Two Exhibits: Senior BFA Show & Library Art

It's been a busy and exciting couple months during my last semester of college, I will be earning my BFA degree in Art & Design with a concentration in Illustration next week!
I have been fortunate enough to have some of my artwork on display at NMU's Lydia Olson Library from November 16th-December 14th. The Library's Art show is held annually to show appreciation for the students creative work from all types of majors.

At NMU, graduating art students create artwork to be shown in a group show celebrating their work towards the Bachelor's degree. The exhibit is held at the DeVos Art Museum, with a closing reception before the graduation ceremony. Below is the an image of my display, and artist statement.

Emmalene Oysti, Illustration, BFA

Senior Exhibit Artist Statement

The saying “don’t judge a book by a cover” is often false in everyday life, a book cover and its illustrations help engage a reader’s interest in a particular book. The cover illustrations can capture a viewer’s eye leading them to search further within the pages of the book and expand their imagination. In the search to combine my passions for both art and reading, I was led to discover a way to combine these interests through book illustration.

In this collection I have re-envisioned 4 book covers that are within public domain: Frankenstein, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The Phantom of the Opera, and Call of the Wild. Each of these books also represent a different genre of classical fiction, in order to provide diversity of imagery and subjects. The public domain works challenged me to create unique covers that differ from the numerous iterations by returning back to some of the author’s imagery. Many other covers have chosen to follow pop culture’s images of these subjects rather than the descriptions provided by the author. Instead, I give the viewer a complete experience between the relationship of the illustration and the complete text of the story.
The realistic style of my covers helps the reader or viewer clearly see what the author envisioned based on the character descriptions found within the story. Each piece uses a variety of media, including watercolor, gouache, acrylic inks, and colored pencil to build layers of realistic forms. On the back cover are wallpaper patterns referencing specific time periods of each book’s setting. My intention is to encourage the audience to appreciate the artwork of books and the stories themselves through these illustrations.