Malia Reeves: 2011

Studio Art Honors Proposal

Malia Reeves ‘12

“If every person in the world took the time out of every day to sit and watch the sunset, there would be no war.”

I make art because it puts me, one hundred percent, in the present moment. That exact instant is plucked out of existence by my brush and charcoal and visually represented physically, spatially, emotionally for others to see. Like a sunset, art seems to exist outside of time, occurring everyday throughout history but also always within the ever changing present. The quote above represents an ideal in which, through escaping the torrential nature of our age of information, simple humanity is exposed. By being completely present in a particular moment, an understanding is reached. I intend to focus my Honors experience on this idea of being present.

My subject matter itself will be the figure. Immensely complex physically, depicting the human body alone can take years of practice. However, what interests me is what it is that allows some talented artists to really represent the personality of their subject. I look to artists such as Velazquez and Rembrandt and more recently photographers such as Annie Leibovitz as inspiration. In their work, they have managed to capture a moment of personality in the human form; a moment that really shows the presence of the subject. In addition, I’m attracted to the figure as a form that is constantly moving. The ability to capture the present moment of such movement and aliveness is another challenge I’m interested in exploring more.

The female form particularly interests me. A recent trend I’ve been working on this term that I’d like to use to jumpstart my work for senior seminar and honors is the idea that modern feminism is hugely about physical confidence and strength. I have, up until now, been working with this idea in digital photography. However, I would like to bring it into my paintings by depicting the strength and grace in the personality as well as the physical form of women I know.

I plan to continue my work in oil paints as I feel I still have much to learn from the medium. Unlike sculpture or photography, I enjoy painting in its relative simplicity; I’m not a big fan of measurements or numbers and therefore find myself too distracted by the more process-oriented arts. In addition I find drawing, particularly in charcoal, to be very useful when producing rapid work such as from a live model. I would like to continue to organize the evening model drawing sessions for the department as this has really given me an opportunity to explore the depiction of the human form. My main focus, however, will be with oil paint though I am also interested in perhaps exploring the use of mixed media, as I have not yet had the opportunity to do so.

In summary, I would like to use the amazing opportunity that the Honors Program provides to explore some of these more conceptual themes. Through the more all-encompassing idea of what it is to be present in a certain moment, I find several levels of interest; how I, as the artist, am present in the creative process and in the final product itself, how I can represent my subject to reveal a presence of personality beyond the physical form, and how I can encourage a viewer to be a part of the humanity of that moment. I would like to begin to explore these questions by focusing on the physical and character strength of modern women.