Triptych
Who I Am
Triptych (Acrylic on Self-Made Canvas) 30cmx60cm November 2019 Exhibition TextMy intention for this project was to create 3 separate art pieces that come together as a triptych and tell a personal story of mine. I was highly inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's paintings, "Girl Crying" and "Girl in Mirror" as well as the art movement of Pop Art as a whole to create this piece. I enjoy the look and meaning behind Pop Art as well as Pop Culture. The subjects highly intrigue me and I decided I wanted to incorporate it into my work but add a twist to make it more personal and my own.
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Critical Investigation
American Pop Art culture had a very heavy influence on my work. Especially, "Crying Girl" and "Girl in Mirror" both by Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenstein was inspired to create "Girl Crying" from commercial culture. In "Girl Crying", the girl in the portrait has a pretty appearance but she is crying, symbolzing the struggle women faced in a male-dominated society at the time. Lichtenstein uses bright colors in his work to depict strong emotions in his art.
Inspiration
My work was inspired by Roy Lichtenstein's paintings, "Girl Crying" & "Girl in Mirror" as well as the overall art movement of Pop Art. I was inspired by my own personal experiences in life for the theme of a girl struggling to find herself and her passion with the pressure of what everyone else around her thinks in my work. Like Lichtenstein, I created a pretty girl crying to show how even though she might be "pretty", she is not content with herself and is struggling to find herself with the pressure of social media and what you should or should not look like or act like. I intended to show the struggle women go through as to feeling pressured by oneself and the influences around them. For my second painting, I was inspired more by the style, color, and design on the work. I wanted to show a girl with bright colored hair, as shown in Pop Art, but of different colors and lengths to represent that she is indecisive and is trying to figure herself out. For my last painting, I was inspired by his "Girl in Mirror" painting to create a girl who symbolizes myself and perhaps other girls, finding oneself and her passion, which is makeup.
PlanningWhile I was planning out my paintings, I researched about Pop Art to get an inspiration for the style in my work. I thought about my own personal story of life and planned sketches that would depict what I was trying to communicate. I already had an idea of what I wanted to create so I didn't need to do much planning other than the sketches and taking into consideration how much time I had to finish these paintings as well as what kind of paints or brushes I was going to use in each area of the pieces.
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Ideas & Intentions
The original intention for my work was to create a triptych art piece, influenced by modern day Pop Art. I intended to create 3 separate paintings which come together to tell a story of a girl-myself-broken and struggling to find herself with the pressure of the societal norm and how she is different, then finds herself and her passion, which is makeup. She uses makeup to express herself and is happy she has found herself and does not care what others may think of her. The first paintings represents myself in the past, struggling to find who I was and being felt forced to fit into societal norms or trends that everyone else is doing, that I did not like and was afraid to be myself/be different. The black window was meant to be a storm as each part gradually turns into the sun coming out and a rainbow shining, but I changed my mind last minute and decided to do a fade from black to white to represent the stages of overcoming my insecurities. The second panting is a girl with rainbow colored hair of all lengths, discovering who she is and stepping out of the box that is considered normal and the eyes behind her represents everyone around her judging her. The third paintings is a happy girl, with short blue colored hair, doing her makeup. She has discovered who she is, changing her appearance drastically over time and has found her passion for makeup and is living the life she wants to live, being authentic self and not caring about others opinions.
Process & Experimentation
Starting my project, I came up with my personal story and inspiration. I began making planning sketches and I knew right off the bat what I wanted to create. Once I had my sketches, I began to build my canvas using 4 pieces of wood and fitting the corners together. I then measured and cut a large piece of canvas roll to fit my canvas base. I cut the piece a bit larger than the actual base since I did not want to over cut as I folded the edges to have a neat back. Once I folded the edges in the back, I used a wall stapler to staple the piece of folded canvas roll onto my base. I did not pull to tight on the canvas as the gesso I would add later would shrink the canvas. Once I finished that same process with all 3 of my canvases, I used gesso to paint on the whole base for my paintings, including the back folded pieces of canvas roll with a big brush. Once they were dry and I was ready to start painting, I sketched out my final sketches on each board. It took me a while since I had to convert the drawing on small paper to a large canvas. I shaded in details that I was going to paint black. I began with painting the background red, a color I chose to represent self-love. I then continued to paint everything else, mixing colors to create new ones, and I left the black outlines for the last part to do with a tiny brush which I had to be very precise with. I ended up changing minor details near the end as I was in the process of painting and seeing how everything came together.
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Reflection/Critique
I am proud of my work and I was very committed during the process. I put a lot of thought, time and effort into my artwork. I think I depicted my messages quite well to the point where anyone could analyze my paintings and get an idea of what the meaning is behind my work. I believe the meaning behind my work is very strong and I stand by it. I believe I did a good job at incorporating the general idea and meaning of Pop Art into my work. I wish I would have chosen a different art movement so my work can show blending colors better. In the future, if I were to do a project like this again, I would immediately start working on it and have a full set of clean brushes and lots of paint, considering I ran out multiple times. I would also buy some paint thinner because when working on a large canvas with acrylic paint, you need a large amount of paint to cover the full area and acrylic dries rather quick, not giving me enough time to work.
Compare & Contrast
Similarities
- Similar meaning of women depicted in society - Similar appearance in style and technique - Bright colors and meanings to colors Differences - 2 separate meanings/story being told - I used dark colors instead of the traditional bright pop art to represent sadness - In one of my paintings, each strand of hair is rainbow colors, unlike one color-blonde hair |
ACT Questions
1. Clearly explain and describe how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
My inspirations meaning behind their work is similar to mine as they focus on how society views women and how they react and focus on how society views myself and how it affects me. I made my paintings in a similar style as them as well, Pop Art style, including bright colors and similar shapes/designs.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author (from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The author in my research is simply stating facts about my inspiration without being biased or leaned towards a certain opinon.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, ect. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that Pop Art is more than pretty artwork. Most Pop Art works have a strong meaning behind them and most are inspired by comic books and the current society.
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central theme Lichtenstein focused on in his work was the subject of how women are depicted in Pop Culture.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
I can infer from my research that Pop Art is a very popular and appealing art movement to young people since it is derived from modern pop culture.
Bibliography
Publicdelivery. (2019, October 18). Who is Roy Lichtenstein's Crying Girl? Retrieved from https://publicdelivery.org/roy-lichtenstein-crying-girl/
Tate. (n.d.). Pop art ? Art Term. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art
Pop art. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/Pop-art
Tate. (n.d.). Pop art ? Art Term. Retrieved from https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/p/pop-art
Pop art. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/Pop-art