Maggie DeJohn
Syracuse, NY
[email protected]
BFA Fine Arts
Biography
Maggie DeJohn is a traditional artist born in XinYi, China. As an infant, she was adopted and brought to Syracuse, New York, where she was raised. She will be graduating from SUNY Oswego with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in studio art and a minor in psychology.
While she has always had a passion for art, it wasn’t until she won a Scholastic Gold Key award in her sophomore year of high school that she realized her potential to grow within this field.
Her work has been shown in various group exhibitions, including the 56th, 57th, and 58th Juried Art Exhibition at SUNY Oswego, as well as the “Out of Gallery Experience” in Homer, New York. While at SUNY Oswego, she has received the Gallery Director’s Award, Dean’s Award, and the Richard Zakin Memorial Art Scholarship.
Artist Statement
While at SUNY Oswego, I have worked with drawing, painting, ceramics, sculpture, printmaking, digital media, and more. Although I enjoy working with a wide variety of mediums, I have always had a love for drawing, especially realism and portraiture. I find that even when I paint, I approach it as if I were drawing.
Having cultural hybridity in addition to moving around a lot as a child has influenced my work. My work consists mainly of portraits that deal with the issue of identity and the expression and exploration of it. My self-portraits are visual recordings of my own journey of self-exploration. Some of my work also includes portraits of close friends who come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. In addition to telling my own story through my art, I also enjoy capturing the likeness of my friends in my work.
