Collinson: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Collinson, Kaylee, artist
The artist's statement: My artwork is a visual representation of my journey towards a higher consciousness. I use painting to express a metaphysical side of myself that otherwise could not be explained to others. I have found that my paintings are greatly influenced by the different stages of my spiritual exploration, and the appreciation of blissful moments that occur in everyday life. Connecting with my spiritual side has often been in the presence of nature. I am greatly inspired by the vivid bright colors naturally found in flowers and their feminine shapes. Floral imagery can be found repeatedly within my paintings. I often create mandalas that radiate from a central point to symbolize renewal and growth. Working with symmetry and centralized compositions is a meditative process for me and can transcend the viewer to a similar state when interacting with my paintings. I use ancient motifs inspired by Buddhist and Hindu sacred artworks. I transform these designs in a contemporary way that is more representative of my personal journey to find peace of mind within a society that is more concerned with the material than the spiritual. Beyond the realm of aesthetic pleasure, I hope that my work will encourage viewers to seek an enlightened path for themselves.
Open Access
Katherine Warren: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Warren, Katherine, artist
The artist's statement: My interest in painting organic subjects stems from my love of nature. Everything from a snow capped mountain to a simple flower - the beauty found in nature provides endless inspiration for my work. My art focuses on natural subjects abstracted into organic forms of bright color and flowing line. I make multiple sketches of a plant from various angles and proximities that I then layer together to form a final image. This combination of multiple aspects of the plant is a way to get a sense of a plant in its entirety, while still highlighting certain characteristics of interest. Each plant that I choose to paint has a particular unique element that I wish to emphasize. Whether it be the papery texture of a poppy petal, or the stripped patterning of a passionflower, each plant has a particular component of beauty that I bring to life. The fluid line and saturated hues of my pieces work together to reveal the simple beauty of nature.
Open Access
Riley Lovato: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Lovato, Riley, artist
The artist's statement: What you'll find in this room is a select sampling of my work from my time spent here at Colorado State University. My time inside the art program has varied wildly, from studying Graphic Design, to Drawing, to finally finishing this semester with a BFA in Painting. Outside of the program, I finished the second degree of my double major in History in 2011. All of this growing experience and knowledge has built upon itself to shape my art, and what I find important about it. I make art is for the average viewer of my generation. Somebody who may not be well versed in art history, and may not recognize the rigorous process it can take to produce a polished result. We grew up in a world where we are constantly bombarded with flashy imagery, movie posters, and bright media. If something I've created can hold a contemporary viewer's attention for even a few moments, then I've achieved my goal. I push for capturing a sense of drama. Often, I exaggerate color, light, or contrast in order to give my work a powerful appearance which is intended to make it stand out. Very few of my pieces will sit inconspicuously on a wall. What I enjoy most however, is learning the many ways a viewer can project their own story of meaning onto an artwork. Some of my pieces take advantage of this, meant to be interpreted many different ways depending on one's perspective or background. Partly for this reason (as well as my own quest for new and exciting things), there can be little commonality found in my subject matter. From the practical joke to the serious and political, my intent is that the viewer can find a story in each painting.
Open Access
Jaime Gastelle: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Gastelle, Jaime, artist
The artist's statement: Art is meaningful when it strikes a chord of emotion. This happens for me when I associate with an image in a particular way, whether it's through my own memory, or a projected experience. In the project, "Light of Your Life," the intention is to create imagery that is personal and to share it through art. The project involved asking people in the community to submit photos of something that brings "light into their lives." From the beginning, I wanted this to be about the interactions between an artist, the art, and the viewers. I want to provide a medium for the stories of individuals to be cherished. Also, to connect these stories in unity and understanding because despite our seemingly vast differences in age, gender, backgrounds, etc... the paintings reflect humanity's extremely similar experiences. I chose to create these images with large splotches of color to signify the unity within all. I did this in a carefree fashion to create the sense of a fleeting moment, an experience, or a memory. The linear quality defines the individuality of each image. It provides the details for each photo that was submitted to be recognized. Another important aspect of this project is the participation. I have asked each of the participants to be involved in a discussion about the photos that they submitted and the impact they have through this art form. This will take place on Sunday, February 3rd, 2013 at 5:30 P.M. in the Mini Gallery.
