Victoria Arakelian
Creature Feature
Victoria Arakelian is an artist from West Bridgewater, MA. She is graduating with a degree in Art and Design, with a concentration in Animation and Interactive Media and a minor in Art History. She uses digital tools such as Photoshop, Autodesk Maya, and ZBrush. Her passions include game design, concept art, and 3D modeling and animation.
Artist/Thesis Statement
There was a young girl doodling in the margins of her notebook in class. Perhaps she would look up at her instructor or her peers, but she would not really see them. Instead, she saw fantastical worlds, both horrifying and magnificent, with strange creatures that crawled about or flew outside her classroom windows. They were her shield, and leaning into them she found a form of escape. During those bygone childhood days of meandering through the woods, the border between fantasy and reality would become porous. She would tell stories to herself, and build peculiar beings out of the detritus of the forest floor. This wonder at the natural world, coupled with a fervent desire to express her own creations, is a fundamental element of who that girl was. Who I am now. Reality builds into fantasy, and vice versa
When I started my university career I was a biology major, and while I did eventually switch my path to the arts, biology is still very much a deep interest of mine. The importance of form, and how form both embodies and exemplifies function, is especially alluring to me. Ever since I was a youngster I would avidly parse through natural history books, or wander through museum halls, studying taxidermied specimens and ogling at jars containing the unfamiliar and long-dead. Marveling at nature’s engineering, I seek to both understand it and how to emulate it in my own work. Like the Medieval bestiary, I construct my own menagerie of chimerical beasts. My manifestations are encompassed by an overarching tale, one serviced by my creative endeavors and emblematic of that which inspires me most: nature, history, and that which lives within.
The work on display here are examples of my exploration of character and creature designs. Some pieces are more complete than others, but the lack of completion shows different steps in the process I currently have. From here I will expand upon my work and learn more about painting and anatomy.
When I started my university career I was a biology major, and while I did eventually switch my path to the arts, biology is still very much a deep interest of mine. The importance of form, and how form both embodies and exemplifies function, is especially alluring to me. Ever since I was a youngster I would avidly parse through natural history books, or wander through museum halls, studying taxidermied specimens and ogling at jars containing the unfamiliar and long-dead. Marveling at nature’s engineering, I seek to both understand it and how to emulate it in my own work. Like the Medieval bestiary, I construct my own menagerie of chimerical beasts. My manifestations are encompassed by an overarching tale, one serviced by my creative endeavors and emblematic of that which inspires me most: nature, history, and that which lives within.
The work on display here are examples of my exploration of character and creature designs. Some pieces are more complete than others, but the lack of completion shows different steps in the process I currently have. From here I will expand upon my work and learn more about painting and anatomy.
