PCCA @ 620
Three Exhibitions of Student Artworks
The Studio@620 welcomes students from Gibbs Highschool / Pinellas County Center for the Arts as they present their senior exhibitions. Three exhibits will take place, each featuring two artists. Opening receptions take place on Mondays from 3-6 PM. Admission is free and open to the public. Artwork will be available for purchase.
About the Artists
Alexis Damron
Nightmares, a mental manifestation of the innermost fears of the human subconscious. I have taken those which are only fantastical and made them physical through art. My work is simply the fears of the people made reality but still limited behind the veil of dreams. This is done through colored graphite. The colors and texture of the pieces each holds an almost film like quality to it. And that film is the wall between reality and nightmares. Each nightmare was a unique and real fear from people I interviewed.
Sydney Going
My senior concentration portrays the delicate and intimate relationship that both humans and animals alike share in this life. Humans and animals both feel similar emotions, have similar urges or desires, or even have similar traits and features. Whether it be the guarding protectiveness of the most ferocious dog, or the shameless cowardice of the tiniest mouse, our two species homo sapiens and animalia are intertwined with one another and have been since the dawn of time. I go about representing this connection and intimate relationship between humans and their animal counterparts by creating a series of unique and highly detailed portraits of the people in my life. I paired them with the animal that they are most personally represented by and can relate to the most. All pieces are done completely in ballpoint pen. This inexpensive media choice can accurately help me capture every detail and line in both the portrait and the animal linked to it. Color is absent from all pieces because things with outrageous color seem to always distract from the finer details to me. I enjoy working with a lot of details and dramatic monochromatic values. This can show depth within all artworks.
John Schmittau
Emotions can be very difficult to understand. In my body of work, I explore the concept of how facial expression and body language can portray various emotions. First, I cut into paper to create a stencil of a figure or portrait that conveys a certain emotion. Then I place the paper cut over an image that captures the essence or cause of said emotion. For instance, a paper cut of a couple who are embracing each other would be laid over a picture of the universe to signify how vast a person’s love for another can be.
Rowan Stanley
In my artwork, I aim to deal with the beautification of abuse and physical violence that is often presented in today’s media. From Terry Richardson’s and Tyler Shields’ pointless fashion photos of young men and women being beaten and in exploitative positions, to clothing campaigns such as one for the shoe brand Loula which features the lifeless corpse of a (well dressed) woman stuffed into the trunk of a car, glamorized violence is used to sell countless products, TV shows, and even people, every day. By creating aesthetically pleasing portraits of people with grotesque wounds and bruises, I aim not to make an homage to these scenes of embellished scenes of brutality, but instead to show how often times abuse is hidden by a veil of beauty, and to encourage the viewer to question this gimmick.
Stephanie Nichole Williams
In my artwork I like to portray a sense of realness. The central idea of my concentration is the extremes people go through to appear to others as handsome, beautiful, or fit. There is a daily influence on a person’s self-image. Children, adults, and even the elderly have to feel this pressure throughout their daily lives. My work expresses what the victims of influence go through. People put themselves through different daily routines and feel differently when exposed to how society may think of what everyone “should” look like. Signs of recklessness, suffering, pain, and ache will be depicted throughout the pieces. The pieces portray these different emotions of pain while focusing on the process of looking to what they may see as attractive. I find it interesting, yet sad the extremes that people go through to flatter another’s eye.
Samantha Witmer
As a teenager, I’m subject to a lot of influences on how I see myself. One direction there’s beauty, and on the other there’s brains. With both my physical and mental parts of me, I feel that both have been tainted by negative influences. There are many insecurities that can only be explained as if writing into a diary. These words may not always be pretty, but the subject of insecurities never is. To find the courage to face insecurities, however, makes a person stronger. To erase negative images and thoughts and start new can be very rewarding. I needed to own up to both my physical and mental insecurities. I needed a change in my life, and to create that change I needed to change myself first. I chose my strongest medium, colored pencil, mixed with words that I just wrote on a whim. The words in the background are my legitimate feelings- no restraints. The cutouts help to emphasize what is being referred to and give the pieces dimension. Now, I can openly admit my problems to myself, and the weight is off my shoulders.
