Currents Magazine Fall 2013

There wasn’t just one powerful artist
who was inspired from her abroad experience.
Pepperdine Senior Kai Decker’s
travels became a integral part of her artwork.
She explores the art of humanity in
her summer project, her. We are all living
beings, and no matter how different our
cultures, religions and customs may be,
we all have something in common in our
very existence. It is that sentiment — the
collectivity of humanity —that captivated
Decker.
It was amid the art-steeped streets of
Florence, the quiet churches of Sicily and
the serenity of Ephesus that Kai first discovered
the beauty and perplexity of humanity.
One could find Kai sitting in the middle
of a piazza or on the steps of a church in
Italy just observing people as they interacted
with each other and sketching anything
she found fascinating.
“I just went around sketching people;
that was good for me. It was like I was
plopped in the center of humanity. You
get to see it staring you in the face, and I
was able to get in touch with that sketching
wise,” recalled Kai of her time in Florence.
While abroad, Kai also drew inspiration
from literature, in particular, Theodore
Zeldin’s work, “An Intimate History of
Humanity.” Zeldin’s work gave Kai a new
perspective on the collectivity of humanity
and allowed her to see that, although
we are stratified and different, we have so
much in common just as humans — an insight
that was particularly poignant for her
artwork as she traveled to different countries
observing the locals.
“I fell in love with humanity that year,
so it just carried into my artwork,” recalled
Kai of finding inspiration abroad.
Kai’s newfound love for humanity translated
perfectly into her summer art project
as she explored the themes of otherness,
faith and reason, and humanity and our
shared history as a race. She explored these
themes through a series of black-andwhite
sketches and digital art.
Kai describes her sketches saying,”It’s all
black-and-white. It puts things in better
perspective for me and focuses more on
value and composition without worrying
20 | Currents
about all the color schemes and other elements.”
Kai’s use of contrast between black-andwhite,
light-and-dark and negative space
gives her art a deep and meaningful appeal,
especially in light of the reflective statements
accompanying them.
The project also helped Kai look into her
future as an artist and rediscover her first
love — animation. Throughout the process,
Kai felt satisfied and fulfilled with her work,
but it was something she had always done
— representative, realistic work — and
she was ready to try something new. After
watching a series of cartoons, Kai wanted to
know what it would be like if she could take
a character from her mind, give it life and a
personality, and convey a sense of humanity
that way.
“I just discovered the life and sheer optimism
that could be put into a cartoon that
can just convey a message of optimism into
a young child’s mind — just show them that
creation is possible in all of us, that we can
go out and do something and make sense
of the world around us through our expression,
and that’s just such a beautiful thing.”
It is that sense of optimism, determination
and sheer love for human life that
comes through in every single one of Kai’s
works.