Throughout my art practice, I have explored hyper-realism with different media application. Transitioning now from drawing to painting, I have enjoyed exploring the complex layering and blending techniques possible in wet media. I employ a very deliberate and precise approach to paint application, resulting in hyper-realistic representation of subjects and form definition. I make a conscious effort to stay true to the painting process and make sure to not lose the distinct texture created by oil paint, while working with what I have learnt through my drawing practice. 

Spook uses a traditional grisaille rendering of the subject in black and white to emphasize the form. The result is an image with stark contrast between the lightest highlights on the hand and the deep shadow on the wall behind the hand. I enjoyed the active abstraction of the form that was required to render the dramatic lighting in the composition. The eeriness that gives the piece its title results from the disconnect between the angle of the shadow and the hand, and the cut off wrist that shows the hand is pointing toward the background plane.

Photography allows for us to take the world as we know it and alter it in a way that makes us question our reality. Particle and Wave makes visible the principle of wave-particle duality, representing light as a colourful spectrum but also as a tangible and solid mass. Darkness in the Day makes us question space and time, giving a small and shallow pond the dramatic appearance of an expansive body of water that one would not guess is within easy walking distance of the University of Calgary. Both photographs started as a realistic depictions of our world, but time shifts, colour changes, and perspective manipulations cause a reality we are not familiar with to emerge

Only when what we are comfortable with is stripped away can we begin to expand our understanding of the world around us. Art in all forms can act as this catalyst, and a camera’s lens is an effective tool in broadening our horizons.

“What sort of entity is a work of art? Is it like a stone, a material object? Or like a shadow or a reflection on water, something non-material but physical.”
- W. E. Kennick

I hesitate to self-identify as an artist - my main interests are Art Theory and Art History the study of which is informed by my art practice. I feel that in order to fully understand the historical and theoretical aspects of Art, one needs to learn the techniques, materials, and approaches used by artists. We can not study, for example, Japanese printmaking without knowing something about the process. But, if you have also carved a woodblock, felt the resistance of the wood to the tools, struggled with inking the block and pulling an acceptable print, that experience will add another layer to your understanding. In other words, we need to get our hands dirty.

For several years, my main media for artistic practice was photography but, more recently, I have been attracted to print making, particularly the intaglio processes, where I have found greater freedom to explore my attraction to line, texture, and composition. Red Flag is an example of this exploration.

Sinking is an expression of grief made a year after the loss of someone close to me. The feelings I had pushed aside or ignored surfaced during the summer, when there were no distractions and therefore a lot of time to think.

The pain I felt manifested itself in a way that was a lot like the water pressure on one's chest when standing in a body of water, which is more dense than the air pressure we're used to when on dry land. I used that as an influence in this artwork. With the head bowed in mourning, the hair flows as it would when emerging from a liquid. Through this, one can infer that the subject is in a body of water.

Sharing my feelings through words is difficult for me, even with the people closest to me, so I hoped to use this drawing to express them instead.

My artistic endeavours have revolved around creating work that is fun, humorous, and leaves you questioning if this is serious art or not. Branching away from attempting to normalize serious topics, I have been focusing on how far I can take an image and still have it be referred to as art. This road has led me through some missteps, but also to the creation of many interesting works that inspire others.

The This Is Aesthetically Pleasing, Trust Me series has been on ongoing exploration of colour and aesthetics. This is Aesthetically Pleasing, Trust Me #2 focuses on bright colours and the effect that it has on our emotions and opinions of the work. Depending on your background and your association towards colour, this piece can represent something completely different than that of the viewer next to you.

My work merges techniques traditionally deemed as “handicraft” with mediums central to the art historic cannon to create conceptual and research-driven art. I aim to trouble the division of craft and art by merging the two in my pieces to the point that they are indivisible. By blending materials, I ask audiences to consider how objects are valued or devalued based on their materials, processes, and producers.

Crazy quilts emerged in the Victorian era and became popular for their repurposing of clothing scraps and trims. This quilting style is done without patterning. The scraps are sewn to fit, and hand embroidery is done over the seam lines; the work culminates into quilts that are both considered and spontaneous. With time, these old quilts have evolved to act as portraits of the past, cataloguing their makers’ lives. The extensive handwork records the time put into these quilts’ making, and the clothing their family wore can be traced through the varied materials. Traditional I and Mimic I act as self-portraits. This diptych considers how we may consciously and subconsciously represent ourselves, both now and as a legacy for future generations.

