Ms. Nivens's Artwork

Here are a few artworks from college that I have photographed. I have not had much time to create my own art the way that I was taught since becoming a teacher 15 years ago. I am trained in oil painting and that is the only paint we used in college. I also took classes in lithography, color theory, watercolor, photography, Drawing I, II, and III, Sculpture I, II, and III, and Video and Performance Art. 

I would say that the conclusions I came to in painting my senior year in college revolve around the arrangement of architectural spaces and floral prints. They are a strong contrast, but equally balance one another- the designs in floral patterns are artificially rendered, and the pieces of architectural spaces, otherwise fixed in reality, are clipped and arranged into an interweaving of places. This content is relative to coding, to computer programming, as the first computer punch cards were inspired by the patterned punch cards of the Jaquard Loom. I find delight in arranging minimalistic shapes of architectural features with intricate rendered patterns, my painterly background fulfilled through the use of color in the patterns. 

Some of my influences include: Julie Mehretu, Alice Neel, Dean Monogenis, and Architectural Digest Magazine.