CMB Artist Statement

Clarissa Martinez-Blat

Digital Imaging Spring 2015

Project 4

Artist Statement

                Decay is defined as the process or state of rotting or decomposition. There are many different types of decay: natural, urban, digital, mortal, still life, and decomposition. For my project, I chose to portray urban decay while also showing the cycle of life. Normally, graffiti and moss on a wall are associated with urban decay. I chose to play on that fact and use them as ways to characterize the way that although some things may die, more things will grow from them. The words "Still I Rise", which come from a poem by Maya Angelou, represent the life cycle. People say that a tree spends half of its life standing up, growing, and the other half of its life lying on the forest/jungle floor as a home for thousands of other creatures and plants that grow from it. The bird and the ballerina also personify the act of growing and getting back up despite having been knocked down. The gif is supposed to be looped to show that continuous cycle which is life. Decay does not always lead to death, it can also breed life.