Bella Epstein

Artist Statement

I enjoy making art because of how expressive it can be, and how it allows me to throw my emotions onto a page and create a picture out of them. In the near future, I would like to experiment more with texture by thickening my paint, using it to capture rough and smooth parts of a picture. I have been trying to move away from only doing one size and instead doing different sizes like very small and very big. I have played with borders as well, like very big borders to make the picture smaller. I want to try to be less detailed and more expressive in my work with marks, textures, and colors. I have started doing a little bit of this in self-portraits and figure drawings. For example, in the self-portrait displayed here I tried not to make it detailed at all, and I layered different angles of my face on top of each other. This made it look almost messy but in a simple way, often how I think of myself. 

I start a piece of artwork by finding a picture I want to paint or draw. I then decide what materials I want to use. If the photo is softer and more blended, I go straight to watercolors, but if it has some sharper lines or more texture, I’ll use a different medium like acrylic paints, collage, or colored pencils. A good example of this is New York City. I used pen to outline the sharp buildings to add contrast to the soft watercolor clouds. Before I start a piece, I often do a light sketch in order to plan out placement and size. While I am creating my art, I like to pause and take a step back so that I am able to resume working with fresh eyes. Sometimes I will even work on other things during this rest so that I don’t get stuck on one piece. I am eventually able to come to a place in my work where I can tell that if I were to add more to it, it would be too much, and that is how I know when I am done. 

Almost all of my work is based off pictures I have taken because I have to feel some sort of bond with the place or the picture for one reason or another in order to draw or paint it. If I don’t feel excited about drawing the picture, I won’t use it. I would consider the photos I take artwork, and I think that there is something really special about turning my own artwork into more artwork. I really like taking photos of landscapes, and so that is why they are my primary focus. I have been trying to create a sense of emotion in my landscapes, but that can be challenging. It is usually my own emotion I am portraying. For example, you can tell that I was sad when I made Icy Pointe because it is almost completely blue, and the ice seems to be frozen in a sort of soft, dismal way. I hope that when a person looks at my piece, they feel something, instead of thinking to themselves, “Oh, just another landscape.” I don’t have a specific feeling in mind, more that they feel anything—sad, mad, happy—and that they want to look at the piece for longer than five seconds.