Project Advisor(s) (Students Only)

Dr. Vickie Phipps

Presentation Type (All Applicants)

Visual Arts Exhibit

Disciplines (All Applicants)

Art and Design | Art and Materials Conservation | Arts and Humanities | Education | Fine Arts | Graphic Design

Description, Abstract, or Artist's Statement

The inspiration of this project came from Japanese Kabuki theater, where the audience draws from the live action in front of them. In Kabuki theater, there is a fluidity between the audience and actors through the experience they share. I wanted to achieve a similar outcome by drawing my experiences at concerts and events that I attended and produced them as future posters.

I was also influenced by the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who is known for his posters of Can-Can dancers. He created posters to advertise upcoming events and his work shared many similarities with Japanese ukiyo-e prints. These shared elements; flat color, tilted perspective, outlines, and everyday subject matter, interested me and my love for graphic design.

This project was a way for me to get back to my roots of drawing and working slowly, while also being able to utilize my graphic design skills. Half of the posters you see here are the original works in black and white and the other half consist of posters that were cleaned up and colored digitally. This investigation was about the value of human experience and hand drawn works.

In John Maeda’s book, The Laws of Simplicity, he states “somethings can never be made simple” and you fail, but failure is a part of learning. In our society we are taught that value is placed on time, and that time is money. However, we are not taught to value human interaction in the same way. Instead we learn that in the workplace, human interaction is a distraction. I believe there is a notion of the subjective that should be valued. Therefore, I created a series of hand drawn works that represents some of my own experiences of working slowly.

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The Audience

The inspiration of this project came from Japanese Kabuki theater, where the audience draws from the live action in front of them. In Kabuki theater, there is a fluidity between the audience and actors through the experience they share. I wanted to achieve a similar outcome by drawing my experiences at concerts and events that I attended and produced them as future posters.

I was also influenced by the work of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who is known for his posters of Can-Can dancers. He created posters to advertise upcoming events and his work shared many similarities with Japanese ukiyo-e prints. These shared elements; flat color, tilted perspective, outlines, and everyday subject matter, interested me and my love for graphic design.

This project was a way for me to get back to my roots of drawing and working slowly, while also being able to utilize my graphic design skills. Half of the posters you see here are the original works in black and white and the other half consist of posters that were cleaned up and colored digitally. This investigation was about the value of human experience and hand drawn works.

In John Maeda’s book, The Laws of Simplicity, he states “somethings can never be made simple” and you fail, but failure is a part of learning. In our society we are taught that value is placed on time, and that time is money. However, we are not taught to value human interaction in the same way. Instead we learn that in the workplace, human interaction is a distraction. I believe there is a notion of the subjective that should be valued. Therefore, I created a series of hand drawn works that represents some of my own experiences of working slowly.