Marley Terry Vigil

Sophomore Portfolio
Art Education
 Holistic Statement
My student career at Winthrop began in the fall of 2018. At this point in my life, all I knew
was basic drawing skills. I did not know any of the students in the art program, and only had
met one instructor before through the Teacher Cadet program. I had moved out of my families
house into Charlotte, North Carolina which I was very scared about. I started with a blank slate,
not knowing anyone and in unfamiliar territory. Because of this, my earlier art focuses on
change.
I have never handled change well, and my Freshmen year was the biggest change I have
ever seen. Works in my portfolio such as Little Black Box, Slither, and Illusions of the Mentally Ill
focus on the struggles of change in my life. It focuses on the loss of a parent, the rough
transition from being a child to an adult, and the loneliness felt after leaving home. These works
were mostly second semester works where studies of design and form became personalized.
The first semester works such as Flow, Fabric Study, and Currency show my transition from
highschool level art into college level, so it also reflects the theme of change. There are a few
studies included in this portfolio that compared to my first semester works, really show the
growth of my skills. These works, for example Fruit Study, show how I am not only willing to
work with new mediums, but also shows how determined I am to master these mediums.
 My works past foundations focus on my interest in youth and the different challenges
children and young adults face. I am very interested in this for a few reasons. I had a very
secluded and rough childhood, and unfortunately I am not alone in this. I like to learn about the
different outcomes of rough childhoods or the angst that comes with being a teen and young
adult. Works such as Savior and Slither focus on the awful experiences that have become
common in young children's lives. These works focus on violence and drugs in schools. My work
Ecstasy is from a study on 90’s teen aesthetic. This work focuses on drugs and sexuality but in
my research/pin board it is visible that it was greatly inspired by 90’s music and cinema. Cinema
inspired many of my works as well. Violence, Ask Dr. Ruth, and These Little Miracles were all
inspired by films. Violence was inspired by recent Quentin Tarantino films like Django and
Inglorious Bastards. Ask Dr. Ruth was named after Dr. Ruth’s documentary, and These Little
Miracles was inspired by an indie movie called Wristcutters: A True Love Story.
My portfolio overall exhibits the growth that I have had during my 2 ½ years at Winthrop. I
have gone from re-learning how to draw, paint, and sculpt to being ready to teach drawing,
painting, and sculpting. I am very excited to graduate from Winthrop and be able to teach
students some of the amazing things I have learned as an art student.
2-D Works
Title: Flow

Medium: Golden Acrylics

Size: 11” x 8”

Date:09/2018

Project: Use color schemes and knowledge of

Principles and Elements of art to create a work
of art
Title:Injury

Medium:Gelatin print with Acrylic

Size: 8” x 11”

Date: 02/2020

Project: Use gelatin monotypes to

experiment with stencils
Title: Violence

Medium: Gelatin print with Acrylic paint

Size: 11” x 8”

Date:02/2020

Project: Use exploration with gelatin

monotypes and acrylic paint
Title: These Little Miracles

Medium: Linoleum print with oil based

ink

Size:11” by 8”

Date: 11/2019

Assignment: Create a composition

inspired by the phrase “As above so
below”
3-D Works
Title:Little Black Box Size: 3” x 7” x” 4” Date:03/2019

Medium: Wood, Wax/Candles, Paper, Acrylic

Project: Create a box that is inspired by what goes inside it

Title:Ceramic Vase

Medium:Clay, Glaze

Size: 11” tall x 4” wide

Date: 10/2020

Assignment: Create a
vase inspired by early
ceramics.
Title-Melon pot Date- 11/2020

Size- 7” long 4” tall Assignment- Create a teapot inspired by yixing teapots

Medium- Clay with glaze

 Artist statement for Ask Dr.Ruth
My artwork focuses on and recognizes Dr. Ruth Westheimer. Born in 1928 originally named Kafola Seidel, she
lived in Frankfurt, Germany with her family. In 1938 her father was taken by the Gestapo, nazi police dedicated to
ridding Germany of jews. She narrowly escaped being taken herself, as one of her aunts paid off an officer to leave her
for now. Her mother soon sent her to an orphanage in Switzerland. Because she was there as a rescued child, she was
forced to work for the Switz orphans. She was not allowed to attend school after eighth grade so she would work all day
then sneak her friend’s textbooks into the hallway and teach herself. Ruth would also help smuggle German Jewish
children into Switzerland. Not until 2018 did she find out what happened to her family in Germany. Her father died in a
camp and her mother was murdered. When World War 2 was over, she was put on a train and sent to Israel. Here she
suffered severe and deadly injuries from a missile strike. After this, she was inspired to train as an Israeli sniper for the
Israeli Army. During this time she fell in love with and married her first husband. They studied university together until
Ruth was ready to move to America. She left her husband who wanted to stay home and she moved to America with
only $1,500. Here she had her daughter and a son and married two more times, the third husband being her final. She
got a doctorate degree in psychology and began studying sex. This inspired her to work as a family planner in one of the
first Planned Parenthoods. She began attending classes that talked about sexual behavior. She eventually became the
most known sex therapist in the United States with her own show on TV. She helped the gay community through the
AIDs epidemic by spreading correct knowledge about the disease, unlike common media stations. She advocated for the
gay community during the gay marriage fight until 2015 when it became legal. She continues her work as a sex
therapist today doing interviews with the media and supporting the gay, female, and Jewish community. As of 2020 she
is still alive and is 92.
 I chose to recognize Dr. Ruth Westheimer after I watched her documentary “Ask Dr. Ruth” on Hulu. Not only was her
story strong and complex, but I knew her name was not known by most people in my generation because radio and cable
television have lost their popularity. I wanted to honor her so my generation will not forget her with radio or television. The
front of my coin is an image of her with the words Ask Dr. Ruth. I chose the name of her documentary because it is what
introduced me to her and she is notable for allowing conservative communities to reach out and ask her personal questions.
Surrounding her is a motif of hands grabbing sheets. This was meant to symbolize sexual pleasure without being so obvious
as to sculpting a vagina or penis. The back of the coin is modeled after a vinyl record since most of her audience heard about
her from a stereo or radio. Her face is centered sculpted with little facial features so that it did not take away from the word
‫לָדַ עַת‬. This word, pronounced La- Da-t, is her favorite word. It is Hebrew and has two meanings. The first is to get to know,
the second is to have sex. I felt this was extremely important and poetic. The box is stained with black cherry wood stain and
painted with acrylic paint. I handcrafted the control center with the found objects toilet screws, business cards, frames, and
lids. I hand-painted everything including the stand which I purchased second hand and refurbished. The vinyl decorations on
the bottom were purchased second hand and meant to contribute to the stand looking more like an entertainment center. The
speakers will loop a radio interview she did so it seems as if the stereo is real and playing her record.
Title: Ask Dr.Ruth

