Title: The Artist Inside
Size: 91.44 cm. x 60.96 cm. Medium: Acrylic on canvas January 2016 Exhibition Text: This piece focuses on the artist, which is me. The first panel is artist, which is who I am or how I see myself as a person. The second panel is Artist in the City, which is how I contribute to the city of Milwaukee, and my goals and my strive for the future. The final and third panel is City in the Artist, which is how the city has influenced me as a person which can be also classified as my interests. |
Artistic Inspiration:
My inspiration specifically for my Artist panel, is Edgar Degas. He was an impressionist, but he viewed himself as a realist. He used interesting viewpoints, but he used bold colors in his paintings. He illuminated his paintings with artificial light. This allowed him to clarify the shape of the figures in his works. In my work, I wanted and tried to replicate the bold colors that Degas used. In the portraits, he had the person in a certain position or pose. I also incorporated the position/pose concept into my first panel which is Artist. My inspiration for the last two panels, which are Artist in the City, and City in the Artist. I was inspired by Edvard Munch's paintings. He used a lot of symbolism, and in every piece of work there was some sort of symbolism that represents something in a person's life. He also used shapes to convey a sense of symbolism. One of the concepts or cultures that I focused on in all three of my panels, was mainly religion. I'm Catholic and I'm very religious, and it's the way that I was raised. I was raised through a Catholic family. I take my religion seriously and it has definitely influenced most of my decisions and actions. A sub-culture that I also incorporated into my work was baseball. I love baseball, and it has definitely shaped me to who I am today. Especially how I view myself, and it's part of my life. The last sub-culture, is Boy Scouts. It has had a positive influence on my life, and it has shaped me into the person that I am today. I'm also almost an Eagle Scout which can be seen within my panels.
My inspiration specifically for my Artist panel, is Edgar Degas. He was an impressionist, but he viewed himself as a realist. He used interesting viewpoints, but he used bold colors in his paintings. He illuminated his paintings with artificial light. This allowed him to clarify the shape of the figures in his works. In my work, I wanted and tried to replicate the bold colors that Degas used. In the portraits, he had the person in a certain position or pose. I also incorporated the position/pose concept into my first panel which is Artist. My inspiration for the last two panels, which are Artist in the City, and City in the Artist. I was inspired by Edvard Munch's paintings. He used a lot of symbolism, and in every piece of work there was some sort of symbolism that represents something in a person's life. He also used shapes to convey a sense of symbolism. One of the concepts or cultures that I focused on in all three of my panels, was mainly religion. I'm Catholic and I'm very religious, and it's the way that I was raised. I was raised through a Catholic family. I take my religion seriously and it has definitely influenced most of my decisions and actions. A sub-culture that I also incorporated into my work was baseball. I love baseball, and it has definitely shaped me to who I am today. Especially how I view myself, and it's part of my life. The last sub-culture, is Boy Scouts. It has had a positive influence on my life, and it has shaped me into the person that I am today. I'm also almost an Eagle Scout which can be seen within my panels.
Citations:
Schenkel, Ruth. “Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Painting and Drawing.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm (October 2004)
Degas, Edgar. Portrait of Rene-Hillaire De Gas. 1857. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Munch, Edvard. The Dance of Life. 1899-1900. Oil on canvas. The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design.
Schenkel, Ruth. “Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Painting and Drawing.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm (October 2004)
Degas, Edgar. Portrait of Rene-Hillaire De Gas. 1857. Oil on canvas. Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France
Munch, Edvard. The Dance of Life. 1899-1900. Oil on canvas. The National Museum of Art, Architecture, and Design.
Process:
The final product of this project was three canvases that represent who we are as an artist. It was very time consuming and it took many ideas to construct one final idea to paint. Through each planning stage for each canvas there were many challenges, and it was dependent on an inspiration from an artist, and for me something that symbolized something in my life. I compiled all of my sketches for each canvas into one, by taking certain aspects of each sketch to create symbolism, and create some contrast toward each canvas so nothing was too repetitive.
The First canvas which was Artist in my setup was one of the easier ones to generate ideas for. It was easy because it had to represent how we view ourselves, and who we truly are. There is some symbolism within this piece, and it came together within a couple of sketches. The first thing that came up was baseball. To symbolize baseball, I took a picture of myself holding a baseball bat and in my uniform. The picture is exactly the same as what is on the canvas. The next set of symbolism, is the American Flag in the background. This represents two things to me, but it can be taken or viewed as some different things. The first thing is that it symbolizes that I'm a Boy Scout, and I honor the flag of my country. The second thing that it symbolizes is my pride and honor for the country that I live in, but also it simply characterizes the pride and honor for everything that I do in my life.
