Squared Away

Row 1: Ali, Syd, Qeturah, Nicole, Professor Aaron Petten
Row 2: Julia, Alana, Laura, Brooke, Professor Brittany Campbell
Row 3: Jade, Alek, Sam, Abigail, Professor Kaname Takada
Row 4: Ji Woo, Jacob, Terra, Cory, Professor Sophie Knee
Row 5: Lucas, Alex, Adam, Benjamin, Jared (He's in school to become a professor)

I had realized at some point that thanks to the Quarantine situation, the only way I get to see the people I typically get to see is inside of tiny squares. Things like zoom and face-time and stuff like that always put the people you are talking to inside of little squares, so I have put everyone I miss into tiny squares. The right hand column of the work depicts professors, and the bottom row depicts friends from high school that I am still friends with. The rest depicts the Fine Arts Juniors. I consider the lot of you my friends.

I miss interacting with people in general, but I especially miss my classmates and teachers. I'm awful at staying in contact, reaching out, hanging out, going out, and frankly maintaining relationships with people is really difficult for me. Make no mistake, I enjoy all those things and  I really wish I was better at them, bu I'm also a nervous wreck when it comes those things. I'll keep trying to get better at it, though, because I like you people. I hate sounding sappy, but I'd be lying if I said I'm not a sappy guy.

I think capturing the likeness of a person is difficult, but it contains a degree of objectivity, so your goal is always certain. You are trying to make something that looks like another thing, so you just keep changing the thing you are making until it matches. The less naturalistic your work, though, the harder it is to capture a likeness. I tried not only capturing simplified versions of everyone's likenesses, but I also tried capturing snippets of each of your personalities where I could. Each of the heads is about the size of nickel, so this felt a bit like doing surgery.

Have a good summer, and stay safe!