Breadth #6

This project is...somewhat unique...? I had some trouble developing my ideas with this one. I researched pen-and-ink political cartoons of Hogarth and surrealism; I wanted this piece to have more content than my previous ones. The piece is supposed to illustrate the tension between traditionalism and modernism. I cut up a book called The Philosophy of Morality and collaged it throughout the piece, underlining particularly stuffy or limited statements to show the absence of freedom in traditional things. The top of the work is simply detailed and realistic, showing an interior space with two pillars (the "pillars of knowledge"?), while the bottom begins to "break out" with swirls and bright, surrealistic faces and feet. This is supposed to show how modernism breaks free of all restrictions. I feel like the content of this piece is definitely stronger than my others, yet the composition is somewhat weak. I'm ambivalent.

Breadth #5

The candid advice that Mrs. Danahy gave me for this project was: to LOSE IT (i.e. don't worry about intricacy or development and just be loose and creative). And so I researched loose, expressive, and abstract artists such as de Kooning and Matisse; I chose a large piece of cardboard for my surface (my largest work yet) and started collaging with torn paper. I worked from a picture of my grandmother holding my mother as a baby in her austere 1950s living room. After my layer of collage, I came back with acrylic paint and tried to loosely and expressively define the figure of the woman and baby. After the critique I concentrated on emphasizing certain areas to bring the subject forward and the bright/intense colors in the background back. I'm very happy with this piece because I feel it shows the greatest contrast to my other pieces--and I actually had fun doing it!

Breadth #4

Our assignment for this Breadth was to render some interior space in our house. I chose my pantry and the Italian items in it (De Cecco pasta boxes, olive oil, red wine vinegar, etc.). I started with a brown underpainting and then worked up layers, going from loose to ultra-detailed. I even used markers to add some of the intricate lettering to cans and such. I feel that this one is ok as an exercise in still life and realism, yet nothing sets it apart or takes it to that next level of success in art...

Breadth #3

Our assignment for this week's Breadth was to take pictures of the snow, CitraSolv an image onto watercolor paper, and then work back on top of it with chalk pastel. I chose a more abstract/design-oriented image of trees and their shadows on the snow, and then took it a step further by repeating it 4 times. Then, I worked back with pastels in an impressionistic style. I feel that this one is ok, considering that we did 3 projects in one week and this was one of them.

Snow Day Pictures

Concentration #12: "Infatuated"

Here is my last concentration--I can't believe it's done, woohoo! Anyways, I wanted to inject a little more humor into my concentration (the only other one with some kind of humor is #5, Terrified) by portraying the "lovesick" emotion (good job capturing that, Dustin). This time I wanted to make the whole composition just the portrait, yet incorporate design into the portrait in the form of abstracting the values into concrete shapes. To bring across the emotion, I used a red/pink color scheme, citrasolved images of roses in the face, citrasolved images of Valentine hearts in the background, and hand-wrote (with the help of others) fake, passioned love letters which went in the face and the background. I feel like this concentration is successful because there is a good level of layering/complexity, high contrast, and obvious execution of the emotion. Although it may be a step back conceptually from my story-like previous pieces, I feel like overall it's one of my better ones. Merry Christmas!

Concentration #11: "Jealous"

Ok, so first of all, I know this picture has some glare on it; I'll replace it with a better picture when the oil paint dries. This is my attempt at another solely oil paint piece-I didn't want "Peaceful" to be the only oil painting. I feel like this piece is one of the better ones thematically, but one of the weaker ones technically. My idea to convey the emotion of jealousy was to stretch reality by transforming the portrait into a gargoyle, looking on from the top of a church where a faceless couple are getting married. The fact that the person is a statue emphasizes the harshness and all-consuming nature of jealousy. The design in this is the repetition of the garden hedges onto the side of the building and into the background: almost as if the emotion of jealousy is closing in on everything, a festering emotion. I had a lot of trouble with this one--I did a lot of problem-solving and had to re-acquaint myself with the basics of oil painting...I feel like, technically, I still have a ways to go. I am happy with the values in the statue, yet I could not get the style to become lose, abstract, and focused on shape (like Emily Branch's stuff). After the critique (and Mrs. Danahy's help), I re-drew and re-sized the gargoyle, defined shapes, and lightened up the background to make the values make more sense. Overall, I am not satisfied with this, and plan to try and revisit it somehow.