Image Editing
Artist Statement: "Reframed: Women in the Canon"
This series playfully challenges the male-dominated tradition of classical portraiture by inserting my own likeness into iconic paintings, reimagining art history through a feminist lens. Created through a multi-step digital process, I began with self-portraits taken on my iPhone 15, then merged my face with historical artworks using PhotoLab. To enhance the illusion of aged authenticity, I processed the images through Tin Type, crafting a photographic aesthetic reminiscent of 19th-century daguerreotypes.
By transforming myself into these historical figures, the work highlights the scarcity of female representation in classical painting compared to the overwhelming presence of men. The aged, worn quality of the images speaks to how women’s contributions—both artistic and historical—have often been obscured, faded, or overlooked. Yet, these portraits, tongue-in-cheek in their execution, reclaim that space, asserting a presence that refuses to be erased.
This series is a playful yet pointed reflection on the art world’s long-standing gender imbalance, merging the past with the present to ask: What if history had framed women differently?
Digital Arts 1
Artist Statement: "Art Stings"
This piece explores the fluidity and resilience of femininity through the surreal fusion of woman and jellyfish. Created in Midjourney and refined through digital manipulation, the work embodies the tension between society’s expectations of women—to be silent, graceful, and yielding—and their inherent power to shape, challenge, and redefine the world through art.
The jellyfish, often perceived as delicate and ethereal, is, in truth, a creature of survival and quiet dominance.
It drifts, yet stings. It mesmerizes, yet commands respect. Like the jellyfish, women have historically been expected to remain passive, their presence ornamental rather than disruptive. But beneath the surface, there is a force—an intelligence, an urgency, a sting. The glowing word ART emerges from the tendrils of this hybrid being, an assertion of voice, a refusal to remain unseen.
Art becomes the medium through which women defy imposed silence, their expression rippling outward in ways that cannot be contained. This piece is a call to embrace that power, to find strength in softness, to sting when necessary, and to illuminate the world with the unapologetic radiance of creation.
Fundamentals of Web Design and Development
This was one of my favorite projects that I made in Code.Org. It was my first time using this platform for teaching this class, and I loved the simplicity of the design, but also that I was able to relate it to one of my interests in Greek Mythology.
If I was to make it again, I would maybe change the color scheme. This color scheme would not be in my usual color scheme as I am drawn more to neutral or cool color schemes when I design a website, but I think it works. If I could do anything differently, I would try a different color scheme and compare the two.
I also added this link to a web lesson in which we created animated strips that can be used as a header for a website. I had never considered using animations as a header image. I'm not sure if I love it, as I think it could be distracting, but I now know how to do it, and it could be a technique that I can use in the future.
Digital Art and Design 2
Artist Statement: "Silent Rebellion"
This piece is a meditation on the erosion of bodily autonomy and the silencing of women’s voices in the shifting political landscape of the United States over the past two years. Inspired by the hypnotic, all-encompassing patterns of Yayoi Kusama, I use polka dots not as a symbol of infinite expansion, but as a fragmented, fractured reality—one where control over the female body has become a battleground. The patterns, both organic and rigid, weave a visual tension, reflecting the struggle between agency and restriction.
The central figure, draped in a cloak of red, yellow, and black, evokes the weight of history and the burden of imposed constraints. Her closed eyes and delicate hand gesture speak not of serenity, but of quiet resistance—a refusal to break, even in the face of systemic oppression. The cosmos behind her, rendered in swirling dots and textured lines, suggests a universe that continues to move, despite the fight for fundamental rights becoming more urgent.
Midjourney was used to generate the initial composition, but this piece remains deeply human—a digital rebellion against the forces seeking to erase autonomy and choice. Like Kusama’s infinite nets, the struggle for women’s rights is ongoing, boundless, and unyielding.
Digital Art and Design 3
This piece explores the transformative power of the female gaze, a perspective that sees beyond the surface and honors individuals for the richness of who they are, not just how they appear. In contrast to the objectifying lens of the traditional male gaze, this work celebrates identity, depth, and inner life. The gaze here is not passive—it is thoughtful, intelligent, and fully aware.
What makes this portrait especially meaningful is that it begins with a self-portrait, grounding the work in personal truth. I combined this with a second piece created using Midjourney, an AI image generator, and used ChatGPT's image tools to merge the two into a unified vision. The result is a portrait that retains the essential details of my original photograph while introducing a surreal, layered dimension that suggests inner workings, cognition, and cosmic wonder. The open brain, glowing neural lines, and galactic textures speak to the depth of thought and intuition that the female gaze embodies.
This is also the beginning of a new technique in my portrait work—a hybrid process of digital and self-generated imagery, with AI tools as creative collaborators. Rather than replacing the artist, AI becomes a tool for amplification—preserving the essence while expanding the possibilities. In this fusion of realism and digital surrealism, I’m charting a new direction in how I tell human stories, especially those that center agency, complexity, and emotional truth.
SYNAPTIC GAZE
