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Advisor: Howardena Pindell
My passion for art developed at an early age. I was fortunate enough to be introduced to fine arts as a young girl due to my paternal grandfather being an artist himself. His art style varied greatly from illustrating children’s books to editing high profile magazines to just painting for friends and family. I had always had a particular interest in his ability to create paintings that so accurately portrayed whoever was his subject and being able to capture their likeness in what seemed to be such an effortless way. This sparked my admiration for portraiture and realism as a whole.
As an artist myself, I followed in my grandfather’s footsteps. I have never had one sole art style; while I would say that ceramics is my favorite medium, I also have a deep rooted love for painting, drawing, and digital design. My love for painting developed over this past year, especially after taking a life painting course while at Stony Brook University. This particular course pushed me to paint people in a way that I never had previously, and I found that I genuinely enjoyed it. Because of this, I decided to focus around portraiture for my Spring 2023 independent study.
My first subjects were my two dogs, Bean and Mochi. My dogs mean the world to me, and being able to capture their personalities in these paintings was both challenging yet so rewarding. My English Bulldog, Bean, is a very curious and somewhat anxious girl, while my pug, Mochi, is very silly and in-your-face, hence my painting of her being so close-up.
Title: Bean, Date: March 2023, Dimensions: 24 x 18 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Title: Mochi, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 20 x 20 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
I did three paintings featuring several of my favorite female artists. I chose Lady Gaga, SZA, and Cardi B as my subjects because I admire each of them for their originality, talent, and outspokenness. I have many male artists that I also enjoy but I wanted to choose these female artists to capture their beauty as well as showcase artists who embody female empowerment.
Title: Stefani, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 16 x 20 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Title: Solána, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 16 x 20 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Title: Belcalis, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 16 x 20 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
I chose to do a self-portrait for my final painting because I genuinely enjoy painting with a mirror. My shirt in the painting is left unfinished, hence the title, to showcase how I am not yet finished growing as an artist, nor will I ever be. The distraught expression on my face embodies the struggles I have and will continue to face as a growing artist.
Title: Unfinished, Date: May 2023, Dimensions: 16 x 20 inches, Medium: Acrylic on canvas
I am proud of the artist I have become and I am so excited to see how I grow further down the line. I never want to be a version of myself that isn’t creating art.
Author Archives: Maxine Pitaro
Max Pitaro
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Advisor: Toby Buonagurio
I had no clear plan as to what direction I wanted to go in when starting my independent study. The only thing that I knew for sure was that I wanted to create something that represented my personality as well as my passions. I sometimes find myself not taking my own art seriously because I tend to lean towards creating more “cute” subject matter, but I wanted to show the contrast between cuteness and intricacy in my pieces. This desire is what led me to mashing together two of my favorite things: food and animals.
Every aspect of my sculptures are intricate, ranging from each hand-rolled grain of rice on my sculpted sushi to the meticulously carved strawberries on my cake piece. Opposite the complex nature of the food, I created carefully carved animals that are, in my opinion, extremely cute. Cuteness has played a role in my life for as long as I can remember and it was something that was crucial for me to add to my independent study sculptures. To add another fun element to my artworks, I decided to make their titles a bit comical with the cake being titled “Strawbeary Shortcake” and the bento/ramen “Yakisobear,” a play-on-words of “yakisoba,” another Japanese dish.
I am so proud of the sculptures that I produced for my independent study and I am incredibly excited to continue my series of cute food art. I plan to create several more artworks in this style and to continue improving my skills.
Title: Strawbeary Shortcake, Date: October 2022, Dimensions: 12 x 11 x 11 inches
Title: Yakisobear, Date: December 2022, Dimensions: 7 x 22 x 12 inches
