A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Alfred University
Habitation By Kathryn Alley
In partial fulfillment of The requirements for
The Alfred University Honors Program
May 8, 2021
Under the Supervision of:
Chair: Lydia McCarthy, Associate Professor of Photography Committee Members:
Stephanie McMahon, Professor of Painting and Drawing Angie To, Associate Professor of Foundations
Table of Contents
Artist Statement ...3
Photography Practice...4
Early Influences...4
Exploring Deeper Concepts...7
Creating Personal Work...9
Painting Practice...10
Cats As Subject...10
Online Photo-References...12
Artistic Influences...13
Constructing Spaces In Contemporary Context...17
Making Connections Between Mediums...19
Technical Similarities...19
Conceptual Relationships...20
Conclusion...21
Image Catalog...22
Bibliography...37
Artist Statement
I enter into resonance with the world around me and the worlds that I construct through painting and photography. My photographs capture the exterior space I exist in presently while my paintings depict interior spaces that I wish to exist in. I capture romanticized landscapes and build safe domestic homes. While some environments are sweet and others are melancholic, there is an underlying tension. Working between intimate and expansive scales, I represent the mundane through my desire to transcend it.
My photographs both document and abstract the spaces and time that I exist in. My subject matter is elemental and formal. I begin by choosing a location. I gravitate towards the idealized American landscapes of western New York. I follow my intuition and capture patterns in tree branches, movement in water, repetition in foliage, and light in natural beams. The acts of wandering and observing are the focus of my practice. Through these scenes of loneliness, quietness, and subtleness, I contend with my own longing and restlessness.
My paintings are an investigation of constructed spaces that use the housecat as a motif. Using photo references, I build a space for these cats to exist in – whether it be a cozy bedroom or a scenic window-still. I use color to communicate light and mood which results in vibrant, saturated compositions. Though exaggerated, these spaces are comfortable, intimate, and familiar. The cat represents independence, ease, and solitude. Each cat has its own personality and acts as a stand-in for human emotion. By creating a narrative for each space, I communicate my own obsession and admiration for cats and reaffirm their cliché presence in contemporary
culture. The act of painting also serves as an escape as I am able to create the relaxing and safe spaces I long for.
Photography Practice Early Influences
Through photography, I am deeply connected to the landscape. What I can find out in the world feels exceedingly more interesting than what I can create in the studio. My love and appreciation for nature started as a child when my parents encouraged me to play outside. I explored my family’s large, wooded yard with our dog, often times pretending I was in a jungle.
When I was old enough to ride my bike around our neighborhood by myself, I found a nearby creek surrounded by trees and stone ledges that became my favorite place to visit by myself. I noticed how the water flow changed with every rainfall and searched for rocks with interesting fossils. There was always something new to see.
The first artist whose work resonated with me was Ansel Adams. His expansive landscapes are easy to get lost in – Adams was able to pack so much depth and detail into his black-and-white silver gelatin prints that demonstrated a high-level of technical expertise.
Traveling and exploring national parks, especially Yosemite, was central to Adams’
practice as he sought out beautiful vistas and translated them into satisfying and dramatic compositions. To me, Adams’ work offers an alluring and peaceful actuality that is almost
Ansel Adams, Cathedral Peak and Lake (1938)
divine in quality because of how perfect and beautiful the landscapes are.
I have always had the desire to photograph a landscape as breathtaking as the American west during the first half of the 20th century. However, I am not in the American west during the early 20th century, but instead I am in upstate New York during the early 21st century. I learned that I did not have to be in a worldwide-adored national park to create interesting photographs. I could explore the environment immediately around me and find beauty. Perhaps that beauty is not as obvious as it is in a national park, but the act of looking for it allows me to channel the same energy I had as a child playing outside.
When I began shooting 35mm film in my sophomore year, I drew inspiration from the New Topographics photographers. This group of photographers, who came to prominence in the 1970s, are known for capturing banal scenes, including industrial sites and suburban sprawls.1 Their work was about the relationship between man and nature and how the landscape was becoming altered and urbanized:
Their stark, beautifully printed images of this mundane but oddly fascinating topography was both a reflection of the increasingly suburbanized world around them, and a reaction to the tyranny of idealized landscape photography that elevated the natural and elemental.2
These photos worked against the traditional natural photography that Ansel Adams was highly praised for. I felt drawn to the idea that a photograph of an unremarkable landscape could be elevated to the status of fine art.
