For my thesis project I plan on exploring feelings of anxiety and the overwhelming nature of thoughts. Anxiety is something that I have been dealing with lately. It has become something that I have wanted to explore and better express in my art not only as a way for me to better understand and deal with these feelings but also to make other people more aware and give them a better understanding of anxiety as a condition and how it feels and works. My imagery will deal with both elements of general as well as social anxiety. The work would be figurative and would consist of mainly human imagery. Using the human body to express my ideas and working with distorting and morphing figures, finding hidden forms and ideas of duality making things that are both themselves and something else. I use human imagery mainly in my work to relate to people and to portray human emotions . The way we experience the world is through our bodies. The human body is the one thing that all people can really relate to. A simple expression on a face for example can relay more information, express more emotion and be recognized more clearly than any abstract painting.

I will be using a variety of different mediums and techniques which may include but are not limited to colored pencil, pen and ink, ball point pen, acrylic paint, watercolor, photography and will include both colored and black and white elements. I will bring some of these different elements together in each of the pieces. I plan on using these mediums in a way that focuses more on making the mediums work together and using their qualities to contribute to the piece as a whole rather than having them stand out as individual mediums. I hope to gain a better understanding of the mediums and thereby not feel myself hindered by their limitations.

The process of creating these mixed media pieces will involves the use of both planned elements and random or spontaneous ones. Starting off with the planned elements of the image and working spontaneously from there to complete the image and see what evolves. I’ve been working on this process lately in my sketchbook. First I start with a good idea of a main figure or element. Once I have completed that step I take some time to look over the piece and then start to work spontaneously from there until I fill the page. I tend not to work from finished sketches that have every element accounted for as I feel they limit the possibilities of the piece. I like to leave room to improvise and discover things as I go along. I find this process leads to more interesting and unexpected compositions that can’t really be achieved by planning everything out.

Anxiety is the main inspiration for the process. One of the things that interested me in exploring anxiety was just thinking about how the mind can go off on so many different often irrational tangents from one logical thought or worry. The idea of starting with one logical thought or concern which then grows and branches into irrational overwhelming fears and worries parallels the process that I am using to create these pieces. The planned and logical beginnings of the pieces become the catalyst for the unplanned or irrational elements.

The motivation for the project is my interest in exploring my sketchbook work. In my sketchbook I tend to experiment with different mediums and techniques and work towards creating a unified piece. I noticed that I was able to try a lot more things in my sketchbook than in my regular work. For some reason I feel safer and more opened to experiment. I’ve been working on trying to take the style out of my sketchbook and put it into my regular work I have found this to be a challenging process because it becomes difficult not to loose the feeling of being able to explore without always worrying about the consequence or the final outcome. I think that my sketchbooks represents my mind and how I am free to think and explore ideas without the fear of being judged. I think that the reason I can feel more opened and free in my sketchbook is the idea that a sketchbook can be closed and can be considered like diary as something personal that isn’t necessarily meant to be looked at by other people. So by taking my work out of my sketch book with this project I hope to learn to take more risks with my work and to stop worrying so much about the final outcome in order to grow as artist.

I have been influenced by the works of Salvador Dali and the ideas of surrealism. I have always been attracted by surrealism even before I knew of it’s existence. My work seems to evolve in that direction and fit into that category. I think that what attracts me the most is the idea of being able to create art and at the same time getting a chance to explore my own mind and learn about myself through the art that I create. The journals of the photographer Dan Eldon have also influenced me and provided me with new ways of approaching and thinking about my own sketchbook work. The works of Pablo Picasso and the ideas of cubism, the compositions and color palettes of Diego Rivera and other Mexican muralist have also influenced my work. I would also plan to take closer look at and research other artist like Francis Bacon, Francesco Clemente, Peter Beard and other artist that might give me new ideas and offer new ways to approach my work.

The final form the project will take is something that might evolve throughout with experimentation, research and the inherent spontaneous nature of the process. But for now I am thinking of creating 10 pieces of art work that relate to each other in process and subject matter and will be around 11x 17 inches size. I plan on showing the original art as framed pieces but I might also make these images into a book to provide another more personal element to the work.