The Art of the Process
October 2020 - November 2020
The artistic process is our way of making sense of our feelings and emotions and revealing to ourselves and to others the realities we create, reflect on, or seek to challenge.
Every work of art is simply that— a work of art. There are writings, conversations, songs, places, and communities of people that inspire sketches, mood boards, drafts, and— eventually— the final piece.
This exhibition attempts to deconstruct how art galleries only show the completed work of art rather than the complete work of art. As you reflect on the art in the gallery today, I invite you to consider how and why we create and to be inspired by the processes of each featured artist.
There is so much beauty and value in one’s artistic process and their immersion into the ideas behind their art. Curating this exhibition and getting to know these artists in our community has been such a rewarding... process. I hope that you are able see the intent behind each of these works and that this gallery can serve as inspiration for your next work of art.
- Curated by Madeline Arbutus, Visual Art & Media and Communication Studies UMBC 2022
Dyllon Wolf
eclipse, 2017, 18’’ x 24’’, acrylic paint
rage, rage, 2017, 12’’ x 14’’, pen and ink
a woman weeping, 2017, 9’’ x 11’’, pen and ink
the showmaker, 2017, 11’’ x 14’’, digital photography, $75
IG: dyllonwolf
Website: www.dyllonwolf.com
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Louis Middleton
Cast of Grease & Hairspray in Baltimore, 2020, 16’’ x 20’’, colored pencil on paper, $105
Dr. Who Bill & ted in Baltimore, 2020, 16’’ x 20’’, colored pencil on paper, $105
A crossover is when a fictional character from one story goes to another story. I got the cast of Broadway musicals in different shows, then I made pictures on Photoshop of the cast of characters and created a few final pieces in the series. But I wanted to do this art together, not alone. So on Make Studio’s Facebook, I invited people to vote for their favorite crossover. They voted to do something crazy like you’ve never done it before: it’s called “Doctor Who/Bill & Ted’s Broadway Musicals Crossover Team” where they take the cast from the past and into the future. During virtual studio sessions, I worked on my drawing and encouraged everybody to dance and sing (louder!) during one-song disco breaks. My final artwork features Jodie Whittaker and Matt Smith with a Tardis and Bill & Ted with a time travel phone booth at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood California.
Instagram: @makestudiobmore
Website: make-studio.org/artist_pages/louis_middleton
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Byanca Morales Cabrera
DA.JO.DE, 2019, 20’’ x 16’’, acrylic paint
Ms S Cugh, 2020, 9’’ x 12’’, acrylic paint, digital
Purple, 2020, 8’’ x 10’’, acrylic paint, digital
Ahemd, 2020, 8’’ x 10’’, acrylic paint
In my investigation I sought to create a series of figurative works with a strong focus on diversity within my community. In my portrait paintings I have used an abstract-posterized painting style using strong colors, mark making, and added typography to create patterns unique to each individual subject to express a narrative. In undertaking portraits of my community I decided to try to communicate something beyond what they looked like and show what is revealed in an individual’s being & identity. I used stylized patterns, intense colors to shift away from perfect likeness. Some of my subjects even dressing in their homeland’s traditional clothing. Once I captured the portraits I decided to embellish the images with unique personalized patterns. I created a survey of questions for each subject that I then used to guide me in the designing of each individualized pattern, patterns inspired by the subject’s country of origin to items they best identify with to colors they think best represent who they are. I resolved my final works by putting everything together, pattern, color, texture, detail to mark making. This exploration led me to grow a deep appreciation for the great precision and detail in patterns, all the while expanding my knowledge of the tools and components that make up digital art.
Instagram: @byancamoca_art
Website: byancamoca.wixsite.com/moca
Email: byancam1@umbc.edu
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Ian Kibria
Pas Seul (Lone Waltz), 2019, 11’’ x 8.5’’, digital photography
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Raquel Hamner
The Moon is Emiley, 2019, 13’’ x 19’’, digital photography
This is from a series I started last fall called “The Moon”. This is the first photo I completed for it, of my friend Emiley. The moon has traditionally been depicted as a beautiful woman, and I wanted to create something that was feminine, strong, and celestial. There are three women and one non-binary person in the series so far, and I plan on continuing it in the future.
Instagram: @the_candid
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Benjamin Jancewicz
Enamored, 2013, 18’’ x 18’’, vector on canvas, $180
Desiccated, 2014, 18’’ x 18’’, vector on canvas, $180
Sauve, 2014, 18’’ x 18’’, vector on canvas, $180
I create art using new techniques for an age-old purpose: to tell stories and inspire action. As a child, I was inspired by cartoons; drawn characters and stories brought to life with no visible brushstrokes or shading. My fascination for that aesthetic met its match in my discovery of vector art. After producing photography, sketch and graphic design work years, the vector technique brought me full creative fulfillment for the first time. Now I use the painstaking process to create pieces that share positive messages using unique color palettes, detailed shapes and countless nuances of light, shadow, and mid-tonal values. My work often uses themes themes of love, cultural understanding, fantasy and futurism to appeal to and inspire the imagination of diverse audiences. I believe that art should be accessible but that accessibility need not compromise quality. I believe that artists should be kind but that kindness need not compromise courage and honesty. And I try my best to live and create in a way that honors both of those beliefs.
