Print making

I have been taking a summer class at UNCA, and it has been pretty intense.  But I love it.  I dream about it.  In many ways I needed another art project to fill the hole my show left.  But now I am working on my finial project for the class, and since my trip out west is still on the brain, insipration struck.

I am taking all of the beautiful landscape pictures that I have, with all of the arm outstreched pictures and melding the two.  I have complete control over the background and the figures.  I can put whoever I want in the pictures with Buffalo or a coyote.  It is fun recreating a trip that did not happen in the way my prints say that it did.  For example did you know that we saw a coyote run on water?  Or that Aly stood nest to a Buffalo and her baby?  So what if it did not happen, I see it on my mind and boom there it is.  It is pretty amazing to know that I can make as many of these beauties as I want.  I am going to take Print Making 2 next semester, and not ceramics 3.  

The only bad thing about this class?  The constant scraping and drawing is taking a toll on my hand.  It will not stop shaking and when working on details that is a bad thing.  It just takes some breathing and hand clenching and it subsides.

 

Out West Day 1

So, I guess I should start by saying that I went out west this summer with two of my best friends.  I needed to go out west to visit a grad school, and I have always wanted to take a road trip.  My parents have always been supportive of this, and now that college is almost over and I have yet to have my grand adventure, I wanted to take it with the women who have meant the most to me over my college life.  

The destination? Boulder Colorado to visit Naropa University, and to have as many adventures as possible together before the three of us go our separate ways for grad school.  The trip encompassed 12 days, over 1500 miles and 14 states.  It was amazing.

Day 1: Sunday May 18th, 2008

So we left Wilkes-by-god-county around 1.  Dad went over everything with the three of us on the RV one last time, packed up and then got lunch with the wonderful parents before setting out.  I drove the whole time, and we made it to Frankfort Kentucky before nightfall and stayed the night in the Wal-Mart.  The day was just driving, singing, talking and laughing.

Before we left, in front of the coffee house with Dad.

During the trip, we each had a new name for the RV.  Aly called her TT, Kristen, Gert and I called her Bessie.  We all had ended with a love/hate relationship with her.

Livvie, the Driver and Trip Planner

Aly, the Navigator and Token Gay

Kristen- the 'samitch' maker and shower whore

Senior Show Movie

I have always had a fascination with personality traits, understanding them, accepting them, rejoicing in the flaws and quirks that make and individual, so it was natural for me to be drawn to portraits.  When I studied the self-portraits of Durer, Rembrandt and Van Gogh I saw how each portrait showed a new aspect of the artist, showing an evolution of the art and their identity.  I wanted to take a new approach to what a portrait contains, I wanted to show who the person really it and not just a physical representation.

The inspiration for this show, or at least the beginning idea, came from life.  In high school I had issues with people judging me based on my appearance or just one facet of my personality.  In creating a show that literally breaks down a personality into single traits, I needed a way to convey that a person is more than just one characteristic, so the puzzle pieces became a huge part of my message.

Each piece is a unique part of the person, a way to convey who they are and not just what the world always sees.  It is a small pieces of a person that creates the whole.  With each new piece, a different aspect, a different piece of the puzzle, needed to be captured.  Due to the separation of the personality, a duality is created that exists within each person.  With myself I used body image as a way to possesses my own duality with my looks.  The two pieces, I Am Ugly and I Am Beautiful, serve to create a tension between beauty and ugliness.  And it is the duality that people find a balance, a balance that makes them whole.

Thanks, 

Olivia Shumate