Artist Statement: Losing yourself in a good book or show is something consistent within our world, with everyone finding pieces of media that are their cup of tea that they dive further into. Behind the scenes set footage and extras in books are a testament to that, but very rarely is there the opportunity to step into those worlds. They usually sit behind a screen or the well-loved pages of a book. Captain’s Quarters takes it further, bringing a piece of a fantasy world to life in a form that allows viewers to interact with it. Taking the form of a corner stage set that brings people out from reality into the life of another. A small fraction of a larger project known as Project Doekinshire, Captain’s Quarters is a stage set of a pirate-turned-trade-ship captain’s quarters(or bedchambers) in a time of peace after a life of turmoil for him and his children. The chambers take inspiration from wooden ships and their construction, as well as historical items from ancient periods of time up to the late 1800s. Within the two walls of this piece there is found furniture, with a mixture of found and made objects making up the scene as a whole. These objects are to build up an overall story for viewers to dive into and learn about the world of a pirate-turned-trade-ship captain named Dibis Drake and the pieces of his life in whatever capacity they wish to. Giving the opportunity to step into someone else’s shoes, or in this case, someone else’s ship captain hat.
There are a lot of things that go into getting an undergraduates degree of any sort; art degrees being no exception. A large scale project the semester you graduate is stressful and heavily involved. For mine I probably went a little overboard with what I wanted to create. This final project is suppose to be the accumulation of your last 4 years of schooling and the development of your artwork and practice. I wanted to focus on that with this project, not only continuing with the worldbuilding project that makes up most of my practice, but also allowed for me to show the skills that i have learned and developed.
I worked with my teachers and my father to build up the overall concept and art piece. While trying to come up with a concept I wanted to move forward with there were a few that came to mind.
1: I could work to make the series of books I have planned and bind them by hand.
2: Make a stage set of part of a room centered around one character or a set of characters.
3: A series of larger scale prints.
4: Expand on my Laser Etched Acrylic pieces on a larger scale.
I ended up going with the second idea after creating a few sketches of the ones that interested me, since it was one that I could adjust as time went on and I had so many options for characters to base it around. It was also my main choice due to having a desk from my grandparents' farm that my dad was able to get before it was thrown out after my grandparents' passing. This was also a concept that I could use many of the skills I have learned in, making part of my world come to life and be interactive for other people. While it'll be nice if people understood the story behind it, that is not the main point of the piece. I think the story has become more important to me, and I want to see how others interact with it and how people interpret it themselves. While I'll leave pieces in it that will allow viewers to discover the story, I want people to be able to interact with something that just real enough that they recognize pieces, but it's different enough that you can tell that it's not a real place.
Bringing in just enough fantasy and realism to accomplish this was hard before I settled on who to base the small set on, since the people I was thinking of basing it around would have some very different results in how the room was constructed. I ended up landing on a character named Dibis Drake. He is a older pirate ship captain who fronts as a trades ship. He has a lovely wife who he would do anything for and two adopted children. The twins he adopted are his brothers and his wife's best friend, both of whom died when The twins were young. Dibis and his wife Lavara took the two in as their own. Standing with the children through their life of hardships I wanted the piece to be about when the world has settled and times have calmed down. It's about when everyone had found their happy endings and times have gone from hardships and tragedy to much happier times.
This project was one that I put together over the last year and a half, going through variations of what I wanted to present and how I wanted to put things together in the time that I had. This was a large part in my decision making, since time and my own capabilities would determine what as possible for me, especially since at the time I was having a lot of health issues that were taking a toll on my functionality and time in the studio. Once that was decided then I took the idea to the two professors that I work with that most, one who was my advisor, and talked through the idea with them. Once the idea was discussed a bit more with them and getting some thoughts from others I don't hear forest into planning with the hopes that I could get ahead on the project to make things easier on myself closer to my final semester.