Sogol Akbari
"Self Portrait with the focus on face," graphite pencil on drawing paper, 24x18", Art 204; People usually draw their self-portrait very happy or very sad, but I tried to have a serious pose but frustrated in this artwork. On the one hand, I wanted to show my hard time during pandemic days, which seems doesn't have an end; on the other hand, showing my seriousness about my education even in an online format at home.
Robert Daniel Aragon
"The New Normal," graphite on paper, 18x24"; For this drawing I was inspired by what is happening in the world around us. I look around and all I tend to see is the wearing of masks. I do not see smiles but dead eyes. I left this depiction unfinished with none or very little shadows filled in. I chose to do it this way because this is where I found my inspiration. In a world filled with masks displaying all kinds of eyes. They range from sad, angry and even confused. Yet we still maintain our virtual realities. Will this become the new "normal"? Or will it all become a distant memory? Only the passing of time will tell.
Melissa Besecker
untitled, graphite on paper, 20x15", Art 201; This basket of succulents, thoughtlessly hung in this spot almost ten years ago, has persevered despite intermittent neglect, excessive exposure to sun, a few near-freezing nights, and once being pelted by hail. Events and situations that are all-consuming and monumental in their moment come and go, yet some things, beings, institutions, while affected and shaped, continue on. Not until this year did I realize that I could see this friend and sentry from every rear-facing window of my home.
Isabelle Blecher
"Self portrait 2020," ink on paper, 7x4", Art 400; Outside of a shop before the pandemic withheld us in our homes. Scared, with hope still, I ponder what the future holds for me.
Elizabeth Chaneske
"StayingStrong," colorpencil, 13x17", Art 205; It was important to maintain a physical routine during the long days of the Stay at Home mandate. Working out brought some sense of normalcy. It was a way to stay strong both physically and emotionally.
M V P CLANCY
"ELTON JOHN - FAREWELL YELLOW BRICK ROAD," digital typography, 17x11"; Art 603; I've been a fan of Elton John since the 70s. He is currently on his retirement tour called Farewell Yellow Brick Road. I wanted to pay homage by creating this portrait using song titles, album titles and lyrics from his creations.
Maria Contreras
"FAITH," blackcard board and matches, 8x16x6", Env 101; This design was made with blackcard board and matches. It was inpired by faith which helps to go thru difficult situations, the front view of my model is the perspective of my life. I can see trhu the windows frame my life, sometimes it is unclear and defficult to understand what, how and why those situations are turning in storms. In the bottom part is a representations of myself, my exterior person, that is like a seed going up. The right view of my model shows my hands up that is a sign og my christian faith. From the top part of my model is God´s perspective of my life. He can see me flowering, even in the darks areas of my inner he knows them. He has plan for me and it is much better than I could ever imagine. He has the power to turn the must difficult situations in blessings.
Emma Daley
"The Dissonance of Man," acrylic on canvas panel, 14x11"; This represents the chaos and unpredictability of humanity. This work was painted under color changing light to put the focus on how every step taken is filled with uncertainty.
VINSON DB
"I CAN'T BREATHE," gouache on paper, 9x9", Art 501; In June 2020 hundreds of communities organized in protest of over-reaching authority, and this project was envisioned. RED represents anger while the sharp BLUE juts-out in authority. The two converge into PURPLE disks surrounding the GREEN eyes of Nature, seeking balance. ORANGE, the color of humanity, marches under the LIGHT BLUE throat chakra as a PINK new moon rises under the plea “I Can’t Breathe”
Josibeth De la cruz
"A New House Model Based on The 700 Palms Residence," freehand drawing, ARC 172; My work consisted of making a sustainable house. That's why I used material such as concrete floorings to absorb the sun's warmth in the winter, Corteen Steel which is weathering steel, sliding doors and operable windows to provide natural ventilation and a lot of trees to help with the production of oxygen. The result is a house that takes advantage of the climate and that uses natural systems and technology to boost the home's efficiency.
