In this art portfolio, my art pieces constitute a visual projection of personal reflections of my daily life. The pieces reflect some of my personal desires regarding love, fashion, fantasy, and self-empowerment. While I believe that art should communicate a multitude of meaning to anyone who views it, some of the themes expressed in my portfolio revolve around the concepts of memory and reflection regarding ordinary life of a teenager. As the pessimistic German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer once said, 'life is a form of pain and the only wait to cope to live is to express your pain into art'. Thus, I wanted to channel some of my inner anxieties regarding the difficulties of trying to find love, the obsession of young people in regards to outward appearances and the importance of individualism in a society that increasingly values conformity.
This is why I draw inspiration for this project from the art and life of the contemporary abstract artist Jean-Michel Basquiat who once said “I never went to an art school. I failed the art courses that I did take in school. I just looked at a lot of things. And that’s how I learned about art, by looking at it.”
By using a series of different mediums I wanted to convey several parts of my personal life. From an intensely subjective point of view, I wanted to make statements that were at once mundane yet extraordinary.
In creating art, I believe that an artist should be as much aware of their unconscious as what they see in front of them every day. I believe that artists who can bridge the worlds of their unconscious and conscious are able to transcend the expectations of their audiences. All the artworks that I display here are facets of my inner self and the bridge between my unconscious and conscious. Importantly, I do not put names to my art because I wish the audiences not to be swayed by labels. I wish them to decide for themselves the art's meaning.
This art was based on Western astrological signs. Since I was born under the lunar month of May my astrological sign is Gemini. Thus, I wanted to convey the notion of duality. I wanted to focus on the feminine and masculine side of my being. The painting reflects my complicated nature. There is a mixture of masculine aggressiveness merging with a more gentle feminine persona.
This piece represents my ego and its obsession over mortality, power and loss of spirituality. The flag is an allegory to my outward self that interacts with society. The person holding the flag represents represents the ego, its fragility and its assertion for power and strength. The flag also represents past memories of childhood.
These two pieces represent the sun and the moon. The sun and moon are celestial objects, but they are also connected with human emotions. These pieces were done on pieces of cut wood. By using wood, I wanted to show through abstraction the notion of nature, space and planetary bodies. By using the wood as the main platform of communication, I wanted to make a link between nature that we can actually touch and a nature that is unreachable.
This art piece speaks to me the most. I once had a blind friend when I lived in Japan. He used to tell me the only way I could really see the world is to feel. Thus, I replaced the head of the figure with its hand. The yellow body represents the sun which my blind friend had told me was his most delightful feeling. Lastly, the glass represents the double sided nature of the limitations of his blindness. Although he could not see, his other senses were far more acute. The transparency of the glass jar is an allegory for this fact.This art is an abstract expression of my friend. This is one of my favorite pieces.
This fashion drawing is not exactly abstract but in my belief the concept of the idea is.
This jacket always appeared in my dreams. Yet each time it shows up in my dreams, the person wearing it always changes. I have come to grasp that the more I think of it, the jacket is a reflection of my various personalities. While fashion is often deemed to be superficial, I believe clothing reveals much of a person's inner self. The jacket is a reflection of my love of early punk rock.
These spray painted works relate to urban abstraction. The word Neon is a projection of the artificiality that comes with urban environments. Neon is as artificial as concrete but here the spray painted red word Neon highlights the intrusion of concrete in nature. No Money No Problems is a satirical comment on the destructiveness of capitalism and materialist society. These two graffitti are pessimistic views on the urban space.
This piece reflects the passive nature of media audiences.
The boots are a homage to Warhol and his pop artwork. The boots demonstrate through movement life steps. Some steps tend to be darker and perhaps destructive while others are more positive and thus, colorful.
This piece demonstrates confusion. The subject is wrapped in sheets, not knowing where they are. In essence, they are 'lost in the woods'. The subject can be seen as a metaphor for modern society, its destructive need for progress.
