MARIA VAUGHAN

I am Maria Vaughan and I’m a senior at University of Rhode Island. I am studying mathematics and fine arts. I am originally from Okinawa, Japan and lived there for 19 years since I was born. My mom is Japanese and my dad is American. I moved to the U.S. in 2013 to play basketball in Boston, but I transferred to URI to focus on my study of Secondary Education. I have always loved art. I started to draw since I was 5, but I never looked for a career out of it because I always thought I would struggle as an artist. However, I wanted to do what I like in my life. I dropped my major of secondary education and added the art major.

Artists should simply create their artworks. I always looked for a different style that no one discovered, but it is very hard to find your style. Pointillism, Data, Abstract, and more styles have been created in the past and I always wanted to create something different. Studying art made me realize that it takes years for artists to find their styles. Each day, I noticed that trying to find my art was becoming stressful to me. Therefore, I have stopped trying to look for a style or come up with a new technique. I decided to keep creating what I like to create.

Since I used to work as a freelancer, I accept every request from family members, friends, and even strangers. Most were realism work, portraits of their family. many of them loved my work and some didn’t, usually strangers. I did make good money, but I wasn’t happy with what I created for “others.” This is when I started to think that I wanted to create what I want and discover my style even if I do not receive any income.

I love realism, especially Renaissance artworks because I love figure painting. Some don’t like realism because it wasn’t their style of art. The amazing thing about art is that you can create something in 30 min to months; abstract, splashed painting, realism, etc. The funny thing about me, I like everything. Importantly, I love to put time into just one work. I can stay in a studio for hours just to create one work. Sometimes I like to draw realism, and sometimes I like to draw abstract works. Therefore, I decided to combine both styles to create my style. This is what I like. Adding different styles, and focusing on realistic figures in the center of the work with an abstract or opposite of realism background . I am not afraid to add different styles in one work, which I was before, because I thought artists had to use “one style.” However, my style is to add multiple styles that I love which created my style.

Gorgo, digital painting (with process images), 1200 x 1400 pixels