Audrey Mae Delear
"Dogs and Backpacks at EDC," oil on wood, 20x24", Art 307; Festival life in the United States has ended for the time being, and it doesn't look like it's coming back anytime soon. Many people consider festivals to be a time of spiritual alignment and also one of the best experiences in life. Hopefully one day, we can meet again under the electric sky. Until then, nothing makes much sense... just like this painting.
Melissa Ana DiTommaso
"Psychological Nightmares," graphite on paper, 11x13", Art 207; This triptych is a representation of my greatest mental fears, phobias, and nightmares. Each piece represents an abstract or direct form of many different types of personal phobias such as odontophobia, atychiphobia, and traumatophobia that appear in my recurring graphic visions. Due to the pandemic, I have been given an extensive amount of time with myself to interact with these visions; which serves as inspiration for these illustrations.
Sudhanjali Elluru
"Still Life," oil on canvas board, 8x8", Art 307; I am pursuing oil painting ART 307 . I had still life assignment and really excited to do real live still life and choose to do cucumber.
Jaime Franco
"Sustenance," watercolor, 11x12", Art 301; In the beginning of the pandemic food was scarce. As time went on with no work money became insufficient. My family turned to gardening as a source of food and comfort.
Alondra Gonzalez
"Chains of Internal Hell," charcoal, 14x11", Art 620; Aside from it being part of an assignment in class, I personally felt that I was being chained up. In the sense that when this whole situation started, I went thru a lot of emotional pain: it felt like I wasn't getting close to getting better. Broken and unable to break free from the chain.
Vanessa Dawn Gopez
untitled, oil on wood, 10x18", Art 307; The main inspiration for this artwork was the pandemic and how people had to stay home and wear masks. Life during the time I painted this felt different and strange as we lived in fear of getting sick. As a result, we had to stay home, wear masks and avoid meeting with others in person to avoid falling ill which effected many lives.
Mary Grimes
"somewhere inside," oil on canvas, 24x20", Art 307; My painting is an abstraction representing the interconnectedness of the totality of the all or one.
At this exceptionally unprecedented time we may feel separate within our own experiences. Yet, as my painting reflects, all parts are related to the whole. The cool and calming color scheme I chose to paint my piece in offers a relaxing moment to the observer, to reflect on the inner-connectedness within their lives. To open an awareness to the threads of wholeness that exists in all of our lives.
Sunoo Heejong
"In Awesome Wonder," watercolor, 11x15", Art 301; I felt hopeless with all the fear, darkness and political noises during pandemic.
Then I looked up my God and awesome thing happen.
"I can fly high in Awesome World my God Created"
Taryn Hogue
"self care," acrylic on canvas, 12x12"; While being inside constantly, I’ve had to spend a lot of my time by myself. Since March, I’ve been having to take care of myself which is why I chose to give myself a facial mud mask, in which I am practicing self care.
Brent Horning
"Finding Balance," foam, plaster, acrylic paint, 12x9x9", Art 502; "Finding Balance" describes the reorientation that everyone is going through in the social adaptations of Covid-19. In this unlikely position, we are being asked to find balance in unsettling situations.
Mana JalaliFarahani
"Victims," color pencil, 12x9"; During the past few months, many Iranian girls were murdered by their own fathers due to the perpetrators' belief that the victim has brought shame upon the family. One of these victims is a fourteen-year-old girl in Iran named Romina Ahrafi who beheaded by his father because she ran away with his twenty-nine years old boyfriend.
Amy d Jennings
"Painting on sculpture," acrylic on prefab mannequin, 31x16.5x11.2"; Isolated in Big Bear in a cabin, safe, secure, lucky. Beautiful but no connection, a solo body gazing into the night sky, quiet, war and peace, go and stay. Nyx, the goddess of the night, swirling in a beauty, no grounding. Losing all sense of what was, becoming the night sky.
Kiran Kaur
"Drawing," colors and pencils, ARC 221; Drawing 3D perspective is inspirational.
