Files
Academic Level at Time of Creation
Senior
Date of Creation
Fall 12-10-2024
Artist Statement
When you are first seeing my artwork, wanting it to bring some type of Joy. The main reason I make art is because it reminds me of when I was young, I’ve always had a creative mind. I loved creating things and my favorite classes to always go to was art. The initial reaction when seeing my art is it wouldn’t be what you would expect. Most people looking at it would see some similarities but at the same time sometimes my concepts don’t flow. The main similarity you see when you look at my art is how I use color and when I discuss color it’s mostly bold colors. I love how color can transfer your work into your own, especially pallet choices and how you tend to use color. My work tends to be based around things I enjoy or that would make the audience think about why I’m making art about it. I like for my artwork to be unique and so I try to do things that I know I specifically like so I can see other people's reaction to those things as well. Concepts for me are very broad, my main thing I would want to solve is getting into the flow of how I can connect all these things together. For the most part, I want the audience to just enjoy and think about what they’re seeing. I wouldn’t say it’s too complicated to pinpoint what the concept is, more so why I chose subject matters and how I chose to use them. Color for me is my most obvious in my artwork, I really enjoy blending colors together and getting different tones for different vibes I want to go for. Most of the time with my work I like to add pink if possible, overtime it’s just been my signature and it’s shown up in a lot of my work, so it kind of becomes a thing where it becomes my own. I think in the future I would like to do more with that color and explore it more. When I create art, I enjoy painting the most, I would say that’s my preferred medium because you can do lots of color mixing. I also liked the process of painting because you sketch it on so you get that drawing aspect but instead of shading you go in with paint. I have enjoyed oil paint because that’s what I’ve used since coming to Murray and taking an art class. I have tried other paints in the past but oil has definitely been my favorite. It’s been my favorite because of how blendable it is and also how long it takes to dry because then you can go back over certain things. Artist I take influence from is Khinde Wiley, what draws me to his work is the background he chooses to put his subjects in making his own. I enjoyed Takashi Murakami’s work as well for the bold colors, and the repeated symbols that he continues throughout his works. I also really enjoy Odilon Redon even though we don’t work in the same medium, I enjoy the unique concepts and characters that he uses throughout his work it makes you take second glances when looking at it. With my art as a whole, I’m still finding myself and finding what I want to make art about. I’m not a very open person, so I think it’s hard to dig deep and put the other layers of myself into my work. For now I can say that what I make is things that I enjoy, and sometimes that’s what you need in a world of chaos.
Advisor/Mentor
Jessica Fife; Mike Martin
Description
Most of my artwork focuses on the figure of a clown, sometimes the clown is not appearing, but through emotions of
Of balloons, you can see different emotion throughout those as well. I like to focus on vibrant colors when making my clowns and using different patterns to play around with style. In this specific exhibition, I had only one clown work wanting to give a variety of different works. I like to use oil on canvases to depict my work. I think oil gives good sense of blending. But as you can see in this line of work, there’s different depiction of clowns and balloons throughout it.
Photo Credit
Samira Johnson
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Johnson, Samira, "Samira Art399 Portfolio" (2024). Professional Practices (ART 399). 166.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/166