Portfolio: 'Skin and Bones'

oil pastel, chalk pastel and charcoal on paper 16.5'' x 23.5 ''

Portfolio: "Body of Work"

charcoal and pastel, 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: À l'envers #3

acrylic on canvas 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: À l'envers #2

acrylic on canvas 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: À l'envers #1

acrylic on paper, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'Framed'

acrylic on canvas, approx 24" x 12"

Portfolio: La Chanson de la Lyre

tryptic, acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

This piece was created as a tryptic. Above is the full tryptic, and below are the individual pieces.

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

 acrylic on acrylic paper, 11.7" x 16.5"

Portfolio: L'escalier

acrylic on canvas, 20" x 24"

Portfolio: Le Lanceur du Disque

charcoal, 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: 'Looking Sharp'

I created 'Looking Sharp' my Creation Pictorale course at the Sorbonne. The prompt was to make a painting that portrays the 'irreducible essence of painting,' with particular regard to the philosophy of Clement Greenberg, major American art critic of 20th century painting. This link has some good info on Greenberg if you are interested. He was a big champion of Abstract Expressionism, and advocated for the work of Jackson Pollock before Jackson Pollock was a sensation.

One element of abstract expressionist art is that the painting ceases to be a representation of something else, and is simply itself — a painting. To get this idea across abstract expressionists deftly employed color, texture and simplicity to bring the focus back to the physical object of the painting. 

In this way, the 'essence' of painting became it's presence as a physical object. Before, painting had merely been a means to an end. Now the painting itself was the end. In a sense, the painting gained a consciousness, it gained an awareness of self. 

In 'Looking Sharp,' a single painted blue circle regards itself in the mirror. The simplicity in composition heralds back to the abstract expressionists, and the mirror is meant to evoke the idea of painting gaining an awareness of itself and becoming it's own subject.

Portfolio: 'Le Lierre'

'Le Lierre,' or 'The Ivy,' was created in collaboration with Annika Klein, a Brown University visual arts concentrator also studying in Paris this semester. We made the piece for a French art course we are in called 'Creation Pictorale.' The assignment was to create a piece of art that confronts a space within the art building (pretty meta if you ask me). Using a black canvas and silver wire, we created this sculpture which clings to a metal grate that lines one wall of a hallway on the top floor. The piece partially blocks the hallway, forcing passerby to respond to the piece by adjusting their path. It's dimensions are approximately 3'x7'.

Check out Annika's photography blog at http://annikaklein.tumblr.com/.

Portfolio: 'Forbidden Fruit'

ink, 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: 'Christ in Seven Panels'

charcoal, 16.5" x 23.5"

Portfolio: 'Fair day'

acrylic, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'View from a window'

acrylic, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'The Commute'

acrylic and newspaper, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'The Band'

acrylic, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'Treatise on the Heart'

mixed media, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'Le Peinture'

acrylic, 16.5" x 24.5"

Portfolio: 'Le Cafe'

acrylic, 16.5" x 24.5"