Sofia Claire Box: capstone

Abstract

The artist's statement: My artistic practice, ever evolving, takes on different topics depending on the medium. Within my graphic design practice, I like to create branding collateral and promotional materials that suit the individual client's vision. Within my physical artistic practice, I create art that evokes a desire for belonging by drawing on nostalgia and abstracts of humanity. I am not one to limit myself; I relish an opportunity to try something new and step out of my comfort zone. Within the realm of graphic design, my process looks as such: research; ideation; translate to digital; refine; and finalize. One of my favorite aspects of new projects is the research involved in the process. With each new client, it's important for me to understand the business of what they do so that I can create visual representations that accurately convey who the client/entity is. It's an opportunity for me to create new pathways for understanding communities that I have no part in naturally. It also allows me to be exposed to different artistic styles, ways of designing, or avenues of execution. The next phase, the ideation phase, is an ongoing aspect of my process. I'd like to say my process is linear, but there are times when, through visual translation, I need to do more research, ideating, or sketching to fully flesh something out. With translating to digital, this is purely taking the sketches I've outlined and recreating them in the appropriate programs, like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator. The last two steps, the refinement and finalization process are quite similar. When refining, I take the rough visual translation I created and mold it into something beautiful, aesthetic, and effective. The last step, finalization, consists of the very last touches I would make on a project to ensure continuity and quality. As an artist, I love being able to undulate between different mediums depending on the motivation I have. My formal artistic education taught me different methods of creation, including printmaking techniques like cyanotyping, linocutting, and lithography, whereas my literature education taught me creative expression through poetry and creative nonfiction. Being able to utilize both the written word and visual representation allows me to be fully expansive with my output and create meaningful, fulfilling pieces that are a true representation of the self. A lot of the materials I tend to use in my physical art include graphite, cyanotype, and ink. However, I'm moving in a space where mixing these materials with less conventional ones such as colored pencils and yarn are intriguing to me as well. For me, art is about creation and representation. It's a form of expression. It's a means of communication. It is beautiful, and it is ugly. At its core, it is human: just as nuanced as we and consistently evolving.