1) Who are the 5 artists you chose?
I picked Cao Fei, Keltie Ferris, Jamian Juliano Villani, Trey Abdella, Naudline Pierre.
→ These artists span virtual identity, abstraction, humor, material excess, and spirituality, aligning with my interest in layered meaning and psychological tension.
2) What were the themes the artists addressed about making work?
Cao Fei:
Convergence of asían and western culture.
Pop culture
The vitality, montage, music and imagery of hip hop music blended and presented in her own interpretation for the art world.
Role reversal that reflects the younger generation discontent with their roles in real life
Opportunity to remake or reinvent yourself through avatars, notions, or beliefs.
Constructing a second virtual life and escapism of the virtual world.
The jarring effect of virtual reality feeling real yet fake at the same time as it allows one to look for the emotions they desire or lack in the real world.
The juxtaposition is underwhelming in that virtual reality can't completely replace reality but provide a way for one to indulge in their fantasies intensely.
Strong sense of selfhood, a sense of using her own body and self to explore virtually as well as providing a platform for others to do the same.
Connections, differences and similarities between the past and present asían and western.
→ Her work highlights how identity becomes experimental when reality feels restrictive.
Keltie Ferris:
Abstraction- create images of the unameable things in life
Seeing through layers of another world
→ Abstraction becomes a way to visualize emotional and psychological states.
Jamian Juliano Villani:
The idea of a joke and then offsetting it off in a personal or psychological jarring way with different elements.
→ Humor operates as an entry point before discomfort sets in.
Trey Abdella:
Illusion of a good time with a tiny level of misery underneath.
The idea of blessing in disguise
A balance and duality that is sickenly sweet yet disgusting
Layering all kinds of things together to get it hopping out of the canvas.
→ Excess is used intentionally to reveal tension beneath pleasure.
Naudline Pierre:
Unseen world of religious old centuries
→ Spiritual imagery is used to explore inner transformation and multiplicity.
3) What were the challenges the artists faced in making their work?
Cao Fei:
→ Balancing technological experimentation with emotional authenticity.
Keltie Ferris:
Being alone now as independent full time artist
Crisis of solitude
His guilt of being an artist in this time, when you can be doing something more proactively positive directly in the world.
He struggles about what he should do with his life
→ Isolation directly impacts the emotional weight of the work.
Jamian Juliano Villani:
Haven't had any time off since her art career started
The pressure of maintaining art integrity and making work you feel good about even under pressure.
→ Burnout becomes a real threat to creative honesty.
Trey Abdella:
→ Managing chaos without losing intention or control.
Naudline Pierre:
→ Translating spiritual complexity into visual form without oversimplification.
4) What were the inspirations you drew from the artists?
Cao Fei:
“I see the world with a sense of humor; street culture is a very natural, wild, free and spontaneous form of expression.”
“If I had grown up just focusing on written word or photography or still images, my way of thinking would have totally been different.”
→ Medium shapes perception and humor allows for critical distance.
Keltie Ferris:
“Do something that is not justified by anything”
→ Encourages intuition over explanation.
Jamian Juliano Villani:
“Stress assassinates creativity”
→ Reinforces the need to protect mental space when making work.
Trey Abdella:
“Paint is not just whatever Blick sells on their shelves. You can make it to be whatever you want.”
→ Material experimentation as freedom.
Naudline Pierre:
“I am learning from the characters who are allowing me to show them as they change, as they grow, they are many in one.”
→ Characters as evolving beings rather than fixed symbols.
5) What were the things you would like to incorporate into your own work after watching these videos?
What I already love to make is work that feels layered — visually and emotionally — where meaning doesn’t show up all at once. I’m drawn to things that look inviting at first but start to feel off the longer you sit with them. Watching these artists made me realize that this instinct is already a strength, not something I need to justify or clean up.
What I wish I could do with more confidence is trust my own discomfort as valid material. A lot of the experiences I want to work from are moments people tend to brush off as “not that serious,” but that dismissal is exactly why they matter. I want to stop second-guessing whether something is “enough” to make art about and instead lean into why it stayed with me.
The processes that scare me are the ones that involve ambiguity — leaving things unresolved, letting viewers feel unsure, or not explaining myself fully. But artists like Jamian Juliano Villani and Keltie Ferris made it clear that clarity isn’t always the goal. Sometimes confusion or tension is the most honest response.
When it comes to starting my own work, I’m learning that I don’t need a fully formed concept right away. I can begin with fragments: a gesture, a memory, a feeling, a space. Cao Fei’s use of avatars and alternate worlds especially pushed me to think about how indirect storytelling can sometimes feel more truthful than literal representation.
What inspires me is the overlap between the personal and the social — moments that feel individual but are clearly part of something larger. Trey Abdella’s balance of sweetness and discomfort resonates with how I want my work to function: attractive enough to pull people in, but uneasy enough to make them reflect.
Ultimately, I want my art to make an audience aware of how often boundaries are crossed without being acknowledged. I don’t want to lecture or accuse; I want to create situations where viewers recognize the feeling before they fully understand it. If someone walks away slightly unsettled, questioning a behavior they once dismissed, then the work has done its job. Overall, I want to lean into layered narratives, personal discomfort, and humor that slowly collapses, allowing viewers to sit with unease rather than resolve it.
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