Kait Brink.

Hi everyone, my name is Kait Brink. I am working on my BA for studio arts. I came to UMass to major in linguistics and minor in French and German. After two years I admitted that I would rather draw tree trunks than draw tree diagrams. So here I am trying to make up for lack of foundation courses and stacking up studios. But i do appreciate having the background in languages and that often plays into my work. I am interested in art that expresses the absurdity, humor and pain in the world. I think something worth nothing is happening in street art, graffiti and installation in public spaces in the way these artists are expressing their thoughts by using confronting images and literally invading the everyday world with truth. More than talking about national or global issues I am interested in confronting personal, individual issues. I am interested in how the big picture affects the small picture. It seems that personal hardship often gets disregarded. Most of my work would probably be described as whimsical because of my choices in materials, color, or presentation. I often turn towards childhood themes. I like to explore the traces of 'child' as people 'grow up'. I admire this etching by Edward Hopper The Lonely House. 

The looming, abandoned building over the children says 

to me that they too are abandoned or unnoticed by the world looming around them. I also like Night Shadows by Edward Hopper.

I like the relationship between light and darkness and how that adds to the emotive content. For this class I plan to use variations of scene: road, field, building, room, sidewalk et. Also I would like to focus on children and what they are experiencing as a result of the technological advancements in our culture. As for style i like the scribble quality of the line in Man of Peace by Leonard Baskin. There is a simplicity in this work maybe because of the blank background but there is also a complexity on the inner space of the forms. There is also a sense of sadness that I appreciate for how it interacts with the viewer more directly.

Possibly a stretch, but thinking of how children draw, by using scribbles this might emphasize the concept of childhood in the work. I think for kids now, technology is giving them cool toys but taking away from the simplicity of childhood. I remember electronic books with cartoon characters from television shows reading the words aloud for the kid. It is sad to see the possibility for reading to become obsolete and this new "reading" being just like television anyway. To translate this idea into my work I think of an image of a book plugged into a wall outlet essentially chaining the child to his or her surroundings. Another image I want to work with is based off of a game to be played through the television. It included a bouncer for infants that would convert into a bike for toddlers. The game teaches shape, color, reading etc. I want to reveal the negative affects of young kids being conditioned to learn through television or to exercise inside in an 'interactive' setting. Yet, i want to be careful about being too obvious with my images. I think about a kid walking down a sidewalk dragging a balloon, un-popped but somehow too heavy to float. Maybe the building or the sidewalk is made of circuit boards or something jagged, broken, instead, and electronic that should destroy the balloon but instead it just makes the balloon a burden or a worry. This would take a lot of detail work and knowledge of woodcutting that I need to develop. Hopefully toward the end of the semester or after a few projects I can get to the point where detail to convey this concept is possible. As for the idea behind the work I hope for it to evoke sorrow so that the viewers may become aware and grieve the loss of a childhood lived outside without dependence on electronics. This may be dramatic but if change occurs slowly, then we should keep a close watch on the progression, instead of watching television. I am looking forward to taking this idea and running it through the projects for the entire semester to develop a skill and also the concept.