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Description
This work included painting, printmaking, and sculpture exhibited at St. Norbert College from April 8, 2019 to May 3, 2019.
Semester Completed
Spring 2019
City
De Pere, WI
Keywords
Printmaking, Sculpture, Intaglio Printmaking, Painting, Watercolor, Dada, Conceptual, Performance Art, Spray Paint
Disciplines
Art and Design
Recommended Citation
Bartch, Emerson, "Emerson Bartch, Senior Art Exhibition Portfolio" (2019). Senior Art Portfolios. 26.
https://digitalcommons.snc.edu/artportfolios/26
Copyright
Copyright Emerson Bartch
Artist Statement
My work as a whole explores the human figure in an unfamiliar way and fluctuates between being conceptual and literal. The majority of my portfolio brings into light mental health disorders. I’ve focused primarily on this topic because I find it is a discussion that is oftentimes cast aside and not taken as seriously as it should be, despite its rising impact on our younger generations. My main body of work portrays its subject matter in a shocking and visceral manner with a special interest in both the physical human figure and the mental “figure.”
I communicate concepts and subjects, such as: trauma, transformation, and physicality, that will bring about a response that will emotionally resonate with another without the use of words. Through these emotional experiences, my work presents an opportunity for the viewer to reflect, meditate, and act upon what they have experienced.
When beginning a new piece I often look to works of art, readings, songs, or sayings for inspiration. Felix Gonzalez-Torres is an artist that I look to often for new ideas in relation to the human figure. I do not usually grasp onto a quality concept unless I am in an intense emotional state when it seems as though my emotions are going to burst out of me. These emotional motifs range from being uplifting expressions to negative expressions. From that point on I begin madly sketching creating variations of the same concept, followed by the decision of which iteration to execute and what medium to use in an effort to bring this work into the light.