Yazmeen Khorasani
untitled, pencil and charcoal on paper, 8.5x11"; These past months that we’ve been in quarantine, there have been influxes of new memes, art, and trends; including trends we thought had died out long ago. Since there was very little to entertain us, and salons had to be closed due to corona, people had to resort to cutting their own hair out of boredom; resurrecting a once unpopular hairstyle: the birth of the quarantine mullet.
Noticing this trend - and getting myself a mullet - I was inspired by the many people taking part in it and the beauty of unconventional hairstyles.
Danielle Kraljevski
"Simple Joys of America," charcoal on paper, 15x12"; Often times I take simple joys for granted. My father came to America when he was six years old from Macedonia. This picture resembles his pure appreciation for his bike, and such, his joy and gratitude coming to America. My 2020 Vision involves appreciation for the smaller things in life.
Joshua Lake
untitled, digital illustration, 6x4"; During the pandemic, I wanted to really focus on my art and my style. It is still a work in progress but I noticed the improvements from the last few years and now. I wanted to challenged myself working digitally by thinking what else can I do to add more to the drawing. This kept me going throughout the pandemic and I'm happy with the results.
Suzanne Lauver
untitled, collagraph, 16x12", Art 400; Finding beauty with fragments at hand. To avoid the potential risks outside of home, I used scavenged detritus from my house to create the composition.
Rachel LeMaster
untitled, pencil on paper, 18x24", Art 201; This may have been an assignment for the current art class I am taking, but it’s more than that. Of all the uncertainty and struggles during the COVID out break, I could easily turn to art as an outlet to drown out all the chaos happening around me.
Kai Levey
"Rough Around The Edges," painting on board, 24x18", Growing up, I’ve always felt the need to be perfect in the eyes of others. This caused a constant internal dilemma questioning who I am if not only to please others. As I grew older, I’ve come to realize that we all have internal struggles that we deal with daily. Instead of ignoring these feelings, I’ve learned to embrace them to make a better me with the hopes that people will enjoy my presence for the person I am.
Matthew Lum
"Gio," oil on canvas, 38x24"; "Dead but dreaming" was the HP Lovecraft quote that inspired me to make this piece. Humanity's ambitions may be put on pause in the last year; our hopes, dreams, comforts, love, etc. have all be put in a period of stasis while the world awaits the outcome of COVID-19. Yet, the most beautiful thing about human existence is while we may be facing the greatest existential threat of our lives, we can still dream of perfect places that lay just out reach.
Alex Massman
"Quarantine," gouache, watercolor and micro pens, 14x11", Illustration; My inspiration came from this quarantine we've all been experiencing. Trapped in our own homes, mangled, and just trying to hold on.
David Mesquita
untitled, acrylic on cold press illustration board, 14x11", Art 622;
The inspiration for this work was the anxiety and stress of being cooped up at home and also missing being able to be together with friends. Surrealism was also an inspiration because it helped me distract myself from the boredom of quarantine.
Salora Myers
"Step into the Mist," digital art; This piece I wanted to practice more perspectives so I used this opportunity to do so. This work was inspired by the song "Soft Fuzzy Man" by Neil Ceicierga that's about a ghost wanting to feel human emotions and be in love again.
Olivia Parker
"#545," micron pen, 14x11", Art 620; This piece conveys the indisputable cruelty brought upon children and their families under the current administration. An embarrassment to anybody who claims to live in the land of the free.
Zachary Parmelee
untitled, graphite on paper, 18x48", Art 204; These drawings were originally just a practice sketch and the finished piece, but for me they were two sides of the same coin. One represents a literal representation of the human form while the other represents an expressive interpretation. I believe this image represents a dichotomy between expectations and reality; as well as encapsulates the shared fear, anxiety, and doubt felt two months into a quarantine with no apparent end in site.
Toan Pham
"Cradled and Comfort," basswood, 6x9x10", Env 101; As we go through these time of of hardship and despair, what I seek for the most is comfort and safety, and what is more safe than being cradled in the arms of a mother.
