BY ADAM BLANCHARD/CARDINAL POINTS
SUNY Plattsburgh Art Major Avalisa Peters expresses her love for her family through her paintings and photographs. Growing up in Crown Point, New York, her art journey began casual, but became more serious in college.
Peters picked up photography, her concentration, as a hobby at first, snapping pictures with her phone. After playing with the medium more, she began looking at subjects closer and taking photos that captured smaller details.
“Having the ability to do it without being taught kind of drove me towards doing that in college,” Peters said.
Peters said she has always been interested in film photography, something she was excited about at SUNY Plattsburgh.
Peters leans toward portraiture when choosing subjects in both photography and painting. She often leaves little background around the subject in her work in an effort to draw more attention to the subject itself.
“I think people are fascinating enough that they don’t need to be surrounded by anything to really explain them,” Peters said.
Peters’ current series in both painting and photography focuses on her family. Peters said she made the choice because she is family oriented and has a large family that makes for easy subjects.
Her photography series is aimed toward her grandparents and parents, capturing their interests and personalities. Peters’ painting series follows the same gist, but excludes family members that are already being done in her photography series.
When creating photos, Peters does little to prepare. After getting her ideas down on paper, Peters finds an appropriate scene, poses her subjects and takes a photo. Peters prefers to make her photos black and white during the post-processing phase. When working outside of black and white, Peters tries to limit herself to two hues.
Peters considers her painting methods unorthodox. Once she figures out a subject she’s painting, Peters puts a base sketch down on her canvas. Next, she starts underpainting, a process where dark values are applied where shadows will be seen in the finished image. Then, Peters adds words onto the canvas in order to give herself some guidance in how she wants the piece to turn out.
This semester, Peters has two art pieces in the Myers Lobby Gallery. Peters has a self-portrait painting in the lobby and a film photo titled, “The Cello Player,” which was also submitted to the Best of SUNY exhibition.
After graduating next fall, Peters hopes to attend Russell Sage College in Troy for a master’s degree in art education. Peters said she would like to become a high school art teacher in the future.