My current show, Who Said What, is a collection that combines my love for engaging people in the creation of my art as well as my desire to reimagine quotes that move people to live better lives. The creation process begins with a call for quotes to be submitted. I then do careful research and select a unique photograph of the quote’s author, typically in their youth, imagining them as my peer. Using the reference image, I draw the piece itself inspired by 1950s and 60s screen printing, interior design and album covers. Each piece has a unique color palette and font from an up-and-coming typographer.
This series has grown as people become inspired by it and add to it, but it has also spawned inspiration for new collections. As I grow as an artist, I hope that people continue to draw the same level of enjoyment from engaging with my work as I do from creating it.
Website: art.zerflin.com
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Nicolas Blanchet
The Imprisoned, 2020, 10.5’’ x 8’’, digital photography and photoshop, $150
IG: @comicbookbuddy
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Phoebe Oh
Conflicted, 2020, 6’’ x 9’’, watercolor and colored pencil
Conflicted is inspired by the following quote by Chelsea Wolfe from an April 2020 interview: “I think I’m always trying to find the balance between softness and strength because both of those exist within me.”
Honeysuckle, 2020, 5.5’’ x 4.5’’, watercolor and colored pencil
Honeysuckle is inspired by Ben Platt’s song “In Case You Don’t Live Forever” and the song “You’ll Be In My Heart” by Phil Collins. This piece depicts a memory from my childhood where my grandmother would teach me how to drink from honeysuckles. No matter how many times I asked her to show me again and again, she would always smile back and repeat herself.
Portrait, 2020, 18’’ x 24’’, mixed media collage on canvas
Portrait is inspired by Nayyirah Waheed’s poem in her book, salt: “you are not a mistake. you are too many/ exquisite details to be a mistake.” and Mahmoud Darwish’s poem “I Sit At Home” from the book Almond Blossoms and Beyond: “I sit at home, not sad, not happy, not myself, or anyone else.” This experimental self-portrait utilized basic shapes (circles, rectangles, and triangles) alongside primary colors to point out the complexities of all individuals. It was created by first painting an acrylic self-portrait, and then each shape was glued down overtop until the entire figure was covered. Although each element is simple in itself, the final portrait is truly more than the sum of its parts.
Twitter: @phoebeohs
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Liam Garrett
Founder of The Digital Art Movement
Polar Bear (Endangered Animals No.3), 2018, 37’’ x 37’’, digital art, $599
(5% profit on all prints go to World Wildlife Fund)
Framed in “Love” (Rainbow Tiger Maple), Shine a flashlight on the frame to see waves!
My art is you. My habits in art reflect a higher concept in society that each of us are witness to every day. I am the digital world in your pocket that you and just about every other person are sinking into and exploring. The art represents our modern lives in that I put the capabilities of the digital world at the center of focus, while the absolutely beautiful power of nature sits on the periphery of your view. I am the digital world that has taken our minds and put nature on the outside of our perspective. The physical frame is a symbol for nature disappearing out of focus as we give our attention to the digital expressions that exist in our pockets. My only goal is to represent the changes in our society, with a medium that is our society. Every frame is handmade, created from hand selected boards of wood picked up from sawmills in Maryland. Every piece of art has been digitally produced using exploratory methods in programs like adobe illustrator.
Digital art is a new frontier. This medium and its capabilities are vaguely understood. My first series illustrates animals from different perspectives, varying from the societal view of the animal to the animal’s outlook. The purpose of this series is to build pieces that encourage the viewer to look past the pretty pictures we’re so often presented, and instead see from the perspective of the animals themselves. Art always has the effect of seeing from someone else’s side of the story. I want to give animals the chance to have a voice.
Instagram: @digital.art.movement
Email: liamgarrett29@gmail.com
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Bianka Amin
A Memorial for Freedom, 2020, 8’’ x 10’’, digital sketch, $30 (photograph, $45)
Golden Bliss, 2020, 8’’ x 10’’, digital sketch, $30 (photograph, $45)
Perspective of NY, 2020, 8’’ x 10’’, digital sketch, $30 (photograph, $45)
These three pieces are sketched recreations by Bianka Amin of BAminDigitals, an artist keen on freezing time in place to record history for future generations to come, be it through her sketches or photography. The pieces were inspired by original photographs taken by Sapan Patel of SPgraphics, a NY based photographer who likes to capture the city and its countless moments through his lens. BAminDigitals offers a variety of services which include but are not limited to family, couples, and portrait photoshoots, pet, self, and family portrait sketches, editing services, and original photographs purchasable to be used for a variety of uses.
Instagram: @bamindigitals
Email: BAminDigitals@gmail.com