Playing with guns

My artwork is a brief reflection on the many things that I see on a day to day basis, either in my home or in the media. I have really tried to make it as personal as possible so that it represents me and my surroundings. I use my family as inspiration to create pieces that show their personalities, as well as my own. I have incorporated design, painting and toys to show how they all wok as a whole to really come together to create artwork that cannot be automatically identified.

The series has been created entirely on canvas using acrylic paint. I tried to create the art work with vibrant colors along with different shapes and sizes to generate a variety of images. I wanted the paintings to stand out rather than have the frames appear as a component of the artwork. My art comes together and has the same meaning when viewed overall in a series.

My series is based upon my son's toy guns. I wanted to create the images in bright colors to show that they are for children and they seem to be more appealing for most children. Since they are not just a picture of the entire gun, viewers have to really look at the images to try to distinguish what they are exactly or where the subject matter came from. I really want for viewers to come up with their own solution of what they may see in the series.

While creating these art works of art, I began to think of how children and young adults have become desensitized to what they see in the media on a daily basis. In our society today, children no longer see guns as harmful. They are just everyday objects. Children no longer fear the explicit representations that they see of war, murder, and violence. They are seen as fun and enjoyable toys, representations, or both without truly understanding their serious consequences. I really believe that people need to really look at things with a careful eye to understand what is really going on each day.

I am strongly influenced by the works of David Bomberg. His use of the geometric shapes and vivid colors really create amazing abstract images. Georgia O'Keeffe has also showed me different ways to create unique shapes and her use of colors is beautiful in her dynamic pieces of art. Josef Albers has also showed me how the use of similar

shapes and the way color can create an optical illusion. His art has given me great incentive to try new things.

My two personal inspirations for my series that I have created are my 10 year old son and my husband. They have given different insights and helped with their own perspective on life and how things in the world are viewed very differently for all individuals. The shapes and images are based on the ideas that my some, husband, and I have discussed. I have been able to put all the different conclusions together to create the images. We, as human beings are capable of listening to other's opinions, but the only conclusion that we can create for ourselves are the ones that we make.