Senior Art Thesis
Catherine Weppler
Contact Information
Catherine Weppler
ARTIST STATEMENT:
New York City is small by geographical standards but reign-ing as the most densely populated city in the United States, it retains the frenetic energy of sound, light, and movement and lives up to its adage as “The City That Never Sleeps”. In these paintings, I worked objectively and added elements of abstraction to manipulate scenes in order to portray the feeling of experiencing the energy of the city. My project focuses on the aesthetics of New York after dusk, as I found a fascination with the contrast between light and dark on the canvas. I worked by adding light to a dark background to emphasize the windows and shafts of light against the dark-ness. I hope to represent the lights, unexplainable sensory overload, and magnitude of feelings in the physical form on the canvas.
Artists who have depicted ‘The City’ are numerous, but Georgia O’Keeffe and Joseph Stella were of particular inter-est because they viewed it as a modern temple or altarpiece. My paintings focus on the lights inside rooms and represent the lives lived within and are more akin to the paintings by fellow artist Ross Bleckner.
Thank you to the Academic Fund for Seniors for their generosity and support.