Artist’s Book

By: Kevin Portuondo

Assignment # 1 – Cover & Parameters: The Use of Untraditional Materials

Using the strangest, yet aesthetically pleasing materials I could find around my household I created a sort of biblically inspired cover page. I used cup holders, a deck of cards, poker chips, ping pong balls, cardboard, tin foil, and a cookie cutter to create an odd and original book cover that conveyed a sense of grandeur. 

Assignment # 2 – Self Exploration, Map of your Life

Since currently my life has been filled with much confusion, I attempted to portray this idea in a sort of chaotic mess of a map. Though there seems to be a straight path, I often get side-tracked or down-right lost along the way. Though it seems like the path should be clear, I’ve found it’s often cracked, broken, and under construction. So as much as I set goals for myself and try to hold true to the path, there are still times of confusion, and loss that threaten you to the core. To represent this I burned away some pieces of the map.

Assignment #3 – Notion of Home

Home is where you heart is, and my heart lies with my family. Wherever we end up travelling, or whatever we end up doing there, as long as we’re together we’re home. It doesn’t have to be a physical location, just a bond of love.

Assignment #4 – Where do we Come from & Where do we Land?

I tried to create a distortion effect here contrasting to juxtaposing images as well as playing with dark and light. It speaks of how too much of trying to change yourself can often break you, or spread you too thin, cause you to lose your sense of self. Real self is composed of freedom, a carefree sense of passion. When everyone is constantly concerned and stress they become fractured human beings, instead of the free creatures we were born.

Assignment #5 – Art & Life

It has always been my opinion that art is life. That everything you do is a form of art because it is a form of expression, there is no such thing as not overlapping the two. Anything you do in life with a true heart and pure passion can be viewed as art, because art is not a thing or an object, but an idea, a feeling. In this sense I made a collage of photographs, words, and personal phrases I find meaning in.

Assignment #’s 6 – 8: 3” x 3” Collages (x3)

Enjoying collages greatly, and surprisingly also enjoying the very limited space I constructed my hand drawn 3” x 3”’s on simple paper with nothing more than a pencil. Attempting to balance dark and light, chaos and simplicity, my passions and my joys. The second collage I made with thick and fine Sharpie markers. It is entropy yet also order. It’s shape and structure is similar to that of an atom and molecules yet it’s nucleoid core hold all four elements: earth, water, air, and fire. Around the molecular earth is the universe expanding out in electrical impulses of and galactic progression. The third collage represented some more passions I have, there are obviously some recurring themes but this was more of a reflective side focusing on natural aspects and themes of balance and serenity, a more calm and tranquil representation.