Featured Artist: Lydia Uhlar

Lydia was also our February 2020 featured artist, but artists always have more work to share. Here is some of her artwork and the interview from February!

Who is Lydia Uhlar?

Lydia is a senior here at OA. She is a part of the Art 4 class. This year she is working on a project that is based on characters in novels. Her favorite food to eat is cheeseburgers. Each piece she has drawns is filled with emotion and memories.

What does Lydia like?

Favorite Food - Cheeseburgers

Favorite Dessert - Cannolis

Favorite Song - Cherry by Harry Styles

Favorite Artist - Felicia Chiao

Favorite Book - The Belljar by Sylvia Plath

Artwork

Note From Artist:

“Unconventional Selfie” consists primarily of charcoal, which is in my experience, the medium to give me the most anxiety. Going into the making of this composition I had to make sure every detail was perfect because if one detail is off so is the rest of the piece. This piece conveyed to me the importance of detail and the importance of trusting yourself and the process. “Unconventional Selfie” gave me a lot of confidence as not only an artist but also as a person. By the time I finished my charcoal portrait, I really fell in love with it and was truly proud of it.

The piece, “First Steps,” is a tribute to my mother and her strength to not only guide me through my first steps but also the rest I needed to take throughout my life. It was a strenuous piece since it was created using the shading technique of stipple. Every dot is dedicated to my mom and how much she means to me. My mom is my role model and a guide throughout my life and I wanted to create something that was elaborate yet, was simple enough to get one beautiful message across to any viewer. “First Steps” is my favorite piece I’ve done because it means the most to me.

"Goodbye" displays the notion that saying goodbye is hard and difficult. In addition to that, creating this piece was also difficult for me. The technique of micrography (which is shading using words) is a tedious process and difficult to do. Each word I chose to make up this piece describes a memory of my hardest goodbye’s. This piece and the words display how those goodbyes have made me into the person I am today

The botanical piece, “Mexican Butterfly Weed,” is another stipple piece I created to scientifically study the shape and form of a real Mexican Butterfly Weed. Throughout my art career, I have learned that pen tends to be the tool that I am most confident wielding. This piece made me appreciate the details that nature presents us and how much they matter. Earth as a whole is beautiful but the art that biology forms in the structure of plants is not only impressive but truly stunning. While this piece may seem simple at first, there are tiny details everywhere, just like an actual plant. I hope when people see this piece they also appreciate the beauty in nature too.

This is the eye of Holden Caulfield from the novel Catcher in the Rye. Basically going into this piece, I envisioned Holden lying sideways on a park bench during one scene of the novel when he's basically homeless in New York City. The street lamp is lighting up one side of his face while the other is immersed in darkness. I made his eyes green because in the novel green symbolizes corruption and loss of innocence. Another reason why the only eye I show is in darkness because Holden is being corrupted throughout the novel. This piece was done in colored pencil.

Interview from February:

How old are you? Grade? Family?

I am a senior. I live with my mom and my little brother who is 9.

How did you start being an artist? How long has it been?

I have always been very interested in art. My dad was an art major so he introduced it to me very early in life, when I moved to OA the art program here is very advanced so that's when I got really serious about it and started building my skills

What inspires you?

A lot of it comes from imagination and things I care about. Also why I started getting into books is because I love books and reading, I like to see what I like about myself and what I like in my life and create that

What is your favorite medium?

Ink and pen, stipple, black and white

Stipple - thousands of dots

What do you like most about being an artist?

I like that I can express myself in a way that is not so direct and people can interpret the way they want.

Do you want to pursue this in the future?

I am applying to my college as an English major and I want to minor in art if I can.

What does your art mean to you?

Hard work and accomplishments. A lot of my pieces here take a very, very long time and I see a lot of compassion I put into it. Hopefully when they turn out good, I do love them a lot.

Do you ever create hidden meanings or messages in your work? Explain.

A lot of our work is assigned but since it’s senior year we get to look more towards ourselves. Right now I am doing a project with surrealism, which is realistic items mixed with the surreal. A blend of both. That work has a lot of symbolic objects that I like, and I try to incorporate my emotions and the objects in my life that I like and what they represent.

What inspired you to make these pieces?

I've always loved English and I love novels and the characters and how the characters make a story and their perception of it and so I thought perception is such bold and interesting part of the book that I want to focus on eyes and how their eyes see the world around them and I always trying to visualize characters the way that I see them whenever I am picturing them and so I can connect with and more so I thought all eyes are the windows to the soul and that is one of the things of the characters that the authors don't you tell us so now in to interpret on our own so that's why focus I focus specifically on the eyes.

What characters are you specifically drawing?

The first character drawing is I drew the eyes of Holden Caulfield and he of course is a very interesting character who does not reveal a lot about himself. So that's why I decided to focus on him in the world around him, which is very fake. You can already tell that there is so much to his character and there are reasons why he doesn't want to describe a lot so I focus on his one eye and it's dark and I did the scene of him laying on a bench sideways and he's looking at New York and it's snowing on him and I just made the world around him kind of dark and cold.I made his eyes green because in the book that represent innocence being taken over. I just saw him as completely changing into a person he doesn’t want to be.