Files
Academic Level at Time of Creation
Senior
Date of Creation
Spring 4-26-2024
Artist Statement
My art is about feelings and thoughts that can’t be expressed with words. I want to make art so that my audience can understand the importance of the places I have been and their significance to me. The drawing I recently made, Self-portrait, is about how I am dealing emotionally with familial loss. In my piece Family Museum, the background was made to have a museum or memorial feel, displaying two rooms for my passed family members. In addition, the value of contrast helps elevate the understanding of depth and space, giving it a more authentic look.
Listening to music and being able to connect with my thoughts in my own space is one of my biggest motivators. Most of the drawings I make don’t have color because it seems more personal and shows my improvement with tonal contrast as well as my attention to detail. My paintings are enhanced through my employment of symbolic objects and colors. My artwork that does use color, displays my range of color value and blending, capturing the eye of the audience.
I draw influence from the likes of African American artists such as Toyin Ojibwa Odutola and Jacob Lawrence. Odutola’s portraits tend to fight against the negative stereotypes most often depicted of black people. Lawrence illustrates the black experience by painting the streets of Harlem where he grew up. Another point of inspiration from Odutola’s work is her use of the contrast of black and white which is seen in my own art for more dynamic emotional expression.
Advisor/Mentor
Katie Knoeringer, Jessica Fife
Description
For my exhibition I will be displaying five pieces of art. Three paintings and two drawings, showing the emotion I've had this past year due to the loss of some family members. So the three oil paintings are Oil paintings of my Grandmother and my Aunt, then a self portrait of mine to show the improvement of my painting. One of the two drawings is a self portrait of me displaying some relief dealing with grief and the other drawings is a construction of a museum that I created in my mind to have two rooms dedicated to my Grandmother and Aunt.
Photo Credit
Me
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Townsend Jr, Thomas, "Through all of it" (2024). B.A./B.S. Practicum Group Exhibit (ART 499). 66.
https://digitalcommons.murraystate.edu/art499/66