Paintings

Andrea Bradley Herself- this tattoo sleeve was inspired by everything that she told me about herself and what she likes. Her favorite flower is the hibiscus Hawaiian flower shown on the elbow, the snake on the wrist is her favorite animal. She loves flower petals and music.  

Coastal conservation- I was inspired to make the turtle out of recyclables because it was only made from recyclable materials. I used starbucks cups, and cardboard for the shell, broken beer bottles for the mozaic turtle shell design and just paint so it could have a face and a few other texture details.  I did this project in April 2011. 

 May God's Message Paint Your Life- The wooden whale inspired me to put my message on it because the thought of a whale and wood makes me think of the Bible. The story of a whale swallowing Jonah and the story of Noah's wooden ark came to mind when I painted this whale. Also, it appeared to already have an eye made of the knot in the wood so I painted it like the eye of God or the eye of the whale. I pulled a page from the Bible that contains the story with Jonah and the whale in Matthews. I nailed an evelope to symbolically hold God's message and also included a pretty image that features the Cross in it on a hill. The whale is about 2 feet tall and I finished it in March 2011.

Egyptians' Real Love: I was inspired to make this Egyptian cat in February of 2011 by Elton John's Egyptian style play of Romeo and Juliet in Aida. Since it is a love story I decided to make a statue of an overall love that everyone in Egypt shared...like cats! The cat statue is about 12 inches tall and 5 inches wide.  

 360 Love: All of the different ways and forms of love inspired me to draw this. The skull symbolizes marriage, "Until death do us apart." The rose is the most typical form of love in an object. The voodoo doll represents obsessive love. The music notes show how love and music work hand-in-hand together. The cards on the top are of a red hearts 7,0,A, and 3 in a hand of cards held upside down. The kiss in the middle-left is of my own lipstick mark and I erased away bits of it to make it look realistic in pencil. The icecube, frozen heart, and snowflake represent coldhearted love. The Chinese symbol says love in the character. Gypsies inspired me to draw the love potion bottle.

 Misunderstood: I painted this  in March 2011 as an emotional/color scheme project. I call it misunderstood because the peace symbols and hippie colors represent the people that say they are for peace and antiwar. This doesnt' make sense because peace is only won through war, which I represented with the M-4 Carbine that I drew in glitter glue. I painted this on canvas about 5 ft.by 3ft.

Moonlit Dream Ocean- Honestly, a dream I had inspired me to paint this in 2007.  I have always loved the moon, ocean, palm trees, and night so those factors may have influenced the best dream I ever had. This painting won 1st place in an art contest and another painting of mine, the jaguar portrait, won 2nd place. I'm extremely proud of this because it was entirely a dream of my own.  

Tutankhamun's Coffin-I was inspired to paint this scene by a song called Egyptian Rhapsody that we learned in my chorus class. We also did a Romeo and Juliet type of Egyptian love story called Aida and my artwork was displayed near the auditorium for people to get the full feeling of Egyptian Rhapsody on the piano and other instruments.  I painted this in February of 2011. I chose to use gold so people can get the rich and luxurious sensation that one might have in King Tut's tomb. The black just brings boldness and together, I think that they represent what most people may think of about an Egyptian theme. 

 Horus's Hell-Inspired by Egyptian Rhapsody. I love the story of Horus saving his father Osiris who is the god of death or god of the Nile because his wife and sister, Isis put all of his chopped body pieces back together after their jealous brother, Seth, sank him to the bottom of the Nile in a sarcophagus to gain the throne. His son Horus avenged Osiris and killed Seth. This was completed in February 2011.

 Temple of Osiris- The beautiful and glamorous riches of Egypt's pharaohs inspired me to do this image of a scene from a wall with Isis, wife and sister of Osiris, and Osiris the god of the Nile or death. I used paint and gold glitter glue in this painting and completed it in February of 2011.

  Espresso- My kitchen inspired me to create this as a decoration for the kitchen. So much of the time is coffee needed for life to keep rolling steadily so it deserves at least this as dedication to show my gratitude. I wanted many colors to be used to contrast eachother but not match because then it would not work well with the colors in my kitchen already. The drawings are from sharpie marker and paint. The word "espresso"was made from coffee grinds. The wrapper is from my favorite chocolate "Lindtt." I also included the Starbucks logo on one of the mugs. I am proud of this because it has real meaning in my daily life.

