CONCENTRATION STATEMENT

I explored cats as a subject because they have intriguing personalities. Cats vary in in their behavior and their affinity for people. I’ve witnessed the many facets of my own cats firsthand. I used bold color, rhythmic patterns, and positive/negative shape relationships to explore the complex feline persona. The playful lines, pop-influenced shapes, and dynamic angles are meant to energize the images. To focus on my design elements, I worked in paper collage, black marker, and colored pencil.

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Initially, I wanted to create portraits of specific cats and their personalities. 1 and 2 reflect this aim; I worked on creating realistic portraits of the subjects, and I included transcripts from interviews I had with their owners in order to build a visual texture on the surface as well as a story. In 3 and 4, I began boiling the subject down to its essential form by using silhouettes of the subjects. I continued this idea of reduction through the next three pieces, and balanced those simple designs with added details and more developed backgrounds. I created depth through layers rather than perspective in order to emphasize shapes and tones. I also played with my usage of color and created a stronger sense of contrast and rhythm through the use of repetitive patterning. Dynamic perspective lines were employed for energy in 6 and 7 while I strategically positioned dark areas in the compositions. In 8, 9, and 10, I moved away from representational backgrounds and focused on breaking up the space in an abstract, fragmented way. Finally in 11 and 12, I came full-circle and blended my use of representational paper cut-outs with abstracted landscapes to create layered, high-contrast results with an iconic aesthetic.