Open Access
Jeremy A. Greene: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Greene, Jeremy A., artist
The artist's statement: I paint beautiful things for people to look at. The world is too dull a place, and I am bringing a level of excitement to the table that is unparalleled by any computer or the idea of mass production. My paintings are best viewed as a whole from a distance, however, at a close range they come to life with activity. This creates an imbalance in the force and truly reflects how I see the world. It is also very confusing to look at, so I ask that the pieces be viewed from about 10' away, and again from about 1' or 2'. After both have been done you will understand. In my painting career, which has spanned over a decade now, I have been painting in a way that brings humor to the heart. There are strange things going on in my work, but that's the only hint you get. I make the work I do for therapeutic reasons: to keep myself from freaking out. In a world where everything is confusing to me, painting is a way for me to capture what I might have lost. I am capturing contemporary life and eschewing it in a way that brings traditional methods of making art into a new light. I use color to convey the deep emotions that my paintings express. I entangle my subject matter in a paradoxical way with the bright colors I use, making a statement on the fucked up world we live in. Pink is my most frequently used color, and that's funny to me due to the fact that it makes most uncomfortable. I expect my viewers to fall in love with my work or be bothered by it, due to the areas of intense activity. My work makes love to your mind in ways that can't be understood. My canvases are even built in a haphazard way, which helps in portraying the message that you are seeing a glimpse of time through the eyes of a survivor of a Traumatic Brain Injury. I build my canvases quickly so that I do not forget my idea; I paint quickly for the same reason. I also work on surfaces I find, which is perfect for instant expression.
Open Access
Luke Oursland: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Oursland, Luke, artist
The artist's statement: My work represents my interest in the people, places, and objects that surround me. I strive for a sense of truth and accuracy in what I depict, and for this reason I work directly from life. The unexpected beauty that can be found, even in the most ordinary objects, is something that I hope to convey. Watercolor is my medium of choice because it gives me the ability to create realistic images of what I see, while remaining obviously hand done. This gives my work a fidelity to nature, while also exhibiting a human quality. The small scale of my work caters to the sense of the objects and places depicted; they are often overlooked, but when considered, reward the viewer with their interesting and often beautiful qualities.
Open Access
Bethanie Pack: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Pack, Bethanie, artist
The artist's statement: This body of work investigates my own identity and the identities of strangers. My sense of self is profoundly impacted by the relationships in my life, in both a positive and negative light. For example, my identity in relation to my mother is fraught with sentimentality, love, and the constant quest for approval. In relation to my boyfriend, it is overwhelmed with a sense of piety, lament, and a desire to rescue him, even when that compassion becomes self-destructive. In order to address the sentimental and nurturing aspects that are imprinted within me, I created paintings using family photos, floral fabrics, and lace that are indicative of the domestic. Additionally, these paintings are comfortably scaled to evoke a sense of the familial. Moving beyond myself as the subject, I then created postcards which allowed complete strangers to anonymously respond to a specific prompt about their identity. The responses were mailed back to me. The prompts included: describe a moment when you felt the most emotion, and describe a defining moment of your life. Interestingly, all the responses I received revolved around a relationship with another person, even though the prompts asked the participant to focus on themselves. Along with traditional painting, I utilized sanding techniques, collage, and line drawing. In the paintings about strangers, I also incorporated their handwriting from the responses. My slow process of building up each layer, and then sometimes sanding it away, creates a very unsettling space to dissect and digest the various aspects of either mine of someone else's sense of self. It is the moments between the layers, and the physical act of sanding away that truly speaks to the anxiety I feel for capturing and addressing the complexity of identity. Each layer fights with the others for a defining moment. Some contain an apparent tentativeness. These combatting layers embody the psychologically progressive and destructive layers that construct a sense of identity. Through this process, I find that identity is convoluted and complex, shifting through time and place, and fluctuating based on relationships. The importance of relationship reflective within the abstract pieces embodies a feeling, a moment, an emotion. They provide a platform for the viewer to experience empathy for another, what I believe to be the height of human experience and relational identity. Through the process of defining my identity, as well as learning about how strangers briefly define their own identities, I have come to the conclusion that identity is not autonomous or self-sufficient, but rather contingent upon our interactions and relations with others.
