A Seed, Scattered: An Exploration of Drawing and Photography

My artist book and exhibition, A Seed, Scattered, express the ideas and emotions that have driven me while in my final year of my undergraduate studies. This project is not only a reflection of my internal self, but it also serves as an exploration of two art mediums – drawing and photography – and how they have been perceived in history. I was interested in how each medium was being used and how those uses have changed over time, as well as how contemporary use of drawing and photography compares to the past and to my own practice. Drawing has typically been the artist’s mode of manually and subjectively expressing their imagination; photography has typically been used to mechanically and objectively reproduce something that exists in the real world. Using this newfound research and knowledge, I found that my own images, in a way, flipped prior expectations: my drawings are photographic and representational while my photographs are painterly and abstract. Ultimately, I set out to combine photography, drawing, and poetry while also playing off the historical tension between the visual mediums. This investigation culminated in the making of 26 photographs, 8 drawings, and 1 poem, all of which I combined cohesively in an 8 x 10 in. handmade artist book. Within its pages, self-portraiture and nature collide in a vibrant world – a garden – where contrasting things are free to grow together.