Title: The Double Life
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Cultural Inspiration:
My cultural inspiration in this self-portrait is baseball and Boy Scouts. Both represent a culture of living that I am involved in, and that has been a significant part of my life. Both of these cultures work as one to help me strive for my goals, and to have fun and be passionate. Baseball brings enjoyment and passion to play a wonderful sport. Boy Scouts brings a new challenge and adventure every day, and it strengthens my skills as I've gotten older and achieved more ranks in scouting.
My cultural inspiration in this self-portrait is baseball and Boy Scouts. Both represent a culture of living that I am involved in, and that has been a significant part of my life. Both of these cultures work as one to help me strive for my goals, and to have fun and be passionate. Baseball brings enjoyment and passion to play a wonderful sport. Boy Scouts brings a new challenge and adventure every day, and it strengthens my skills as I've gotten older and achieved more ranks in scouting.
Artist Inspiration:
My artist inspiration is Frida Kahlo, because she uses culture into all of her self-portraits. She uses color to symbolize the culture, and her paintings contain a cultural context that is clear to the viewer. Although the culture is clear, the symbolism is unique and it typically relates to her life struggles. In my self-portrait, I focused on relating and using symbolism to suggest events in my life. The picture to the right is the picture that I used for the baseball side of me. I used this picture because it captures the cultural aspect that I'm incorporating into the portrait. I placed the baseball side of me on the left because this picture captures the bat on the right shoulder which would allow me to display a fundamental piece of the sport.
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Process:
For this self portrait, I decided to show the two parts of my life that have shaped me into the person I am today. These two things are baseball and Boy Scouts. They both have developed my leadership, and determination to strive for more in my life. Boy Scouts has also developed my enjoyment of helping and serving others in my community. |
This sketch is my original idea of doing a self portrait, and not incorporating a significant cultural context. Rather imitating an artist's technique of painting to formulate my portrait. I did not formulate the idea of my final portrait until after I began to sketch my other ideas. I wanted to incorporate baseball and boy scouts, but was not sure of how to possibly do a portrait to display these two cultural contexts in my life. This idea then led me to sketch my next planning idea, and it let me incorporate baseball and boy scouts into a self portrait.
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The sketch to the right is the incorporation of my idea of adding baseball and boy scouts. I took a picture of me in my baseball uniform and another picture in my boy scout uniform. I put the two together to show the divide it represents in my life. I also included a background in the next sketch to provide more symbolism, and add to the two cultural contexts that I am in into the background. The baseball side symbolizes my dream of becoming a baseball player, while playing it in high school. The Boy Scout side 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.
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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.
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The picture to the right is my final sketch on the canvas. This is my final sketch, where I incorporated all of my previous ideas to formulate this new plan to carry out for my painting. I incorporated most of the previous elements in my sketches to build this sketch, and I incorporated the same symbolism and meaning that it represents to me personally in my life.
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Experimentation:
ACT Questions:
In my self portrait, my artist inspiration was Frida Kahlo and she used cultural aspects to suggest symbolism and meaning in her art. Her culture was significant in her portraits, and I used my cultures in my self portrait. My overall approach was to understand how Frida Kahlo used her cultural context in her portraits. Culture was significant toward the development of her work, which is what I found from my research. Some conclusions that I discovered about culture, especially in foreign countries is that culture is significant, and is used in everyday life. Frida Kahlo used her culture to develop her work, and it displays how people from other cultures value their culture and how they incorporate it into several aspects of life. My central theme around my inspirational research was passion, as it can be seen through the use of culture. This includes pride as Frida Kahlo was also prideful of her culture, and the pride and passion that I have for two things that have developed my character in my life. Some of the inferences that I made while researching is that culture is significant and the basis of the arts. Especially since the arts suggest and celebrate culture.
In my self portrait, my artist inspiration was Frida Kahlo and she used cultural aspects to suggest symbolism and meaning in her art. Her culture was significant in her portraits, and I used my cultures in my self portrait. My overall approach was to understand how Frida Kahlo used her cultural context in her portraits. Culture was significant toward the development of her work, which is what I found from my research. Some conclusions that I discovered about culture, especially in foreign countries is that culture is significant, and is used in everyday life. Frida Kahlo used her culture to develop her work, and it displays how people from other cultures value their culture and how they incorporate it into several aspects of life. My central theme around my inspirational research was passion, as it can be seen through the use of culture. This includes pride as Frida Kahlo was also prideful of her culture, and the pride and passion that I have for two things that have developed my character in my life. Some of the inferences that I made while researching is that culture is significant and the basis of the arts. Especially since the arts suggest and celebrate culture.
Reflection:
Overall, my main intention was to incorporate cultures that I am in and to represent this in a self portrait. I wanted to experiment with a division line between the two cultures in the self-portrait, and it contrasts the two sides of the portrait. The colors and background colors compliment each other, and together are cohesive in how they suggest and display the forms in the painting. My main focus in this self-portrait was cultural integration, and the effect these two sub-cultures have in my life. This creates the passion and love for the things that I do, and overall helps suggest specific principles in my life that have shaped my character.
Overall, my main intention was to incorporate cultures that I am in and to represent this in a self portrait. I wanted to experiment with a division line between the two cultures in the self-portrait, and it contrasts the two sides of the portrait. The colors and background colors compliment each other, and together are cohesive in how they suggest and display the forms in the painting. My main focus in this self-portrait was cultural integration, and the effect these two sub-cultures have in my life. This creates the passion and love for the things that I do, and overall helps suggest specific principles in my life that have shaped my character.