Pages from my diary : a series of paintings and prints

The creative project, which focused in painting and print making was the conclusion of my graduate program in studio art. I executed eleven oil paintings and eleven woodblock prints which demonstrated my development as a twodimensional artist.Although oil painting is the primary medium that I worked in for this project, I expanded my visual vocabulary to include woodblock printing. These paintings and prints were exhibited at the University Theater Gallery on Ball State University's campus in April of 1992.Painting is a vehicle to express my ideas to others. It is also a vehicle for my personal discovery' Being Japanese (Eastern) living in America (Western) has created a cultural duality in my life, which is the main focus of this creative project. The emotional content of each piece is expressed through visual metaphors.This project involves the exploration of the female figure as a self-portrait, rendered in an environment that visually represents my emotional state of mind. It is a visual diary which started out with the creation of small black and white woodblock prints. I created the images of the four seasons with a female figure surrounded by decorative patterns. This idea expanded as I worked on the oil paintings, which are larger in format (human scale). My intention was to provide a stimulus for emotional response while gaining a greater understanding of how colors, shapes, and other elements operate expressively. For example, in most of the images I intentionally positioned the figure so that the face is turned away from the viewer and not portrayed. This allowed the viewers to project their own feelings onto the work.Along with the creation of the paintings and the prints, I researched past and contemporary artists who shared my ideas and concerns. These artists include the post impressionists--Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin; the Nabis--Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard; the Fauves--primarily Matisse; German Expressionists; and a contemporary English artist, Howard Hodgkin.Department of ArtThesis (M.A.