The inspiration for my undergraduate body of work is derived from my fascination with Henri Matisse, Jacob Lawrence, and the Impressionists. I suddenly became captivated with the Impressionist movement and the independence of abstraction. I set into motion a series of paintings and drawings featuring random African-Americans and African society representatives in vibrant color and abstracting forms, and was specifically concerned with altering the form outside of the realistic area. While in graduate school, I began to think about how the transformation from realism to abstraction combined with the conception of mortal to the immortal. I worked through ideas to …
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The inspiration for my undergraduate body of work is derived from my fascination with Henri Matisse, Jacob Lawrence, and the Impressionists. I suddenly became captivated with the Impressionist movement and the independence of abstraction. I set into motion a series of paintings and drawings featuring random African-Americans and African society representatives in vibrant color and abstracting forms, and was specifically concerned with altering the form outside of the realistic area. While in graduate school, I began to think about how the transformation from realism to abstraction combined with the conception of mortal to the immortal. I worked through ideas to see exactly where these views began, and where they would take me as an artist. Almost immediately I experimented with random figures found specifically in the N'debele culture in South Africa. In addition, I incorporated abstraction and expressive marks within the figure and slowly introduced cut paper, flat imagery and abstraction with the realistic figure. This became very challenging but I was determined to unite these ideas successfully. More recently, my work has concentrated on the essential elements that have influenced my work as an artist, which recedes to childhood. The main elements most prevalent within the work is rhythm and space. I learned to use the musical rhythm as an instinctive reference point, as well as exploring issues of space and solid areas of flat color, thus I strived to unite all areas together to create an integrated composition.
This thesis is part of the following collection of related materials.
UNT Graduate Student Works
This collection houses graduate student works other than theses and dissertations. All materials have been previously accepted by a professional organization or approved by a faculty mentor. The collection includes, but is not limited to projects or problems in lieu of thesis, supplemental files associated with theses and dissertations, posters, recitals, presentations, articles, reviews, book chapters, exhibitions, and artwork. Some items in this collection are restricted to use by the UNT community.
