Artist Spotlight - Nicholas Donnelly

Nicholas Donnelly sees his participation in Crystal Flight as a great release! The blank design templates provided to all artists immediately illicited ideas and concepts of fun in Nicholas. Incorporating a fun, whimsical, and nostalgic concept of paper airplanes contrasts well with some of the more stark contrasts of steel, concrete, and glass in Crystal City.

About Nicholas

Nicholas Donnelly is a 26 year old, Washington D.C based visual artist, primarily focusing in sculpture and filmmaking. He also currently works extensively with digital media, photography and other more traditional fine art practices. Nicholas has an established background in period modern furnishings and decorative arts. He is actively earning a BFA from the Corcoran College of Art + Design, in his Junior year of study. In 2007, at the 108th annual Corcoran Awards Ceremony, Nicholas received the Martha Von Hirsch Award for Excellence in Sculpture and the Fine Arts Faculty Award.

As a young artist in Washington, I'm presently compeled to explore the acceptable limits and boundaries of conceptual art and crafts. In general, my work begins as a commentary on modern life, often highlighting notions of consumerism, religion, and psychology. My process then typically incorporates altered found and appropriated objects to invent unlikely but provoking sculptural homages to the mundane (the antithesis of our current digital age). These composite expressions of the contemporary daily grind are often very colorful, playful, and optimistic. My usage of imagery and appropriated material expresses sympathy for orphaned objects, discarded items, and small pieces of misplaced americana. Essentially those lost fragments are treated as tokens of innocence, childhood and vulnerability. However on closer inspection each piece is delicately torqued with some acrid detail or subtle satirical touch. The resulting sensation of tension and anxiety is meant to demonstrate my codependent relationship to a globalized and anonymous existence in the 21st century. In essence, my work is intentionally futile, a passive aggressive narrative about the unavoidable accumulation of memory and ones subsequent culmination of identity by default. My intention simply is to express the pluralistic nature of being 'twenty something' in 2008. Learn more about Nicholas by visiting his website.

About Nicholas's Sponsor - Bureau of National Affairs (BNA)
BNA is the leading independent publisher of print and electronic news and information products for professionals. BNA produces more than 300 news and information services, including the highly respected Daily Report for Executives, Daily Labor Report, and Daily Tax Report. Visit BNA at http://www.bna.com/.