1 Sean O’Hagan, “New Topographics: photographs that find beauty in the banal,” The Guardian, February 8, 2010, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2010/feb/08/new-topographics-photographs-american-landscapes.
2 Ibid.
I took particular interest in Robert Adams who photographed the American west’s exploitation and degradation caused by people, rather than its beautiful, romanticized areas as Ansel Adams did. I also was interested in how Stephen Shore captured popular culture and commercialization in his busy, but well- composed color images. For some time, I created objective documentations of the landscape around me – including both natural environments and small towns.
This documentation practice kept me engaged in the medium for much of my time at Alfred. I explored the village and the surrounding area photographing houses, dumpsters, alleyways, sheds, parks, farms, and creeks, both on film and digitally. I strongly considered the elements and principles of design while shooting. I see the subjects I am photographing as forms, shapes, and patterns. This technically driven way of shooting allowed me to create formally satisfying images.
However, the work I was making was very explicit.
I struggled with the question, what am I describing with these photographs? The obvious answer was the upstate New York landscape, but what more was I communicating? How did my role as the artist play into these works? Working in primarily black-and- white, my work was lonely, sullen, and desolate. I
Robert Adams, New Vacation Homes, Georgetown (1976)
Stephen Shore, Broad Street, Regina, Saskatchewan, August 17, 1974 (1974)
aimed to insert more of my personal vision and experience into my photographs rather than creating a detached record of the landscape.
Exploring Deeper Concepts
Since I am very formally driven, I pushed myself to take my documentation work to a level of abstraction. I recall feedback from professor and mentor Whitney Hubbs telling me to make sure that I am not just taking a picture of something, but that I am making a photograph.
This advice matches a famous Ansel Adams quote that I have also kept at the front of my mind for many years: “You don’t take a photograph, you make it.”
This brought me to study the work of Minor White, who was good friends with Ansel Adams. White’s black-and-white landscape photographs go beyond documentation and take on a personal and spiritual approach that enters abstraction. Using the concept of “equivalence”, White’s photographs became visual metaphors for different states of being.3 White also sequenced
his images in a particular order to evoke different moods and emotions.4 Though his images are still realistic and contain concrete objects, they also go beyond the surface of the subject and open up the meditative possibilities of photography.5 To me, White’s work is mysterious, tranquil, and possesses a new emotional depth that is not present in New Topographics
3 Kathleen Kuiper, “Minor White,” Britannica, July 5, 2020, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Minor-White.
4 Ibid.
5 “Minor White,” International Center of Photography, accessed April 17, 2021, https://www.icp.org/browse/archive/constituents/minor-white?all/all/all/all/0.
Minor White, Two Barns, Dansville, New York (1955)
photographers’ work. I acknowledged the acts of exploring the landscape and seeking out photographs as a contemplative task for me.
I also drew inspiration from contemporary Japanese photographer Rinko Kawauchi. She photographs ordinary moments and everyday places with a dreamy perspective.6 Her images of elemental subjects are peaceful,
imaginative, temporal, divine, and simply beautiful.
Though Kawauchi works in color, her focus is on the light and forms in her photographs, not the subject matter which varies greatly. Sequencing and juxtaposition are also central to the presentation of her work as she creates dualism between photographs. Kawauchi’s work is poetic and soft in contrast to my work which is more dramatic. However, I learned the value of simpler compositions and resting places for my viewers from Kawauchi. I also learned how to view conventional, typical scenes with an extraordinary prospect.
Water is a reoccurring subject in my work, so I frequently revisit the work of Hiroshi
Sugimoto, especially his series Seascapes. In this body of work, Sugimoto photographs different bodies of water around the world using long exposure times.7 The composition is divided in two: half sea, half sky. The landscapes are very
6 “Rinko Kawauchi,” Artnet, accessed April 17, 2021, http://www.artnet.com/artists/rinko-kawauchi/.
7 “Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Seascapes,” Huxley-Parlour, accessed April 17, 2021, https://huxleyparlour.com/sugimotos- timeless-seascapes/.
Rinko Kawauchi, Untitled (2009)
Hiroshi Sugimoto, Caribbean Sea, Jamaica (1980)
minimalist and ambiguous, but the texture, volume, fluidity, and detail of the water is
communicated in his prints. These photographs capture a unique moment in time but are also timeless and nonspecific. I am interested in water as a dynamic and abstract form in my work.
Like Sugimoto, I observe each body of water differently and see every wave and ripple as distinctive and nonreplicable.
