"Vertumnus V.2" is a commentary on my personal experience with COVID-19. During this time I felt as if I was in a vegetative state being disconnected from my community and friends. In the piece I wanted to covey a pumpkin that is rotting from the inside out, with small candle structures serving as shelter for a forgotten civilization.
When starting college, I didn't think I was going to be home sick. How mistaken I was.
The person I missed the most was my sister. She is my best friend and practically raised me. When we were kids we had a Madeline Tea Set and box we would bring out when we wanted to feel fancy. This year she was nice enough to let me take it. As a thank you, I wanted to build one she could have that fit her style.
To fully develop the feeling of home, I created an autumn park scene with a tea set to house my sister's tea box.
For a New School senior's production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," I made a series of props including: a lantern, scroll, and scripts. Our director, Josie Wiegandt wanted the focus of the play to be about humans verses their environments. To emulate this in the props, I use materials I had available on me such as: cardboard, yarn, tracing paper, shower curtains, and shelf liner.
"Ode to Home" transformed a series of observation drawings of places from my hometown into pop-up pages. I learned about the constraints of pop-up composition, with a focus on the middle fold.
Influenced by the House on the Rock (Wisconsin), the haunted house from the "Adventure Time" episode "Creeps", the set design for "Knives Out", and illustrations for Luigi's Mansion, I wanted to convey the campy nature of haunted houses in a design of my own. Something doesn't feel quite right here, and not just because the kitchen table is on the ceiling. I wanted the house to have the same unnerving aspects as an abandoned lot in a neighborhood that no one will walk by without holding their breath.
Final product of "Move-In Ready"
Inspired by the novel, "House of Leaves" and the visuals of "Malcolm in the Middle", the Navidson's Manor project is a piece focusing on the importance of settings in horror. Horror as a movie genre is not complete without context or our characters surroundings. The Navidson's Manor is designed to be a one story, 90s, early 2000s house where things are changing: hallways extend, closets appear, yet the outside remains the same. Below are the sketches of the interior design of the house as well as the scene ideas within the house.
The model I selected was from a collection of photographs Maggie West did of trans nude bodies. I want to use a trans body to help normalize trans people as well as diversify the pool of reference photos. The end drawing turned out nice, however with the limited access to images of trans models, I wasn't able to select a reference with a more dynamic pose as well as different skin tone and body type. I want to emphasize the length at which it took to find a non-pornographic image of a nude trans model. It was really disappointing to find out that the primary manner in which trans bodies are shown is in a fetishizing manner. So I am grateful to the work Maggie West has done to normalize and destigmatize trans people.
I added several new elements into the background of the piece to create a graphic image. The two faces are a reference to another collection of Maggie West, however I used my our face to frame the curve of the body. I also added my lightest hand drawn value that resembles a chain to emphasize the feeling of masculinity within the piece.
