Valerie Atkisson and Professor Bruce Hixton Smith, Visual Arts

For my final BFA show, I proposed to display eight drawings, eight paintings, and eight ceramic sculptures unified by process and metaphor. Ultimately, I wanted the works to relate to each other in color, texture, form, line, and process. I used a combination of two metaphors, a bridge and a linden tree, to serve as the basis for the conceptual and formal elements common to all the works.

As I set up the challenge for myself of unifying the media, I did not realize the difficulty of simultaneously making the works stand on their own. To make my drawings and paintings similar, I used the same materials. I layered pastel, charcoal, and oil paint onto a gessoed surface. I assumed that the white of the gesso would show through in my paintings as it did so successfully in my drawings. It did show through, but the effect was not as powerful. My paint was transparent, unlike the opaque pastels. I decided to make the paint opaque and add a little bit of wax to make it matte. As a result, I came up with a rich velvety surface.

The problem that I encountered with composition was simple, but far reaching in my paintings. From my thumbnail sketches I selected the ones with the best line, form, and color to use as a place of departure. My goal was to capture the magical juxtapositions I had drawn and to reproduce them, I ignored the fact that the format of the drawings and the paintings were different. The end result was disappointing, so I reorganized all of the paintings’ compositions. The first attempt to unify the two dimensional work failed because the unification took priority over the successfulness of each piece.

Process played an important part in tying all of the media together. While my ceramics related well in form and line to my two-dimensional work, the ceramics had a worn feel that I wanted to be apparent in the other work. This worn look was achieved by adding and sand blasting away layers of engobe and stain. I used the same process of addition and subtraction in my paintings and drawings, using paint, pastel, and sand paper. The process of adding and subtracting layers became essential and laborious in all of the media. The show would not have been as successfully united had I not been working in all three media simultaneously. The result was the most exciting discovery: all of the media had a weathered presence that conveyed the feelings I experience when I am on a bridge and under a linden tree.

The metaphors of a bridge and a linden tree conceptually unified these pieces. On a Bridge Under a Linden Tree is a state of mind. The symbol of the bridge signifies a place of transition. In Eastern European literature the linden tree symbolizes a source of wisdom, rejuvenation, and spiritual nourishment. The linden tree can be identified by its blossoms in July which exude a heavenly fragrance, the blossoms later turn into seed pods. The combination of these two metaphors represent a place in life to which I continually return.