Artist Statement '09

My artwork is based on unreal images that I have created that are graphic, vibrant, and unusual. Flowing lines and bold shapes are two key elements that are included in all of my paintings, while I also pay a great deal of attention to the principles of balance and repetitive pattern. There is a dreamlike and free-spirited quality to the work that I create. My goal is to reach the corners of my creative mind, to create work that is visually stimulating, aesthetically pleasing, and thought inspiring, while also keeping control of the composition.

The medium that I have spent the most time on is acrylic painting on canvas, but recently I have become interested in many forms of printmaking. I like to experiment with my paintings, such as mixing the paint with unusual items to create texture, or adding found objects to the canvas to create a sculpture/painting combination. I prefer to stray from the customary constrictions of typical paintings by experimenting with concepts that have never been used before. The form of printmaking that I focus the most on is linocuts. I create linoleum prints of repetitive patterns and irregular shapes. I like to vary the types of linoleum that I use, and I also hope to begin using wood in the future to add a different kind of texture to my prints.
My artwork is all about things that do not exist in the world that we live in. I create the images in my paintings because I want my art to be imaginary and stimulating.

Artist Statement

Art is not just c r e a t e d,

it is a l i f e s t y l e.

I am interested in any

form of art and inspired

by it all.

I spent most of my childhood

doodling shapes and forms

on whatever kind of paper

I could get my hands on.

Little did I know then,

I would fall in love

with the art world.

Now, I enjoy working in several

different mediums, although oil paint

seems to be my favorite.

In my paintings, I have interesting concepts filled with expressiveness. My explosive color is bold, yet smooth. The complexity intertwined with my experimental style is filled with risk taking. For I never know what the finished outcome will be.

Artist Statement

I fell somewhat accidentally into photography several years after graduating high school. In the beginning, my work began by blindly mimicking any and all pictures that fled through my head, making most of my early film pieces highly biographical. The darkroom is still my favored editing and development process because of the personal interaction and imperfections it allows for. More recently however, I’ve begun working digitally, especially when shooting overseas.

I strive to portray desperation and spontaneity in all my photos, while focusing on the similarities that exist between various lifestyles. For me, art is the re-creation of an already obvious truth, ones specifically we would often rather not confront. Everything we visually observe on a daily basis is filtered through personal beliefs and mental processes. A process of distortion. Does a single being actually see the world as it objectly exists - it doesn’t objectively exist period. To capture and conceptualize this distortion is one of my highest goals. “For what we see here is but a shadow of the world to come”. This phrase puts spiritual meaning behind behind every shoot I do and guides the perspectives behind all my photos. What I view behind a lens is highly motivated by angles, blank space and the emotions of individuals. If I can document even a moment of their deeper reality, my job is done.

Printmaking, an Adventure in Experimentation

I make art because I love creating things of beauty. I am particularly drawn to printmaking because it is very process-oriented, with many variations of techniques. My prints are as much about the process of printmaking as they are about the final product. When I am working on creating prints, I am not thinking about making a statement. Rather, I am conducting an experiment. How can I achieve a certain effect? What will happen if I do this? For me, creating prints is like playing chess; I think about how my current move will affect the plate and print two or three steps down the road. Often I can’t accurately predict the end result, and happy accidents occur. This opens up new techniques and processes to explore. The possibilities are endless, and my sense of wonder, adventure and gratitude increase each time I pull a new print off the press.

Artist Statement

Art in all forms attracts me. Though I love to try different medias, photography is the channel I find easiest to express myself through. My photography splits into three different categories: people, pictures with words, and digital transformation.

Photography started for me when I was young and was inspired by my dad who always took pictures as a hobby. His dad was also interested and experienced in photography. One Christmas I was given a used Canon AE-1 35 mm film camera, the exact same camera my dad and grandpa had, and with it the chance to become a third-generation self-taught photographer.

Since then, my photography has evolved, leaving behind film and moving into the digital world. Digital editing brought in a new way to accentuate emotions and gave me the ability to portray a deeper, more provoking, or confronting image.

My art also grew to incorporate my love of words. Words, whether single-standing, in a poetic stream, or together in a story have the power to be bold, gripping, and moving. But what words cannot express on their own, I hoped to compensate in the visual. A picture is worth a thousand words. What would happen if you combined them?

Capturing people through my lens is the third form of my art. There is a unique ability in the human face to express things beyond words all together in a much more intense way.

I hope through each of my photos to go beyond the “feel good” art and create something that is stirring and provoking. Something that stretches into the deeper areas of the heart, beyond the drone of life, to reach what is not always touched.