My works lie somewhere in the middle of the scale of abstraction. It mainly depends on which mediums I am working with. The mediums that I frequently use include graphite pencils and acrylic paints, but I also enjoy watercolour paints and ink, usually combined to make mixed media works.

Growing up in BC, I’ve always been surrounded by nature. When I moved to Calgary, it was required to drive out of the city in order to view magnificent scenery. It felt as though a part of me was missing, which is part of the reason I use nature as inspiration in my artworks. My fascination with mermaids originates from my love of the ocean. With the piece, Midnight Swim, I wanted to create a mysterious mystical scene.

In my recent independent study, I was experimenting with mylar transfers. I had painted a face in acrylic paint on a sheet of mylar and transferred it to a board using matte medium. Ghost was the negative image left behind on the mylar.

Process: A series of actions or steps taken in order to achieve a particular end.

As many visual artists’ work, my work goes through a process, a process of understanding. Through Efforts to Understand is a piece that addresses my own bits of ignorance through the process of creation and the contemplation that comes with this, but also bits of knowledge and where curiosity in this process can take one. I hope the assumed ‘unfinished’ nature of the piece offers a path of reflection for all viewers engaging with it to become curious about their own ways of understanding different modes of creation, whatever those may be,  and how they might process these understandings or misunderstandings alike. Through the steps of understanding it is the criticism, praise, disappointment, and excitement that become stitched together to reveal an interesting quilt of thought, or in this case a painting.

Color, use of line and elements of the surreal and abstract define my work as an artist. All of my pieces are generated from a colour palette selected specifically to cater to the desired message I wish to portray. Primarily I work with watercolour, acrylic and oil paint as I enjoy the vibrancy and expressive qualities paint provides. However I also enjoy working digitally with photography and graphic design. Major themes in my work involve femininity, man and nature, mental wellness and our connection with technology. Recently I have been interested in exploring the impacts of social media on modern day relationships and the human psyche. Instant Identity speaks to the ease of portraying ourselves online in a light that differs from reality and the ensuing mental detriment that this can cause. Ultimately I hope viewers can walk away from this painting and question: What is my online presence and how does it reflect my identity?

       In the years I have spent working towards my Visual Studies degree, I have become increasingly fascinated with different mediums and their properties. I enjoy the tactile experience of working with paint, ink, fabric, clay, charcoal, and plaster. Each medium has unique qualities that, when embraced, can help create astonishing art. For me, it is all about the process and figuring out the multiplicity of ways I can perform through a medium. In the past summer, I started to work with ink and gold leaf. I am captivated by the way ink spreads across a wet page, how it pools in creases of the paper, how unpredictable, and yet absolutely defined it is by the physical conditions of the paper, water, its consistency, and the stroke of my brush.

      Woodpecker and Rabbit are studies of ink that explore ideas mentioned above. I chose animals as a subject to ground the viewer in a familiar form and then introduce the unfamiliarity of the textures created by ink. The ink flows freely inside and is confined by the animal silhouettes. The gold leaf serves as a framing device, as well as a contrasting medium to ink.

Moving from different places is like growing up in different worlds. Each community that my family lives in the Philippines and Canada has its own culture and norms. This diversity opens me to new experiences in life which sometimes I have never encountered before. Hence, I was unaware to adjusting to these changes as I am trying to fit into my new home. I often limit my action and perspective by following what is accepted by the majority — losing track of whether I should stay true to myself or seek the general assumptions.

In this painting, I explore the issue of diversity that often results in cultural assimilation. As the world offers many patterns, I became a mosaic of who I want and what others want me to be. I lose some part of my identity as I correspond to society's expectation which may be against my beliefs and values. I started to constrain my freedom and ended trapped in conformity.

Over the last two years,  I have begun to communicate imagery evolving from various social conditions of man and nature.  Creativity is becoming my language of choice.  I study the morphologies in visual forms in different media as drawing, photography, and printmaking.  New processes in lithography and Chine-Colle have allowed my expressions in an entirely new way.

Wheelie I documents an image of car tire marks driven onto a snowy parking lot.  The pure, immaculate whiteness of the newly fallen snow had been driven on to reveal dark tarmac beneath.  The repetition becomes a continuous pattern as an imprint of the human social condition today.  With the invasion of vehicles into human worlds, pollution / carbon emissions have become a discussion in meetings with world leaders, as well as our national and provincial debates.  Carbon emissions as a topic grew from consideration of consumer and consumed to which every public person could relate. 

