window space

Experiment - movement?

Duplicating certain parts of the images and layering it on top of each other to see what effect it would give me.

Experiments Photo Edits

I love taking the photos that I have taken randomly and editing them through Photoshop. Editing the photos through Photoshop helps me determine whether the photo is the type of photo that I believe is a strong one through my eyes. I take more photos of kids than I do of adults because I find the children more fascinating due to the fact that most kids don't try to pose for the camera instead they just go about their own business. Capturing photos of people who don't try to look good for the camera or pose are my favorite type of photos because it captures the true realness in the event. There might be the odd person who "ruins" the photo but I believe that's what makes the photo more real.

Artist Statement

Samantha Sailiata

Year Two, Visual Arts,  BCA

‘Artist Statement’

“Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.”

 –Thomas Merton.

I first began my practice with the idea and dream of becoming a tattoo artist which emphasises my passion for drawing especially the Samoan Tatau Patterns. As I continued my journey to becoming a tattoo artist I found myself losing focus on that dream and finding an interest in not only drawing but a whole variety of ways to approach the expression of art. Now I base my practice around the communities that surround me, along with the people who were brought up within that community, family members, my culture and my love for children.

I’ve recently been more fascinated with Photography, Photoshop, Illustrator, Drawing and Painting. In my process I take photographs, then take these into photoshop and play around with the images looking at scale change in particular. My practice has been quite large scale, and I have been involved in making many banners over the last couple of years along with Murals.

Through out the past couple of years I have been involved with Murals as well as painting banners for different occasions. I found my passion for painting because of the opportunites that were given to me by the people who have requested a banner or help on a Mural. I feel passionate when I am working on a painting because of the thought that the painting isn’t for me but for other people to enjoy to take in and enjoy.

For my mini task I have been making very large scale drawings of children in my family. I chose to work with children because I love capturing those innocent and pure children embrassing life for what it is without worrying about anything else. I capture those moments by taking photos of them then taking those photos into Photoshop to edit them to debate as to whether I would want it to be just a photo, a Photoshop piece or take it further by painting or drawing their portrait to get more involved with trying to make it an art work where people can see what I see when I first capture the moment.

My motivation and inspiration comes from many artists but the two artists that I have been looking at recently are Daniel Tautua and Opa Othello Fa’asolo. Daniel Tautua’s drawings show family, friends and people in the community. Daniel’s works not only show the identity of one or two people but helps show the identity of the community. Opa Fa’asolo also works within his community and takes pride in the place where he grew up in, working with graffiti and also creating murals in the community as well.

I want to continue working with the idea of capturing priceless moments within a community, my family, culture and children. I want to be able to take the things that I love the most in my life and use them to create my art works, I also want to be able to use my talent as well as my degree to give back which I plan on doing by becoming an art teacher for children. 

Family Experiments

"Experiments"

Experimenting with photos that I have taken of family members.

Culture Experiments

Experiments

Some experiments that I did using photos that I took at Poly Fest.

Experiments

Experiment/Mini Task

A drawing I did of my niece and little brother during my first year of studying. I find it easier adding details to drawings when their at a small scale because then it makes it easier on me to see if everything is where it is meant to be as oppose to drawing in large scale where I get paranoid about the position of everything that I draw. 

This is the drawing that I did this year for class to practice drawing portraits at a large scale. 

Research - Daniel Tautua

Daniel Tautua

Daniel Tautuas' drawing show family, friends and people that live within the community. I found his work interesting because of how amazing his drawings are not only that but the fact that he can draw at such a large scale. 

This was one of the images that I grabbed off of his facebook, I remember this drawing of Jesus wearing the sogaimiti (Samoan Tattoo) from his exhibition that he had with Frances Pesamino at Fresh Gallery. I was fascinated by this drawing because of the amount of detail that he put into it. One challenge that I face is adding a lot of detail to a large scale drawing.