Owen Amos Statement of Intent
When I was 15 I travelled to Singapore to take part in an international summer camp. The camp brought together delegations from 9 countries to participate in cultural learning activities. The cultural learning was incredible but the architecture at the camp location was less than impressive. Luckily, I was able to stay for an extra week to experience the rest of the country and visit some of their famous architecture. The Marina Bay Sands Hotel is topped by a platform 55 stories in the air with an infinity pool that seems to defy physics. At the base of the hotel are the Cloud Forest and Flower Dome. The buildings are all glass and almost seem to have no structural support. Each holds a completely different environment. The Cloud Forest is home to one of the world's tallest indoor waterfalls and is so humid that clouds form inside the building. The Flower Dome is cooler and is so large that it holds the record for world's largest greenhouse. Not far away is the Supertree Grove with tree-like buildings rising from the lush vegetation below. I had never seen buildings like these before and it made me wonder what was possible. These masterpieces exposed me to an extravagant style of architecture, but I was equally captivated with the amount of creativity that even the more functional buildings of the city displayed.
I have been lucky enough to have travelled to several other interesting places and I always find myself fascinated by the differences in architecture and how it reflects the local community and culture. I have been inspired by all types of different styles and design needs from the natural wooden construction in Finland to the very different varieties of historical buildings in Austria, South Korea and Mexico.
My interest in architecture has been amplified by my travels but even as a child I was always interested in building things. I spent endless hours using pieces from different LEGO sets to create something new and unique. I would always beg for new kits so that my creations would become even more complex and interesting, and when I discovered the video game Minecraft I fell in love. It was a world where I could create anything I could think of. I was occupied for years building my own creations and recreating buildings that I had seen. It seems obvious that architecture is a path for me to continue exploring how my creativity can be applied in the real world.
During high-school I had been involved in many social activities, from being a member of the school executive to running the school’s “Tech Crew”. Sadly, my high school career ended just as COVID hit us. I love being around people, so the idea of starting a post secondary program and doing it entirely remotely was not at all appealing. Instead, I turned my high school job into a full-time job, and worked through the lockdown at Canadian Tire in many of the departments, eventually taking responsibility for running the warehouse. When restrictions started to ease, I enrolled in a design foundations course to start building towards my future career. This course taught me about the many opportunities in the creative industries, but it also taught me about myself, and as time goes on I am even more drawn to architecture as the path forward.
The focus that the McEwen School of Architecture places on integration with the local community builds on my experience gained from many friends of different backgrounds when travelling and at home. I do my best work when I am surrounded by a variety of people. To me, having different points of views at every stage in a project can really help to mould its outcome. With Sudbury being one of the most multicultural cities in Ontario, the program Faculty and students, and MSoA’s International Advisory Board, there will be no shortage of different and new points of view to help shape my ideas.
The school being located in Sudbury gives a unique mix of an urban setting surrounded by vast natural landscape. I have spent several summers at a camp in Huntsville as well as travelling as far north as Killarney and I find that being surrounded by nature is both calming and encourages my creativity. It makes sense to me that a school that is so close to nature places high emphasis on sustainability. I think
that sustainability is incredibly important not just in architecture, but all aspects of life and it will only become more important, so I agree that it should be a critical area to focus on.
Beyond the philosophy of the McEwen School of Architecture, I am very excited by the facilities that are available. I have always been a hands-on type of person, and I believe that hands-on learning and working with experienced professionals is the best way to learn and understand the expectations of the modern architecture industry. Architects get to use their creativity to solve problems and create spaces that suit needs for all industries and aspects of life. They can create positive impacts everyday through their work and it’s important to me that the work I do has meaning and is something that I can be proud of. I’m excited to build those skills and apply my creativity for that purpose, and I’m excited about the possibility of doing it at the McEwen School of Architecture.
