Project 2
Title: Identity
Size: 30.48 cm x 30.48 cm (each canvas)
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Date of Completion: October 2021
Exhibition Text
Identity is an acrylic on canvas painting and was meant to show the two personalities of myself, my cultural side versus the side who is unsure of who I am. Identity takes inspiration from The Two Fridas by Frida Kahlo and from Separation by Edvard Munch. They both created works with hidden and deeper meanings which I drew inspiriation from.
Process
Artist Inspiration
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My first inspiration is Edvard Munch who was a Norwegian painter who's main focus in paintings included intense psychological scenes. In this piece, there is a blonde woman who is looking off the distance into the sea while he dress and hair flow in the direction of the man on the left. The hair goes to his chest as if to symbolize they are still tied together and connected even though the woman is leaving the man. The man is dressed in black which is meant to symbolize his sorrow and despair due to the woman leaving him. The man is also clutching his heart as it bleeds out into his hand. The blood as well as flower below is red which is meant to symbolize both love and pain.
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The Two Fridas are another inspiration of mine on this piece. It was created after her divorce with DIego RIvera and is meant to depict her two personalities. The left Frida is in a traditional Tehuana while the one on the right is in more modern clothes. The wounded heart symbolizes the pain she has gone through after divorcing the man whom she created a personality with/for.
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Experimentation, Process, & Technique
I first began with sketching out the left canvas. On this side it would be the girl wearing a Mexican dress (folkorico). I started off with painting the background. I used part green, white, and blue to create the background color. I then blended it into each other in different areas. I tried to make the blending apparent as Munch did in Seperation.
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I then painted all the remaining areas white because I had done a lot of sketching and erasing which would show up when I painted any color that wasn't dark enough to cover the marks up. I used a light grey for the areas with shadows and blended it into the base white. The shadows I had created gave the dress depth and texture that acloth would have.
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I then added a yellow lining directly above the orange lining which gave the piece even more vibrancy. I also added a string of green near the attachment point of the skirt because folklorico dresses are known for their bright, festive colors, and the dress before adding the green was plain and had a lot of empty white area.
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Next, I moved onto the flower. I decided to include the flower because in Munch's piece he included a plant that symbolized the pain the man was going through. In my case, I decided to paint a marigold because it's a defining flower (Día de los Muertos). It is also a very bright and meaningful flower so I decided to include it for that reason as well. I created It by creating many different tones of orange, some with more yellow and some with more orange, and created petal shapes and layering those on top. I am very proud of how the marigold came out but I wish it looked a little more realistic.
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The next area to paint was the skin tone as well as the heart. The skin tone wasn't as difficult as it used to be for me because I have gotten used to experimenting until finding the right tone, I used burnt umber with various amounts of yellow and white to create this skin tone. For the heart, I decided to paint it a darker red to show distress and make the overall look darker and give a more anxious feeling. In Kahlo's piece, she has a red heart which isn't dark or light but I chose to make mine darker for this reason.
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The last area that needed to be painted on this canvas was the hair. I painted this using burnt umber with some black to create a darker shade. I made the hair very flowy and long like in Separation because the hair shows the carefree spirit of the figure. I would have liked ot have added some highlights and shadows in the hair to make it look three dimensional but it was difficult to do so due to the fact of the canvas being smaller than I am used to. I also then used a very thin brush to add the facial features which were very flat and characterized because of my inspiration of Munch's piece.
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The next canvas I began the same way as the first one. I sketched the image and then painted the background first. I used the same hues as I did with the previous canvas so that they would look connected and as if they belonged together. I didn't include any of the white blending's/highlights though because this side is meant to represent anxiousness and distress over personal identity. I then also painted the areas where I had done sketching with white and cleaned the edges of each object because I didn't want any of the dark background color to show up when I used a lighter tone or to just overlap.
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Next I painted the bushes. I used black and blended it into a red tone to show the pain of love which I decided to do because of my inspiration of Separation. I tried to overlap the layers to make it more realistic and create depth and dimensions like a real bush. I used black and created the top of the outline of the bush and blended it in a circular motion to create circular shapes of the bush. I really liked how the blending turned out as well as the bushes as a whole because it really added to the dark theme on this canvas. Using the same dark red I used on the previous canvas, I painted the heart with it.
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I then painted the tree with a burnt umber. The burnt umber was fairly light and thin and because of this the layers showed up very easily. I really liked how the layering looked because it looked like the bark on a tree in real life. The layering of the paint added some texture to this side of the piece as well as depth.
