ARTIST RESUME

Artist Resume

1. Branden Otto

Phone Number(s):
Work: (631) 525-2437
E-mail: BOtto32@gmail.com

2.  Education  

B.A. Sociology 2000 Hofstra University 

Currently Enrolled in Masters Degree Program in Art Education at Adelphi University

Comments: Studied 2 years of Fine Arts 2006-2007 at SUNY Suffolk County Community College   

3.Group Exhibitions

2006 Riverhead Street Painting Festival Main Street, Riverhead, NY   

4. Published Works

2009 HOPE: A Collection of Obama Prints And Posters by Hal Elliot Wert, Published by  Zenith Press

5.     Current Employment  

Fine Artist/ Portrait Artist

6.  Expertise

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Image Ready

Macromedia Freehand

Microsoft Word

Microsoft Power Point

7. Creative Process

An idea that is born in your head is only there for oneself to enjoy. The ability to take that idea and some how convey it to an audience is not always an easy task. The way in which an artist takes the ideas that are flowing inside and releases them to the World is called the creative process.  I know that when I begin a drawing there are a few main things I want to accomplish. First, I like to have a good, solid, interesting idea. This is of course, much easier when you have an assignment with guidelines and a strict set of goals to begin with. Once I have my idea I like to start to look for inspiration before I start laying out my drawing on the paper. I usually like to go for a walk and look at people reacting in an everyday fashion. My art is of a very realistic nature, I am always careful to note the relationship between two figures walking together or eating together. It is when two people interact with one another that there is usually a range of feelings and emotions tie the two of them together. Many times this leads to the idea or thought process that goes into my drawings or paintings. After my walk or a flip through some magazines, I like to sketch my ideas lightly onto a sheet of paper or canvas before laying down any serious heavy lines. I then take a very careful approach to my layout sketch, starting in the most intriguing areas such as faces and hands. I feel like I focus on these areas first because they are the most telling and emotional parts of a drawing or painting, it is when these parts look and feel right that I am able to go back in and work the rest of the piece. I tend to work quickly once I begin a piece. I generally do not like to be working on more than one piece at a time, but with classes it is normally not an option to work exclusively on one drawing or painting at a time. Once my drawing is started however, I tend to think mostly about that piece until it is complete. I question how to make it more intense, more attention grabbing to a viewer, and furthermore, in the recent past, how to make it more challenging to myself. It has become much more comfortable to draw assignments for class of my body parts or paint reproductions of famous works. I have begun working more diligently outside of class producing my own drawings and paintings, and I have been so amazed with the results. I am able to use my creative process and find ways to convey my message to others without a list of regulations.  It is more freeing and more fun to have to come up with your own interesting layout and take on the work itself. I would like to take you through 2 pieces of my work and explain the creative process behind each.

Firstly, I will explain the thought process behind my dream assignment. The dream assignment was given to me in my drawing 2 course last semester. We were told to draw an image from a dream, or a dream like setting. I chose to draw from a photo of myself and my grandmothers from both sides of my family, my fathers’ grandmother, and a blue and gold macaw parrot. The photo was taken when I was a baby in my grandmothers’ kitchen. I chose the picture because of the background imagery as well as the relationship between all 5 characters in the photo. The photo itself shows my grandma on my fathers side holding me with her mother to her left seated around a table. My grandma on my mothers side across the table with her parrot, on a perch, out in the open, to her right. On the table a large jug of wine and wine glasses as well as some random papers and my baby carrier on the table as well. The imagery on the table alone sets the tone of my childhood, as well as the mood in the room. I liked how my dads side of the family is on the one side of the table, combined with my other grandma not connected with the two other humans in the room, but she is focused on talking to her parrot instead. The drawing itself was fun and challenging to complete. I used graphite on 80 lb. paper and tried to include as much detail as I could in the background of my piece without detracting from the main foreground images. Upon finishing the work I decided to put my “dream” aspect into this drawing. I had known all along that I wanted to lightly “remove” the figures in the drawing whom are deceased. I have long admired the digital work of Christian Harkness, who also uses ghostly figures who give an eerie feeling to his work. He adds an ethereal quality to his prints that I tried to accomplish in my drawing by lightening those figures with a kneaded eraser and adding a darker halo effect above each individual. I feel this adds to the gripping quality of the drawing and makes it more interesting and meaningful.

Another piece I completed on my own without an assigned task ahead of me was a piece I titled Weekly Visit. I began with a sketch of a couple who were sitting in a park and I fed on inspiration from the realist painter Claudio Bravo for ideas on tone and shade in color. Bravo painted in oil paints whereas I chose to use chalk pastels, but the folds in fabric and shadows on my figures all were closely related to Bravos work. I looked in particular at Bravo’s Dos Figuras primarily because I was drawing two figures seated next to each other. In Dos Figuras there is a foreground character with his back to the viewer, the way he is seated and the character in the shadows across from him set a mood for the painting without much definitive facial expression or body language. I tried to capture that in Weekly Visit.  With less of a structure it was freeing to be able to grab influences from different corners and put them together in my own way.

A creative process is forever changing, at least mine is. It is something that flows in a random direction on some days, and on others it is definitive and regimented. It is something worth taking note of in most instances. I have stumbled upon some fantastic artists who have inspired me to do completely different things aside from the project I am working on, just while researching for my creative process. A street artist by the name of “The Dark” has already set my mind in a number of directions for another project. I have been interested in completing a large series of drawings or installations and “The Dark” artist may have given me a few good ideas of my own. “The Dark” uses painted and drawn pieces, mostly larger scale works, and puts them on the sides of buildings and in alley in cities. Most of his images are shocking and others are realistic pieces portraying everyday people.

There is no end to creativity; and to harness that power for enough time to hone in on one drawing, or painting, or sculpture is an amazing thing. The thought process that goes into it is just as much a part of the art itself. I look forward to creating, as well as processing, a lot more over the course of my M.F.A. studies.