Dancers: As Seen by an Artist

For the past few years in school as I majored in Studio Art with a drawing emphasis my minor was Dance and so I developed a great admiration for this artform as well. I want to celebrate the art of Dance through large scale drawings in this exhibition and combine the two fields of study as a way of staying connected to my path in life thus far. My discussion will begin with my background in visual art that dates back to some of my earliest memories, being around my father doing artwork in his spare time. The technique of using a slide projector was one of the tools from his box of tricks from that time and it feels like I am following in his footsteps with my work for this series as I have also begun using a projector to help create the work. Unlike my father whose work remained portrait size, I have chosen to enlarge the photos as large as possible, perhaps an homage to my own history as a graffiti artist and I will talk briefly about this too. The process of the work has led me to explore unfamiliar territory in photography and has challenged me as an artist. I have learned so much throughout this experience, from the use of new mediums, new surface materials, and the importance of new source and reference materials. The work is a collection of photorealistic pieces, which tells the story or narrative of the dancer’s experience. I am focusing on two dancers in particular in the Spanish Dance company Ensemble Espanol, and I had received permission to take photos during rehearsals with the company and have also taken photos of my lead models outside of the studio as well. It is a portrayal of a day in the life of a professional dancer