Brittney Dayne Nicholson

Contact Details

3601 Pacific Ave

Stockton, CA 95211

(209)565-7487

b_nicholson1@u.pacific.edu  

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Career Objectives

As an enthusiastic and motivated student majoring in Studio Art, at the University of the Pacific, I aim to acquire a solid grounding in contemporary art and various artistic cultures. Recent pieces of work have been produced through mediums such as photographs, etchings, sketches, and silk screen prints. The majority of my work has embedded a range of influences; extracting from analytical drawings, street and urban art along with elements from contemporary movements. Currently I am  looking to apply these creative skills within a business environment. Specifically I am seeking for a position within the marketing and advertising domain.

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Educational Background

           

2010-2014

Stockton, California   

University of the Pacific

Bachelor of Fine Arts (studio art)

2010

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Queensland University of Technology

Bachelor of Fine Art and Business

2009

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Griffith University

GUESTS Program, Graphic Interpretation

2005-2009

Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Brisbane State High School                                       

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Literacy in Platforms

Microsoft Office Suite

Illustrator

Adobe Creative Suite 4

Lightroom

Photoshop

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Employment History

           

2008- Present     Lakeside Gardens Café Mt-Cootha/ Vino’s Events Restaurant

            Responsibilities and Personal skills

            - Attending to customers

            - Prioritising and managing tasks

            - Effective communications with customers, handling conflict, resolving problems

-  Provided directions, information and guidance to customers

-  Assisted in the preparation and execution of daily activities

-  Setting up  of equipment and preparing function rooms

-  Providing the service of alcohol responsibly and appropriately

-Working in a team, taking instructions, collaborating with other staff members

2008-2009     Playball Coaching and Umpiring

Responsibilities and Personal skills:

- Responsible for the health and welfare of primary school students  (grade 3-4)

- Provided assistance and directions in baseball fundamentals

- Working as part of a team, which relies on communication, punctuality and commitment

- Effective communication with hearing and hearing impaired students

- Monitoring the conduct of those students

- Following guidelines and adhering to teaching policies


2007-2008     Assisted in the USA/Australia Southern Stars Baseball Exchange

Responsibilities and Personal skills:

- Assisted in the preparation and execution of daily itineraries

- Working in a team, taking instructions, collaborating with members

2008     ACP Magazines (Work experience)

Responsibilities and Personal skills:

- Maintained book-keeping records to ensure accurate invoicing (photocopying and filing)

            - Gift organization

2006-2007     Major League Baseball World Series Functions

Responsibilities and Personal skills:

- Setting up and preparing function rooms

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Extra Curricular Activities

2009 Peter & Julie Bellas Art Bursary

2009 Brisbane State High Graduation Art Exhibit

2009 Queensland Softball Team

2009 Queensland Volleyball School’s Cup Tournament

2008-2009 Children’s Mater Hospital Volunteer Services

2007-2009 QGSSSA Softball Umpire

2008 Australian Volleyball Federation Referee Level 1 Accreditation

            2005-2008 Coached Saints Un. 8 T-ball Team

            2005-2008 Un.19 Met East Softball Team

            2003-2008 Member of Saints Softball Club

2004-2007 Brisbane Softball Representative

* References and portfolio are available upon request

Artist Critique

Gregory Crewdson’s Twilight series (1998-2002) consists of forty photographs which depict American suburbia and the mysterious, often disturbing, events that take place at twilight. In creating what he calls ‘frozen moments’, Crewdson elaborately stages and shoots these photographs at twilight. The decision to do so effectively produces a tension that serves to transform the suburban landscape into a place of wonder, anxiety and fantasy. All the images suggest twilight as a poetic condition. It is a metaphor for, and backdrop to, uncanny events that momentarily rupture the security of one’s familiar domain. His photography is not about so much about an exact representation of the truth, but rather as a dramatization of something which ought to have remained hidden.

In Crewdson’s work, the meaning and intent is kept just out of reach. The photographs are both easy to interpret and very difficult at the same time. "My photographs are about the moment of transition between before and after," he explains in his book. "Twilight is evocative of that. There's something magical about the condition." The deeper you comprehend each image, the more unsettling it becomes. You find you have to look for longer, taking in all the surreal dreamlike and haunting visions. There is only a pervading sense of something else unexplained going on outside the confines of the photograph. These enigmatic photographs catch the mysterious moment of time between before and after, revealing unknowable or unimaginable aspects of domestic reality. What came before and is coming after so, in effect, the purpose of showing the transition of before and after has, for me, been achieved.

This series is an extraordinary technical accomplishment, and at the end of the book, the production notes and credits give some indication of the many people who were involved in the creation of these images. His productions have become increasingly ambitious; the photographs require dozens of assistants and technicians, large format cameras, an array of lights, make-up and wardrobe, as well as computerized post-production. From a technical view point these richly metaphorical installations are immaculate and beautifully constructed to the highest standard. The final exhibition prints are 48x60” digital chromogenic archive prints mounted on 1/16” aluminium with a lustre surface. Every detail of these images is comprehensively articulated, in particular the lighting. In some instances, the effect of twilight is entirely artificially created. In others, special effects and extra lighting, such as artificial rain or dry ice, were used to heighten the natural moment of twilight. Nearly every picture has a very distinctive use of light, giving what could have appeared ludicrous an aura of wonder and realism. 

