Terra Internum

Author/Artist Name

Cameron SavageFollow

Files

Academic Level at Time of Creation

Senior

Date of Creation

Spring 4-24-2020

Artist Statement

Cameron Savage

BFA: Printmaker

Scientists can trace the modern human’s beginnings to western Africa and map out migrations that moved hominids into the rest of the world. Mankind traversed a vast and unknown wilderness for the pursuit of food and resources. We have always been explorers, desperately searching for anything new. I’m interested in mankind’s thirst for knowledge of the unknown, and the possibilities that exist outside our little blue rock. Will Earth’s resources eventually be exhausted? Are other planets suitable for the continuation of humanity? Can civilization exist outside our solar system?

Contemplating these questions and being influenced by science fiction pop-culture, I explore color and imagined landscapes. Fictional landscapes and geometric forms contrast and engage one another in my work. The work displays a constant tension between “man-made” structures and their impact on naturally formed structures. Since my forms are fictional, they are untethered from reality, allowing a nearly endless amount of freedom. I’m heavily inspired by album cover art and poster designs by artists like Dan Mumford, Luke Preece, and Rickey Beckett.

My medium of choice is screen printing, which allows me to access vivid colors and stylized mark-making, resembling the graphic nature of posters. Like Al Held, I too use a vibrant color palette and an extensive amount of forms to engage a composition. The prints present exotic contrasting colors and deep landscapes that allow the viewer to travel to strange, alien lands and become the explorer.

Advisor/Mentor

Nicole Hand; John Utgaard; Todd Herzberg; Sarah Ellis; T. Micheal Martin

Description

Terra Internum

Cameron Savage

Terra Internum includes ten works created mostly with screen printing, with pieces Artifact, Populus, and Untethered being made with pen and ink, and Populus II and Intervals being etching. The exhibition explores… exploration! Humans have an innate characteristic of curiosity and a drive to explore. Imagined landscapes constructed by intense line and vivid colors can only be appreciated if closely examined by the viewer. One who looks at art immediately becomes an explorer as they look throughout a piece, searching for its details and the secrets it contains. The exhibition begs the viewer to reveal their primal curiosity by investigating the prints and drawings.

For example, the etching titled Intervals includes a screen-printed blue texture beneath the plate’s impression. Fundamentally, this piece utilizes an imagined landscape to communicate the theme of exploration, as well as two geometrical forms to display tension. A side-effect of human exploration tends to be development and spread of humanity. Rather it be a flag to declare ownership, monuments, or cities, mankind has a way of leaving an impression on the land they explore. Geometrical forms are great representations of artificial forms crafted by intelligent beings. Intervals includes two geometrical forms facing one another, creating tension within the landscape as well as each other.

Other works in the exhibition, such as Populus, is a large pen and ink drawing constructed of intense line work to create forms and value. In this piece, the land lifts into the sky with strange, detailed forms while contrasting against a hovering rectangular prism. Within this piece, details of civilization can be seen, playfully creating mystery and intrigue about what this space has to offer. With a story or explanation not explicit, the viewer becomes an explorer discovering a new sight, wondering and questioning what they are witnessing.

Creative Commons License

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

Recommended Citation

Savage, Cameron, "Terra Internum" (2020). B.F.A. Practicum Exhibition (ART 498). 59.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art498/59