Reflection: Terri Warpinski & David Graham

    I was very drawn to Terri's work and related to her work for more reasons than David's. First, she has identified as an artist since three years old. Similarly, I also have since about the age of five. Second, she was mainly a painter and printmaker in her undergraduate work, the two main media I work with myself! After hearing her relatable introduction, I was excited to see her work. I was not disappointed.    

    Terri's work has influenced my work in all three of my art classes this term. In Drawing, we recently had a "doodle" project. I took inspiration from Terri's hand coloring on photographs and applied it in a much more casual way to experiment with this concept. I gathered free books from the library and ripped out black and white images, bringing new life to them by coloring on top of the images with markers. This was a great exercise to understand how color and composition can work together. She has also inspired me in my Artist Books class. Up until I saw Terri's work, the images and text in my books stayed fairly separate. Terri's work showed me the power of overlaying those elements with each other.

    I found that her newer work related to how I've found myself developing as an artist this term, specifically within New Media in Art. Terri has an extreme interest in self-portraits, something I have been playing a lot with this term. Also, most of her works are part of a series. This class was my first time ever playing with the idea of a series, starting with our photo series project. I have fallen in love with the concept! When I showed Johnie my photos, he emphasized to me that they are much stronger together than individually. This really turned a switch in my brain — I love the power multiple images can express together. Because I love the series so much, I am actually making my final in this class a photo series, displayed in a small handheld book. I love the idea of being able to pull the viewer through a narrative.