Final Show at Olio Gallery!!

Hello Everyone!! I'm officially announcing that the current "Spring Festival" installation will be THE FINAL SHOW AT OLIO GALLERY! Please come join me in celebrating Olio's final ArtWalk on February 11th from 6-930pm. I want to express my thanks to the City of St. Petersburg and especially my friends on the 600 Block for your wonderful support and encouragement!

Love

Saori

"Shorty Pickles"

These are handmade ornaments that I made for the "Twisted Toy Show" held at ArtOn! Central Gallery in downtown St. Petersburg.  Fun to make and all one-of-a-kind!

Thesis

My Thesis and Artist Statement:
My thesis is an exploration of human interaction and communication or the lack there of.  In that, I created “Fragments”.  By fragments, I mean portions of someone’s personality that display their intended identity.  Could you ever really know everything about a person?  What about even in your most intimate relationships?  They provide only what they want you to see or maybe what they only know how to express.  This idea of segmented communication and personal identities has formed the desire to create a series of “fragmented” portraits of some of my closest friends and recent new acquaintances.

My purpose and personal goal is to conceptually communicate pieces of my subject’s personality in one cohesive community of people by combining a conceptual thought process and technical skills of problem solving and craftsmanship.  The content of my work is expressed in how the paintings are executed.  Each painted portrait provides only pieces of one’s personality that I’ve gained over time; whereas, the pen and ink portraits are shown as new acquaintances or the beginning stages of a relationship.  This approach represents how in one’s mind we see the basic outline of a person at first and then over time we accumulate images and experiences that we associate with that individual.

The process of research, interviews and photographs of my subjects allowed me to form images, patterns, textures, and color for each individual.  Then after manipulating the photographs in Photoshop, I create a composition.  Once completed, I gather all my information and execute the portrait using materials like oil, acrylic, gouache, tissue paper, pen and ink, or type.

Through this technique and research, I learned how to conceptualize portraiture not only by creating individual aesthetics for each subject, but also by compiling them together to create one cohesive composition.  This creates the sense of personal individuality within us all, yet we are all a part of a collective community.

YeAAAAAAAA

I'm back! I've graduated, relocated back to the Burg, and am starting to create some new work. Here is a commission I just finished last week for the "Number 9" salon in St. Petersburg. The painting is 3' x 6' acrylic on canvas.

"Nicole" mixed media on masonite.  This is my first piece for senior thesis titled "Fragments".  I will be doing a series of 12 portraits.  Each piece is 8"x 8" consisting of only fragments of each person's personality that I perceive about them.  The idea is to show these fragments as the little things we know about a person and the white or negative space is the unknown.  

"Nicholas" oil on wood.  The subject matter of Realism.  My portrayal of realism.  It was created to show the reality of emotion in his life at the moment.  The eyes reflect both distress and also confidence.  The measles-like pattern shows the severity of the situation, but that this too shall pass.  Additionally, by choosing not to gesso the canvas prior to painting, these emotions and the painting will fade over time.     

"Nicole" was created with oil on wood

"Saori"  Oil on wood

"Disconnected".  Each row is three separate canvases created with mixed media.  They were then scanned into Photoshop and designed in different arrangements.

Acrylic painting based on a 'systemic' process.

"Airplane" was created with acrylic on canvas.

This painting was created for wrap around cover art on the band John Q's new album called "Sunrise".  Acrylic on canvas. 

These are two of four paintings that are on gessoed and ungessoed canvas using mixed media (tissue/paper collage, acrylic, and oil) to experiment with layering, illusion, and surface texture.   

Created with collage and acrylic on canvas. 

This illustration is based on the text acronym TFX (traffic).  Acrylic and oil paint on canvas. 

"Screaming Radishes" was created in acrylic and oil on canvas.

"How to Boil an Egg" book.  Constructed by hand and illustrated using Illustrator.   

The "Peanut Butter Jelly" book was a collaborative project. I created the concept and cover art that were made out of wood and acrylic paint. 

A handmade clamshell box created to hold three holistic teas and a "herb" reference handbook.  The box was created using board, glue, three glass bottles, and multiple types of textured paper.  

The "Memoirs of A Geisha" kimono was created by hand using glue, a hanger, and the book in its entirety. 

Book Cover Design created in Photoshop.

"Courtlin" was created using charcoal and acrylic paint on illustration board.

This is an illustration of the Goddess Hera whose sacred animal is a cow. She rules the seasons and the heavens.  This was created using tissue paper and acrylic paint on canvas. 

"Johnny" was created with acrylic paint on canvas.

This is based on an editorial article about an old man who was attacked by two monkeys at a zoo. He was bringing a birthday cake to his domesticated monkey that had unknowingly escaped, when two other monkeys took his nose and other unmentionables. This was created in oil on canvas. 

This lyrical illustration is based on the song "Hong Kong Garden" by Siouxie and The Banshees. It's about the selling of China's daughters.  I created this piece in acrylic paint on canvas.

This editorial illustration is based on an article about scientists putting Rubik Cubes into octopus tanks to study which tentacle they predominately use first. I created this using tissue paper and acrylic paint on canvas.   

Landscape painting created in acrylic on canvas. 

"The Return" was created using acrylic paint on canvas. 

This cover design was created in Photoshop by drawing on top of textures to create an image/background, then layered with color manipulation.

These are funny little dog character designs.  They are named Patches (the Hound), Knuckles (the Bulldog), and Loogi (the Superdog). They were all created from original sketches that were scanned, vectored, and colored in Illustrator. 

This portrait was created in Illustrator. 

Both characters were drawn in my sketchbook, scanned, and then manipulated and colored in Photoshop.