Wall Paintings

For my next painting(s) I would like to do a series of walls on fairly large canvases, possibly with tree shadows on them. One I just started outlining is from a picture I took in downtown troy of paint peeling off a brick wall. 

Older walls, like the one pictured above would have a nostalgic feeling of tattered industrialization. The other walls with tree shadows, I imagine them to be cleaner cut, more contemporary-looking. The tree shadow could represent the shadow of nature on contemporary society, meaning it still touches it, but it doesn't seem to make a huge difference. Maybe, maybe not. I also just thought that I could do some cool color palettes with the oil paints. 

Façade: Hands

This is my first oil painting for my concentration on the "façade" of humans. This piece is an abstraction of cutting, or scarring on wrists. Beginning the piece, I was not sure where it would go and had planned for the arms to have much more of a pallor to them. But I'm not very good at predicting how my paintings end up, especially in regards to the color palette. 

I began with a base of the primary colors red, blue, and yellow after sketching the outline. Then I simply took white paint and blended them where I thought it should be blended. I was very pleased with the way the arms and hands turned out and was hesitant to begin the rest of the painting. I ended up doing a wash in a brownish color on the background that vaguely resembles a wood grain. Then, after much contemplation, I did go in with the slash of red on the wrists, adding a bit of other colors to create my dimension, and made the paint in that area extremely think so that it raised off the canvas. Then I made the sleeves flesh-like. 

The painting could be interpreted in a number of ways, depending on the viewer. (That's one of my favorite parts about my concentration, that the viewer can relate my work to his or her own life and own contemplations/struggle). The background serves to separate the arms from whomever they belong to, making them iconic. It is possible that the arms belong to two different people (though they are originally both mine, outstretched). And they could be out in front of the person(s), or vertically hanging. The scarring/blood on the arms has a feeling that even one's insides are being taken away by society. Whether it be the trek of the common worker or the insecurities of a teen causing the scars, each of them labors internally, finding a way to cope with this world. 

Façade: Happy Collage

One of my projects for the "façade" category of my concentration on humanity is a collage of happy women from magazines. The next step is to take the collage and red out the women's eyes with acrylic. The concept behind the project is touching on the image people attempt to convey as they sell their iconicism/product. A smile is perceived to mean everything is fantastic, making it what the general public hopes to aspire toward, and, therefore, it is often twisted to feed into encouraging the materialism of contemporary society. 

Independent Art Project: Concept

After much contemplation and throwing around ideas, I have begun to find a common ground among my brainstorms. This year, I would like to explore the idea of authenticity and façade in regards to humanity.

For my in-class Adv Art concentration, I will focus on the "façade" aspect, creating work that touches on insecurities of people. I will probably be focusing on paint and collage as my primary mediums.

For my out-of-class project, I am going to to explore a variety of mediums including sculpture, film, and graphic design to convey "authenticity." 

Hopefully when viewers look at my projects, they will find some sort of relation to the work even (especially) if it makes them uncomfortable. 

Artists that have really excited my need to throw off but also indulge the viewer include, but are not limited to, Ellen Gallagher, Keith Haring, Jenny Saville, and Wayne White. 

Print: Reach

For my next linoleum print of the year, I took a compelling image of my friend and sketched it onto a piece of linoleum with my usual cross hatching style. I took my linoleum cutter and used it to cross hatch the spots untouched by my pen rather than carving out masses of light v dark. I used a larger cutter tip for her body to imply the perspective, but am not sure how much I like it. Nevertheless, I don't think it detracts TOO much from the overall print's impact

Forgetting to tell my art teacher that I planned on doing these prints over the weekend, I had no access to printing paper, so I used tracing paper and am not disappointed with the result. I am thinking of expanding this project to include some sort of layer or collage to utilize the transparency of the paper. 

Cat Prints

For my first independent art project I decided to venture back into printmaking after a summer of static. Not really having much of a grand inspiration, I just flipped through the photos in my phone in hopes of a glimmer of interest. I landed on a picture of my aunt's cat that I had bonded with over the summer and created a simple linoleum print from it. I spent one Saturday printing 106 of these cats in an array of color combinations from the blue, red, and black ink. How I was to display my cats was an extreme mystery to me until Ms. Slaughter showed me the space I had for display. I laid 100 of my prints on the ground and spend a while arranging them until I settled on two panels of 4 x 10 each, totaling 80 prints, moving in a gradient from corner to corner. I taped the backs of the prints together to create the grid.

I suppose to analyze this piece, I would comment on how it is a bit of a color study to remind myself how color interact and how they bring out the style of the piece in different ways, and the power of a repeated image can have on the viewer. (Final presentation image to come.)

My focus during my independent study will be in exploring relationships in structure of a piece and how the non-routine colors can add emphasis to a subject.