Gordon in Orvieto — Annika's Portfolio

Gordon in Orvieto: Study Abroad

Orvieto Streetview

Drawn with conte (compressed charcoal) on nine 27.5” x 19.5” sheets taped together. It was completed working both on site and in the studio. On the left is a wonderful restaurant called Mezza Luna, and word on the street is that it has great carbonara.

Holding Christ

Most of the pigments were used from the surroundings in Orvieto— most significantly, the purple is made from pokeweed berries, and gold is espresso. The pokeweed hands that make up the background is a lino print based on my own hand, and Jesus is modelled from the pieta statue in Orvieto’s Duomo.

Christ’s body is sacred, and subsequently ours are too. What work does your body do? How can that honor Him and those around you?

Table

My first attempt at carpentry, this little table provided many learning opportunities during an intensive furniture design course in Italy. It was constructed using only glue, pegs, and hand tools. The simplicity of the design is in part due to these material limitations, but proved how capable my own two hands are to create something functional.

Kimberly Triptych Altarpiece

Inside (open), acrylic paint and gold leaf

This piece was made to honor my father’s sister, Kimberly, who passed away at age 12 due to an incident involving electrocution. This family tragedy has, like a shockwave, rippled into the next generation. I never met her, but her presence has always sat in on holidays and meals since I was a kid. Knowledge of her untimely death gripped me from a young age, and I felt a deep connection to her since I heard her name, holding my breath until I passed the benchmark of 12 years old, afraid I would not make it alive. My professor gave me the encouragement I needed to do her memory justice, while also conveying the tangible hope I have for meeting her in eternity, where we will both be whole in the presence of God.

“In a landscape of pain- a place of memory that is laced with sorrow comes a friendship that transcends time. The Dry Tree is not destroyed by lightning, but it is brought to blossom as the Tree of Life. Across vast, unbridgeable distances-between time and eternity two friends meet. And these are not ordinary friends, at least not as we currently understand friendship. Perhaps in that renewed heavens and earth all friendships are like this: age and gender, nationality and social status, family ties and familiar places are all consumed in a greater love. Here, all hurts are healed forever. All tears wiped from our eyes, and we see like children again because those very same tears have cleansed our vision. We are invited to partake of the bread of heaven, baked from that very wheat harvested on the fields of pain and transfigured into joy.”

— Bruce Herman, in response to my triptych

outside (closed), acrylic paint and silver leaf