Revised Artist Statement for Senior Exit Show

THERESA BERGMAN

Art is an expressed observation of a happening, through a visual.  I find that my art started as an observation of things going on in classes.  Figure drawings were a product of a model posing; Self-portraits were products of what I saw when I looked into a mirror.  Over time, these observations became more detailed.  My newer works started to be products of not only a visual observation, but also an emotional observation. 

This is when I became an artist.  My work was becoming in-depth and dimensional.  Still, my art was close to me, personal.  I studied abroad in Italy last summer and produced some of my best work.  It perfectly captured my experience living in Tuscany.  This year though, I wanted to push my boundaries by making works that had a wider perspective, works that weren’t “all about me.”  The decision to change the direction of my work was made in lieu of me feeling that a chapter of my artistic life (undergraduate study) was finishing, but the chapter was not yet complete.  I had worked so hard to show who I was through my artwork, but had not yet shown my opinions about what was happening around me. 

The idea for my shadow boxes emerged from the yearning to express my opinions about what had been going on in the media.  Atop the boxes are people who have affected an environment, place, or communities. Contained in each box is a representation of the area affected and how it was affected.  I wanted to show how each person in the media is put on a given pedestal because of something they said or did.  Whether or not the pedestal these people were placed on is correct or an exaggeration is up to the viewers to ponder or debate.  If my art can spark one new thought or conversation about what is going on in the world, then I achieved my goal of creating a dynamic body of work.