In particular, I would like to reference Untitled, Plate 6. Most literally, Plate 6 is an image of a woman in her dining room, kneeling on a bed of flowers. The kitchen itself appears to have been transformed into some kind of greenhouse; hot, humid and flowers are growing in abundance. The woman is the focal point in the image as she is centred into the middle of the frame. Dirt covers her legs while her body is covered in sweat. The dark toned image is illuminated by extra-terrestrial shafts of light shining through the windows. The light bounces off the surfaces to create a wraithlike atmosphere and sense of mystery. Her face appears as calm as still water, yet underneath there is great emotional turbulence. It is striking, and to an extent unnerving, that she seems dislocated from her current surrounding with a motionless body, which adds to the impression of the walking dead. I perceive her as being possessed. So I question, when day turned to night, did something compel her ordinary routines to undergo strange transformations? In some respects, I feel that the moment of twilight was the trigger—it was the catalyst. Twilight then is perhaps a moment that allows the unreal to slip into reality.  

These eerie pictures seem to tell a story, but the viewer can only guess what it is. It could potentially be about the interruption of small town values, the tension within families or the power of nature. The images' focus is on ordinary people coping with strange events. It is hard to assign any particular meaning to this collection, and different viewers will assign their own interpretations of crewdson’s work.

Crewdson's photographs pertain to particular complexities found in contemporary photography discourse today. In different ways, his work questions and challenges photography's relationship to truth while simultaneously depending on photography's ability to faithfully record and document. These images are carefully orchestrated events that challenge our very notions of familiarity, as they undermine our sense of certainty. These eerie and evocative photographs pair beauty with horror, fascination with disgust, and the real with the surreal. Subsequently the photographs effectively explore and unveil the transformative quality and the in-between-ness which exists at twilight.

Sketches; the female form

Knowledge vs Creativity

In the age of information sciences, the most valuable asset is knowledge, which is a creation of human imagination and creativity. We were among the last to comprehend this truth and we will be paying for this oversight for many years to come.

                    --- Mikhail Gorbachev, 1990

Intelligence, creativity and genius are generally regarded as highly valuable assets of the human mind. Yet what is knowledge, what is creativity, and what is the relationship between the two? In fact, the two are intertwined. Generally speaking, greater amounts of knowledge lead to a greater creative capacity. The more an artist has experienced different emotions in life, the better paintings he can create. The more a creative writer has known different kinds of people, the more interesting and sophisticated stories they can write. Ultimately, knowledge feeds creativity.

Knowledge can commonly be defined as the expertise and skills acquired through experience and education. The acquisition of knowledge involves complex rational processes which include: learning, perception, communication, association and reasoning. The term knowledge can also be related to the understanding of a subject with the ability to use it for a specific purpose. A person with a knowledgeable brain is able to tackle a problem in an efficient and timely matter in order to find an appropriate set of rules, and derive a solution. To achieve such a level of expertise, one must be subject to a lifelong training/learning and must possess strong motivational factors. The following aspects can also increase one’s capacity for knowledge;  

1. Problem solving:  the power of the human mind to process information and solve problems.
2. Processing power: the raw nimbleness and agility of the human mind to quickly learn new things, think logically, solve puzzles and show uncanny wit.

Knowledge can be broken down into two further subcategories. Factual knowledge is made of facts, whereas inferential knowledge stems from sets of rules. Rules and procedures can be applied to facts to produce more facts, assertions, statements, formulas, etc. In the course of problem solving, the human brain will often develop new rules and store them in memory. These will form a highly valuable component of one’s knowledge and will decide on their creative powers. Rene Descartes once quoted, "Each problem that I solved became a rule which served afterwards to solve other problems".

Creativity on the other hand is the mental process involving the ability to generate new ideas that are both highly innovative as well as highly useful. Creativity involves two processes: thinking, then producing. A new idea will not be called creative unless it is quite hard to come by. Creativity can be molded, enhanced and directed. Combined with a set of direction questions, it can be used by writers or managers to generate new ideas; either individually or in a brainstorming group. The underlying assumption is that once you intensely focus on a subject and look at it from most unusual directions, you will be able to massively produce new associations and generate new quality. All creative individuals conceive new ideas faster than they can be utilized and can only hope to implement a fraction of the ideas. Some people are born with highly creative minds. They are privileged from the onset, but according to studies they are also more likely to suffer from side-effects of creativity such as inattention, anxiety, depression, etc. Ordinary brains can learn to stimulate and extinguish creativity through the following preconditions;

• Suitable state of mind: alert, excited, motivated
• Conductive social environment: minimum irrelevant interference and maximum creative stimulation (creative and incremental reading, brainstorming, etc.)
• Time: give time for an idea to grow and the greater the likelihood of a breakthrough association
• Motivation: the vicious circle of bad motivations comes from the fact that once motivation doesn’t exist, you have no motivation to develop it. Motivation for a creative mindset comes from a need to come up with a solution and an understanding of self-discipline techniques.