I slough off deadscales
flick skinflakes to the ground

 Shedding toughness
peeling layers down
to vulnerable stuff

And I’m blinking off old eyelids
for a new way of seeing 

By the rock I rub against
I’m going to be tender again
 (Mullen, 1953)

Ryanna Kizan is a second-year art major at the University of Calgary, with a focus in painting.  She originates from a small town in the Southern Alberta Rocky Mountains. Ryanna draws inspiration from nature and renaissance-period artworks.  She admires the use a realism and symbolism in works such as those of Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Artemisia Gentileschi. 

Shed is a self portrait that reflects on change and moving forward, a process of starting anew.   

Reference: Mullen, H. (1953) Shedding Skin. Blues Baby: Early Poems.  Bucknell University Press. 

Sarah Almquist is a third year Visual Studies student who primarily engages with bold brushstrokes, bright colors and graphic material. Her focus on female sexuality, identity and gaze stems from her desire to connect to her own physical being through the exploration of what it means to be a woman for her. In her very personal work, Sarah uses her own body as inspiration and tackles issues of sex, bodily function and fluids, nakedness, and taboo physical qualities such as pubic hair. She aims to create strong female images that show self confidence and power in their domination over the male gaze. Power Move is a piece that embodies this dominating persona of a strong female image as it looms over its surrounding space. Exaggerated features, dramatic curved lines, texturally ripped cardboard pieces, and patterns create a visual impact that work cohesively to support this theme. Sarah’s grapple with sexuality allows the viewer to look past the bright color and pattern to what is underneath- the raw, supple flesh and fat that makes up its feminine form.

Born and raised in Calgary, Sherry Ma is currently completing her final semester of her undergraduate studies at the University of Calgary. As a Psychology major with a minor in Visual Arts, she is interested in people and emotions, and this is reflected in her art.

She primarily works with acrylic paint and sumi ink, where she uses masking techniques and layering to create fragmented portraits. In the three paintings on display, she first uses a traditional Chinese brush to create a gestural mark with sumi ink. She then masks out parts of the brushstroke and paints the portrait on top, later pulling off the masking tape to reveal the original mark. Through this process, the final product cannot be predicted. While this uncertainty can be uncomfortable, Sherry has learned to embrace it, and the result is often a pleasant surprise.

Depression: Stage Two
With my experience of “Depression” and growing up in an Asian culture, it is often seen as a sign of weakness rather than an illness. It would be considered a death sentence to admit to your family as they don’t believe in it. The work illustrates my self-portrait, feeling hopeless and giving up on the world. It portraited my loss of interest in my passion for art and everyday lifestyle. I felt that I was alone in this world where I had no one to express my dark feelings to and that no one would accept the dark side of me. It felt that I was getting close to my death as I see no light at the end anymore. That is why I wanted to bring light to this issue as it is often ignored and frowned upon. By presenting the true reality of depression to today’s society, people can see a glimpse of what it is like to feel hopeless and no purpose in life. This would help people to accept the reality of it and support people who are diagnosed with mental illness. 

The Things I Hide
The sculpture “The Things I Hide” was a direct representation of myself as a bottle, keeping all my pain and feelings to myself. I was in a state where my life did not matter and keeping every dark thought and emotion seemed reasonable to me. This was because I was worried that my feelings were too foreign to understand. 

As an artist, I wanted to express my experience and also bring light to mental awareness through this work. Often, depression and suicidal thoughts are seen as bad omens and are ignored in society. Most people don’t see depression as an actual sickness but rather weaknesses of a person. This work serves the purpose of showing society what those who have depression have been hiding and the effects this has on them. The dents and the aging of the bottle exhibited the six long years of depression and suicidal thoughts I had, while the face on the bottle showed my calm and collected face.

Giving Thanks to the Fingers I’ve Been Blessed With
The work illustrates the acceptance of imperfections. As an artist, it was essential to use art as a tool to advocate self-love. Being surrounded constantly with media and ideals of a perfect body, it makes people doubt their appearance and be ashamed of it. They would often find extreme solutions that could mean their death sentences. That is why self-love and acceptance are so important and why it should be promoted more often. That is why I’m giving thanks to my fingers, despite their unappealing appearance. Even though my fingers are not ideal to society, they have helped to give me a voice in the Art World. They paved my future by being able to create work that can connect to other people and being able to express my values as an artist. That is why it’s important to not focus on the appearance as the inner self of the person mattered more. Being true to yourself will open many opportunities because you’re able to express your beliefs and values and being ashamed of it.