EMU Symposium (2008)

Yesterday, I discussed the lucky circumstances for how I was allowed to, as a college student, basically get paid to create whatever art I wanted to. I also described the theme I adopted for that first Undergraduate Symposium I participated in back in 2007 - self portraits.

The following year, still working with that same drawing faculty member, I took the idea of "self portraits" in a slightly different direction. Instead of depicting my face ad nauseum in different media, I focused on my subconscious - my dreams.

Similarly to how I copied text from my journal onto the poster I displayed next to my wall of self-portraits in 2007, in 2008 I copied text from my dream journal and displayed these fragmented written descriptions of my dreams next to visual depictions of them.

I'll admit - this was the year I put the least thought into the symposium. I was still deciding what I wanted to concentrate in at Eastern Michigan University, and was deciding between drawing and watercolor. I let most of the year go by without any planning, and then, at the last minute, threw some things together. I was a little disappointed in myself - I had all this "free money" in my name in the art department, and I hadn't come up with any good items to purchase with it.

It was precisely because of that 2008 "dud year" that I thought hard about what I wanted to do for 2009. I knew I wanted to study abroad, so I decided to combine that desire with the symposium. In 2009, I would create artwork for the symposium that was inspired by my study abroad trip; in this way, I got my scholarship fund to pay for part of that trip. (I'll show pictures from that symposium tomorrow.)

Here are some images of the art I created for my 2008 "Dream" theme.

I went through my dream journal and found all instances of a brand name that appeared in my dreams. I then created a hand-drawn/painted collage of the logos of those brands.

Drawing/painting

The next image is another drawing - this time a "collage" in metallic gold pen/marker of abstract roses. This was inspired by a terrifying dream I had in which I was attacked by a strange man and woke up in a hospital bed to see that my legs had been tattooed up and down with gold roses that were only visible under certain lights.

Drawing

Finally, this last image is a drawing/painting/collage I created based on another specific dream. There were (adorable) fuzzy little aliens who had landed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, causing a riot. To escape, I had to run from the blazing inferno Ann Arbor had become, across a river (which does not exist in real life), to the safety of my own college campus - Eastern Michigan University, in Ypsilanti. Television screens floated in the air around me as I ran.

Drawing/painting/mixed media collage

In addition to these 18"x24" pieces of artwork, I drew a few smaller (cartoonish) images that were also inspired by dreams, and printed up "flyers" that mimicked flyers found in my "Riots in Ann Arbor Dream."

Fuzzy Alien Poster

"Whale Plane" Watercolor

"Red Monster" Watercolor/Drawing

"Beer Tree" Colored Pencil Drawing

To clarify - when I say 2008 was my "dud" year, I don't mean I had nothing to show at the Symposium. I mean only that I felt I hadn't made the most of my scholarship money, because I hadn't planned anything in advance to spend that money on.