References:
Jessica Massard, MFA (Current Professor)
Professor/Coordinator
Design Foundations
School of Creative Industries
Conestoga College
299 Doon Valley Drive, Kitchener, ON N2G 4M4 jmassard@conestogac.on.ca
Mike Dubose (Former Manager)
General Manager
(519) 791 1598
Canadian Tire
54 Broadway Ave, Wawa, ON P0S 1K0
1. Self Portrait
Pencil Crayon, 8x10
Date: 11/2022
This piece was created to practice observational drawing skills and pencil crayon shading techniques It was my first ever self portrait and it is based of a picture from 2018. This was my first in depth experience with drawing facial features and porportions.
2. International Style Sticker
Paint Marker, Markers, Tech Pen, 4x6
Date: 11/2022
Done in three-point perspective this piece was done to emulate the international style in architecture as a simplified sticker design. Working through this piece gave me the opportunity to research new styles that I didn’t traditionally use.
3. Wings: Object Interpretation
Mixed Media, Digitally Laid Out, 12x8 Date: 10/2022
This piece is the result of a creativity exercise where I had to interpret one object in 100 different way and then create illustrations based on the best 24 ideas. As well as a variety of ideas I used a variety of different media as well. This piece includes multiple examples of painting, graphite, marker, pencil crayon tech pen and collage.
Illustrator, 11x16 300 ppi
Date: 01/2023
This piece was created in a class to explore the concept of economy and trying to remove as much detail as possible while maintaining the message. In my original painting I stripped all detail, shading and perspective to create an interesting and simple piece. When I rendered the piece digitally I decided to add shadow back to create depth.
Illustrator, 9x5.5 300ppi
Date: 12/2022
The hand rendered version of this piece was done as a part of a timed illustration activity to create a set of icons for any application. After completing the drawing I was happy with the concept so I decided to continue on and use my illustrator skills to render the icons digitally which gave them a much cleaner look.
Tech
Date: 12/2022
As a part of a life drawing course, I created this skeletal illustration to demonstrate my abilities in proportion and foreshortening. One of the most interesting skills that I practiced when creating this piece was changing my observation of a skeletal model into line art that removed the shading
Date: 12/2022
These are two concept illustrations for a character that I will be animating in a future class. It gave me the opportunity to experience the process of character design from start to finish which is something that I had not done before. I really enjoyed using the character design to display qualities of the characters personality.
Paint
Date: 08/2022
This is a concept piece that I made to demonstrate a style that I planned to incorporate into a mural that I have been creating for a friend. The ideas for the mural were brainstormed with a group and this was one of the first times where I was doing art to represent the ideas of a group. Creating a representation of a groups ideas, I feel is an important skill to have in any creative industry and this mural has really helped me to explore the process surrounding that.
This character is the first example of me going directly from rough sketch to digital illustration without a coloured drawing in between. It is done in the same style as the previous portfolio piece. This was also one of the first times I started utilizing custom brushes in illustrator which allowed me to incorporate a traditional style of line weight into a digital piece.
Graphite, 10x10
Date: 11/2022
This graphite illustration was done for a class where we had to challenge ourselves to work in a style that is difficult or new for us. I chose to attempt to incorporate glass reflections and shading as both are areas where I was not as experienced. This experience forced me to learn and execute new methods and rely very heavily on my observational skills.
Illustrator, 11x6 300ppi
Date: 10/2022
This piece was created to test my abilities after learning the basics of adobe illustrator. I decided to create a depiction of a trumpet because I felt that the shape and shading would let me demonstrate my understanding of the software
12. Style Study: Basquiat
Acrylic Paint on Cardboard, 8x12
Date: 12/2022
After watching a short documentary in class, I completed this painting in the style of artist Basquiat. Working in the style of another artist was an interesting exercise for me because I often focus on making sure my work is as unique as possible. Given the opportunity to explore a style let me pick up the aspects of Basquiat’s style that inspired me and use those elements to create my own art.