Susanna Posada
"womb," pencil on bristol, 9x12"; I began this piece in May or June during a session of just automatic drawing, creating shapes and figures without putting much thought into them. Huge changes in my life along with the pandemic completely changing the world around me brought me back to connecting with my lifelong passion for art and leaving behind a biology degree. I struggle to fully complete this piece, but the idea is being "knitted" within the womb, the materials that make us human pushing and pulling and uniting into one whole being.
Alondra Isabel Rodriguez
"Shaded Still Life," graphite on white drawing paper, 18x24", Art 201; My inspiration was simply having the chance to draw something new that I learned and being able to draw objects that interested me. I was so happy I was able to choose my own objects because they fit my personality. I fell in love with whole idea that I was able to make a still life drawing on my own for the first time.
Sarah Shahbazi
"Love," concrete, 16x10x2", Environmental Design; The concept for this conceptual design is love. Love is like fire to me. As if you stand at an appropriate distance from it, you would get enough light and warmth from it. While if you get very close it would burn you down.
Carol Shaya
"Pandemic Portraits," acrylic on canvas, 14x11"; I was going through a lot when the pandemic hit; a breakup, mental health diagnosis’s, full time manager at my job, and the stress that came with quarantine. I decided to start painting, and this was my first painting that I have ever done. I usually like to draw, but I decided to put my emotions into a canvas and some color. Squidward is my favorite character, as he describes the moods that I go through as well very accurately (my friends call me squidward because we have the same nose, its okay I call myself that too).
Rain Stewart
"Path," oil on canvas, 24x24", Art 308; We are living in unprecedented times and are unable to imagine the future. Quarantine has forced us to live in a virtual world and embrace technology as a forum for socialization. It is dream time and virtual world at the same time. I use the images of computer algorithm, mystic aberrations and undecipherable images to depict the uncertainty of our lives today.
Orit Stieglitz
"Shelter at Home," serigraph print on fabric (handkerchief), 16x16", Art 400; At the height of shared anxiety, I found myself calm, peaceful, and contained, within the shelter of my home. It seemed to be a weird oxymoron amid the crazy world around me and the suffering of so many people, and I wanted to spread this sense of calmness and tell everyone to “breathe, meditate, and be calm”. At the same time, acknowledging that many people were feeling anxious and scared, I used fonts that look as the opposite of the meaning of the text; acknowledging that many feel trapped, I positioned the words in an enclosed shape and close to its edge as if trying to get out; and the general feeling that our world has changed is symbolized with the shape of a deformed circle (the new world) within the shape of the prefect circle (of the old world). Altogether, the red-black shape resembles somehow the image of the virus.
Pouneh Tabatabaeian
"Whats going on to our world?" watercolor, 30x20", Art 201, Art 204; The pomegranate is a very a delicate fruit to grow; it requires very specific care, yet it is resilient and can grow in all months and seasons. This fruit is a very classic representation of our mother earth, because it too requires very attentive care. The cracks on the fruit and the fire spouting from the stem exemplifies the turmoil that the world is going through and how we are not paying attention.
Namubiru Tricia Titi
"Choose Wisely," paper, 12x18"; Meant to teach or remind young people on the effects of bad choices and their consequences.
Kyndra White-Hunt
"All This Will Pass," acrylic on glass, 46x46"; When the pandemic first began I asked my landlord for permission to paint a mural on my front windows. My apartment building is full of so many wonderful people from all walks of life. This was my way of reminding myself and the community to stay strong while we quarantined.
Robert Williams
"Thamazing," digital illustration, 6.827x6.827"; All roads lead home. The world outside my home can be a scary and potentially deadly environment. Out of necessity we must be on guard to avoid getting Covid-19 or injured by a prison inmate released from jail. It's a precarious time.
Emma Yamin
untitled, graphite on paper, 10.5x13", Art 207; During a time where it’s difficult to find peace of mind, it felt mostly obtainable looking out at the ocean, with a friend, and some arts and crafts. Having limited access to the places I regularly would spend my time, the beach has always felt like a safe place to escape the real world and live in the moment.
Leila Zare
"Three-Point Perspective," pencil on paper, 11x9", Art 209; I choose this subject because it is a historic place in my country. I am interested in showing historical places in my original country which I proud of them.
