The third master’s student I sketched was Anna Vic Webb at the UCF Art Gallery (12400 Aquarius Agora Dr, Orlando, FL) . Anna was wearing a COVID mask which I highly respect because we might be done with COVID but COVID is not done with us. The United States might have declared the pandemic to be over and stopped tracking it’s spread but the virus is still spreading world wide. Trump lost an election due to his failed response to the virus so he would do anything to convince people that it never existed.
Most of the paintings @anna.vic.webb exhibited had a vibrant green glow. Her colors literally attack with their vibrancy. My favorite painting was the one to the right with two women standing in a room with fish eye perspective. In the masters program the students work side by side in small cubicles. They discuss art and learn from each other as well as the professors. There was some controversy with this presentation because a student claimed Anna’s work was derivative or based on another student’s work. I believe the accusation had to do with the quality of light being portrayed. I personally considered the accusation to be baseless. Anna’s work is highly unique and vibrant. Every artist is inspired by the work of others. Once the artists leave the pressure cooker of the masters program then they will be creating away from this environment of accusations and power plays. Those who continue to create for a lifetime will be inspired by many artists and environments, becoming a melting pot of influences. Artists need a thick skin and such false accusations will help any artist ignore critics. The goal is to just keep creating regardless of what people say.
I recall that Stella Arbelaez had painted her bare feet standing in the mud. Another student painted bare feet and was also accused of being derivative of Stella’s painting by a professor. But does Stella have a copyright on bare feet? Of course not. People have been painting bare feet since the days of cave paintings. Stella let the artist know that she didn’t consider the painting in question to be derivative. Artists need to support one another, not be accusing one another, especially with AI being a digital medium built on being derivative.
School shooting paintings by Mya Osborne are visible on the left side of the sketch. “No light up shoes” refers to the sneakers which children wear which light up. Those can not be worn in school since they would bake a very visible target for a school shooter. “Faith without deeds is Death” Refers to the politicians who always offer their prayers after each school shooting while doing nothing to curb access to high powered weapons that are used the shootings. The empty words just promote more school shootings.
On the right side of the sketch is the Boeing B-29 Superfortress by @ally.artistic. The plane was still in the process of it’s creation. When complete it would be a candy coated fortress in bright pinks and jewels, contrasting its deadly mission.