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Reflection
Overall I am very pleased with the outcome of this project. I used 1 foot by 1 foot canvases which was a little difficult to use due to the size and not being able to add as much detail as I would have liked but I am still happy with the final piece. I am also proud of my final piece because of my shading and layering of the flower and bushes because I think it adds a special element to the piece. I have never had much experience making flower petals or flowers in general and I would like to improve on this skill because I think paintings with detailed flowers are beautiful. I learned some new techniques throughout the process such as shading and layering. I also learned a lot about my inspiration artists and how Frida channeled her paint and doubts in her paintings. I believe the research I did on my inspiration texts contributed greatly because I was able to understand the theme and idea around Separation and The Two Fridas which allowed me to accurately use the theme in my piece as well. I believe my final piece is very connected to each of my inspiration piece because the theme is very similar to Frida's piece. In her piece, it is to show her two sides/personalities when being married to someone while in my piece it also depicts the two sides but in a little different manner. In mine, the theme is to show the two personalities but it has nothing to do with marriage or a relationship with someone else, it shows a relationship with yourself. I also included the heart strings being attached because although it's two different sides, they are indeed connected through the heart. The meaning of my piece was more similarly connected to Frida's piece but I still gained much inspiration from Munch. The style and look was more closely related to his piece as well as some of the meaning. I liked the style of his piece so I decided I would try to replicated it although the mediums were different. In his piece the figure holding their bleeding, wounded heart is turned away from the one leaving them while in my piece, both figures are facing one another. His piece shows someone leaving the person in black and leaving them hurt and sad while in my piece it is to show the confidence in culture/identity versus the one who is confused and doesn't know who they are.
Although I am very proud of the outcome for this project, I still believe there are many areas I could improve upon. One of which being my ability to create realistic flowers. In a future project, I would like to improve upon this skill. I also believe I could have made the face more detailed but I don't have much practice painting detailed faces so I would like to work on this skill as well. If I were to create another project similar to this, I would create it on a bigger canvas which would allow me to add more detail compared to the small one foot by one foot canvas I used in this piece.
Although I am very proud of the outcome for this project, I still believe there are many areas I could improve upon. One of which being my ability to create realistic flowers. In a future project, I would like to improve upon this skill. I also believe I could have made the face more detailed but I don't have much practice painting detailed faces so I would like to work on this skill as well. If I were to create another project similar to this, I would create it on a bigger canvas which would allow me to add more detail compared to the small one foot by one foot canvas I used in this piece.
Critique
Similarites
- One way the pieces are similar is that my piece as well as Frida's and Munch's piece both include two humanoid figures - The meaning of my piece and Frida's piece are similar as well because the piece shows the two sides of herself as mine do for me - The positioning of the figures in my piece and Munch's piece are similar : one reaching out/doing their own thing while the other is clutching at their hurting heart. - The clothing is similar to Kahlo's piece because in mine one is a traditional Mexican dress while the other is just a simple sweatshirt while in Kahlo's she's wearing a traditional dress on the left and a modern dress on the right. -Both figures in mine are the same person just as in The Two Fridas. |
Differences
- the color palette in mine is different from both inspiration pieces and is more saturated and bright. - The detail in Frida's piece is much greater than the characterized look my piece has. - In Frida's piece, one heart is stabbed and bleeding out while in my piece both hearts are intact and whole with no wounds. - The medium of mine which is acrylic on canvas was different than the medium Munch used which was oil on canvas. |
ACT Response
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my final piece is that I drew inspiration from the meaning of Frida Kahlo's piece and her two versions of herself as well as from Separation which I drew inspiration from the style as well as some of the metaphorical meanings included within.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach regarding the topic is that Frida wants to portray the two versions of herself that she has made along the way of life and how one is hurt while in Munch's piece, his approach was to show a sad loved one watching another leave.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have drawn the conclusion that losing a loved one, whether that be through death or less, it can create string feelings for the individual and inspire them to create art with those meanings in it. There are also many ways to portray the hurt of that.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is love and hurt as well as identity because in Frida's piece it's almost as if she doesn't know her heart because of the hurt she has gone through just as in Munch's piece with the bleeding heart.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Carr Clifton was an advocate for the preservation of nature because of how he captures his photographs to demonstrate the beauty of it without any architectural structures.
I inferred that the loss of a loved one can be portrayed in many different ways and can impact the person experiencing it in a number of levels.
The cause and effect relationship between my inspiration and my final piece is that I drew inspiration from the meaning of Frida Kahlo's piece and her two versions of herself as well as from Separation which I drew inspiration from the style as well as some of the metaphorical meanings included within.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The overall approach regarding the topic is that Frida wants to portray the two versions of herself that she has made along the way of life and how one is hurt while in Munch's piece, his approach was to show a sad loved one watching another leave.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have drawn the conclusion that losing a loved one, whether that be through death or less, it can create string feelings for the individual and inspire them to create art with those meanings in it. There are also many ways to portray the hurt of that.
What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme is love and hurt as well as identity because in Frida's piece it's almost as if she doesn't know her heart because of the hurt she has gone through just as in Munch's piece with the bleeding heart.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred that Carr Clifton was an advocate for the preservation of nature because of how he captures his photographs to demonstrate the beauty of it without any architectural structures.
I inferred that the loss of a loved one can be portrayed in many different ways and can impact the person experiencing it in a number of levels.
Bibliography
“Separation - Edvard Munch.” USEUM. Accessed October 12, 2021. https://useum.org/artwork/Separation-Edvard-Munch-1896.