2015 Undergraduate Awards
Title
Libretto
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2015
Abstract
Emily Copeland is a Canadian artist, specializing in realism. Mainly working with charcoal, she focuses on recreating objects on a larger scale.
Realism, and the act of mimesis are two artistic forms Copeland finds fascinating. She uses digital photography and Photoshop to first generate her images, as photos are always her preliminary approach and stimulus when it comes to creating something original.
She often chooses to focus on detailed objects as her subject matter. After photographing, she draws these objects on a large scale. To iterate, her goal is to mimic the exact version of the photograph with her chosen medium, which is often charcoal.
Many artists from the Baroque era inspire her, such as Caravaggio, La Tour, and Velazque. It is their focus on mimesis; replicating what they see; and their contrasts with lighting that draws her to their works. Her current influences are Jonathan Delafield Cook, CJ Hendry and DiegoKoi, primarily because they work from photographs to create hyper realistic works.
In 2014/2015 she worked with piles, or stacks, of items. These objects include poker chips, books, wood, clothing, and teacups. These elements are blown up much larger than life size to give it a surreal effect. This gives the audience a unique viewpoint that exposes detail they wouldn’t normally see. Each stack is compiled of something different; different materials, different textures, and different colours causing a variety of different shades and tones. Even though these objects are completely random, she attempted to create a pattern of shapes that change from circular, to rectangular, to triangular, then back to rectangles and circles. She often chooses to let the meaning behind each piece remain anonymous, as this gives each audience members the ability to find their own unique meaning throughout each piece. Her intentions behind this is because she thinks everyone can find their own personal interpretation to each work of art, and it should never be restricted to only one viewpoint.
In 2015 she has also started a vintage sports equipment theme. With each different series, she hopes to please a wide range of audiences with the objects she’s chosen.
