Murray State's Digital Commons

Collection Title

Ana's Exhibition

Author/Artist Name

Ana WahlersFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Fall 12-3-2018

Artist Statement

Artist Statement

I make fantasy inspired scenes that are naturalistic. This means the scene itself isn’t realistic, just the bodies or individual forms. Everything else is just various things put together that you wouldn’t normally see together. That way the scene is comprehensible, but you also can’t say, “That’s not accurate”. Real everyday scenes are kind of boring because there’s nothing to invoke an emotion in me, so I like to bring things that can only exist from the human mind into the picture. For example, I’ve done a few scenes of monsters or figures in a house or room. The only thing out of place is the monster, but by adding a recognizable background it gives it context. And by using fantasy I’m able to not only convey a certain emotion, but also make it unmistakable by having it be somewhat of an extreme scene. These scenes are usually dark and desaturated, and while I try to stay true to the image in my head, I also make sure the image is balanced and has emphasis on the source of the emotion.

Most of my drawings originated as passing images in my head with certain emotions tied to them. Overall, I'm just trying to enhance my ability to create atmospheric images. I try to be sure everything looks like they’re in the same place and aim for the work to make it easy for the viewer to imagine themselves in the picture. Another place I find inspiration is my dreams. I tend to feel things more strongly in them, so I try to see if it was just a feeling during the dream or the situation in the dream that gave me the emotion. I’ll recreate the scene on paper and see if it gives off the same reaction.

I’ve been trying to figure out how to improve my style and found an artist named Bobby Chiu. I liked his style conceptually and visually. Especially how, despite the creature obviously not being real, the lighting and background makes it easy for you to imagine them in front of you. The only thing that stopped me from achieving something similar was the fact that I relied on outlines. I finally stopped focusing on them recently and photoshop helps a lot in this regard. It achieves visual affects you normally struggle to get with traditional media such as fog or blurs. I don’t really use all the tools in the program, I use it like a pencil or paintbrush, but more convenient and less messy. I do everything from scratch; it all starts as messy lines that progressively become a picture.

Advisor/Mentor

Jim Bryant

Description

Charcoal, Graphics, Lithography, and silkscreen

Recommended Citation

Wahlers, Ana, "Ana's Exhibition" (2018). Professional Practices (ART 399). 57.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/57