Thesis Proposal...

Artist Statement:
The pressure to meet expectations in relationship to individuality is an experience that we all encounter in differing ways. There is a continual negotiation and renegotiation between what is expected and the actuality of the acting out of that expectation. It is the search for reconciliation of self within the framework of society, and it is common to all people. Within that search it is often the tangents away from the patterns that become the most authentic expressions of the individual.

My work explores patterns of social and behavioral expectation in relationship to individuality, particularly as it exists within the home. Through my work I am observing how individuals confront and express these expectations differently. I use visual patterns that have a more formal undertone (Damask and Paisley) to reference more formal or proper behaviors. I appropriate patterns from traditionally domestic decorative elements, such as fabric, wallpaper, plate ware, and furniture in order to draw attention back to the home in order to reconfigure notions of what “home” is. The work explores social “norms” and considers deviations from them as a means of tracking individual experience.

Through my work I prompt viewers to examine behavioral and social patterns of their own - inherited or self-constructed. Examination of perceived social expectations will in turn lead to an exploration of personal deviance from or adherence to these patterns, ultimately leaving the viewers to ask themselves if they are adapting to perceived “norms” or adapting the “norm” to better fit their circumstance.
(Sorry the pics are kind of crapy...)







PS- my proposal was accepted...I'm officially in thesis!