I Am An American Soldier- was inspired by my passions of helping children because I am a soldier, as well. Also, I completed this in my favorite color, blue, and I intended for it to give a mood of sadness because we should provide a better life for the innocent children. This painting was completed in December of 2010.

 Deadly Unshallows- My friend's favorite animal is the shark because of its fierce pure deadliness haunting the once magical and beautiful ocean with its evil thirst to kill anything. Therefore, this friend inspired me to do this shark painting because I really like the intense feeling people get when they may see it. Some people actually have nightmares of sharks so I enjoy painting an image that will be memorable, even if it's in a nightmare! This painting was completed on February 17, 2011.

Emotions- Inspired by being lovesick and torn between two emotions of love and loneliness. I made the sunny scene to portray happiness and warmth while the dark crescent moon at night is to represent the loneliness of moving away from my former home. I believe flamingos were an excellent representation because they are pink like the color of love and when they are together their upper bodies form the shape of a heart. I painted Emotions in February of 2010.

 Blood of the Army- A joke that a friend of mine in the Army once told me during our Basic Combat Training inspired me to paint this Monster Energy Drink. He said that he can't exercise because he is running low on blood. I asked him what he meant by that and he replied that Army soldiers generally drink so many Monster Drinks that our blood runs on the drink, as well. He was right according to my life because a lot of my artwork will feature something to do with Monster. I painted this in March of 2010.

 Sally Mally- This is inspired by my close friend's favorite movie. My friend's name is megan and she honestly looks just like Sally from the movie Nightmare Before Christmas so she was the perfect inspiration! I ended up giving it to her as a gift for Christmas, as well. I used oil pastel for the image and paint for my friend's name across the entire picture and finished it in December of 2009.

 Li-Ming Liao- My best friend and foreign exhchange student from Taiwan inspired me to do this painting for her. I chose to do this because my favorite symbol is the Ying Yang sign and she is the exact person to fit the description of the Peace sign because she is so friendly. We realized we have very much in common so we claim to be twin sisters from different parts of the world and so I put the two symbols together because we will be best friends and inner twins forever. My name is in the left hand corner in Traditional Chinese. She taught me very many Chinese phrases.  I finished this painting in March of 2010.

 BUILD YOUR OWN ROOM!- Inspired by my love for achitecture and interior designing. The actual image itself was not like a dream home or anything along those lines, but I enjoyed the practice of using oil pastel to make an entire bedroom scene. I'll redo another one similar of an actual dream home bedroom! But as for this one I finished it in May of 2010

 Pyramida Azteca- I did this pen only drawing in 2010. based on the beautiful movies Apocalypto and Ruins. I originally just outlined major shapes with a pencil and then I went back over the entire thing with pen and not a single straight line was used. The whole picture is done with scribbles and the darker closely grouped scribbles make it appear to be a line wherever you think that you may see one.

Avatar- A self portrait in colors that describe you. I had no intention to give the impression of the Avatar movie with blue people, but people always mention the movie to me when they see this. I chose the color yellow because it is bright and happy. Blue is my favorite color so, naturallay, it was destined to be the majority of my face. I randomly selected the off-white color for the shirt and the background, though. I wanted everything white to be replaced with green, even though that wasn't such a wise choice because my eyes and teeth look like a rotten-toothed zombie. I think it is funnier than I planned for my self portrait to turn out to be. I did this chalk pastel portrait in December, 2009.

 Drifting in Space- This is my favorite painting that I have ever done. My plan was to make it as similar as possible to the photo I was using as inspiration. The photo was not originally upside down but I know that a jellyfish has nearly no body mass or weight so I decided to let it float instead of upright and boring-like. The ocean is blue with the depth color change showing where it turns purple as it goes farther down into the depths of the sea. The white and bright yellow colors shown in jellyfish show where the light still touches the jellyfish through the water. I wanted it to look as deadly and scary as possible with the pitch black tentacles blazing with electric stingers all over. I painted this in January of 2010.

