Introduction and Art Portfolio

My name is Sydney Fisher, and I’m a senior Robotics Engineering major with a minor in Computer Science at WPI. I’ve had a fair bit of experience with art. My main focus is black and white photography, as well as oil painting. I’ve been painting on and off since middle school, and have taken many black and white photography classes, ceramic classes, and painting classes. I also love to write creatively. I’ve taken many creative writing classes in high school, and have taken all of the creative writing classes offered here at WPI. 

Art is really cathartic to me. It helps me calm down when I’m having a bad day, and makes good days better. I love finding new painting methods and I want art to always be a part of my life. This class will help me explore my love of art, while also combining technology into the mix. This class will definitely push me out of my comfort zone, and I’m excited to see what the term brings!

Even though one of my favorite medium is black and white photography, I love experimenting with bright colors. Recently, I’ve been playing around with acrylic fluid paintings, also called “dirty pours”. These paintings are done with acrylic paint, a pouring medium, and a paint separator. I’ve experimented with different paint mediums and paint separators, such as Elmer’s glue or Liquitex pouring medium for pouring mediums, and silicone oil and isopropyl alcohol for paint separator. The pouring medium allows for paint to pour and spread out on the canvas, while the paint separator forms cools circles of paint called cells. It took me awhile to find the correct ratio of paint to pouring medium to paint separator, but even still the paints form their own shapes and color ratios painting to painting. 

Being a Computer Science minor, I’ve taken a lot of coding classes. I’m proficient in many languages such as C/C++, Python, and Java, and have put this knowledge to use in many side projects, such as creating a jukebox. 

I’m really inspired by light and nature. Most of my photography (color and black and white) is done outside. The natural geometry and light filtering of nature creates beautiful images. There is also a lot of bright colors in nature, such as in birds of prey and sunsets that I love to capture as well. 

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