Stephanie Mora

My body of work is centered around the idea of memories, whether it be reminicind or the distortion of memories. This started off with the body of work centering around my personal memories, however I was inspired to tackle the concept in various ways. Memories can not only be gained, but they can be lost and remembered. With this new idea I was able to branch out and come up with new ideas that focus on the subject of memories. As stated before, this started off based on my personal memories, and by the second artwork I had gotten bored and uninspired to continue that way. Looking at the diverse concepts that stem from memories I worked to make artworks that are able to bring out those concepts. 

When first thinking about memories the first thing they would think would be their own memories. My first two artworks “Key Moments” and “Nostalgic Games” are based on my own memories. They showcased what I remembered throughout my life. Additionally, they were created with the same mediums and style. When I thought about memories, watercolor would be the medium that I would usually associate with, with no particular reason for it. With that reasoning I did those artworks with watercolors, to create a fog like effect with light colors and paint strokes that diluted the watercolors. I had tried to make soft shapes and make sure that the colors were able to blend into each other smoothly, as shown in the first two artworks. Later, when I expanded and tried to see the theme of my body of work, I also tried mediums that I was relatively new with. For example, my artwork “Post Adventure” was done in digital art, a medium I was new at. I made this decision because I had hoped to create a more textured artwork with a fantasy feel. Though it was hard for me figuring out the commands and testing new brushes, I was able to expand the way I composed artworks. As I had tried new ideas, I had trouble figuring out how to bring out the main theme, which can be seen in my artwork “Shaken Up”. While it may not look like it, it still focused on the theme of memories. With that artwork I had tried to symbolize memories through the rope the figure has, showcasing how knotted and snipped his memories are due to schizophrenia. I wanted to branch out on the concept of memories, not just my own but also problems among other subjects associated with memories. Looking at the way people gain their memories like with the artwork “Making Memories”  and the idea of keeping them through photos and “Post Adventure” that tells the tale of people travelling and making memories. Often when I asked people about their opinions on my artwork I tested to see if I had my message and idea across. As they looked through the imagery and composition of the artworks they were able to gain a basic understanding of the message, combined with the titles of the works, they had an idea of what is being conveyed.

When setting up my exhibition, I wanted all the works to be emphasised. Since no work would get the most attention, the viewers would just have to view the direction their eyes naturally travel, which would be right to left and top to bottom. Starting off with the two artworks that focused on my own personal memories and ending the top row with two artworks that focused on reminiscing memories. If I were to have placed the first two artworks separate and last, they would have been out of place, as the top row had artworks that were about past memories. In the second row, the artworks have a more abstract idea of memories and end with the idea of losing memories. This set-up for the artworks allowed for a progression of ideas regarding memories.