"Blinded"
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Artist Inspiration
The artist that inspired the piece was Emil Nolde and German Expressionism itself. Emil Nolde didn’t really consider himself an expressionist painter, however, he was one of the first German Expressionist painters. Klimt’s father and brothers have died so he was left with financial debt and had to take care of his mother and sisters. He then had to limit his time creating art. Emil Nolde often used masks in his pieces,
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Planning & sketches I started to look for inspiration from artists and art movements. I began to sketch about five drawings that I felt represented either earth exploitation or over consumption. The first sketch was of a mouth which contained a small environment. Back then, I was inspired by pop art in the technique of Roy Lichtenstein. The second sketch was of a skeletal man gripping a colorful ball with a malicious smirk on his face.For the third one, I was inspired with beauty and how it brainwashes girls into thinking that looking good is everything. I portrayed a girl with an empty look. However, I didn't like the idea so I didn't continue with it. The final sketch was an obese man posing; he is in a form of a blob which was inspired by The Simpsons’ episode of King-Sized Homer.
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Process
At first I chose the man with a devious grin holding a spherical form in his hands. It was as if it was gripping it. However, I didn't like where this was going so I stopped working with the piece. However, the posing obese man, was the sketch that I kept for the painting. The main goal was for the background to emulate Emil Nolde and the German Expressionism painting strokes. Prior to the creation of my piece, I looked at many pictures of obese people in order to have reference when it comes to creating shade and value since there are many creases.
After this, I started to re-draw that same sketch onto my canvas. Continuing on, I painted the background with a dirty yellow that consisted of the mixture of orange in it, but not to a large extent. I wanted to create a streaky and grim look to my piece, but at the end it turned out too clean for my liking. I then tried to tweak the painting so that it looks more dirty and streaky. As for the subject, which is the obese thing, I mixed some bits of nutmeg brown and orange. When it came to the shading of the flabs, I utilized a bit more brown than the original amount. For the lighter parts I added just a small tad of white, regular and neon orange. The intended texture of the orange thing, was to be smooth, however, at the end I decided to make it somewhat streaky. There were also some parts that didn't flow well with each other, so I tried to cover it more in order to make it look like German Expressionism's style. |
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Meaning
The meaning of the piece is to portray the ugliness of over consumption as well as the dreary portrayal of obesity. There are multiple ways of interpreting the piece. In my eyes, I only see over consumption because like the creature's eyes, which are black, represent evil and blindness. People don't see this as an issue so they decide to ignore it as well as ignoring the environment's well-being. They get selfish and greedy with the things that they have and hide the fact the world is suffering. The people blind themselves and like the creature, they just try to act smug as if nothing's wrong, as if they haven't done anything wrong, or look disgusting.
Connecting to ACT
- German Expressionism and Emil Nolde influences inspired the technique in my piece. I applied them so that they can add more mood and tone. German expressionism art describes the feelings of the people since it was a form of protest against war, for instance my piece is a protest against over-consumption/gluttony.
- The overall approach was that it directed an issue and dark emotions. Emil Nolde and German Expressionism overall were into the grim style which inflicted negative emotions. This ties back to my piece due to the fact that I used dirty colors much like the artists in the German Expressionism era, especially Emil Nolde's style.
- The generalization that I have discovered about people and culture is that everyone's accustomed to certain consumption levels. When someone from another another comes to the U.S. they often say that every food portion is huge since they are more used to a smaller amount.
- The central theme of my inspirational research was over consumption. It is a big issue and analyzing it was of uttermost importance since I had to both create and connect the techniques and overall approach of my research.
- At the end of my research, I came to the conclusion that emotions influence over consumption. This could be displayed using the style of German Expressionism which focused on the serious issues of war. For my case I used the issue of over consumption in our world, especially in the U.S.
Reflection
Overall, this project enhanced my blending skills. I have always struggled with blending, however, I learned new skills and plan to continue with this series because to me over consumption is a huge issues. Human activity affects our natural environment is great, not in the positive light, ways. At the beginning of the project, I knew I wanted to create something that concerned nature and how it is negatively impacted.