Open Access
Jenna Phillips: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Phillips, Jenna, artist
Open Access
Sarah Bott: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Bott, Sarah, artist
The artist's statement: This series presents landscapes in abstract form with the ideas of philosopher Immanuel Kant behind them. The theory of "free play" developed by Kant can be described as aesthetic pleasure that is caused when the mind goes back and forth between imagination and understanding. This gives understanding no concept and ultimately there is no determined end to this thought process. I am interested in these ideas in my own work. In my current series of landscape paintings I begin by abstracting maps and landscape imagery in order to imply dimension of mind beyond sense perception. I incorporate forms from nature because they are of the sublime, making the idea of them too massive to imagine. This is the perfect staging ground for free play. I begin with wood panels because of the material's literal connection to nature and the reference the grain patterns have with topography. I then combine three dimensional elements with flat plains and map imagery to create landscape spaces. Ultimately, rebelling against imitation of sense perception and using internalized motivation to achieve the formlessness of the sublime in nature.
Open Access
Lauren Hamilton: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Hamilton, Lauren, artist
The artist's statement: My current body of work has been an attempt to explore memories of various events, times, and places in my life that feel significant in some way. I generally experience a strong sense of anxiety surrounding the possibility of not being able to remember things as time goes on, so these works have been an attempt to capture the feelings and experiences I am afraid to lose. I explore these memories cerebrally and contemplate specific features that I remember very distinctly. This exploration allows me to reflect on the way I remember things visually versus the way things actually appeared. This contrast is then reflected in the visual depiction of a memory. The key features are represented in a way that I remember them and visualize them in my mind, and the rest of the elements that make up the memory then become disconnected and less important. For example, the mountains that captivated me on a distinctive drive through Montana might be extremely large in scale while the surrounding area-the grasslands and the road itself-fade into obscurity, without the attention to detail or the high chroma handling of paint.
Open Access
Krystin Gutierrez: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Gutierrez, Krystin, artist
The artist's statement: Exploring the concepts of place, time, and space my work investigates the fluid continuums existing in between them. Tactile, spatial, and built up of multiple layers, my work is an allusion to a memory. A physicality of a fleeting thought, these pieces represent my attempts in preserving and documenting a specific moment before it has passed. I am captivated by the passage of time and the way in which we as people interact with and influence our environments. I believe we are constantly constructing our own unique and individualized realities. Translating a vast web of experiences, phrases, and textures into my own personal language, my work is an explorative and intuitive accumulation of lines, gestural and textural marks, and spills created with relatively uncontrollable mediums. Piecing together these drawn elements with collaged images and found objects, I create works that are largely process based and continue to develop and evolve over time. An immersive personal history and visual narrative, each piece yearns for contemplative investigation. Intimate and explorative, my art is a window into the textural, spatial, humorous, precise, and experiential moments that comprise my reality.
Open Access
Morgan Bargine: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Bargine, Morgan, artist
The artist's statement: My recent work investigates the spontaneity of human relationships, and the value that these relationships have on us personally. Every day we go through our life meeting people in different places at different times, and sometimes these relationships grow to change our life thereafter. Some call it fate, but I like to think that certain events in our life, and the choices we make, bring us to certain places for a reason. Kismet is a documentation and interpretation of my parent's life, and my own. Throughout the process of reinventing family photographs in paint, I have learned to understand them as individuals of a revolutionary time with many circumstances. However, without their finding each other - a seeming act of fate -- I simply wouldn't be. Secondly my work embodies how we relate color to a specific era in time. There is reasoning in this association. Our whole life is depicted in color, but my work focuses on emphasizing the "feeling" that we get with color, and the history that it holds.
Open Access
Katie Smith: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Smith, Katie, artist
The artist's statement: In a painting, a major goal of mine is to capture a mundane situation and make it interesting and beautiful. It is the unassuming relationships between people, and the excitement or sometimes lack thereof in human interactions that I find potentially interesting. These moments are generally unnoticeable, but by translating the image into a painting and taking liberties with color, light, and pattern, I am able to make the beauty of the situation the focus. I try to create interest in these situations not only by capturing an image in which the narrative is exciting, but also by making the image visually interesting through use of color and texture. I want the colors to challenge what you expect colors to do, and the textures and patterns to decorate an otherwise mundane image. I might exaggerate color and use pattern that is not actually there. Formally, I would like the shapes, colors and patterns to stand on their own, while also highlighting a narrative. I would like the viewer to be able to really consider the people in my paintings in a way that they would not be able to do if they had run into the situation off the canvas. They can stare at the painting for a time that would not be allowed in real life; they can digest the situation, and come to an understanding of the people in it. Then, ultimately, with the help of color and pattern they can see the beauty in an everyday situation.
