Summer Project Piece #1
I'm fine
91 cm x 91 cm
Acrylic Paint on Canvas
August 2019
Exhibition Text:
I'm fine is based on my response towards the stress I feel everyday. Mostly stemming from the expectations I feel from my community. Influenced by my frustration over from hearing about what an "accomplishment" would be for a woman like me, this piece emphasized on my own definition of happiness compared to that of my community. This piece is primarily inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears and Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with Necklace of Thorns and Hummingbird, the medium I used for this piece was Apple Barrels' Acyrlic Paints on Canvas.
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Meaning
My piece illustrates the message that I am overwhelmed with my surroundings. With my academic commitments, teacher's commitments, extracurricular commitments, family's commitments and the expectation that I maintain a social life on top of that scares me. With the high expectations of the people around me, the assumption that I could do everything held by my community applies so much pressure on me that I often find myself mimicking this pose. I see the calm blue world behind me as I spend much time stressing out that it influenced me to incorporate it onto canvas. The exaggerated facial expression, and the subtle symbolism were both aspects from Roy Lichtenstein melodrama theme and color along with Andy Warhol's pieces.
Inspiration
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird , 1940. Oil on Canvas.
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My main inspiration for this piece is Frida Kahlo's Self Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird. The connection to Frida's reaction to her suffering leaves me was what truly inspired me to make a piece conveying this message. According to Andreja Velimirovic (2018), "Every element in this painting gives specific clues to Kahlo’s mental state, perhaps none more than her still, direct, emotionless gaze that seems to express the immediacy of her pain." Nearly everything in her piece tied to a lot of of that of her indigenous Mexican culture. The leaves tied to the nature, the dead humminging bird tied to her dead love, the living animals on her shoulders represent the misfortune she had been experiencing (with the cat being bad luck and the monkey representing the carelessness.) At the same time, she managed to look into the viewer head on.
It was her expression that inspired me to do the same with my piece. Kahlo did not opt not emphasize on the use of nature in her culture which made me think about exploring the Somali culture. Her cultural connections Velimirovic (2018), "Kahlo’s identification with indigenous Mexican culture greatly affected the aesthetic of the Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird." The use of animals, thorns, animals and causal clothing tie to her culture, another aspect I used in my piece. |
Lichtenstein, Roy, "Happy Tears," 1964, oil on canvas painting.
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Another inspiration for this piece is Roy Lichtenstein's Happy Tears. The piece's use of a dramatic facial expression was an aspect I wanted to incorporate into my pieces. Created during the Pop art movement, according to Stamberg (2012), "Lichtenstein's 1960s works were comic-inspired — they're angsty frames, often featuring ladies in distress. " An aspect that managed to mimic into my piece was the exaggerate facial expressions. Although in the movement, Color is the element often emphasized in his pieces, what drew me into Lichtenstein's piece was the subject's lack of text to explain her expression. The symmetry and the body positions was another element I included into my piece.
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Planning
When I originally made these sketches, I wanted to incorporate the biggest symbol of my culture. As a Somali, I knew that the Somali piece was the greatest symbol of my culture. The flag bears the star and blue background, something I wanted to incorporate into the back ground of my piece. I did not know for sure if I wanted the star in front of me or behind me in the self portrait, but so I used the sketches to experiment with that. In sketch one, I thought of placing a black star in front of my face, but I did not like how it unnecessarily obscure my face on my piece and I also thought that it would deviate not commit to the symmetrical balance of my piece. In the third sketch, I thought having a white star lower down my face, I later also turned out to not like, as it managed to block a piece of the piece as well. In my second sketch, I thought about placing the star behind me, which became my final choice,
Outline of Steps
Of the steps I thought I would use for this piece, I thought about using a technique that would be easy for me, grid drawing along with some tips I get from artists from my gallery visits.
- Create Canvas
- After taking reference photo, print it in Black and white
- Grid out proportionally the canvas and the photo by trimming unnecessary parts of reference photo.
- Replicate the subject on photo onto canvas including shadows and highlights
- Then reprint reference photo in Color
- When painting subject, reference the photo when mixing paint
Process/Techniques and Experimentation
Experimentation with Projecting Light
When I considered adding the star on the canvas, I thought it was best that I did it with the flag my family has in my house as a reference. I placed the flag onto of the canvas but I would not be able to draw on the canvas until I drew onto of the flag. I instead place the flag behind the canvas and with help a lamp behind it, the star was visible on the other side of the canvas, which made it easier for me to trace over it.
Experimentation with Griding
I haven't gridded a photo of myself in a while and I thought I should do for this project. With my photo too vertically large to be proportional to canvas, I thought I should trim it so the photo itself would be a square shape. I managed to trim the photo so that it had the dimensions of 8inches*8inches (20cm * 20cm) and with a 36in by 36 canvas (90cm*90cm), make the grid lines on the photo to be an inch by inch (2.5cm by 2.5cm) and the grid lines 4.5 inches by 4.5 inches (11.25 cm * 11.25 cm) on the canvas, so both would have 64 boxes each.
Process
To begin, I made a canvas the same way used for my first self portrait. I used a staple gun and stapled four pieces of Sax 90in long canvas wood and wrapped one side with canvas to make my canvas. I also made sure to gesso it as well.