• Curiosity: lifelong learning is a prerequisite for creativity. The mind must curiously stray into unexplored paths when new associations and unexpected solutions can be found. The more curiosity you find in your mind, the better your creative prospects.
• Knowledge: the more knowledge you throw at a problem, the more new ideas and associations you will be able to generate.

In short, our creative system can be improved by adding speed through stimulation of parallel processing. The shortest formula for enhanced creativity is: quiet, focus, curiosity, understanding the creative process, and inter-disciplinary knowledge. To maximize individual creativity, a person also needs access to a diversity of skills and expertise. The more diverse people a person can call on, the better the opportunities for knowledge creation. A person who has many colleagues drawn from one social circle will not access as much diversity of ideas as a person who is connected to the same number of people drawn from different disciplines, departments and social circles. Interactive creativity calls for the successful synthesis of different perspectives that creates something new. The pursuit of lifelong learning, as well as the ability to communicate and work collectively, has the capacity to lift the human potential to unimaginable levels.

Art, Design & Craft

‘Art’ is frequently referred to as the process or product of human creativity; the conscious arrangement or production of elements in a way that affects the senses or emotions. It encompasses a diverse range of human activities, creations, and modes of expression (including architecture, music, theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, illustration, installation, dance, video and cinematography as well as literature). All these modes and mediums are commonly classified under ‘The Arts’.

Furthermore, the ‘Visual Arts’ are art forms which are primarily visual in nature. ‘Visual Arts’ encompasses traditional sub-categories as well as new media and contemporary forms of expression. Examples of such sub-categories include the "Fine Arts", "Applied Arts", "Design", "Crafts", "Performing Arts", and so on. However the definitions of these classifications cut across more than one creative industry segment, ultimately resulting in a complex intersection of fine arts, design and craft.

In terms of ‘Fine Art’ includes those artworks that are created primarily for aesthetic reasons ('art for art's sake') rather than for commercial or functional use (the ‘Applied Arts”’). Albeit, the majority of ‘Fine Arts’ is the product of deliberately arranging symbolic elements which describe something of beauty or with the intention of stimulating thoughts and emotions. Designed for its uplifting, life-enhancing qualities, ‘Fine Art’ typically denotes the traditional Western European ‘high arts’ (drawing, painting, printmaking, sculpture), however also includes modern visual arts (photography, video, film, assemblage, installation and performance art).

Traditionally, the term ‘Art’ referred to any skill or mastery. Thus Renaissance painters and sculptors (such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo) were viewed merely as skilled artisans (craftsmen/ tradesmen). By the mid-18th century, the mere demonstration of technical skills was insufficient to qualify as art - it now needed an "aesthetic" component - it had to be seen as something "beautiful." This fixed Renaissance notion of art being primarily an intellectual discipline was passed on down the centuries and still influences present day conceptions of the meaning of art. In practice, this abundance of new styles and artistic techniques led to a new expansion of the meaning of art. In its escape from its "Renaissance straitjacket", and all the associated rules concerning "objectivity" (eg. on perspective, useable materials, content, composition, and so on), fine art now boasted a significant element of "subjectivity". Artists suddenly found themselves with far greater freedom to create pieces of works according to their own subjective values. In fact, one might say that from this point "art" started to become "indefinable".

Fine art still maintains its notional superiority over crafts such as applied and decorative arts, despite some modifications, as exemplified by changes in art school curricula. Put simply, although both activities involve creative skills, the former involves a higher degree of intellectual involvement. The concept of "utilitarianism" (functionality/usefulness) was used to distinguish the more noble "fine arts" (art for art's sake), like painting and sculpture, from the lesser forms of "applied art", such as crafts and commercial design work, and the ornamental "decorative arts", like textile design and interior design. Craft can be defined as an activity involving a particular skilled discipline, usually performed by hand. Occupations and trades involve practical arts involving knitting, sewing, jewelry, metal/wood work to name a few. Whereas “Applied Arts” develops utilitarian items (cup, chair, table, etc.) using articulated and systematic principles in the design. This wide area includes architecture, industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, as well as all decorative arts. ‘Applied Arts’ is a major branch of art which cannot easily be separated from fine art, because the root of all design is fine art.

The redefinition of art during the last three decades of the 20th century has been lent added intellectual weight by theorists of the postmodernist movement. According to the postmodernist, the focus has shifted from artistic skill to the "meaning" of the work produced. In addition, "how" a work is "experienced" by spectators has become a critical component in its aesthetic value.

In light of this historical development in the meaning of "art", it is evident that it encompasses a host of different disciplines. A "working" definition could be along the following lines: 'Art is created when an artist creates a beautiful object, or produces a stimulating experience that is considered by his audience to have artistic merit.'

This is simply a "working" definition: broad enough to encompass most forms of contemporary art, but narrow enough to exclude "events" whose "artistic" content falls below accepted levels. The world of art and design is a highly complex entity. Thus a simple definition, or even a broad consensus as to what can be ‘labeled’ art, is likely to prove to be exceedingly indefinable.