AMANDA
RUSSO ART
EMERGING ARTIST CURRENTLY WORKING IN SOUTH FLORIDA
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PARLOR NOSTALGIA
This piece is inspired from a recent outing with my friends to one of my most frequently visited restaurants during my childhood. Their most famous dessert, the ‘Kitchen Sink’ (including 10 flavors plus toppings), sparked an inspiration. The visuals in that moment were undeniable to me and my nostalgia was palpable, so I took a picture that I would be able to recreate later.
A HOUSE DIVIDED
This piece takes one of the most interesting and beautiful pieces of architecture, the Hohenzollern Castle, and breaks it down into its different stages. The left side shows my interpretation of a blueprint scheme for the castle, including a breakdown of one of the drawbridges in the castle. The right side shows a final depiction of the castle, a contrast between the beginning and end stages of the building process.
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A PIECE THROUGH TIME
I used many different hands in this piece to symbolize my growth as a cello player for 13 years, from a novice to competing with my entire upper school orchestra for superiors. As I was creating this drawing, I realized that it could also represent the bridge that music creates between different cultures through the enjoyment of a multitude of people. This perspective of music is what helped me grow as a cellist, so the unintentional dual meaning of the piece has actually proved to be fitting for my musical journey.
PASSED TIME
Another nostalgic memory of mine was practicing baseball with my brother and father. On one of my recent runs to my local park, I saw a little boy and girl similar to the one depicted playing with a baseball. That inspired me to come home and draw the same thing with my own perspective, incorporating some of my own memories and experiences into the piece.
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LOOSEN YOUR BELT
This piece is inspired by one of the sections in the limited edition Museum of Ice Cream in Miami, Florida. This installation-based museum has a continuous conveyor of ice cream that wraps around the room. I thought it would be interesting to show these individual cups of ice cream falling off the conveyor belt and show a progression through time rendered as a single image over multiple moments.
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CHURNER
The inspiration for this piece actually came from watching my ice cream machine churn. The churner was a gift, the mixture I had just made while trying to think of new things to create. It reminded me of old-time churners and their interesting design, and I thought that the compositions, lines, and mechanics of the machine were very fascinating to render.
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WHILE IT LASTS
My goal for this piece was to capture the feeling of ice cream on a hot day through a fleeting moment in time. I used multiple pops of color, including the bright blue background, to encapsulate the feeling of childhood summers but the melting ice cream suggested that childhood summers are finite and that those happy-go-lucky days are sadly limited.
SWIFT SWISS SKETCH
This was an observational study that I did during a recent trip to Switzerland. I used one of the tour hand-outs that my mother had written notes on during the day as my canvas. I was compelled to record the moment and the view from my seat at an outdoor cafe. I think the impulsivity and layers of both text value and experience give this piece and memory some invaluable texture.
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CALL ME LIZ
While creating this piece, I wanted to depict an iconic woman in power, but with a twist. Instead of depicting the now-late Queen Elizabeth II in a classic setting, as most of the public eye views her in, I put her within an environment that would be considered to clash with her image or personality: urban decay. This piece was particularly fun to create because of this whimsical background and mix of media.
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THE 3 GRACES
I wanted to model one of DaVinci’s cloth studies, while also incorporating some other important pieces of art to me. Surrounding the main focal point are three prominent sculptures of classic Greek antiquity. These images are based on three iconic Grecian female sculptures. Taking from the classical Greek mythos of the 3 Graces, I applied that ideal to the classic sculptures that inspired me.
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PELOPENNESIAN WAR
The concept for this piece was to create a clear contrast between the two Greek gods depicted: Ares and Athena. These gods represent the two sides of, specifically, the Peloponnesian war (wherein Athens and Sparta waged war): Ares showing the violence and rage of war, representing the Spartan forces, while Athena represents the strategy of Athens as tactician and resilience of war; titularly overseeing Athens.
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BITS ORBITS
This piece is inspired by the obsession with astronaut ice cream that my brother and I had as kids. We both loved trips to Cape Canaveral/ Kennedy Space Center, taking an excessive amount of freeze-dried ice cream as a souvenir. As we grew older, we haven’t been able to visit these landmarks as much, but our appreciation for the science and people behind these creations is still shared, and on an even greater level now. The simplicity and creativity behind this piece allowed me to convey both an old memory and a current fascination of mine.
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WISHFUL THINKING
In this painting, I wanted to show my interpretation of hope through a self-portrait of me younger. Butterflies are a personal symbol in my life that are meaningful to me with family that has passed on, so I wanted to be able to depict that visually. Adding the candle’s contrast against the dark along with the youth of a child, I feel that I was able to make these three things symbolize a feeling of hope through dark times.