My sustained investigation focuses on portraying adolescence and the existential struggles that begin to creep into our lives and continue through adulthood. Suddenly being thrown away from home and into the “real world”, we are forced to scramble to find our purpose, find jobs, go to college, etc. All of this sudden pressure compounds new kinds of insecurities, dreams, and mistakes, and my goal this year was to capture the feelings and experiences that exist in this time in our lives.

            I worked themes and motifs into my work that I felt resonated with obscurity and existentialism, as well as the concept of growing up. I began the year painting in acrylic, shifted to oils, and finished the year working in pencil. I mainly worked from photo references using a mix of old photos and some staged photos specifically for this class. This experimentation with medium and photography helped me to pinpoint the best way to approach my investigation. I also experimented with subject matter: painting landscapes, portraits, group scenes, and more. No matter the subject I aimed to create psychologically charged pieces that resonate with the obscurities of adolescence.