IP Project Proposal

        For my IP project I will be creating digital paintings that embody natural disasters, depicting the unexpected paradox of both the beauty and terror found in these events.  With a series of 6 digital prints displaying a tornado, earthquake, tsunami, hurricane, volcanic eruption, and avalanche, different aspects and characteristics of each natural disaster will be presented in an abstracted digital style. Our world today is experiencing more frequent and stronger natural disasters. This has caused me to question our perception of natural disasters and how it has changed over time. Therefore, my project will allow people to see natural disasters from a new point of view that is not the constant negative aftermath the media associates natural disasters with. Instead they will highlight the powerful forms, elements, and dimensions natural disasters posses in the paradox of being visually beautiful yet terrifying. The painter Oliver Vernon has inspired the kind of abstract and active painting style I want my natural disasters to embody.  He depicts certain elements that seem to derive form nature, such as wind and water, and captivates their free flowing properties in intriguingly twisting ways.

        In abstracting and highlighting powerful characteristics and elements of each natural disaster visually, people can use their imaginations or own personal experiences to explore nature’s incredible power. By creating these natural disasters digitally I will be enhancing nature’s realism with digital effects in order to really capture people’s attention. I would like to exhibit my digital series with Diasec prints, prints on acrylic glass, allowing light to show through the work to highlight the digital effects, delicacy, and fierceness my series will poses. My work will need a nice gallery space or room with large windows to efficiently display the power of my work. I plan to work in my studio space at school and at home, network with galleries in Downtown Ann Arbor, and to pay for the prints and space with grants.  

        To create my series of natural disasters I will be developing my digital painting skills by referring to tutorials on websites, such as Concpetart.org, and meet with a tutor from the College of Creative Studies. My own research and new studies in weather effects, metaphors of natural disasters, digital painting, illustration, and design will also help me create the digital style my series needs in order to be impacting. I think it is important for people to respect and keep in mind how beautifully powerful nature truly is and my digital representation of natural disasters will show that.