This piece was made with the many violent terrorism attacks that have plagued our planet this past year in mind. I drew inspiration from Simon and Garfunkel’s song Bridge Over Troubled Water, which is also what I decided to name this piece. I chose to use triangles as they can symbolise resilience. If you exert force on any side of a triangle, it will not break. The triangles represent the resilience, in times of tragedy, that communities often show. They all band together in support. On the wave the dark blue triangles represent the deep sorrow that is felt right after a tragedy occurs, and as the triangle fades to the light blue, it shows how the pain we all feel lessens with that support of others. At the caps of the waves the stark white represents hope. The bridge going over the water is meant to represent the helping hands from communities around the world, that offer their support following each tragedy. The bridge is made out of frosted twigs connected by wire. The frost on the twigs represent the overwhelming sense of hope that is being taken over the bridge. The use of the natural material is to represent the natural human response of sympathy during a tragedy. The twigs are used also to contrast the man made chaos of the troubled water or the wave, that represents the terrorism in our world.

This portrait was designed with the work of Jean Michel Basquiat in mind. Basquiat inspired me to venture into the use of colors that traditionally don’t go together along with materials that aren’t usually thought of together in an overall cohesive design. I was also inspired by the Alaskan Native culture and the bead work that comes from the villages. I decided to mix the industrialized world that is Basquiat with the naturalistic world that is shown in native lifestyles in order to make one balanced work of art. All of the bead work comes from the native side of inspiration, while the background of crumpled tin foil with a matte finish over it and that overall design of the portrait comes from the industrialized Basquiat side of inspiration.

For my piece titled Eve, I was exploring the concept of threshold for an art school’s challenge. I wanted to push the idea of threshold as a point of change or boundary in the terms of self-exploration. The snake represents rebirth, as snakes shed their skin. Also, the titling and visual of the snake with the girl brings out the biblical story of Adam & Eve- the boundaries of good and evil and the effects of change on the individual.