Final Project Proposal

Wabi-sabi is a Japanese term whose definition can be roughly summarized to finding character in imperfection. As someone whose artwork has aways been too focused on sharpness, detail, and perfection, I would like to explore this idea in my final project as I find my work often loses character in favor of the technical aspects. I wish to create something with more complexity.

Another idea I would like to execute is to combine graphic design with my photography. I used to do a lot of surrealist digital collages, mostly with images I had compiled from others and some of my own photography, and I am considering doing a digital collage with all of my own work. Specifically, I want to create distorted images of self, inspired by images such as the ones attached below.

Surrealism has a lot of meaning to me. It is something that I have loved and has brought happiness to me since my childhood. I have also always been very intrigued by eyes, but have had a lot of trouble making eye contact with others due to my disorder. I also used to have a lot of anxiety about people looking at me, which I have overcome over the years. I combined something I feared with something I love to create my imagery, which aims to convey a feeling of unrest.

Cover image: Mateus Porto

A young, Brazillian-American photographer located in Brooklyn who is mainly known for photos with wide depth of field and heavy noise. Porto studied photography at Parsons in New York City.

Afterlove

Smoking Sarge

Emilio Villalba

An artist native to Southern California, Villalba is known for his oil paintings that abstract the human form.  Villalba received his BFA from the Art Institute of California in 2006, and his MFA in Painting from the Academy of Art University in 2011.

Grandpa Cyclops

Grandma Cyclops

Beautiful Mutants, Mark Mothersbaugh

Mark Mothersbaugh is the lead singer and keyboardist of the band DEVO. He focused on more artistic pursuits later on in life, creating the Beautiful Mutants collection, a multimedia series of mirrored and combined objects and images.

Stranger No. 46

Stranger No. 42

Sam Schavlev

Sam Schavlev is a Moscow-based makeup artist, known for his mutated images of his subjects. Every portrait he takes, he edits features in the aim to make the viewer question their perspective.