Triptych
Exhibition TextThis piece's purpose is to tell a story using three separate panels. I chose to place all three panels on one canvas together. In each panel is an image of me in one of three positions depicting the metaphor, "Hear no evil, Speak no evil, See no evil".
PlanningI first had to choose between doing one large canvas or three smaller canvas’. I decided to do one large canvas and divide it into three sections. By doing one, I was able to divide it however I wanted. I did a few sketches in order to insure that each section would have nearly equal space or for it to be pleasantly balanced. I then had to figure out what the focus of each section would be. I decided to connect my piece to the metaphor of the three monkeys acting out, "Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil." The first and panel would show how little I want the environment to affect me by covering my eyes and ears while the center focus shows how I feel that I don't really affect my environment as very often I keep many things to my self. Together, the entire piece is a depiction of myself.
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Three Wise Monkeys
60.96 cm x 91.44 cm Acrylic on Canvas January 2017 |
Inspiration
"Pop Art." The Art Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Jan. 2017. http://www.theartstory.org/movement-pop-art.htm
"Lichtenstein's lover: 'He wanted to make women cry'". The Telegraph. N.p., N.d. web. 30 Jan. 2017. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/9857640/Roy-Lichtensteins-lover-He-wanted-to-make-women-cry.html |
The inspiration for this piece was Roy Lichtenstein’s pop art paintings. The Pop Art era lived from the 1950’s till the 1970’s. Some well known artists of this era were Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and James Rosenquist. These artists worked in the 1960’s and are often the faces of Pop Art. Their works were often emotionally removed and attempted to show that everything we know has been mediated through cartoon, ads, ect.
Roy Lichtenstein Experimented with high and low art. This aspect shows the popular culture of the era. Much of Lichtenstein's paintings were reproductions of comics with slight variations. He reproduced the images which led to him being accused of copying others’ work, but his changes had purpose and are a common trademark of his work. Another signature part of his work was patterns of dots. This repetition of dots is done in a way which makes it seem mechanical as the dots are placed precisely in order. Many of Lichtenstein's pieces appeared to have little personal connection. This is due to his style of reproducing works, but in fact his choice of subject connected with his deep personal life. Lichtenstein was hurt by women and it is no surprise that he wanted to produce pieces of women crying. The crying women was almost what he wanted women to be because he wanted them to pay for what they put him through. Important aspects of Lichtenstein's art that I intend to use are clean lines, opaque colors, and the dot patterns. In his work, I notices that the men tend to have more straight lines that produce definition, shade, and detail to the face whereas the women have more organic/rounded lines. |
Process
ReflectionProcess:
This painting turned out mediocre. The center piece was the turned out the best as it had crisp lines and decent proportions. The proportions were the part that ended up causing this piece to not turn out. Besides this, the process of creating these panels was fairly straight forward. The easiest part was probably figuring out what details to include and what to exclude. Meaning: The meaning of this piece was decently portrayed in the painting. The idea of the artist in the city and the city in the artist was used very loosely in the piece, but the whole idea was to show how I feel about my impact and the worlds impact on me which I believe this piece did well. CritiqueMy piece has direct inspiration in its style from Roy Lichtenstein's comic reproductions. I didn't take comic books that already exist, I rather placed myself into the style of a comic book. Though partially different, my piece used the way that Lichtenstein put detail into his art with thick opaque colors and purposeful sparing use of black line.
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The first step in creating this piece was to divide the 3 ft by 2 ft canvas into three sections. These did not have to be even, but I decided to make the total surface area of the sections equal. I did not just want to divide the canvas into three 1 ft by 2 ft rectangles because I did not want it to be too geometric. I then produced slight curves on the corners of the dividing line by sketching parabolic curves. By using parabolic curves I was able to get the same perfect rounded line to ease the sharp 90 degree angles and make the piece flow slightly better.
I then painted the background three different colors, one red, one yellow, and one blue. For each section, I put an even layer of paint and I did my best to make the brushstrokes invisible. The blue and yellow worked well, but the red needed multiple touch ups as some of the areas were either too dark or too light. After completing the background, I sketched the images out onto the sections and began to paint. I first started with a coat of a light skin tone. By doing this, I could go over the lines and touch it up with the black outline later. After the light tone was complete, I added the other colors into their designated sections. After this I placed the dot pattern over the face and finally I used black paint to outline my characteristics and add both shadow and detail. ACT Connection1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between you inspiration and its effect upon your work.
Roy Lichtenstein's style of comic book has directly influenced my work. Another influence that he had on my work was having the meaning seem disconnected, but rather having a deep personal connection. 2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration? Roy Lichtenstein seemed to be disconnected from his work and it appeared as though he was only producing the theme of pop-culture, but his artwork in reality did reflect who he was and how he felt about certain parts of his life. For example his series of crying women was a reflection of the pain women had caused him in his life. 3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, ect. while you researched your inspiration? I discovered that art always has a deeper meaning. Lichtenstein's work was interesting and strongly resembled the popular culture of the 60's but his subject had a personal meaning that wouldn't have been known if you didn't know him on a personal level. 4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research? My main idea was both pop art for the style and the metaphor of the monkeys: See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil. With these combined I would be able to create a piece that shows myself, how I'm affected by my surroundings, and how my surroundings are affected by me. 5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research? Reproduction is not the same thing as copying in some cases. Reproductions of work can have completely different meanings than the work being recreated. |