Teacher Name: Gabriel Mejia
Grade: 12
Materials: colored pencil
Dimensions: 9 X 13
Description:
This is a drawing of my grandmother and I surrounded by the eyes of her children and grandchildren floating in the background.
Artist Statement:
The works in my submitted portfolio include two pieces, “Generational Eyes” and “Hellenic DNA.” These two pieces are centered around the concepts of refuge and genetics. My artistic process is very tedious and prolonged and I prefer to use oil pastel and colored pencils as mediums because of their ability to be built up so much and layered. I created these pieces specifically because I felt that there was such a connection between genetics and personal culture and felt a need to express and illustrate the connection between the concepts.
The piece “Generational Eyes” reflects the science of genetics as the eyes in the piece are all drawings of the eyes of my different family members and how despite them all being different, they all are connected through familial bonds and genetics. I chose to make this piece using colored pencil because it is a medium that can only be used when building it up and through layering. This connects to how families go on for generations and have been built up for decades.
As a Greek American, I was raised in a household that greatly valued tradition, family, and culture. The piece “Hellenic DNA” is an oil pastel drawing of my face with a double-helix structure replacing the veins in the whites of my eyes. In the oil pastel drawing, my face is looking upwards and the double helixes are popping out, so it’s as if my genetics and the Greek side of my heritage pops out when the light is shined into my eyes.
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