Artist Statment

Design is much more than just a bunch of pretty colors and fancy shapes. For me, it is a tool for entertainment. The goal for a majority of my work is focused toward the joy and appreciation that it brings to others. I’ve always been interested in the arts. Paintings, graphics, drawings, sculptures, performances, and music; they have all intrigued me since my first experiences with them. It wasn’t until my later high school years that I decided to pursue my interest in this field. I began taking art related electives such as Sculpture and Drawing. The result of which was an even greater interest as well as an initial understanding of design principles. Also, I enjoyed working with computers so I took Computer Science and Computer Aided Drawing courses. The combination of these two directions became the beginning of my education in Graphic Design. After graduating high school I already had my mind set on participating in the Communication Design major and Northampton Community College. While taking part in this major I created many pieces that I am proud of. One piece in particular earned me an honorable mention in the college’s Krause Drawing Competition. The assignment for the piece was to draw a self-portrait using a reflective object. The Idea for my approach to this assignment came to me when I was playing around with an old reflective Christmas ornament and my sketchbook. I took a piece of paper from my sketch book, ripped a small whole into the center of the paper, placed the paper over top of the ornament, and began sketching my reflection on the ornament through the whole in the paper. The white of the paper in contrast with the dark reflection underneath created very interesting negative space around the outer portion of the drawing. Also, the distortion in my face made by the spherical ornament created interesting positive space. This spark in creativity made for a very successful piece. Another work that I created in my Advanced 3D Animation course that I really enjoyed making. The assignment was to record an environment, model and animate a robot in using Lightwave, a 3D computer animation software, and then composite that robot into the scene using a motion tracking software. My Idea for this project was to have the robot walk down a hallway and sit down on a couch that my friend was sitting on and using his laptop. After the Robot sat down next to my friend it began touching his laptop in suggestive ways, making my friend very uncomfortable. The Robot looks up at my friend and then the screen goes dark. What happened next? Nobody knows. In the future, I hope to work with 3D much more often. I will attend a school that offers further training in 3D animation and/or Videogame development. After graduation I will seek out employment from a studio that offers the opportunity for advancement and to work with the latest in 3D technologies. The goal of my career is to put quality and entertainment into every project I work on whether it would be a 3D animated film or the latest videogame.