My artwork has always focused on surreal authentic fantasy, bringing even
cartoon characters to raw realism. From taking simple movie characters and giving
them my twist on them to creating monsters from my head I’ve always had a distinct
style. I have always been changing it too, recently been working on watercolor
portraits of taking paint to outline the features of a persons face. But my artwork
doesn’t just focus on drawing and painting but moves on to short stories, poetry,
film making, and acting. For what I am doing now is tying all of these topics, these
talents of mine into one large project, my senior thesis. Where I am making a movie
and telling a love story in a different perspective.
I am focusing on the color purple for my thesis for I have discovered it’s deep
meaning is Magic Mystery and the seeking of Spiritual balance, I feel those elements
play a large role in my Thesis.
For my Themes you could say I usually change it up as much as I can with my
artwork, but I am a fan of fantasy. That would be the biggest theme I have through
out work. I like doing things off of movies or making up back-story for my work in
order to give it much more depth and emotion. For my thesis purple is one of my
major themes. The reason is that Purple has been known to express Magic, Mystery,
and supernatural beings. It fits my piece and my personality very well, but I am also
a fan of Love, Fate, and Risk. Those themes are also very popular in my thesis,
manly because my Thesis is a love story that doesn’t really know it. It is only at the
end that the main character realizes that he is in Love. In order to help realize that
we need to shot Risk, Fate, and mystery as much as possible to get the true
meanings of his relationship with his best friend who could be more.
My artistic values are more of words that would be present in deep thinking
movies and mysteries. I am a huge fan of Twist endings; a large majority of my
stories usually have a twist ending or a very large Epiphany near the end. As does
my Thesis, where my main character realizes he’s in love. I truly love stories that
start off very confusing and perplexing and as the movie goes on they begin to make
sense. Plus when movies make fantasy and make it realistic or bring it into the
present world I am a huge fan of. With my thesis I tie in a very large fantasy element
and I start it off very confusing and slowly bring clarity to the audience. My artistic
values usually fantasy with surreal elements through out.
My creation process is very different from many, for my senior thesis it was
very extensive. I spent last summer writing the whole piece, it originally had time
travel wrapped in it but I had to cut it out. But the process of making Rasden
Cromwell a giant hedgehog I relied on my drawings. Last summer I tested myself
drawing something really cute and adorable and making it very creepy and
disturbing. I looked up adorable animals and came upon a hedgehog, and that’s how
I came up with this character. Through out this process I watched many
inspirational movies and continued editing. I changed my script a total of four
times, and it’s all for the best. But even changing Rasden Cromwell’s design has
been part of the creation process. From making him a really fancy looking
Hedgehog at first to making him a disturbing freighting giant creature has changed
his character completely.
Most of my influences have been books and movies; I love watching and
reading fantasy and fictional works. For movies the movie Jaws and Donnie Darko
were a huge inspiration to this piece. For books I would say Princess Bride trying to
discover how a love story actually works. I also use my numerous drawings for
inspiration, working on trying to find something in something I have already
created.