My Photography, My Art

Art I like, a lot of different mediums I enjoy, but photography I love. My work centers mostly on people, as they are, in all of their complexities, my biggest inspiration. I love witnessing when someone is honest to themselves, as it shows in their ideas, their actions, their words, all fueled by their emotions. It is the moment where they express whatever it is that makes them unique, and I try to capture that with my camera, subtle as it may be.

Sometimes my work is intentional—seeking out the right scenery for the right person to best fit an emotion; and sometimes my work is something found. Either way, my pictures are not blunt representations of a single emotion that we describe through a word, but rather, the moment of feeling each emotion.

As I’m often reserved in person, I allow my pictures to speak for me. While I’m trying to express the emotions I see in other people, it’s often a reflection of what I want to say, and the emotions I can best relate to. Sometimes the entire thing is contrived to fit what I can’t seem to say right otherwise. My pictures are often dramatic through contrast, angling, and sometimes style so I can present the mood the way I feel it—since I often can’t express it in words.

I like not what’s lit to speak alone, but the shadows and highlights together; my shadows are often just as important as the lit areas. With them I create moody shapes to simplify the picture, allowing the focus to be clear. The black is a deep black to convey more depth. Without it, both the picture and idea feels flat and incomplete.

My work is a constant metamorphosis of myself as I learn and grow and change—my visual representation of my life through someone else’s. And although constantly shifting and changing, my purpose in photography is still the same.

Artist Statement

I enjoy creating my art through various media outlets. Whether painting, drawing, photography, or graphic design I treat each media as an extention of myself. I use clean lines, contrast, minimal color, flow, balance, and perspective to compose my pieces. I find inspiration in natural landscapes, in texture, and in colors.

Art and Photography

I take photographs. I like to capture and reproduce some of the beautiful things I see so I can look at them later; but I think there is more to it than just that.

Some times I feel alone on this earth. I am pretty sure I am not and that there are others out there who think like me. I am not going to go into my entire philosophy on life but I will say that I don't view the human animal as being any more, or less, deserving of a place on this planet than any other life.

It may be because of my take on life and my occasional loneliness that makes me seek some sort of higher purpose in life; even though I don't really believe there is one. I just want to live life to its fullest and walk softly on the earth so that those who come after me can enjoy the beauty of the natural world as I have and do.

Enter art and photography, I have found some sort of meaning here. I don't fully understand it yet but I like to create. When I see an image appear, seemingly out of nowhere, as in the darkroom or on a good computer screen, it lifts my spirits. The only comparison that comes close to explaining what I feel when I see an image appear, slowly, on the paper, as it's slipped into the developer, is that of the first wave of an orgasm. It is not a sexual feeling. It is more an orgasm of the mind. It originates in the eye and flows back into the brain.

I try to capture and create images that have depth as well as "pop" or "shock" value. I try to make images that the viewer can walk into and that make them a part of the picture. I also want them to reflect my love of the outdoors and of life and humanity.

I am a student of life and hope to keep learning as I age. I want the camera to be an extension of my minds eye and I hope to hone my craft so that the technical aspects become so automatic that I can concentrate on the emotion of the image that I am trying to capture or create.

Norman Detweiler

Unrefined

As an illustrator, I love collaging patterned papers together to dress my characters. Why should my fibers fashions be any different?

The beginning of my fashion design journey, started with costuming. My enthusiasm for costuming was fueled by attending anime conventions and wanting to dress up like certain video game or anime characters (cosplay). As my skills grew, my desire for creating original designs grew with it. A few years after I discovered cosplay, I stumbled into the world of Elegant Gothic Lolita, which is a subculture fashion trend in Japan. I religiously searched the web for any and all examples of this newfound love and discovered other Japanese fashions, ones I loved just as much if not more than EGL.

I delved deeper and deeper into the fashion trend, but I never found my niche. After exhausting myself in the rigid and strict rules of Lolita design, I exploded. In order to free my mind from the structure of my EGL designs, I tore apart a yard of red velvet and collaged it onto my dress form. I wanted to be free of patterns and embrace raw edges; I wanted to be as far from Lolita as possible. I wish it had been that easy. After fussing with my ‘dress collage’ for weeks, I was so frustrated I put it aside. A month went by, two months, three, six. It loomed over me, taunting me on my dress form. I refused to make anything new until I had conquered this ‘Red Beast’. (Yes, I had named it so, and it still retains the title.)

I had had it. The Red Beast had kept me at bay for too long. The next few weeks were spent battling with the voice in fashion that I was so driven to discover, and it was embodied in a red velvet dress. I never felt completely victorious over my Red Beast; I blame that on my perfectionist nature. It didn’t turn out exactly as I had envisioned, but we now have a working, even friendly relationship. I no longer try to control the Red Beast’s ‘look’; instead I let myself be influenced by it’s ‘Unrefined’ nature.

Now I look for new materials that inspire me to cut up and collage together for my line of Unrefined.