My name is Kira DuBose and I am an aspiring artist. I was born in Charleston, South Carolina and raised in Florence, South Carolina. I am seventeen years old and a senior at South Florence High School. Some of my interests include writing and reading. I am very involved with my community and my school through my participation in multiple clubs and leadership positions. I have exhibited work at the National Youth Art Month Exhibit, the IPHC Teen Talent Quest, and the Art Trail Gallery. My interest in art began in elementary school and I intend to study art in college.
My desire to continue my artistic studies in college is rooted in my inspirations for creating my pieces. My main inspiration behind my art is my family. I come from a very large (very loud) mixed-race family. Being raised in an environment where I am surrounded by a variety of personalities, opinions, backgrounds, and sense of humors has shown me the value of diversity and eccentricity. This is reflected in my efforts to make my pieces as out-of-the-box as possible.
My piece, Dust to Dust, is a deconstruction of death. I intentionally added an element of beauty to the piece to portray death in a different perspective. I've noticed that in many of my pieces, I use anatomy as an agent of eccentricity and deconstruction. I find it so fascinating to use this subject because it is such a fundamentally unarguable demonstration of deconstruction. Underneath our skin, our ethnicity, social status, religion, etc. fall away and what is left behind is basic human anatomy. Human anatomy connects everyone universally and I have always found it to be an impactful element in my art. The symbolism behind this relationship can stand for an endless array of things such as societal labels being represented by the skin, muscles, etc. and the stripping of those labels. The use of the skeleton can become a macabre display of death or a hopeful representation of life. The unlimited opportunities for manipulation are one of the main reasons why I love incorporating this subject into my pieces.
Additionally, I am extremely interested in psychology, specifically abnormal psychology. This piece is a part of my abnormal psychology portfolio, so it is especially reflective of the viewpoint of death from the mindset of a mentally ill person. I used elements of nature to deconstruct the piece and represent death as a part of the cycle of life. I love to incorporate psychological topics into my art pieces. My psychology pieces challenge societal views of mental health and show the reality of mental diseases.
When I took AP Psychology, I was fascinated by the sheer magnitude in which the mind could cause such strife, bestow such power, or grant such gifts in one's life. I loved learning about individuals that suffered from mental disorders but were also regarded as geniuses. My research project during the Leadership Enterprise for a Diverse America Summer Institute was centered around this topic, specifically the correlation between mental illness and artistic ability. Through my research, I learned that there were many artists that suffered from mental illnesses and viewed their disorders as an integral part of their talent. After discovering this, I began to question the morality behind taking away insanity if it also takes away brilliance. Would Van Gogh's Starry Night continuously amaze generations if it hadn't been painted through the eyes of a manic schizophrenic who viewed the world in twisted, contrasting colors? Would Edvard Munch's The Scream leave viewers speechless if the depressed artist hadn't painted such an accurate and gut-wrenching depiction of the disease that plagued him?
To find the answers to these questions and explore my academic interests, I have decided to pursue a type of research that I am most passionate about: art. I want to fuse my interests in art, anatomy, and psychology into art that addresses controversial societal subjects. I have already begun to explore this idea by dedicating my AP Studio Art portfolio to psychology. I welcome the knowledge that these pieces can give myself and viewers. I will use my art to learn and study those around me and to shed some light on the mysteries that are the human body and the human mind.