Shadi Sharif

“What is your favorite artwork?”

Curatorial Rationale

This Exhibition has been put together under the theme “Emotions within Nature” . I have always felt drawn to nature artworks and I wanted to recreate an exhibition of my own. My goal in this exhibition is to make my audience feel the emotions depicted within my artworks. I am hoping my audience is able to make connections with my artworks and be able to be taken back to a time where they felt that emotion and think about the nature surrounding them at the time. My vision for presenting this body of work to my audience is my hope of being able to make my viewers feel how I felt while creating these artworks.

Within my exhibition I have two pieces where I used clay. I intentionally incorporated these pieces into my exhibition to bring in a real life 3D feeling of an emotion, something you are able to touch and experience. Throughout making all of the pieces within my exhibition I explored plenty of different emotions. I incorporated only eight of my artworks that I felt conveyed the emotion best. While creating my artworks I imagined myself in a time where I felt the emotion being displayed. I have held a personal experience with every emotion depicted within my artworks in my exhibition and each experience has personally influenced the outcome of my artwork. The theme of the relationship between humanity and nature is present within my exhibition and expressed throughout my artworks. I wanted to relay the connection between nature and the emotions it may present.

The way I have laid out my artworks in my exhibition is significant because I wanted the blue in all my artworks to be the focal point in order to draw attention to my artworks. The blue is incorporated into all my artworks to accentuate the feelings being portrayed. I chose to mix the brighter emotions with the bluer, deeper emotions in order to draw the attention of the audience, using the color. In order to develop a relationship between my artwork and my viewers I tried to depict realistic scenes within nature that people have potentially encountered or experienced in order to spark the emotion I was relaying. I attempted to use scenes I had a personal connection to when I visited or viewed and reflected on the emotion I felt while being in that scene in order to relay the same emotion and potentially make the same connection with my viewers. I also tried to make my scenes as realistic as possible in hopes of capturing a realistic moment within nature.

The specific layout I chose for my artwork is significant to my exhibition because I chose to make pieces I felt a personal or deeper connection to the focal point in hopes of having the audience feel the same towards these specific pieces. I have a lot of blue within my artworks and I used this blue to emphasize the color in my other artworks. I chose to surround these artworks in order to make them the focal point of my exhibition. I want my audience to have a reflective experience when viewing my art. I want viewers to be able to think back to a time where they felt this emotion and think about the nature surrounding them and how this may have affected or changed their current emotion. I want them to re-experience this time in their lives and from this reflection think about what they learned. A specific artwork in my exhibition that personally stemmed from my experience is “Peace at Night” This was a time I felt the most relaxed and the most at peace. While I was creating this artwork I took myself back to the time where I was at the beach at night and felt at peace. I attempted to connect with these emotions and be able to relay them in my artwork. Overall, the goal behind my exhibition is that it will resonate with at least one person, allowing them to connect with themselves and their emotions.

Shadi’s Art Work

  • Swan, I love you

    Oil pastel and watercolor on watercolor paper and paper
    25.3 cm X 46 cm

    For my artwork I wanted to create an artwork that conveys the feeling of romance. I wanted my artwork to make you feel like you were falling in love or are in love and felt like you were in a bright, colorful, magical place when doing so. In my artwork I also chose to symbolize a swan to emphasize the romance and love depicted within my artwork. I also wanted the viewer to visualize they were falling in love in a magical place so I added movement within the water to create that emotion.

  • Zen Zone

    Oil Pastel on paper
    30.48 cm X 40.46 cm

    For this artwork I wanted to relay a piece of nature that felt at home. I wanted to make sure that someone could look at this artwork and feel calm. Like the title states, I wanted to create a “zen zone” . I also wanted to incorporate some aspects of Asian culture into the artwork because I felt as if the temple and the blossom tree were really tied into the theme of calm. I wanted to use blue as a symbolic color of peace because I felt it created a calming environment.

  • Gone

    Oil Pastel and Marker on Canvas
    21.59 cm X 27.94 cm

    For this artwork I wanted to relay the emotion of despair. I thought of a child when they lose their balloon so young and they spiral into a deep sense of sadness and despair, so I wanted to express that emotion through my artwork. I sat the boy at the edge of the cliff to show the despair he was in and used multiple balloons to symbolize the amount of despair he was feeling. I wanted viewers to be able to go back to a time they felt this feeling and be able to grasp it.

  • Reach Out

    Acrylic Paint on Canvas
    27.94 cm X 35.56 cm

    For this artwork I created I wanted to relay the message of loneliness without isolationism. I wanted to incorporate an eye-catching painting using nature so I decided to create my 2 trees reaching out at each other relaying the message of loneliness. One tree is on a higher cliff and
    another is on a lower cliff emphasizing their distance and loneliness. I also incorporated blossoms that are common in asian art to represent a cultural aspect within my artwork. I wanted viewers to feel the emotion

  • Happiness

    Clay with Acrylic Paint
    15.24 cm X 15.24 cm X 3.81 cm

    For this artwork I wanted to create something bright, something that radiated happiness. I carved out a sunflower in the middle because I felt sunflowers were symbolic of happiness, especially with their bright colors. The shape of the bowl itself was inspired by a man named Kaikemon who was one of the first Japanese potters to succeed in making white porcelain. I also added the gold/yellow accents around the bowl itself, also inspired by Kaikemon. My intention for this piece was to bring joy.

  • Midnight Skies

    Acrylic Paint on Clay
    15.9 cm X 9.8 cm

    For this artwork I wanted to relay the emotion of excitement. When I think of an exciting nature scene I immediately think of the sky. The sky has so much going on and is constantly changing and producing a different picture every night and I felt this was exciting. My intentions were for someone, even if they do not get excited over the sky, to envision the sky and take a moment to really think about what it looks like and potentially feel excited about it.

  • Peace at Night

    Oil on Paper

    For this artwork my intention was to relay the emotion of peace. I wanted viewers to envision themselves in a time where they were at peace and think back to their surroundings. What was around you? How did it make you feel? Why were you at peace? I wanted viewers to be able to resonate with my artwork and be able to feel as if they had been taken back in time to that very moment. This is why I chose my peaceful moment and attempted to connect my emotions as well.

  • Two Faced

    Acrylic Paint and Watercolor on Paper
    30.48 cm X 40.64 cm

    For this artwork I wanted to create something within nature that allowed for the emotion of feeling two faced to be expressed. I wanted the viewer to be able to look at this artwork and understand the struggles of feeling two faced and the challenges it may present. I used symbolic colors for this artwork to truly express the meaning. I used blue to express the side of deep sadness and a brighter red mixed sunset to describe the outer shell of happiness that may not always be the deeper truth.