By : Marcus Clyde
Abigail Brock
One of the senior participants in the show profile this year is Abigail Brock, an Art major at Valdosta State University, who and will be graduating with her Bachelor of Arts degree. Brock is originally from St. Simons, an island just off the coast of Georgia, fit with sandy stretches like East Beach. Throughout most of her childhood, she was fascinated with nature and art, and upon attending the university, has grown to have a passion for these two subjects. Her artwork certainly portrays her love for nature, filled with detail, an emphasis on interpretation, and unique symbolism.
Throughout the course of Brock’s art career at the university, her performance in art has improved through different areas. She has enjoyed the areas of Graphic Design and Printmaking, where her work is primarily produced in those media. As she explained, “Graphic Design and Printmaking are the two things I really enjoy doing, and they allow me the opportunity to make what I love to make”. Brock’s art style has made a rapid progression through her time at the university, progressing from painting techniques to designing and to printing. She has predominantly worked with Oil and Acrylic paint, India Ink, Drypoint, Relief, and Intaglio. These were the ways that were said to be an “expansion of her foundation”, as she said in the Artist Talk, “allowing for the chance for the anatomy of nature to be expressively seen.” Brock has produced a variety of different works that are fluid in expression and color.
One of Brock’s works is titled Aragonite, which is a 24 by 36-inch acrylic painting. Aragonite is a visual representation of the mineral that is found in pearls. The artwork expresses a sense of balance, with the subject taking up an equal amount of space in the canvas. The diagonals that can be followed along the remnants of the shards angle towards a vanishing point in the center of the work. The contrast of the shine and the darkness of the shade present an accurate visualization of the mineral and the texture of it. In addition to her previous work, Aragonite Abstracted, as the name suggests, the Aragonite in this work is more abstracted, taking on the form of spherical shapes, while also expressing the angling that the original work does. There is slightly more contrast in this work, with a focus on the shine on the spheres rather than the darkness. The original mineral looks to have burst into molecular pieces, as that can be seen from the white shape in the background that represents the original shape. Both works present a unique sense of balance and a small feel of movement, as one can look at both works and feel the burst of the mineral.
Save The Bees, an 11 by 14-inch Relief print, correlates to her love for nature and presents an important message. The print features a detailed bee that includes the statement “Save The Bees” on its wings. Brock described her work as “a proposal to save and protect bees.” From her perspective, bees serve an important role in the field of nature, being a source of honey and pollenating flowers. The main draw of the print is color, as she incorporated the color scheme of a natural bee, the traditional black and yellow. This was one of Brock’s simpler, yet symbolic pieces, once again alluding to her admiration for nature.
In her Intaglio prints, she was heavily inspired by Van Gogh, whereas a work she produced was titled Smoky Night, based on Starry Night. In her artist talk, she says that “my love for the outside grows with every work I complete. Nature at night makes for a beautiful scene for a canvas”. Animals are also an influence, as prints she created portrayed various animals such as bees, ferrets, sea lions, and rams. She expresses her intention by explaining , “I feel as though animals need to be saved”. Her overall intention is to bring awareness through her art, highlighting the essence of animals and the beauty of nature. Brock has a passion to continue her work in her future career in art, and her history of work in her art classes allows her progress in her expertise of printing, painting, and designing.
Marcus Clyde, Valdosta State University Sophomore, Aspiring Manga Artist, 2022