Senior Art Showcase Exhibition

These pieces are part of a group show that culminates four years of work at study at Concordia University Irvine. For my pieces, I wanted to make something that told a story. The first painting is representative of the conflict of the story while the second painting is the resolution. For the characters within this story, I eventually decided on using myself in the present and when I was younger. This is meant to capture the sometimes complicated and painful parts of growing up while showing that we never have to completely lose a child-like sense of wonder and trust. The first painting depicts a dark cavernous place with tendrils of thorns. This location represents difficult feelings in our lives such as anger, sadness, stress, and fear. This is a frightening place, but there is a hopeful light shining down into the cavern showing that there is a way out. From a biblical perspective, the thorns remind us of Jesus’s suffering and death while the beam of light shining into the otherwise dark cavern is Jesus as a light of our world, coming down into the darkness with us.

Conflict, 36 x 24, Oil on Canvas, 2024

This second painting has lots of biblical imagery because I wanted to show that this peaceful resolution ultimately comes from God. There is a Galilean fishing boat catching a bunch of fish from when Jesus guided the disciples to cast their nets onto the other side. The three birds in the sky are representative of the Holy Trinity. The tree is a fruitful fig tree, which is a prevalent symbol of Israel and the people of God in the Bible. The rainbow is from the story of Noah and reminds us here that God always keeps his promises. Finally, the roses in the front are meant to echo the thorns in the previous painting. These painful difficulties eventually turned into something beautiful. There are seven of these large roses, which is another holy number in the Bible. Seven is often considered the number of God, because during the initial creation God worked for six days, then rested on the seventh.

These red and yellow oil pastel sketches were the first complete sketch of what would eventually turn into these paintings. The figures are very rough, and the colors are limited, but you can see the initial ideas of the atmosphere I planned on creating in these paintings. These two sketches are done in red and yellow, and I also put a coat of red and yellow underneath both of the final paintings. Often while oil painting, some of the canvas underneath the paint peeks through, which can provide pops of white color in the final painting. By first painting a coat of red and yellow, I made this color that peeks through every once in a while change from white to those colors. I chose red for the first painting, because it is considered an angry color in our culture, and yellow for the second because it is considered a cheerful color.

Conflict Base Sketch, 36 x 24, Charcoal on Paper

I really enjoyed working on this project and I’m happy with how I was able to make these imaginary places come to life. I was surprised that I actually really enjoyed making the ominous dark cavern and I always love making colorful landscapes. These works are larger than anything I have ever made before and I was excited that I was able to capture much more detail than is possible with smaller canvases. Switching between the dark conflict painting and the hopeful resolution painting kept me engaged with the project and creates a contrast of feelings and ideas that I hope is interesting to examine and appreciate.