Honors Art Senior Profile: Rita English

 What is the central idea of your concentration?

I created this series called “The Untitled Series” which consist of these four different pieces. The first piece is a block print about gentrification. The second piece is sketchbook cover design that basically explains my personality or aesthetic. The third is a portrait of my friend and I and lastly the series ends with a painting of two rooms ( one red and the other grey-scale). The central idea was to use messages through my experience and throw anything down that I come up with which is the main reason why I called “Untitled” because it is whatever you make out of it. 

How does your work demonstrate the exploration of your idea?

My goal was to create a series of different media so it didn’t lack feelings. I tried to stay in colors that to me stayed in the same group. Those being black, red, grey, black, burnt sienna, and all the mix colors of each of those. I had two pieces out of the four display words while the other two didn’t. I think my work is pretty neat but messy at the same time which is what I wanted to explore. 

How has the idea evolved over the year?

It progressed really well, I feel like I was able to put down all my ideas that I wanted to and executed it how I planned it. 

Can you explain your artistic process? Where do you gain inspiration?

 I wanted to use colors that I see in my everyday life like red, black, white, grey, pink. Those are my favorite colors and colors that you would see me wear. I had one inspiration which was the burn book style from Mean Girls. I wanted to implement that into my second piece but still keep in range of my style. For the portrait, I finished the painting then felt that it wasn’t finished and putting a red line over the eyes felt like a good idea to make the painting have more emotion and be eye catching. 

 What do you hope the viewer will see in your artwork?

I want my viewers to put their opinion on whatever they think it is. I want them to see that I am able to draw or paint or make different things but stay in the same topic. 

How long have you been making art? And when did you start to feel independent and like you were truly making your own work?

I have always been very creative since the age of like 8. I remember my mom putting me in this after school art club in elementary school where we would draw whatever the teacher made us draw but using our imagination. I started getting really serious in my 10th grade year of high school when I switched into art from dance. I started to realize I was somewhat good at it and continued to grow to senior year and made the things I made. I took a class for four weeks in New York at Pratt for Graphic Design and that made me realize that I want to do this as my career, because I am good at coming up with ideas very fast, I have my own style of doing things, I am still working on getting out of my comfort zone. Now I am going to art school for the next four years and still will be working independently as an artist.