My "Statement"

My artist's statement for the Fall 08 semester:
This semester, my goal as an artist has been to be able to express events and the impact they have had on my life. My strengths lie in writing and poetry as far as trying to convey what I am feeling, so it has been my challenge to be able to do the same thing with art. I see the world as black and white, right and wrong, good and evil. In a culture where everything is relative and there are no absolute truths, I hope to create work that not only discredits popular opinion, but also creates positive thought in the minds of all who view my work. I have been using acrylics and have been experimenting with various mixed media, resulting in a few failed works whose materials I was unable to use effectively. But each endeavor has taught me something new.This is still a period of finding my voice in the art culture, and being able to effectively portray what comes so easily from writing it down. I have been using my journals, pictures, lyrics, and poetry to create a theme. Faith, children, poverty, confusion, ignorance, tolerance, the feminist/Marxist movement, text, and color as a tool to revive emotion are central to my work. I cross international lines in a lot of my work. I use gesso, acrylic, ink, charcoal, and experimental mediums and apply them to canvas, scrap wood, watercolor paper, and recycled materials. My greatest challenge has been trying to present my art without crossing the lines of using symbols meaning an entirely different thing than what I meant for them to be see as. What can be such an absolute statement in my own words turns out a much more vague statement in my art. In order to achieve a level of effectiveness and understanding from the viewers, I have been trying to express ideas not only through what is put on the canvas, but also what is left off. I feel I have a long way to go. I feel I compulsively continue working on projects that should be left alone. I also think the thoughts in my head and the things on my heart are not quite making their way to the canvas. But I continue to experiment and I feel that when I am making art about something I truly love, the brushstrokes continue to come easier.