Alex Jodush

Title: Views from the Event Horizon

I wanted to create this painting as a celebration of my time here at St. Bonaventure. To communicate this celebration, I decided to utilize a wide range of colors to show the vibrancy of life. I attempt to create some form of parallel in my work through the use of complimentary colors and symmetry. As I wanted some form of symmetry, I painted the top half of the painting with my dominant hand and then I attempted to mirror the top half with my other hand in different colors. I also utilized the splatter technique with a wide range of colors to add more energy to the painting. I decided to entitle my piece Views from the Event Horizon because to create this piece I tried to remove myself from the present and look back on my time here. At the event horizon of a black hole, it is believed that a person is no longer affected by time and can see all events happening at once. So this location seemed perfect as I reflected on my past while also looking forward to the future unknown after I graduate in a few days.

For this abstract expression, I focused on the theme of love. To create this piece, I tapped into the emotions I felt last time I thought I was truly in love. During this time, I felt that everything in life had beauty and the world was full of color. The color of life communicated a positive and fulfilling sensation that is similar to what a person feels when they are love. To communicate this emotion, I used a wide range of pastels and colored pencils, as well as charcoal, to encapsulate the vivid nature of love.

For this abstract expression, I focused on the theme of attraction. The attraction that a person feels when first getting to know a person is a warm and radiating feeling that affects every aspect of a person’s life. To show this growing feeling I showed the radiating waves of warmth and light push out the darkness. To achieve the feelings of the growth of feelings I utilized pastels, colored pencils, and charcoal.

For this abstract expression, I focused on the theme of heartbreak. To help me communicate this emotion, I channeled the emotions I felt after my last heartbreak. I felt like I no longer knew her, we had grown apart and my world began to crumble. To show this in my work, I had the space in between the red lines. The blue in this peace is to show the sadness and cold I felt during this time. The purple colors in the piece represent the sadness slowly overtaking the warmth from the love. To successfully communicate this theme I used colored pencils, ink, and pastels.

The animal that I decided to draw for this project is an eagle. The eagle is an animal that has fascinated me for as long as I can remember. I remember when I was younger there was a bald eagles nest near the river by my house. This close proximity meant that I was able to regularly see the eagles and all their majesty. Later in life, I was fortunate enough to visit an eagle preserve in Alaska. There I saw countless eagles and it is one of the important experiences in my life that has encouraged me to pursue studying environmental policy in grad school.

   The artist I was assigned to check out was the American artist Inka Essenhigh. After looking at Essenhigh's work on her website (link below), I was greatly impressed by the surrealist qualities in her paintings and her use of colors to communicate her message. The one painting that stuck out the most to me was her painting Predawn in Early Spring. This painting was the most striking one to me due to its muted and neutral colors while using more vivid colors very selectively, especially when compared to Essenhigh's other recent works. Even though the work used primarily neutral colors, it was still able to create stunning contrast. The figures in the painting communicated themes of life and death, which I wanted to explore in my recreation.    My reinterpretation of this work tried to emulate the figures found in the original painting while incorporating a slight variation in the color scheme. I kept the two central figures of the original mostly the same as the original because they portrayed the duality of life and death. This duality was what spoke to me from this work. To me, the black figure represented someone who had died, while the white figure emphasized someone who was fully self-actualized and alive. Yet, I reinterpreted the contrast colors in the white figure to a more vivid red. This red I then utilized to create a connection with the energy and life of the sun forcing its way through the clouds. The mysterious figures in the foreground also changed to gray to show the various parts between life and death the figures are experiencing. Some are slowly melting into the snow, while others are pulling themselves out of it. I changed the setting of the work to winter to further emphasize the struggle of life. The materials I used to create my reinterpretation were acrylic paint, colored pencils, and ink on canvas. I was unable to hammer into my wall to hang up the work, but it is leaning against the wall on top of my dresser.

Color combination: Red and Green

Name: Alex Jodush

Pronoun: he/him/his

Major: History

Hobbies: working out, yoga, creating art, watching movies, hiking, reading

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