Kaleidoscopes of Youth

Welcome to my digital art portfolio for spring 2023. This collect portrays the creative and emotional development of my adolescence through a kaleidoscopic lense. Through a combination of scans of old collages, digital collages, and digital mirroring and layering, the works portray different stages of growth. "Disarray" portrays chaos, through the use of a random collection of seemingly unrelated images that I was drawn to in my youth. The unconnected, yet full and maximalist page characterize the time in adolescence where one may be grappling to find their young identity amidst what feels to be too many options, yet it also constrained by social pressure. "Old Friend" then represents the changing shifts in friendship throughout childhood. The flipped and inverted phrase across the image exhibits changing, yet consistent relationships, along with the creative lense and interests I held in childhood. The overlay of sketched flowers depict a continuation of other details in the collection, representing the consistencies in identity held over childhood, and into young adulthood. "Artists Having Duck for Dinner" illustrates a younger creative lense, with children's book imagery, color, and animals filling the collage. The title mirrors the imaginative labels I gave my drawing as a child, therefore embodying the emotional and creative inspiration of my young life. "Girlhood" represents the shift from childhood to finding one's identity in teenagerdom, tying together many themes within the collection. Underneath the layer of dramatics that characterizes the feelings of divine and extravagant boredom of the status quo, you can see the faint remains of a colorful and joyous collage, the remains of childhood bliss and imagination. "Kaleidoscope of Youth" characterizes the emotional development felt over childhood and into young adulthood, but reminds me that my young creative mind is still there, as much as I want it to be.