Senior Art Thesis

Elizabeth Spangenthal

ARTIST STATEMENT:


Although I was born and raised in Buffalo, it wasn’t until after I spent extended periods of time away that I learned to appreciate its unique food culture. People constantly argue whether Anchor Bar or Duff’s makes better chicken wings, and if Schwabl’s or Charlie the Butcher is the king of beef on weck. These foods and restaurants are so quintessen-tially Buffalo that I had to feature them as the subjects of my senior project. Buffalo cuisine has evolved beyond this “standard fare,” but these are the Buffalo basics - the foods that every visitor wants to try.


I chose painting knives to create these works because they allow me to lay thick blocks of oil paint confidently on the canvas. I also decided to use square canvases, a non-tra-ditional shape for a painter, to challenge my compositional skills. To strengthen the relationship between my paint han-dling and the characteristics of Buffalo’s cuisine, I studied artists such as Jennifer Coates and Wayne Thiebaud. My hope is that the intense colors, fatty paint application, and playful shapes will give people a glimpse into what makes Buffalo’s food so delectable.

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