Creating Personal Work
The act of quiet observation is the focus of my photography practice. I choose locations in western New York, primarily parks or small towns I have never visited before and follow my intuition as I explore and make photographs. This activity allows me to enter into a serene yet focused headspace in which nothing but myself, my camera, and my environment matter. I am able to be fully immersed in the spaces I wandered.
My work became about my interactions and observations out-in-the-world rather than an objective documentation of the world. I still work in a very formal manner with the elements of line, repetition, texture, light, and pattern as prominent focuses in my photographs. Printing in black-and-white places emphasis on these formal elements; Color would be a distraction. Like Minor White and Rinko Kawauchi, I draw relationships between my photographs and display them in diptychs and triptychs. For example, ridges in sand look like ripples in water. Finding these connections encourages me to spend more time with each photograph and to consider my body of work as a whole.
My work also took on a personal and emotional quality. My high contrast, black-and- white photographs adopt a specific dramatic mood. Since they do not feature any people, there is always a sense of loneliness. Many of the landscapes are desolate and distant. Alternating
between pulled-back and up-close vantage points, these photographs are both vast and direct.
The locations are only specified as western New York – the rest of the environment remains indistinct and at times, it can be disorienting. Viewers may question if they are looking at a puddle or a lake, for instance.
Above all, these images communicate a sense of longing. Some of my photographs are melancholic because of their bleak and barren appearance, but others uphold a hopeful
undertone. I crave a beautiful and safe environment to dwell in. I aspire to recreate the
excitement and interest I had in the outdoors while playing outside as a child. I fulfill my desire to be constantly discovering, traversing, and creating with these photographs.
I have worked in both analog and digital photography simultaneously throughout my time at Alfred. All of the artists I previously mentioned shoot with large format film. I choose to shoot with 35mm film because the size of the camera allows me to be mobile and to explore my
environments without restraint. At the same time, 35mm allows me to have the unique qualities and intricacies of film that cannot be reproduced digitally. The film process is tactile, personal, and arguably more engaging to me.
I invite my viewers to explore the landscape through my perspective. I encourage you to participate in the work and find relationships between scenes. Consider what interests and intrigues you the most in the world around you.
Painting Practice Cats As Subject
At the start of the covid-19 pandemic in March 2020, Alfred University was forced to shut down and send all students back to their hometowns in order to reduce the spread of the
virus. This sudden change resulted in me moving back into my parents’ house and losing my studio space and physical art community. With social distancing measures and stay-at-home orders in place, it felt as if the only companionship I had for the next six months came from my cats. During this time when everything felt lonely, scary, bleak, and at times, apocalyptic, my parents’ four housecats were there with me – oblivious to everything that was happening outside of the house.
When I returned to Alfred in August for the fall semester of my senior year, I was ecstatic to have the facilities and resources in order to make quality art again. However, the state of the world was still uncertain, chaotic, and politically tense. Covid-19 was spreading far less rapidly in New York State but was still an undeniable threat to colleges staying open. Personally, I felt pressure to make the best art as fast as I could, in case the student body lost access to the studios.
During this stressful and unsettled time, I defaulted back to a comforting subject matter in my paintings – cats.
I am an artist who is very grounded in photography. Using my own photographs, I began painting cats in very saturated color palettes. My paintings contrast my black-and-white
photography practice in the sense of color. The environments these cats existed in varied. Some of my early studies included dense jungle scenes with fantasy elements, inspired by Post- Impressionist painter Henri Rousseau. Other paintings were graphic in quality with solidly colored, flat backgrounds behind unnaturally colored cats. The focus was originally heavily on cats as subject matter.
In order to push my paintings further conceptually, I realized that I also needed to place more focus on space and interaction. The spaces that these cats exist in need to be well-
developed and meaningful, and the cats must be connected to and engaged in their environment.
I wanted to do more than replicate photographs and paste cats onto canvases. In short, I needed to paint more than “just cats”. I asked myself the questions: What are you using these cats for?
What do you want to explore in painting with these cats? What are you painting without cats?
Online Photo-References
Since my cats were associated with being home, I gravitated towards domestic spaces. I continued to use my own photographs as references to build my paintings from, but as I kept working, I desired different residential spaces that I had not seen before. Social media, especially Instagram, became a valuable tool in finding photo-references.
On Instagram, I discovered a unique community that allowed me to combine my interest in analog photography and the cat as painting subject matter. There is an endless abundance of artists who capture their cats on film. I spent hours looking through the hashtag #catsonfilm, as well as two popular accounts that post only film photographs of cats, @cats_onfilm and
@gatitos_analogos. These images served as inspiration for different poses of cats as well as different environments. Many of these photographs already depicted cats in domestic spaces including personal gardens, apartment window-stills, and cozy beds.
