PORTFOLIO
COLLEGE, COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY UNIVERSITY & & BEYOND BEYOND JOSHUA JOSHUANAPUTI NAPUTI SELECTED SELECTED WORKS WORKS 2017 2017
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“In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.�
Vincent Van Gogh
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Traditional Art
07
Painting
23
Photography
37
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TRADITIONAL ART I have always found myself faster to draw by hand with just my pencil. Graphite is also versatile when it comes to drawing techniques. However, I still like the feeling of charcoal and the expressions it can make with just a smear. Color pencils are little more difficult for me as I can never get the strokes to look right, so I don't make that many works in color pencils and markers. Nevertheless, my traditional drawings span from the Japanese influence of Anime and Animation style of drawing.
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IN A DREAM Spring 2012
In a DREAM, one can create their own world. There is nothing more fluid than a dream where anything can happen. One can soar across the sky or swim in the depths of the ocean.
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INSPIRATION ON THE DESK Spring 2012
Lone Star Community College
This piece of awarded an Honorable Mention in the Lone Star Community College Student Art Show. The prompt of this pieces was a self portrait of the artist. Of course art can be interpreted in many different ways, and I believed to apply this to my self portrait. I chose to reveal the different aspects of myself at the time as my portrait. The comic book pages each have panels with different representations of my creativity: Japanese Culture, Personal Writings, and Architecture. At the top-right corner is a set of Video Games, these my adventurous and competitive nature. The top-left corner is a piece of sheet music from the song “Go the Distance”, whereas the journal at the bottom-left corner describes my constant interaction with paper as something to draw or write on. On this desk are little objects such as a necklace and headphones. The necklaces were given from my friends and family and the flag is that of my home, Guam. The headphones and the computer mouse describe my connection to technology and music. Nevertheless, one of the most interesting parts of this drawing are the photo and the feathers. The photo is of a boy looking off to a city only connected by a precarious bridge or little boat. The boy sits among a tropical island away from city. One might wonder why the boy is sitting here. Nevertheless, the photo is one of the most truest expressions of this self portrait. The feathers are the last symbol in the drawing. These feathers are more than just my infatuation with birds. They represent something that’s left behind, whether a feather or memory. That is what I believe I am. I am not just a memory, but someone to be remembered.
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CONTE MOSES Spring 2012
Lone Star Community College
A piece done with White Conte on Black Drawing Paper, this drawing was one of my favorite and the most skillful drawings. The prompt for this project was a study on a Renaissance Master. Students were to select a photo of a sculpture or painting of these Masters and I chose the sculpture of Moses. What was interesting about this drawing was the technique to achieve all the different grays with a single conte. I had to lightly stroke the Conte or layer on the shade to add more color to certain areas. The difficulty of this was not just the shading, but also the means of pronouncing the hair in Moses’s beard and even his hand. Even if I was drawing from a photo, to replicate the photo on paper was a matter of proportion. Overall, this drawing was differently my most professional drawing.
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CONTE COW SKULL Spring 2012 Lone Star Community College
Conte was an interesting tool to use for drawing. This was my first exposure of this material and it felt like I was using a crayon, but the texture of the conte was different. Smearing this material was also different in comparison to Charcoal or Graphite. Overall, though not my favorite tool for drawing, the strategy was useful. For example, the Conte Cow Skull drawing I used the conte to create highlights and shadows of drawing. This utilized the paper color as the base color of the object being drawn. Nevertheless, I admire the freedom of the material that is charcoal. The means to create the gradient of grays is entertaining to make, and I enjoyed smearing the material. I also enjoyed the ability to work inversely, creating the black and dark spaces and work one’s way to highlights.
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CHARCOAL STILL-LIFE Spring 2012
Lone Star Community College
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WILL I EVER LET GO
Spring 2012 Lone Star Community College
In the darkness people hide themselves and cling to their masks that they show to people. Lost in the shadows, they are afraid of revealing their true selves for they can never walk in the light. Masks represent the various emotions people put on to display to others, however, some people use masks to hide what they turely feel. One can become dependent on these masks and start to forget who they were to begin with. They lose their identity and thus lose their right to walk in the light that is their truth.
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WHEN I BECOME MYSELF Spring 2012 Lone Star Community College
With you I feel at ease, I become myself. Though I came here with my mask, with you I don’t need it anymore. This mask melts off my face as I feel open. This drawing was in sequel to the piece “Will I Ever Let Go”. This drawing describes when people have finally escape the darkness, yet are still wearing their masks. However, there are people here that able to be themselves as the masks they wear are melting away.
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THE PARA-CITY Summer 2016
University of Houston
Society has grown to believe that cities nowadays are the foundation of our future’s culture. Cities are the center of communities and economic development. However, people forget to see the parasitic aspect of uncontrolled urban environment. This drawing was inspired by graphic novels to illustrate the idea of how a city can be an infection to the world and the environment. Cities reside on the backs of these monstrous creatures that exhume waste on the earth and exhaust fumes that pollute the air. Done with ink and graphic and then touched up with Adobe Photoshop this drawing argues against the urban sprawl of society.
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GRANDMA BARRIGADA Portrait
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FLORA & VASE Still Life
Using color pencils and the like is difficult for me. Unlike graphite and charcoal where I can make use of the strokes and make them aesthetically pleasing, using color pencils isn’t a tool I prefer to use. I have not yet learned a technique I can use that will create a solid uniform shade of color. Nevertheless, despite this lack of uniformity, I do my best to make the strokes visually pleasing and unified in their own right.
