MOVING PORTRAITS (Research)

Research

As human beings we are designed and created in a fabric that is profound and complex. We are built with a framework where mind and body work in a concerted effort to maintain our lives automatically. A deep and defining part of our existence as humans is not just the innate desire to live but to live in consistent well-being—emotionally, physically, and mentally. I believe when we incorporate our knowledge of human physiology into our creative process then we allow ourselves a greater opportunity to create an authentic connection with our intended audience. My work has been rooted in the study of these philosophical and scientific principles. I create a series of visual experimentations that aim to assist in my understanding of human beings at an emotional and biological level. Armed with a deep desire to understand humanity, my goal is to create work that fosters positive change and has significant impact in the world. My past and present research has been focused on human emotions, the intuitive creative process and the relationship between technology and establishing social identity.

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Thesis Excerpt:

Hannah Arendt states: “To be alive means to live in a world that precedes one’s own arrival and will survive one’s own departure”. This fundamental truth is my motivation to create art that becomes a testament of human existence during my lifetime. Artists, past and present, have served as visual historians. Their works are invaluable in our understanding of the state of humanity during their time on earth—from Massacio, Michelangelo, and Velázquez to Monet, Van Gogh, and Cézanne to Matisse, Picasso, and Duchamp. History has been largely documented by literature and static visual imagery until technological advances introduced the motion picture in the late 19th century. I wish to combine innovative thinking and current technology to continue the tradition of documenting human existence. I find it fascinating that we are no two alike. I would like to create Moving Portraits of thousands of people in my lifetime with the intention of illustrating the inherently beautiful architecture of human beings.

Ayn Rand believes that art fulfills a man’s profound need to confirm “his view of existence—a confirmation, not in the sense of resolving cognitive doubts, but in the sense of permitting him to contemplate his abstractions outside his own mind, in the form of existential concretes”. I believe my art work is valuable because it validates the existence of every person in my portraits and provides them a form of immortality. I create art with the intention that future generations will use my work to gain a better understanding of humanity. I believe that we, as artists, should recognize our role throughout history and move forward knowing that what we leave behind for future generations is all that they have to learn from. Furthermore, I believe that artists play a vital role in the evolution of humanity because “art is inextricably tied to man’s survival—not to his physical survival, but to that on which his physical survival depends: to the preservation and survival of his consciousness”.