Another odd, but expressive, area of Instagram that I frequently visited as a resource was cat meme pages. A meme is defined as “a cultural item in the form of an image, video, phrase, etc., that is spread via the internet and often altered in a creative or humorous way.”8 I found an endless supply of images of cats in funny situations. Some of these memes included captions and digital alterations while others were simply snapshots of cats making theatrical expressions with little or to context. I took inspiration from the personalities and presentations of these cats.
8 “Meme,” Dictionary.com, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.dictionary.com/browse/meme.
I complied all of my cat pictures together into a large archrival album. My process for each painting begins by choosing an image from this album. I start by picking either a cat, space, or interaction between cat and space that I would like to reproduce. Through pencil sketches, I build an environment and a narrative for my cat. I often work from multiple images, taking aspects from each that I like for my composition. Constructing space became the concentration of my painting practice. If I need more photo-references of specific objects, I will find them on Google Images. This often leads me to retailer websites such as Wayfair and IKEA, where I will go “shopping” for furniture to place in my paintings. The objects I chose to place in my paintings also work to create certain aesthetics. For example, if I want a room to have a vintage feel, I will choose antique furniture.
Artistic Influences
I researched how other painters depicted space and represented cats in their work. French Impressionist and Fauvist artist Henri Matisse is known for his varied subject matter and style across multiple mediums. I am attracted to Matisse’s paintings of interior spaces in which he reduces objects down to their most essential forms.9 Matisse uses flat expanses of bright color to construct surfaces, as well as line to clearly define objects and pattern to break up flat uniform areas.10 These paintings of interior spaces, that often depict tabletops and windows looking outdoors, utilize interesting perspectives that
9 “Henri Matisse,” MOMA, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.moma.org/artists/3832.
10 Ibid.
Henri Matisse, The Cat with Red Fish (1914)
physically make sense but at times feel disorienting because of Matisse’s clashing colors and wild patterns. I often recall the piece The Cat with Red Fish (1914) when considering balanced, yet vivid and exciting, compositions.
Nikki Maloof is a contemporary artist who also depicts constructed domestic spaces that often include tabletops, countertops, and cats. Like Matisse, Maloof’s work utilizes disorienting perspectives and vivid patterns. Her interior spaces are both familiar and strange as her subject matter includes contrasting objects, such as pets, dead fish, plants, and skulls. Through this figuration of imagined animals and spaces, Maloof conveys emotion.11 Her paintings express the somber and dispirited aspects of ordinary everyday
life.12 With a bright color palette and busy
compositions, Maloof describes her paintings as “equal parts joy and anxiety.”13 I appreciate how Maloof incorporates cats into her composition in a way that they are a part of the space.
Matisse’s and Maloof’s work allowed me to consider domestic interior spaces in my own vision. I have to the power to choose what goes into my spaces and what they look like. While I use photo-references,
I take initiative to change the color of walls or objects. I add my own decorative elements. I find opportunities to incorporate pattern, including stylized wood grain on a table or graphic shapes on a bedroom carpet.
11 “Nikki Maloof,” Artsy, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.artsy.net/artist/nikki-maloof.
12 “Nikki Maloof,” Jack Hanley Gallery, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.jackhanley.com/artists/nikki-maloof.
13 Maria Vogel, “Nikki Maloof’s Paintings Contain Equal Parts Joy And Anxiety,” Art of Choice, March 28, 2019, https://www.artofchoice.co/nikki-maloofs-paintings-contain-equal-parts-joy-and-anxiety/.
Nikki Maloof, Fresh Cuts (2019)
Sophie Vallance Cantor, a European contemporary painter, uses cats as subject matter to speak on anxiety. During a time when my own anxieties were heightened, her work deeply resonated with me. Cantor’s paintings are self-referential, as her cats act as vehicles for her emotions:
Cats have become the fundamental symbol within my paintings, their identity within the paintings is fluid and they can move from being the ultimate protector to being the manifestation of anxiety itself, they have become a vessel for more complex human emotions and a catharsis for dealing with them.14
These paintings, depicting stylized cats and jungle felines against solid backgrounds occasionally inscribed with text, are both whimsical and melancholic. Cantor says that the physical act of painting allows her to feel completely present
in the moment rather than distracted by anxieties of the past and the future.15 My painting practice serves a similar cathartic purpose for me as I am captivated by own feline characters. Though Cantor’s paintings are less about space, her thought-process and reasoning for painting cats inspired me and lead me to my own conclusions about my paintings.