Mediums: Plaster, Wood, Found

objects, Motorized spinner,
Speakers

Size: 4’ tall 2’ wide

Date: 11/2020
Drawings/Sketchbook Pages/Process Images
7 best out of 52 motif studies

Sharpie on tracing paper/ xerox machine

Figure Studies from live models
Research on 90’s alternative teen aesthetic
Mock up for Ask Dr.Ruth
Special interests
Painting/Drawings
Title: Fabric Study

Mediums: Graphite and Charcoal

Size: 24” by 18”

Date: 10/2018

Assignment: Draw fabric still life

Title:Carousel

Medium: Prismacolors and

Chalk pastels

Size: 18” by 24”

Date: 12/2018

Assignment: Create a two-point

perspective landscape/color
optional
Title:Currency

Medium:Golden acrylics

Size:16” by 22”

Date:12/2018

Assignment: Use knowledge of

color theory and design to create
an interesting composition
Title:Wheels

Medium: India ink and Graphite

Size: 18” by 24”

Date: 1/2019

Assignment: Draw still life of bones

interacting with objects then use india ink to
enhance contrast
Title:Fruit Study

Medium: Oil pastels

Size: 16” by 22”

Date: 03/2019

Assignment: Use color theory to layer oil

pastels and create a successful drawing of
miscellaneous fruit
Title: Slither

Medium:Prisma colors, Oil

Pastels

Size: 22” tall 25” long

Date: 04/2019

Assignment: Break up a still

life into an abstracted
composition. Create blacks
and browns instead of using
black or brown color pencil.
Title: Illusions of the Mentally Ill

Medium: Golden Acrylics, Photo collage,

Graphite powder

Size: 25” tall 20” long

Date: 05/2019

Assignment: Use still life to practice with

juxtapositioning drawings and words
Title: Ink still life

Mediums: Graphite, Micron

Pens

Size: 18” tall 24”long

Date: 08/2019

Assignment: Draw a still

life using both ink and
graphite.
Title: Babydoll

Medium: Golden Acrylics

Size: 13” tall 8” long

Date: 10/2019

Assignment: Create a still life and paint

it at a 1 to 1 ratio
Title: Eel

Medium: Golden Acrylics

Size: 25” by 27”

Date: 12/2019

Assignment: Paint a still life

Artist Statement for Memories
Memories is an acrylic painting on stretched repurposed paper. Originally it was just a painting to replace my self
portrait from Paining 1 which was damaged during the process of moving houses. I worked on it over Holiday break of
my 2019-2020 school year. This was a hard time for me because my husband had left for an eleven month deployment
and I was left alone for the first time ever. I grew up with two sisters and a very loud family. Moments of silence were
something I dreaded, and now my life was silent. I had never spent so much time by myself. I kept thinking about
different memories that I had suppressed over the years. These were things that seemed so far away, it was like a
dream. Many of these memories were of abuse, neglect, and traumatic scenarios. As I worked through these things, I
saw myself changing. I wanted to reflect this in my self portrait. The moving heads are meant to reflect
acknowledgment, sadness, and moving on. Each black balloon represents a fleeting thought or memory that appears
out of nowhere but takes quite a while to float away. I used a different technique on the skin where I used purple and
red undertones. This was simply an instinct but brought more livelihood and emotion into the portraits. Almost all of this
painting was brought on because of mistakes. My previous self portrait was ruined because of a flooded U-haul truck, I
splashed some purple from the background onto my skins underpainting, and to top it off I meant to paint an even
pattern of balloons instead of them at different perspectives. All of these mistakes led to a self journey and resulted in
one of my favorite works of art.
Title: Memories

Medium: Golden Acrylics

Size: 22”Tall 18” long

Date- 01/2020

Assignment- This is a replacement of my

damaged self portrait project
Title: Savior

Medium: Prisma colors,

Duralar, Acrylic Paint

Size: 18” tall 22” long

Date- 03/2020

Assignment: Use
someone who is a
memorable person and
create an image that
honors their life or cause
Title: Ecstasy

Mediums: Prisma colors,

Sharpies, Rubbing Alcohol, Gel
Pen

Size: 8” tall 11” long

Date: 04/2020

Assignment: Use
experimentation with mediums
in your house to create a
composition
This Concludes My Presentation