...all collage. (2011: Part III. Invading Conceptual Spaces (2-D) & A Matter of Boundaries.)

All but the last collage below are the finished pieces I worked on for an independent study course. I was meant to be incorporating sociological concepts into my art and selected Orientalism as the starting point.

  Briefly and simply, Orientalism is the categorical practice of Westerners (US, Western Europe, etc) at Othering (yes, that's a verb) Middle Eastern and Far Eastern cultures and peoples in a very particular way. Generally eroticized and exoticized, such images create the East as primitive, backward, or, in other words, "not normal."

 Such art was especially prevalent in Western art in the 19th century, with use of Moorish motifs, wild animal skins, dark-skinned servants, and fair-skinned "beauties." This is my reinterpretation of such Orientalism, and, as I hope it comes across, my convolution of it.

I attempted, using images cut solely from women's magazines (between fashion and fitness ones), to create a sense of uneasy space that the viewer could inhabit and move through.

Nude or partially nude females are present in abundance, highlighting how little has really changed about how we view Western women and Eastern culture and aesthetics.

All 16"x20" excepting the hugely horizontal one (at approx. 16" 36"). Collage.

The beginnings of what I intend to grow into a small series of a few large pieces:  A Matter of Boundaries. A piece I made completely out of old Artist Magazines and their images of art, I like to think of it as my new body of art. Ah, pun-tastic.

You can check out this piece in the context of the 55th Juried Student Art Show at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Spring 2012 by clicking here. An image of my work is #7 and if you make it to image #12, you can see yours truly checking out a compelling study abroad art journal. Of over 180 pieces that were entered, I was lucky enough to be one of the 76 selected.

 35"x47" - collage on paper mounted on wood panel