14 Layla Leiman, “To Skin A Cat: In Conversation With Sophie Vallance Cantor,” Art Maze Mag, October 1, 2018, https://artmazemag.com/to-skin-a-cat-in-conversation-with-sophie-vallance-cantor/.
15 Ibid.
Sophie Vallance Cantor, Sleeping All Day, Crying All Night (2020)
I was also strongly influenced by two emerging artists on Instagram. Meg White, an MFA Candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, paints cats and fabric in simple compositions that become about light, shadow, and space.16 I admire White’s variation in color and brushstroke on flat surfaces and her incredible detail in whiskers and fur. She also uses the color white very skillfully in a way such that it
reflects the temperature and light in the space. My paintings are much more color-focused and saturated, but I appreciate the quiet moments in White’s work. The attention to detail indicates the level of care the artist has for the subject which is an idea I consider in my own work.
Alfie Caine, a London-based artist and musician, uses a vibrant color palette to paint residential interiors and exteriors.17 Caine has a strong sense of perspective and renders these living spaces in high detail. What inspired
me the most from this work was Caine’s representation of light with color. For example, lamps are painted with glowing oranges and night skies are painted with deep blues. These colors strongly influence the serenity and energy in each scene.
16 Meg White (@megg_white), “Meg White,” Instagram, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/megg_white/.
17 Alfie Caine (@alfie_caine), “Alfie Caine,” Instagram, accessed April 18, 2021, https://www.instagram.com/alfie_caine/.
Meg White, Through (2020)
Alfie Caine, Home From Work (2021)
Constructing Spaces In Contemporary Context
Deciding on a light source became an important part of constructing space in my own paintings. Determining this light source and its color also determined the mood of my paintings.
Warm oranges and yellow read as energetic and bright while cool greens and blues read as mellow and eerie. I studied various natural and artificial light sources and how they function and illuminate spaces. I found that many of the light sources I utilize serve the purpose of welcoming someone and making them feel comfortable such as in the case of a fireplace or a porch light.
Color became a powerful tool in creating intriguing atmospheres that were somber, lonely, pleasant, and inviting all at the same time.
No matter the mood, creating these spaces brought me a sense of peace. When I could not find the relaxing and safe space I longed for, I painted it. These places are familiar to me even though they do not exist off of the canvas. They are a home to me that is unaffected by the current stress and tension in the real world. They are comfortable spaces that one desires to return to after a long busy day. And in these spaces, there is always a companion waiting.
Painters like Nikki Maloof, Sophie Vallance Cantor, and Meg White are all examples of how a humorous subject can be painted in a serious manner. My paintings adopt the same energy – the cats are funny and playful by nature, but the spaces are painted with care and detailed concern. My vibrant color choices bring a lively, fun-loving energy. However, my cats are depicted by themselves most the time which evokes feelings of loneliness. In some scenarios, my cats are confrontational and looking directly at the viewer while in other places, they are gazing into another part of the composition, such as out the door or into a fireplace, with a sense of longing and mediation.
Including a cat in every single one of my paintings speaks on my own obsession and admiration of the animal, but it also fits into a larger contemporary context. For years, cats have circulated the internet as memes; For example,
“Tartar Sauce”, a dwarf cat with an underbite that appeared perpetually unhappy, became the internet sensation known as Grumpy Cat; or more recently, “Smudge”, the cat who made a displeased expression while sitting at his family’s dinner table and became a widely used reaction image. During the pandemic, I was not the only one who turned to my pets as a source of comfort. On the video-sharing app TikTok, new trends depicting household pets to certain music and sounds appear every week. Millions of users share videos of their pets, thinkingly highly enough of them that they are worth sharing with the world.
People share these pictures and videos of cats because they bring them joy. That is exactly what I want my paintings to do during a chaotic time period – offer viewers a relaxing place to take a break from the rest of the world with an animal that brings happiness and companionship. Cats are creatures with great balance and independent personalities. In a metaphorical sense, my painted cats provide a sense of stability and ease.
My paintings vary in scale from very small (8x10 inches) to very large (55x40 inches).
Since the spaces are personal and domestic, all of my paintings are intimate by default. Some require the viewer to get up close to enter into the space while others are large and immersive. I
“Smudge”. Source: Pinterest.com
“Grumpy Cat”. Source: Youtube.com
invite my viewers to pause the worries of the outside world and spend some time inside my paintings. Meet the cats and get to know them. Make yourself at home.
