Tragard (painting)

This gouache painting depicts an aged building engulfing in foliage, stripped from the idea of functionality; it’s calm, and alive. It’s a garden for someone to roam free out unbound by society, adulthood, and expectations that are held high. It’s a little broken and worn yet it still holds down a fort for creativity to foster, be nurtured, and be born. Somewhere for naivety and the mundane life to thrive like life once did. Imagination being able to breathe where the rules of the adult world loosen grip. I wanted to create a serene building that’s a refuge from the same world that adores modernity.

My inspiration for this piece was Ghibli movies. Their movie is filled with fantastical wonders that sparked something big within me as a child, and that has stuck to me ever since. I wanted to create something just as awe inspiring, thus I went for gouache. The same media used to paint Ghibli movie backgrounds. This medium allows for flexibility when painting whilst still creates pronounced shapes with vivid hues.

There are strong theme of nature and serenity in this piece as well as symbolic references to my personal life. The fish on the sign is my family’s neon tetra, and lives in an aquascape that makes trickling sounds of running water, a pomegranate tree protruding from the shingled roof symbolizing abundance and life (also thought it would be more interesting than a typical apple tree.) I went for unconventional colors that still create a harmonious feel, stained glass rather than the convention clear windows that blare colorful refractions. The unconventional and impractical shapes and forms open a space for stories and imagination to be abundant, stairs that lead nowhere, no front door, a car engulfed in greenery, such things are the basis of the creation of a tale and an inspiration to another creative narrative.

The piece was made while listening to select songs hoping that the moods are transferred to the painting itself. Most of the songs are soundtracks with minimal words. The elusive sounds of the music convey solemnity and tranquility— allowing the mind to open and explore something deeper within a person. My objective with this piece was to share and evoke the same senses I had when painting this, transcending the senses both musically and sensually.

The painting shares feelings and emotion towards immersive story telling whist still uncovering themes of embracing the mundane and simple life with others. It is a reflection of interconnectedness with an experience we’ve all had before, childhood.

Fantasia (3D build )

This diorama explores the gradual loss of creativity and imaginative freedom shaped by adulthood. It is an attempt connecting to the childlike mind before it was reconstructed by our rigid society.  My art forms in three-dimensional shapes and textures, allowing ideas to exist beyond the surface of a canvas.

The work reflects how strange, dreamlike forms often feel as though they can only exist in dreams and not in physical space. With the conditioning of modernity killing the mind, it narrows how creativity is expressed and understood. This piece resists that conditioning by embracing forms that are unresolved, and unbound by function.

This is constructed by what many might consider garbage but is something I see as potential to a second life. My objectives for such crafts are to prolong the life of the most ordinary objects, including household items, scraps of old clothing, cardboard boxes to be recycled, even taking rocks from my yard, all of these became the basis of my structure with symbolic meanings.

My inspiration for this piece is my childhood. I was very fond of miniatures as it felt like i was able to grasp my creativity in my own hands, with no external input on how my creativity could be defined as right or wrong. I think that same feeling is shared with children. Looking at physical forms you want to touch, live in, feel, observe, I wanted to recreate those senses that sparks creativity, so much so that it makes someone go home and pick up their sketchbook.

The back of the building is metal, metallic and rustic, yet it is still vivid with colors to combat effects of steel, which was done with scrap takeout containers, rhinestones, straws and paint. I especially like using plastic straws in my build as it is something that my family refuses to use now, but gives my dioramas a little more life, exploring options to utilize the same plastic that once flooded oceans and killed life.

The inside of the structure has meanings of its own, a reflection of my journey as an artist. On the bottom floor is a couch, lamp, and frames of artwork that I’ve done in the past. I’ve only been able to produce one artwork a year that I am able to be proud of, and each one is from the one artworks I’ve made during high school, and I hold sentiment behind. The couch even being made with fabric of my prom dress.

On the top floor is my creative space. My desk looks identical to it and is made from the same vinyl that wraps around my desk. Chaotic and lively with creative expression. The sketches on the desk are my sketches this structure itself.

This diorama functions as a sanctum of escape for creative minds—especially when the mind is restless and urged to create. It is a depiction of my own sanctum, where my sanity is enclosed and revealed for special minds to see.

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