"Snapshot" Collection
My senior portfolio has evolved and grown over the course of the year, with three distinct stages. I began my portfolio working with 8”x10” scratchboards, focusing on the natural beauty of flowers. Scratchboards are hard, masonite boards coated with white clay and black india ink. Scratching away the ink reveals the clay beneath, resulting in an image. Both the size and subject matter were very much in my comfort zone.
Right around midterms, my subject matter and theme began to expand. Though the size did not change, I began focusing on natural beauty in general, and started depicting animals. I also stopped limiting myself to a vertical format.
My final period produced just one piece, but saw me grow the most as an artist. I expanded the size of my piece to 24”x18”, more than four times the size of my previous works. I broadened my theme to look at beauty and how it is perceived. This was my first time depicting a person on this medium. This piece took from January until the week before Studio Day to complete. It was far outside my comfort zone in terms of size, subject matter, and time commitment. As such, I have the most emotional investment in it. If I were to continue this series further, I would explore the meaning of beauty, what is considered beautiful, how are society views beauty, and finding beauty in unexpected places.