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After that I made sure to use the Somali flag from my house and used the colors of the flag as a way to distinguish color from color. I used push pins and pinned the flag onto the back of the canvas, and made sure to face that side of the canvas towards a light source and outline the white star onto the canvas
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After that I took some photos of myself expressing my reaction of mental exhaustion. I made sure to mimic Lichtenstein's piece at this point. After struggle to replicate the facial expression, I got my younger brother to help me by make him pose to see adjust him and ask him to adjust my expression as I did for him.
With the star in the middle, I then added the grid lines. Doing the math, I trimmed the dimensions of my black and white reference photo so that it would be divisible by 8 to the nearest hundredth of a centiment. Then I mapped out an 8*8 grid onto my canvas. I did this by dividing 90cm (dimension of one side of the canvas) by 8 cm, which left tickmarking every 11.25 cm on the canvas. I did this on all four sides of the canvas, leaving me with creating lines that matched tickmark on one side of the canvas onto the other side of the canvas.
From there, I used the skills I learned in mixing paint. For this project, I began with mostly (60%) Apple Barrel's White Acrylic Paint, while adding the Burnt Umber Brown and a hint of Bright Red. I then added more white, as I noticed that the paint was a little more brown than I thought it should be so I added white paint
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After that, I added a wash for my skin tone using a Royal Soft-Grip SG 700 paintbrush with the skintone. I made sure to also use water with it too.
I later did the same with other parts of the painting include the highlights as well. While I did that, I made sure to paint over the white star.
I after all of that blending, I made use Apple Barrel's Black Pavement almost black paint color. After inspection, I noticed that that color had the near black eye color I have, so after adding the light reflection onto the eyes, I colored the pupils with that paint.
With my high white Apple Barrel Paint to Apple Barrel Colbalt Hue color ratio, I prepare my blue, As I was making the blue, I made sure to reference the Somali flag shade of blue, opting for a sky bluethan a dark blue or almost white blue. While painting, I made sure paint horizontal so the background would look smooth.
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After that, I began to mixing the paint up for a purplish color for my lips, after I noticed that in my photo, my lips looked more purple than pink. I did so by, using three colors, Apple Barrel's Purple Iris, Bright Red, and White Paint. I put all three in a cup and has them close. After I noticed that it was time to blend, I made sure to use the colors by dripping and blending the paint. after I finished the lips I painted the teeth with white paint with a hint of Apple Barrel's Bright Yellow.
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At this point, I started to add a mixture of Apple Barrel's white paint and Pavement black paint in order to paint the shows of a gown.
At this point, I, not knowing how to make the Pavement black paint any dark, decided to just use black paint on my canvas. I added another layer of blue paint in order to make the background more even and chose to get off other mostly obscured Somali Flag Star. I also used a high white to Bright Yellow Apple Barrel paint (similar ratio used in the background) to paint the teeth.
Final Product
Reflection & Critique
Compare
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with necklace of thorns and Hummingbird , 1940. Oil on Canvas.
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Contrast
I'm Fine
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Lichtenstein, Roy, "Happy Tears," 1964, oil on canvas painting.
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I'm fine
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Reflection
My art was mainly inspired by Frida Kahlo and Roy Lichtenstein's work's individual. For this piece,musing the grid method was a life saver for me as it helped me map out much of the canvas without messing up the entire canvas. I am glad that I experiment with my use of blended paint BEFORE leaving it to dry as it gave me a last minute ability to fix the shading, which greatly increase the quality of my piece. I definitely believe I did a great job capturing dramatic facial expression for my piece, along with reference my colored printed copy of the art work. In general, I am very pleased with the way my piece turned out, I can sense the message after analyzing it. My use of a grid square made the piece look more and more like me. Getting rid of the star made the piece less awkward as well. One part of my piece I could have improved was with some of the blending like for example on the hands, I messed there, but for every time I tried to fix it, it got more and more awkward of the canvas until I knew I had to stop. This is success because I managed not to mess a canvas based on this piece. Another success I had with this project was that the work that after evaluating it, I could sense the unity all the elements the portrait has. Overall, I believe this piece was a success in conveying my message.
ACT Response Questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
Lichtenstein's use of exaggerated facial features along with Kahlo's symbolism in the two artists respective pieces inspired me to incorporate it into my piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors approached the topic in analytic way, while including inspirations each other had.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that when people observe work from Frida Kahlo, they see a piece full with symbolism. While Lichtenstein's observers seemed to relish his style.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was to find a artist that had a piece that demonstrated exasperation while conveying to my artist need.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Throughout my research I inferred that Kahlo created pieces that referenced her view of the world, while Lichtenstein created pieces that seemed to mock melodrama.
Lichtenstein's use of exaggerated facial features along with Kahlo's symbolism in the two artists respective pieces inspired me to incorporate it into my piece.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors approached the topic in analytic way, while including inspirations each other had.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that when people observe work from Frida Kahlo, they see a piece full with symbolism. While Lichtenstein's observers seemed to relish his style.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme around my research was to find a artist that had a piece that demonstrated exasperation while conveying to my artist need.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
Throughout my research I inferred that Kahlo created pieces that referenced her view of the world, while Lichtenstein created pieces that seemed to mock melodrama.
Bibliography
Stamberg, Susan. “One Dot At A Time, Lichtenstein Made Art Pop.” NPR, NPR, 15 Oct. 2012, www.npr.org/2012/10/15/162807890/one-dot-at-a-time-lichtenstein-made-art-pop.
https://www.widewalls.ch/frida-kahlo-self-portrait-with-thorn-necklace-and-hummingbird/
https://www.widewalls.ch/frida-kahlo-self-portrait-with-thorn-necklace-and-hummingbird/