Final Portfolio (Tudor)

Author/Artist Name

Samantha TudorFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Junior

Date of Creation

Spring 5-4-2020

Artist Statement

My desire to teach has been apparent since elementary school when I used to dress up as a teacher for career day. As I grew, my desire to teach art specifically became clear, and I enrolled at Murray State in order to get my Art Education Degree and Teaching Certification.

As an artist, my greatest motivation is the exploration and discovery of the processes related to different media. I am most satisfied when I am learning a new skill or material that will become part of my teaching tool kit. I feel lucky that this fits with my goal of being an art teacher, where I will need knowledge of many things. I have an appreciation for work that displays high degrees of skill, and where craftsmanship is obvious. I like to create larger works of art because they can be viewed more easily and every small detail can be seen in the work.

While my goal over the past two years has been primarily focused on skills, I am also very interested in form and space and how I can use them in my work. I am intrigued by the way I can create interesting objects within three-dimensional space, but also how I can create the illusion of form within a two-dimensional plane. Also, my work is typically representational because it helps me to perfect my craftsmanship. Henry the Humpback is a five-foot-long, paper mache sculpture that I created to learn about paper sculpting. I chose to make the form a humpback whale, so I could tell when I had mastered the technique. With the larger scale of this piece, I decided to play with space by hanging it in the middle of a hallway, creating a disruption to this regularly used place. I manipulate space to resolve my creations.

I find myself interested in artists whose work I consider “intelligent”, meaning that a piece operates beyond simple beauty, but shows real intention and planning for its success. One such artist is Banksy. He approaches graffiti in a manner different from other artists by using stencils as opposed to free-handed spray painting. He chooses a specific environment that he can respond to, and he subverts social and political “norms” as well as the standards of graffiti culture. Artists that plan their work inspire me. Another artist is Guy Laramee. He makes beautiful landscapes carved from books, and the technical level of skill in some of his work is absolutely stunning. It makes me wonder about his process and techniques, and I understand that a lot of thought goes into his work.

Since I am pursuing my Teaching Certification, art is more about community building to me, and I need a strong skill set to build my community. I strive to perfect my craftsmanship in many processes, so I may show my students how to create art that they are proud of. I wish to inspire my students to make art with media that excites them and to pursue a career in the arts.

Advisor/Mentor

Rebecca Williams / Mike Martin

Description

final portfolio for professional practices

Photo Credit

Samantha Tudor

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Recommended Citation

Tudor, Samantha, "Final Portfolio (Tudor)" (2020). Professional Practices (ART 399). 92.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art399/92