There's this book from when I was a kid called, If You're Afraid of the Dark, Remember the Night Rainbow. It's honestly one of the most beautifully written and illustrated children's books I've seen, and one of the pages has a quote that I've always wanted to make into art. It reads, "If you find your socks don't match... stand in a flowerbed." That line got me thinking, and I decided to make this piece. The person is standing in a field of wildflowers wearing socks that are obviously mismatched. Some of the flowers are wrapped around the ankles, and even though the ground appears to be all dirt, there are little bits of grass popping up around. If you couldn't guess already, these are symbolic. The plants wrapped around the ankles are meant to show nature trying to keep the person from leaving, or changing, in a way. For a lot of people, change can be seen as something really scary, and the idea of staying in one place is comforting and makes them feel safe. The fact that the socks are mismatched represents the "rebellion" of the wearer, and how even if they may want change, the plants are determined to keep them safe and in the same place. I think that the fact that the grass appears to be growing anew from the barren ground shows the idea of renewal and, like the last piece, healing. I think there are different ways to look at this piece. Maybe for some, it has a deep meaning, and the different aspects are symbols for greater things. Maybe to someone else, its just someone wearing mismatched socks in a flowerbed. Who knows.
This piece marked my very reluctant return to acrylic paint. I am, mostly, morally opposed to acrylic paint. It drys so fast and is hard to blend and work with. When you have to do a piece in just a few days, however, it can prove to be your best friend. That was how I looked at it, at least. I actually didn't hate using acrylic again, and it was reassuring to me that not all of my experiences with acrylic have to be terrible. Learning how to appreciate acrylic again was definitely a positive of this experience, but more than that, I just had fun with the piece. It was simultaneously very high-stress (due to the time crunch) and kind of therapeutic. It wasn't a full portrait, or even a portrait at all, so there were no crazy proportion errors to think about, and painting the different wildflowers was really fun. I enjoyed knowing that it is possible for me to get a piece done quickly and still like the outcome. I do think, of course, there is lots of room for improvement, but there always is. It's not the cleanest piece I've ever done, and it could definitely be a lot more realistic, but the colors are really pretty, and I actually feel really happy when I look at it. I guess that's all I can really hope for with a piece that was done with so little time and so much pressure.
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Okay disclaimer, normally I take in-progress pictures after each day of working on a piece. This one, however, I did in the span of one-day. I tried to remember to take pictures, but I was pretty bad at it. With that being said, here are my five in-progress pictures from this piece. (Sorry Rossi!) If you know my painting/art style at all, you'll know that I love doing portraits and painting/drawing flowers. So, naturally, when I came up with my concentration theme, I knew that I wanted to do something that incorporated both in it. The rough draft of my "thesis," if you will, is this: My concentration is based around the relationship of people and nature, specifically the idea of being protected by nature, or having aspects of nature representing intimate parts of life. It's a lot, I know, and by the end of the semester I'll (ideally) have a well-written, concise explanation of my theme, but for now, thats the gist of it. This piece, the big number 1, is based on the idea that we all have these "walls" that we put up to protect ourselves from emotional harm. The idea of "breaking down someone's walls" is a pretty cliche metaphor, but I really wanted to expand on that idea a little more, in a less cliche way. So basically, the branches represent a "skeleton" of sorts, that covers the girl in the picture. The flowers on it are a visual representation of the health of the branches, and therefore the girl within. (It all makes sense in my head, just bear with me). I put the bruise to represent some form of emotional trauma, and I put no flowers on that section of the branches to make it seem barren and dead. Then, around the bruise, I put budding flowers to represent the gradual healing and repairing of the "walls." At the outsides of the branches, farthest away from the bruise, there are full-grown flowers, showing the healthy, intact parts. For me, this piece is about the fact that even when we are hurt or going through something difficult, we will always heal and end up stronger than we were before. I think it's one of those pieces that people can interpret for themselves, and the idea that people can get something out of one of my work is really cool to me.
From a more technical standpoint, I think this is one of my best pieces. I still want to go in and add more detail to the flowers, and possibly even add more of them, and the background definitely needs work, but this is still more than I'd imagined in my head. I got to work on my skills with oils, painting flowers, skin, and a profile, and I think I did a pretty good job. There are definitely places I need to work on, such as the hands, which I'm not 100% happy with (when am I ever, though). I also really want to work some more on the hair to add more details and make it look a bit more realistic. I think the whole piece is off to a great start, and COULD be finished, but I feel like if I went in later and added a little bit more detail, it could be something I'm really proud of. This piece was a huge challenge, and totally showed me that I can tackle more interpretive, large-scale pieces. I did realize that I need to work a lot faster and be less of a perfectionist if I'm going to make it out of this semester with twelve pieces, but that will obviously take time. I think it's a really great way to start off my concentration, and I can only hope that I'm as happy with all of my other pieces as I am with this one. |
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