Making Connections Between Mediums Technical Similarities
My photography practice and painting practice take root from different parts of my life, explore different concepts, and take on different appearances. Sometimes it feels as if I am functioning as two artists at once – but I am one artist and all of this art is mine. The differences present in my work speak on the dualities and complexities of individual humans. Emotions and experiences are dynamic and ongoing. My work is a testament to this as it continues to develop.
Though, upon deeper examination and consideration, my work does share some commonalities between painting and photography.
In both mediums, I construct space. In my paintings, the construction is more apparent as I collage cats, furniture, and other objects from photo-references together into one composition.
In photography, I construct space by choosing where to point my lens and when to release my shutter. From the scenery surrounding me, I choose what parts to capture and what areas to crop out. My photographs are subjective; they are the view that I decide to share. This selectivity is an act of construction.
Along with space, the elements of light and texture are central to my practice. In painting, light is an important consideration that allows me to exaggerate colors and convey a mood. I also learned the value of creating physical texture with paint to better depict an object. For instance, my cats are painted with short, varied brushstrokes of thick paint to more accurately represent soft fur. With photography, I wait for bright sunny days that create harsh lighting and stark shadows. These conditions allow me to make photographs with high contrast and drama. Strong
lighting brings strong emphasis to my subjects. By shooting in black-and-white with high contrast, I bring the texture of my subjects to an impactful, eye-catching level.
Conceptual Relationships
Both my painting and photography practices serve as an outlet for human emotion. My personal sense of longing is present in all of my artwork. I long to photograph a beautiful landscape and I long to exist in a peaceful home. Generally speaking, I long for security and contentment. These works serve as an escape from the present situation where I do not have the feelings that I long for. While making photographs or painting, I am free from secular dilemmas or stressors. There is no pandemic, political tension, or overwhelming obligations present in my constructed spaces. My photographs and paintings offer a sense of ease and a space for solitude.
My emotions are present there but without greater context. I am restless in my present actual state, so I create the tranquil, composed state I desire.
All of my work is absent of people so there is an inherent feeling of loneliness. In my photographs, there is evidence of human interaction with the landscape. These tracks and traces encourage the viewer to reflect on their own relationship with the earth while no one else is present. This absence of others also recreates the feeling I had as a child while exploring my yard and neighborhood. There is a sense of possessiveness in discovering the scene just as it uniquely exists in that exact moment.
In my paintings, the cats function as stand-ins for humans and their emotions. They are complex with their own developed personalities. They interact with their spaces and long for companionship. They meditate and reflect as they stare into mirrors, gaze out windows, and
watch fireplaces and candles flicker. They need a place to rest and sleep as well. These cats are meant to be friends for the viewer, but they are also self-referential to the artist.
My paintings and photographs both deal with quotidian places. They depict the variable experience of life. My paintings investigate interior spaces and typical domestic life. My
photographs investigate external spaces and daily, ordinary views that may be underestimated in terms of their beauty. As I long for an idealized state of being, I work to transcend and elevate these mundane aspects of life into something exciting and interesting.
Conclusion
While my paintings and photographs relate in some ways, I still view them distinctly. As the world around me continues to change and I continue to grow as a person, my work will evolve and perhaps come even closer together. Right now, this project is incomplete. The work presented here is only the beginning. I am concluding my undergraduate career, but I will
continue to pursue these concepts, as well as other forms of artmaking, throughout the rest of my life. This is the Habitation I have created for myself at this time.
Image Catalog
Outward Inkjet Print 8.5 x 11 inches
Fracture Silver Gelatin Print
8 x 10 inches
Beyond Silver Gelatin Print
8 x 10 inches
Corrugate Silver Gelatin Print
8 x 10 inches
Lead
Silver Gelatin Print 8 x 10 inches
Ridged Silver Gelatin Print
8 x 10 inches
Follow Inkjet Print 8.5 x 11 inches
Unfixed Inkjet Print 8.5 x 11 inches
Wine Night Oil on canvas 35 x 45 inches
Bedroom (Cool) Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches
Bedroom (Warm) Oil on canvas 12 x 16 inches
Candlelit Oil on canvas 10 x 8 inches
Vanity Oil on canvas 55 x 40 inches
Porch Light Oil on canvas 55 x 40 inches
Fireplace Oil on canvas 48 x 24 inches
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