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PAINTINGS I'm going to admit, I'm not the best painter. Painting has always been an art form that I tried to avoid during my Art Classes. I know that I put a lot of pressure on my pencil when drawing traditional drawings, just imagine that same pressure on a paint brush. I always had a sketchy hand when drawing, let's just say my hand was not steady with a paint brush. However, during my University courses I did learn to firm my hand with the brush so my paintings started to be a bit better.
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STILL-LIFE
Spring 2015 University of Houston
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STILL LIFE SERIES Fall 2016 University of Houston
The purpose of this series was a study of fabric, folds, and translucent objects composed in an interesting arrangement. Moreover, the still life was to be studied in various was such as in a close-up study as well as in a technique not used by the artist. The original painting (upper left) is the composition as is while the close-up painting (right) shows a bit more detail in the fabric. The final painting (lower left) is using a simplified technique and uses thick and thin lines to define the objects rather than color. PAGE 27
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THE TREE by PIET MONDRIAN Spring 2015 University of Houston
Piet Mondrian is an artist I found interesting as his works, along with many other artists, affected the De Stij movement for architecture. The progress he took to arrive in his version of abstract art was also something I took interest in. His series of trees kept becoming simpler and simpler to he arrived at a point of true simplification and abstraction. Though my attempt in recreating one of his tree paintings was very enlightening for me. With every stroke I was able to see a glimpse into what Mondrian was seeing when he painted this piece of art. I attempted to mimic the simple colors of red, yellow, and desaturated blue.
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EMBRACING THE NATURE Fall 2016 University of Houston
A composition of various patterns, this abstract painting was to express the freedom of nature and the feeling of embracing the comfort. Another aspect that this painting can express is the beauty of Earth itself and its placement in the universe. The techniques used in this painting was with various sized brushes to composed the thick and thin lines for the plants and facial features. The background was in attempt to represent the stars of space without dotting the canvas.
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SEEDS OF LIFE Fall 2016
University of Houston
The beautiful snapdragon flower has seeds that resemble that of a skull. A morbid thought to base an abstract painting on, however, plants have a deadly side to them as poisonous or of ill appearance such as the snapdragon seeds. Taking the idea of acorns on the forest floor, I replaced birth with death with the skulls and overlaying them on an ill colored leaf and a decaying surface that can resemble broken skin or plates of earth.
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DEFINED BY A LABEL Fall 2016
University of Houston
The word says it all. The word “RICH” was the driving factor in creating this abstract representation of the word as its paired with the overall painting. The royal wallpaper with the painting of a luxurious piece of furniture and the line painting of a woman looking like she couldn’t be more exhausted with everything.
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DEFINE SPACE Fall 2016
University of Houston
Based on a photo I took during my trip to Europe, this was taken at the Kunsthus in Graz, Austria. The interior of the museum was filled with various angles that created interesting spaces and paths through the building. The ous lute vas
idea and technique used for this painting was that the varicool colors were to draw the eye in various directions and dithe idea of space and ground. If one was to spin the canin any direction a new perception of the painting will change. PAGE 33
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THE CHOICES WE MAKE Fall 2014 University of Houston
Nature versus Urban. This piece directly represents the rivalry between these two ideas and the conflict one faces when making a choice to continuing expand or find comfort in confinement. The strategy primarily used in this piece was the use of color and the attempt to combine these two sides. The side depicting “Nature” uses warm colors but the objects are painted in black, shadow. The side representing “Urban” uses dark and ill colors yet the city is in pure white. PAGE 35
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PHOTOGRAPHY Funny how everyone with an Instagram can become a photographer with the right phone and filter. Even still after learning about composition and color pattern I have been able to find new ways to frame the world. A picture's worth a thousand words so I try to learn how take photos that make people see the world differently.
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CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM Spring 2015 Houston, Texas
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JAMES TERRELL LIGHT TUNNEL Museum of Fine Arts - Houston Fall 2014 Houston, Texas
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NASHER MUSEUM OF ART Summer 2017 Dallas, Texas
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KYLDE WARREN PARK Spring 2018 Dallas, Texas
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UNIVERSITY OF MUSIC AND ART University of Graz Summer 2016 Graz, Austria PAGE 44
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HOUSTON SKYLINE Buffalo Bayou Summer 2016 Houston, Texas
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HOUSTON POLICE OFFICER’S MEMORIAL Buffalo Bayou Fall 2015 Houston, Texas
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JAPANESE TEA GARDEN Winter 2015 San Francisco, California
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ZENTRUM der TERRASSENHAUSSIEDLUNG Summer 2016 Graz, Austria
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CONTEMPORARY ART MUSEUM Fall 2017 Austin, Texas
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I have a habit of taking photos of subjects with symmetry. When I see an architectural space that or work of landscape that is symmetrical I feel the intense need to photograph it and admire its beauty. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that I don’t see the beauty in the asymmetry. When I see objects that frame different spaces or the various levels of the fore, back, and middle ground create an interesting composition, that’s also when I take out my phone and take an interest in the art. I like seeing movement and a balanced composition in my photos and I want others to see the beauty in that balance and have their eyes travel across the photo.
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“What finally is beauty? Certainly nothing that can be calculated or measured. It is always something imponderable, something that lies between things� Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
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