A Breath of Fresh AirJACKI LI
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ARTIST STATEMENT
My art examines the experiences of the average individual, the people existing within the fabric of our lives. Though others may revel in the chaos and spectacle of life-changing events, I find smaller narratives just as intriguing. Whether it's a sour encounter at a grocery store, a missed flight, or a rainy afternoon spent indoors, the way people recount minor conflicts and realizations fascinates me. These events may be inconsequential and easily forgotten, but they feel intense and undeniably real as they happen, often framed by complex musings and emotion. The frequency of these seemingly trivial occurrences across the human spectrum leaves no shortage of material to explore.
As a visual storyteller, I magnify smaller struggles to depict them in a light reflective of the moment's drama. Reality is paralleled with subtle fantastical elements. The subjectivity of experience is emphasized through dream-like presentation, where strong lighting and exaggerated color are coupled with the placement of subjects outside their natural element. Animals of varied anthropomorphism are often showcased alongside humans, their presence revealing the subject's perception of self, others, and their environment. The subsequent contrast between familiar topics and their surreal, dramatized execution creates a space where viewers can reconsider the importance of events normally regarded as mundane. The work featured, "A Breath of Fresh Air", is part of a series of illustrations exploring a young girl's adventure on ocean floor. Invigorated by a fascination with the alien creatures of the deep sea, she becomes an aquanaut, taking the dark depths by storm with her powerful imagination. Her encounter with the gulper eel, a small, fictitious moment in the day of a typical kindergartner, is nonetheless presented as how she perceives it: breathtaking and fantastic. Though the poignancy of make-believe is lost through age, such activity fulfills curiosity and lends empowerment to a group limited by the abstruse adult world. The aquanaut's defeat of the eel with one of her oxygen tanks reflects both her ingenuity and sense of invincibility, common traits among youth. "A Breath of Fresh Air" and the other works in this series celebrate the endless possibility most palpable in the finite days of childhood. |
Instructor Resources
INSTRUCTOR
Julie Limerick
Torrey Pines High School
Each of the 4 pieces exhibited by my students are artworks they have created in response to the same prompt assigned to them in November for their Concentration section of their AP portfolios, however these are all very recent compositions. As an AP Studio Art teacher my job is to help my students realize their artistic potential and build their technical mastery by challenging them every step of the way. I assign work by concept and encourage the use of a variety of mediums from student to student rather than introducing specific class assignments. As they progress I often ask them to think of each piece as a "moment in time" or a "frame from a movie", in other words the viewer should linger just a bit longer as they ponder what may happen next, and what may have happened in the moments before this scene occurred. To inspire them and get their engines running I give them the following hand-out.
Julie Limerick
Torrey Pines High School
Each of the 4 pieces exhibited by my students are artworks they have created in response to the same prompt assigned to them in November for their Concentration section of their AP portfolios, however these are all very recent compositions. As an AP Studio Art teacher my job is to help my students realize their artistic potential and build their technical mastery by challenging them every step of the way. I assign work by concept and encourage the use of a variety of mediums from student to student rather than introducing specific class assignments. As they progress I often ask them to think of each piece as a "moment in time" or a "frame from a movie", in other words the viewer should linger just a bit longer as they ponder what may happen next, and what may have happened in the moments before this scene occurred. To inspire them and get their engines running I give them the following hand-out.
LESSON PLAN
What is a Concentration?
What is a Concentration?