The final product of this project was three canvases that represent who we are as an artist. It was very time consuming and it took many ideas to construct one final idea to paint. Through each planning stage for each canvas there were many challenges, and it was dependent on an inspiration from an artist, and for me something that symbolized something in my life. I compiled all of my sketches for each canvas into one, by taking certain aspects of each sketch to create symbolism, and create some contrast toward each canvas so nothing was too repetitive.
The First canvas which was Artist in my setup was one of the easier ones to generate ideas for. It was easy because it had to represent how we view ourselves, and who we truly are. There is some symbolism within this piece, and it came together within a couple of sketches. The first thing that came up was baseball. To symbolize baseball, I took a picture of myself holding a baseball bat and in my uniform. The picture is exactly the same as what is on the canvas. The next set of symbolism, is the American Flag in the background. This represents two things to me, but it can be taken or viewed as some different things. The first thing is that it symbolizes that I'm a Boy Scout, and I honor the flag of my country. The second thing that it symbolizes is my pride and honor for the country that I live in, but also it simply characterizes the pride and honor for everything that I do in my life.
The second canvas incorporates the ideas of my goals, dreams, and my hopes for the future and my contributions. This canvas is the Artist in the City canvas. It has some symbolism within the art itself too. The one thing that stands out is the buildings in the middle. The buildings represent the city of Milwaukee, and I have everything around that are my goals and dreams to symbolize my hopes for the future. There are the sayings, "Shoot for the stars", and "dream higher than the sky", "follow your dreams". I believe that you can accomplish all of your hopes and dreams if you push yourself and work hard. In the top left there is a paint brush, which symbolizes the goal that I would like to have a career in the field of the arts. In the top right, there is the graduation cap which represents my goals and dreams for graduating high school, and going and graduating college. In the bottom left, there is a baseball which symbolizes that I want to become my life long dream of a baseball player. Lastly, in the bottom right there is an emblem of an American Eagle in front of a red, white, and blue field. This represents that I'm a Boy Scout, specifically a Life Scout, and my goal and dream within the next year is to finish my Eagle Scout project and officially become an Eagle Scout.
The third canvas/panel is City in the Artist. This panel incorporates the idea of how the city which for me is Milwaukee, and how it has influenced me the artist. The city of Milwaukee always presents a new challenge to everyone. I focused on the positive influences that the city has had on me. The symbols allowed me to represent a clear understanding for all of these positive influences. The first symbol being the baseball, which represents the Milwaukee Brewers. Once again it incorporates my love for baseball, but the team has also influenced me and made me love and respect the game of baseball more as I go to games. The second symbol in the middle of the panel is a cross. The cross represents my religion, and my beliefs but specifically how they positively effect me everyday and how I stay strong toward my faith. The next symbol for my panel is the American Flag which in the previous two panels has symbolized me as a Boy Scouts, but also how the Boy Scouting community has influenced my involvement in scouting. The last symbol is the Milwaukee Art Museum Calatrava. I would like to possibly become an architect as my profession. I love the structure and design of the Calatrava, and just the fact of how appealing in really is. Especially how appealing it is because of Lake Michigan behind it, which gives that area a nice setting to be in.
Reflection:
In my opinion, I believe that my work displayed an understanding of who I am. I believe that I was able to capture my personality and my character effectively. Especially my goals and plans for my future and how the city has shaped and influenced me. One thing that I would definitely change would be the proportions involved in each canvas. The proportions were off, so I must improve on my techniques that involve proportions to create an accurate portrait of me. Another thing that I would change is the color choices that I made on each canvas. The colors I chose added contrast to each canvas but if some of the colors were reused or were different shades of a certain color. In general, there are improvements that could be made but otherwise everything seems effectively displayed on each panel.
In my opinion, I believe that my work displayed an understanding of who I am. I believe that I was able to capture my personality and my character effectively. Especially my goals and plans for my future and how the city has shaped and influenced me. One thing that I would definitely change would be the proportions involved in each canvas. The proportions were off, so I must improve on my techniques that involve proportions to create an accurate portrait of me. Another thing that I would change is the color choices that I made on each canvas. The colors I chose added contrast to each canvas but if some of the colors were reused or were different shades of a certain color. In general, there are improvements that could be made but otherwise everything seems effectively displayed on each panel.