Abstract
WHISPERS is an emotionally driven series consisting of seven charcoal portraits, drawn and painted on to large 30x40 and 40x40 canvases. Each drawing represents a lie or personal circumstances that infiltrated my mind during the darkest seasons of my life. In a struggle of becoming a young woman in a modern-day society, I dealt with issues of identity crises, depression, anger, vulnerability and insecurity. I was unable to translate those emotions through words and I found it most effective to use images that I felt best expressed how I felt. I used art as an outlet for a healing process. WHISPERS is divided into subcategories that emphasize different themes. I intended for each pair to stand as a metaphor. The drawings consist of a dark, gritty and melancholy palette to bring my viewers on a journey with me as they saw the inner turmoil that I could not escape for a very long time. I also chose to work quite large to make my audience feel small and uncomfortable next to my pieces. This portfolio is a testimony that pain can be used to create beauty and healing comes from personal expression.
Biography
Azaria Cumberbatch is a senior Studio Art major who specializes in conceptual portraiture in both traditional paint mediums and charcoal. Charcoal has become an all-time favorite of hers because of the ability to manipulate the gritty texture with mixed medias and unique surfaces. She was born on the beautiful island of Barbados where she spent most of her childhood and would later move to Tulsa, Oklahoma at the age of 15. She realized in high school that art was her true gifting and decided to further pursue it in college. Azaria has a burning passion to impact people through art and expression and plans to become an art teacher after graduation where she can create a space safe for young people to find their personal solitude.
One can exhale life or death.
Submergence and Emergence: A physical metaphor for the mental process of depression.
Submergence is the mental sensation of drowning. During a depressive episode I often felt like I couldn’t pull myself up from the water and I continued to sink within the weight of my isolating thoughts.
Emergence is when God would pull me from the water for a season and life seemed beautiful and hopeful once again
Who Am I? and Who Are you?: The Identity Crisis of becoming a young adult
Who Am I? was the struggle of not knowing who I was without external factors that tried to mold who I was supposed to be. I had different versions of myself that I picked for different occasions. If I were to remove the external factors, who was I truly?
Who Am I? (Close-up of textures and details of the portfolio)
Who Are You? was the realization that I hated the person I had become over the years. In the search to find myself I was becoming an individual that I did not recognize in the mirror.
Vulnerability and Insecurity: The process of learning to love oneself and becoming a young woman.
Vulnerability was learning to love my physical features and embracing the season of becoming a young woman in a degrading and sexualized society. It was the assurance that I was finally finding who I was and fighting pass the thoughts of worthlessness and isolation.
Insecurity was embracing my mind and spirit. A daily battle to remain confident in who I was as an individual.
