Artist Statement

Growing up here on Long Island I had two prominent art mentors; my grandfather and my uncle. One taught me to paint and the other taught me photography, both of them taught me to value expression. During my last years of high school and to this day I attend figure drawing classes at the Jeffrey K Fisher Drawing Studio in Smithtown. Freshman year I briefly attended The College of Saint Rose in Albany as a Forensic Psychology major and I spent the entire time in my dorm admiring the homework assignments of the Studio Art majors which were in the basement. I returned home and graduated with an Associates in Liberal Arts from Suffolk County Community College. During this time I worked at Michael’s Craft store where I became interested in one of the most popular products, plastic flowers. While at S.C.C.C. I would break down fake flowers and rebuild them into “found object” sculptures. I am currently a student at Stony Brook University pursuing a bachelor’s degree in both Studio Art and Psychology. This is where I have found a love for printmaking. Most prints are made from illustrations, but using a technique involving a solution called soft ground I was able to create these prints by laying plastic flowers onto a prepared copper plate and putting it through the printing press, the copper plate is then etched in acid. After I have used that copper plate to produce a set of prints it is important to me that I watercolor them. Watercolor and soft ground are two processes that add fluidity to a material that began as rigid and uniform is now transformed into something unique.

 

Stony Brook University Senior Seminar Undergraduate Online Art Exhibition Spring 2020