Christopher McVicar
Professor Jung
Studio Research 1
January 29th, 2026
Class Introduction
“Art history offers tools that many people would find immensely valuable as they navigate our image-saturated culture.”
I find this quote so ironic. It can be easy to dismiss an artwork for being just an image. Yet we live in an image-saturated culture where social media, advertising, news, and digital platforms constantly flood us with visuals that shape our identities. Understanding how images are constructed and embedded with power allows individuals to navigate this visual overload with more awareness.
“When we try to “explain” art, to find a single, narrow meaning, we risk closing possibilities for empathy with others and with the past, and with aspects of our own humanity.”
Reducing art to a single meaning limits its ability to reflect diverse perspectives and lived experiences, both past and present. Openness to multiple interpretations invites empathy by allowing viewers to connect personally, culturally, and emotionally with the work.
I draw inspiration from Chuck Close’s approach to photorealism, particularly his use of gridded systems and monumental scales to create confrontational viewing experiences. For my BFA project, I plan to produce two large-scale 72 × 60-inch portraits of my parents, using scale as a strategy to elevate and monumentalize their presence. Contrary to a culture that often frames youth and child-centric narratives, I seek to show how size and precision can transform intimate subjects into commanding encounters. Through my study in art education, I adopt and bend strategies to emphasize familial significance and emotional weight.
Conceptually, my influences extend to 20th-century movements such as Dadaism and Pop Art. I resonate with these movements for their radical rejections of traditional aesthetics and embrace of absurdity as a means to escape sociopolitical tension. While Pop Art informs my use of everyday subject matter and bold, saturated color, my attraction lies less in irony and more in the emotional texture of ordinary life. I am drawn to chaos, small joys, and daily irritations as sites of meaning, using vibrant color and familiar imagery to explore social realism and themes of post-truth within a contemporary landscape.
“Mom’s Portrait” -Oil on Canvas
“Hide and Seek” -Oil on Canvas
“Self Portrait” -Pastel, Charcoal, & Acrylic on Bristol
“Fields” -Acrylic on Bristol
“Suspension of Continuity” -Welded Steel
I am a senior set to graduate in May with a BFA specializing in painting and drawing. After high school, I initially pursued a career in welding and worked in construction until a knee injury in 2022 forced me to pause and reevaluate my path. During my recovery, I made the decision to return to school and commit to studying art, using the experience as a way to reclaim an interest I had long set aside while growing up. This shift marked a personal liberation, allowing me to fully engage with creative inquiry and self-reflection.
My work is strongly motivated by existential questions, which I approach with both seriousness and pride as a foundation for my practice. I am particularly inspired by painters such as George Tooker and Kerry James Marshall, whose work deeply engages with themes of identity, and human condition. Their ability to confront complex social and psychological realities through figurative painting continues to influence how I think about meaning in my own work.
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