Delta 787- Army Basic Combat Training in Fort Leonard Wood inspired meto draw this immediately after I returned home in September 2010. Each object in it is inspired by something from memory. The moon represents our mile runs at 4 AM. The C-wire represents the low crawling that we endured for 300 meters while slowly shredding our ACUs apart under the sharp wire. The snake climbing up the tree is a reminder of the crafty little tricks that my Drill Sergeant played on us, like throwing a snake in our tent at FTX where were lost in the woods for three days. Another thing that I remember is low crawling away from a flaming vehicle under C-wire which is represented by by the flames on the trunk of the tree. The log symbolizes all of the obstacles we tactfully went through. The grenade is self explanatory because we did live- fire in BCT. The skull is a drawing that I had made into a shirt for my Battle Buddies, or BCT friends. In the distance, as well as the tree, you can find 50m, 300m, and 500meter targets that we practiced on with the M-4 Carbine.  

Change in Behavior:

An Iraqi man shot his own baby in attempt to shoot the soldier. The soldier is taking the baby to the medics. I used paint, chalk, oil pastel, and colored pencil to create this based on all that the Army does. It includes words ad phrases from the Soldier's Creed within the rain drops and on the blanket that the baby is wrapped in. I called it Change in Behavior because I was inspired by the people in America and how fortunate we are to have our customs, ways, and privileges. I wish they could experience a change in bahavior because Freedom is definitely not free. It's going to cost more than 20 years of my life, as well as many of my Comrades' lives. I made this in September of 2010. 

International Twins- This is Li-Ming Liao from Taiwan. She is my best friend and we have so many things in common that we nicknamed eachother International Twins, even though she has a real twin sister. I wondered what I would give her for her birthday because she couldn't take much on the plane with her when she returned back home. I decided a drawing that would last forever in permanent marker sharpie would be travel sized and convenient while still very special to her. I did this in February of 2010.

 Pairs- of Monster Drinks  and pair of battle buddies. I did most of this drawing on the airplane when I was returning home from Basic Training. It consists of the camoflauge in the background, MP cross pistols, a battle buddy and myself, and Monster drinks which we all purchased the first time we got to leave. To make it suit the title of "pairs" I added a heart and the word love in Spanish. Also, me and my friend used skype to maintain our friendship after coming back home so we would always bring a Monster Energy Drink in honor of our friendship. I drew this in September of 2010.

  I feel like flying- Lil wayne's song called "I feel like dying" inspired me to draw this because the lyrics say he is a martian and throws a party on Mars. They are crazy lyrics so it got my attention to draw something for it. The thought went through my head that it should be a cd cover for it too. I drew this with pencil. It's just an alien and an awesome car floating in the pitch black sky. I drew it in 2008.

King of the Jungle- I was requested by a friend to design a personal collage tattoo for him and this is a photo of him getting it done, to surprise me with the completed masterpiece. 

 Personal Tattoo Collage- I drew everything that descried my friend for the tattoo I drew for him in Sharpie pen. The lion represents the king of the jungle. The dolphinn and waves represent the ocean that he loves to visit so much. The crown is to decorate the king of the jungle lion. The lizards are really the SoBe drink logo, which is his favorie drink. The japanese characters say alcohol because it is necessary to include in a description of him. If you look closely you will notice that the lion and dolphin have blue eyes because he is the only person with blue eyes in the entire family. "My Cross to Bear" symbolizes his relationship with his mother because he is the only one who understands her medical in capabilities and needs him.

 Birthday gift- I was inspired to paint this fo my friend because she loves ice cream and her birthday was coming soon so I painted this for her. You can even feel the sprinkles on the ice cream. I wanted it to be as colorful and happy as possible. I painted it in March of 2010

 Peace Love Happiness- My hippie friend inspired me to blend this oil pastel peace sign for her. It's made up of her favorite colors. I made this in December of 2009

Alice's Twin in wonderland-  I was not inspired to paint this abstract painting by the movie Alice in Wonderland, but after I finished painting it I thought of the movie a lot because of all the interesting, beautiful, strange combinations I included in it. The sun and moon are both out and the floweres and bugs don't seem to be nighttime creatures. It has a blend of happiness and scariness (the trees). I painted this in 2008.