Open Access
Beatrice Rudolph: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Rudolph, Beatrice, artist
The artist's statement: My love for horses, birds and the natural world has dominated my work until recently, when I found myself drawn to a subject I would not have normally investigated. Watching my father suffer and die of ALS, compounded by personally experiencing a series of abnormal illnesses forced me to examine the topic of disease. Because of these events, medication has become an integral part of my life. However, I find this in conflict with my kinship with animals, who had to be manipulated and abused to develop medicines that help myself and many others survive. This led me to examine animal testing and drug advertising in my work. The portrait series I painted is of my father. It is meant to depict in an abstracted way the stages of ALS as he lost motor function, and in a way, who he was. These paintings are small and intimate. I used a portrait format to capture his likeness and personality because as he suffered from the disease, he not only became physically weaker, but his personality seemed to diminish. By gradually restricting my range of motion and eventually switching to painting with my non-dominant hand, I hoped to better understand what he had gone through. It opened my eyes to the level of frustration that he must have experienced, as the neurodegenerative disease took over. The drug advertisement series is based on my own personal experiences. These paintings resemble a style often used in the early 1900's, where the connection between the selected imagery and the text was often unclear to the audience. The compositions were simple, with limited backgrounds and often a single figure, relying heavily on text to convey their meaning. The format seemed perfect to display the contradiction of my need for medication and my love for animals, because the advertisements themselves seemed to be contradictory. These pieces are my way of sharing my coming-to-terms with the reality of my existence. I continued my investigation into animal testing by creating works that demonstrate the connection between the tests conducted and the reality of the human experience. The diptych is based on a dark-light box test and the circular piece on an elevated zero maze test. Both rely on using a mouse's aversion to light as a parallel to depression in humans. By drawing attention to this through color and other emotionally loaded devices, I hope to start a conversation about the validity of tests like these.
Open Access
Emily Pillard: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Pillard, Emily, artist
The artist's statement: There are a lot of things in the natural world that children marvel at, yet adults pass by because they have lost their sense of wonder and fascination with the world around them. In today's society with more and more technology finding its way into our lives, I believe it's important to be aware of the beauty in the natural world. I make paintings that try to address this loss and attempt to evoke a sense of child-like wonder in the viewer. I focus on color saturation and abstracted forms to try and make the paintings feel as if they are being viewed through a child's eyes. My paintings directly address personal experiences and memories from my childhood. I use old photographs of myself and of my sisters collaging those images with various places to create memory-like scenarios. Part of the nostalgia comes from the way memories exist in my mind, our feelings impact the way we remember things and therefore memories from my youth exist from the point of view of a child. This is what I attempt to depict in my paintings, not the way things really are, but the way I remember them as a child, the world seemed bigger and more colorful and more wondrous than how I see it now. Often I do this by abstracting certain shapes and manipulating the colors. The photographic elements also add to the dream-like appearance because of their inherent nostalgic qualities.
Open Access
Kestly Miller: capstone
(Colorado State University. Libraries, 2015) Miller, Kestly, artist
The artist's statement: I am a seeker. I am interested in the small moments that reflect my awe and appreciation of the natural world. With a background and interest in science, I am always curious; searching, exploring and seeing things like a child with fresh eyes and appreciation for the detail. By dissecting and investigating the world around me, I want to capture the timeless elegance of the micro and the macro. This approach of discovery and understanding are practices I share with both artists and scientists alike. Profoundly strange and beautiful ideas offered through concepts like quantum physics and properties of the elements find a visual presence throughout my work. My goal is to express the raw emotion experienced in these small, often overlooked, moments. I want others to consider the role visual art plays within the translation of scientific information. The lessons I have learned through the study of science never felt truly real or applicable until I applied them to the visual language. By utilizing tools used to experiment, document and investigate, a visual representation can move beyond that which only our eyes and hands can identify. The process, use of materials and fieldwork are as important than the final piece itself. Much of these concepts derived from the ideas of time and place. Everything is constantly moving and evolving. Painting is a path of self-exploration and understanding. The investigation and exploration aspects will continually keep me seeking, knowing that I will never have all of the answers. By making my experiences and processes visual, they become a physical object that others can then respond to, facilitating a dialog. In the end, I believe this creativity is my strongest desire to connect the self with the infinite possibilities of the imagination.

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