Studio art major experiments in many different art forms
A studio art major with a passion for black and white documentary-style photography, UA senior Jaxun Doten is working to establish himself in the world of art.
Soft-spoken with shaggy brown hair, Doten lives in an apartment that is a virtual shrine to his imagination.
Bright-colored humans with an excess or lack of body parts play musical instruments as they hang from his kitchen ceiling.
Doten's bathroom comes equipped with two plaster arms, one painted and the other displaying the pictures of children from the "missing child" pamphlets that frequent mailboxes and milk cartons everywhere.
Although he has yet to see his work displayed in a gallery, Doten is keeping his options open while he expands on his talents.
"I haven't felt confident enough to take it to a gallery," said Doten. "Maybe after this year, because then I'll have all bodies of work completed from my classes."
As an aspiring artist, Doten is presently taking a variety of creative courses, including drawing, printmaking and a class in sculptures.
"I'm bouncing all over the place in terms of curriculum," Doten said. "One day when I'm grown up, I would love to work for some type of publication as a staff photographer."
In addition to taking pictures for pay, Doten hopes to eventually have his own art studio on the side, to offer workshops for interested novices.
"I would produce my own work and also have workshops and hold cheap classes," Doten said. "Maybe week-long workshops where I would let people use my studio space and give them pointers in darkrooms and painting."
Doten's creativity apparently knows no bounds. Although he has yet to try ceramics or figure modeling, it's due to a lack in class availability, not a lack in interest on Doten's part.
Not only does he enjoy and excel in photography, he also paints
portraits, draws and dabbles in printmaking.
"I'd have to say that I'm really still working on developing a style of my own, I'm not fully established yet," he said.
An upcoming project that Doten is in the early stages of creating is a class project where he will superimpose the faces of children onto butterflies and vice versa.
"Hopefully people will find it humorous," Doten said. "That would be nice."
Doten draws his inspirations from the effects of free association; he jots down ideas on paper and brainstorms around them.
A series of artwork that is still in early stages, but that Doten is greatly looking forward to, will revolve around his girlfriend of seven months.
"She's amazing. She works really hard and I just admire her a lot," said Doten, who plans to start with photography and potentially build from there. "I want to just document her whole life, every aspect of it, in some way."