ANNAH STUCKY

WHAT ART MEANS TO ME

As a very busy student, I have an extremely rigorous course load, so I often use art to relax. I’m passionate about completing small multimedia pieces. I usually begin by just starting without an idea or inspiration and seeing where it goes from there. Many of my pieces consist of playing around with different material, mediums or techniques.

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My biggest installation this semester originated from something I have been working on for a few years. One day I was bored, and I wanted to paint something. I had the idea to laser cut paper butterflies and I just began painting them. The butterflies were a solution to not having a lot of free time to work on large paintings like I used to in high school. After I painted many butterflies, I started to hang them on my walls. As I painted more and more, they started to fill up my walls and I became more inspired and laser cut a bunch of new shapes. As of this semester, I have painted over a thousand butterflies. They fill my entire room and I commonly find myself spending hours painting them.

I think that was what inspired my philosophy of art: just start something. By just starting, you’ve taken the biggest step and you can see where it goes from there. I never would have imagined painting that many butterflies when I started or that they would have come out that nice. The best part of art is the exploration and experimentation. The results might not always be perfect but sometimes you’ll make something better than you expected.