Art Thesis: Katie Kelly

Katie is a graphic design concentration.  When looking at her work we discussed how the field of graphic design has a very commercialized area to it.  It is very easy for an artist to get lost in the commercalization and money to soon forget the passion they once had for a more aesthetic piece of work.  The artist is walking a fine line between what the client wants and what the artist wants.  Asking about that commercialized work she went on to discuss the role MGSA had in that work.  Sometimes following the structure and guidlines MGSA sets out for the student can be good at times but when the student steps out of those boundries MGSA may not like it too much.  In that sense she can feel restricted.  She believes there is a lot of business oriented assignments that are given to her. 

The main theme in her work is symmetry.  She finds a good balance very pleasing to look at.  It is an expression of Katie's personality or how she would like to lead her life, beautiful, peaceful, and harmonious.  There is a clear connection and display of symmetry and balance throughout her work.

Katie finds inspiration in minimalism.  The artist Mehmit Gozetlik is an artist that takes commercialized items and takes out alot of unnecessary graphics.  Bringing the image to a more basic state.  Katie feels that this more basic form can be more pleasing to the viewer than the item that has twenty different images on it.  This artist also does his own typography.  Katie is very inspired by this.  When asked if she had any ideas about what to do for her thesis, she responded by saying she would like to minimalize books and publishing.  Katie wanted to minimalize the cover as well as create her own typography.  Possibly with her own stories. 

Katie's work is very professionally done and I look foward to seeing the art she will produce in the future.