Digital Collage
"Piece of Mind"
Size: 24inx36in
Medium: Digital Collage
Date: September, 2016
Exhibition Text:
My mind is a place where many weird ideas and complex thoughts occur. Through my digital collage I meant to create an image of what I think my mind would look like as a location or even to create a glimpse of what I believe goes on in my head based on the ideas and emotions that I encounter on a daily basis. Randomness and disorder are key components of the oil paintings by artist, Jeff Koons. His painting style perfectly matches with the format of art that I am utilizing as well as enhances the quality of the presentation of my work. This is a piece about the mind and the ideas and images that float around in it. While the images may seem absurd and random, there is a great purpose and significance for a certain object to construct an image of itself in my mind and in this collage. That aspect is also reflective of the unpredictability and disorder of my thoughts.
Artistic Inspiration
Salvador Dali
This art piece was heavily inspired by the works of Salvador Dali. Salvador Dali was famous for creating art that looked grotesquely distorted and realistic. The two pieces by him that bare the greatest similarities to my digital collage and that I used as my inspiration are "Ship with Butterfly Sails" and "Rose Meditative". His piece "Rose Meditative" displays a large, overbearing red-rose in the vast, blue sky.
Salvador Dali, Rose Meditative
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Salvador Dali, Ship with Butterfly Sails
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Jeff Koons
Jeff Koons is one of the most prolific artists of all time, presenting outstanding artwork that exhibits remarkable qualities that test art norms and the subjectivity of art. All of his artworks are created with impeccable quality and provide the viewer with an unforgettable experience. His usage of non-traditional medium along with unpredictability and a sort of pop of colors really attracts the viewers attention. His paintings especially are subjected to a lot of criticism for their distinctive and incredible qualities. HIs oil paintings appear to be ultra realistic with a touch of colorful pop art with a random disorderly format. Despite that being a common formula among his art, that style which he utilizes is not reflective of his personality. Jeff Koons is simply a man who wants to show the world something different, something extraordinary, and that he does with his amazing artwork.
Journal
Planning Sketches
This was the original idea that I wanted to create for this assignment. It has this sort of dreamlike vibe that would resemble a scene from Alice in Wonderland. The sketch is supposed to represent a girl (me) who is lost in her mind literally. She is walking down a path through a location that is meant to embody the contents of her brain. It's supposed to represent someone being lost in their thoughts.
This sketch would have been very interesting to deliver but unfortunately it was very unlikely to be created into a digital collage due to not being able to get pictures of certain things that the piece would have required. Specifically, snow and a dead tree.
For this sketch, I wanted to create something that portrayed the message of shyness. This relates to me specifically because I consider myself a painfully shy person who does not like to talk to certain people but I can still display a very humorous and cheerful demeanour when I want to. I decided not to pursue this idea because I thought it would be to boring and I really wanted to make a colorful and extraordinary piece.
Planning
All of the images used in my digital collage, except for the background image which I acquired from Photoshop, are original images that i took myself. Because I couldn't find the time to take pictures to create bring my other ideas to life, I had to use old pictures that I had recently took as a part of my Personal Project from Sophomore year. For my Personal Project, I decided take pictures around popular places in Milwaukee such as locations in downtown like the Public Museum.
Process
Experimentation
Experimenting with the different tools on Photo Shop was a very fun and interesting experience. By doing this, I was able to familiarize myself with the different aspects and capabilities that Photo Shop offered. Once I figured out how to do certain things such as changing the color of objects, using different layers, cropping and cutting images and manipulating the overall image, I was able to put my piece together and create the art that I want to present as my final work.
The first image shows how I was changing the background pattern that would establish the color scheme and emotion evoked by my piece. At this point of the process, I had figured out that I wanted my piece to be colorful and give off a strange, surreal vibe, much like the art by Salvador Dali.
The second image is evidence of my creative flow starting slow down and me starting to incorporate random elements into the piece. I had added images of butterflies, a wolf, a coyote, and even a giant egg-roll that appears to be floating above the lake and the light house up in the sky. The sort of imagery that I created here is very imaginative and wacky, some may even deem it to be tasteless and uninspired. I can admit that at this point I didn't really know what I was doing anymore, but the end result was what I chose to stick with because I really liked how it was random and zany like a dream can be. This ties into my inspiration in the way that Salvador Dali's works always looked like scenes from a dream.
The third image is where the piece had the most changes done to it, as some of the pieces were cut and copied back on to create this sort of almost "broken glass" effect. It worked out very nicely and was able to create a great contrast to what the rest of the piece looked like.
In the last image I tried to further develop that contrast by changing the color of the pieces that were cut to something that lacks color to look unlike the colorful and bright images that were behind them.
The first image shows how I was changing the background pattern that would establish the color scheme and emotion evoked by my piece. At this point of the process, I had figured out that I wanted my piece to be colorful and give off a strange, surreal vibe, much like the art by Salvador Dali.
The second image is evidence of my creative flow starting slow down and me starting to incorporate random elements into the piece. I had added images of butterflies, a wolf, a coyote, and even a giant egg-roll that appears to be floating above the lake and the light house up in the sky. The sort of imagery that I created here is very imaginative and wacky, some may even deem it to be tasteless and uninspired. I can admit that at this point I didn't really know what I was doing anymore, but the end result was what I chose to stick with because I really liked how it was random and zany like a dream can be. This ties into my inspiration in the way that Salvador Dali's works always looked like scenes from a dream.
The third image is where the piece had the most changes done to it, as some of the pieces were cut and copied back on to create this sort of almost "broken glass" effect. It worked out very nicely and was able to create a great contrast to what the rest of the piece looked like.
In the last image I tried to further develop that contrast by changing the color of the pieces that were cut to something that lacks color to look unlike the colorful and bright images that were behind them.
Reflection:
As I ventured into my mind to come up with ideas for my digital collage, I found it quite difficult to focus on and stick to a single concept. My mind is constantly flowing with ideas, and they aren't always good ones. It is my goal for every art piece to create high-quality and outstanding visuals that evoke meaningful ideas that are very personal to me. While I believe I was able to achieve this to an extent through my digital collage, I regret not choosing my better ideas instead. Working with Photoshop was a new experience for me, and considering that I never used digital art as a media before, I'd say I did a pretty good job inquiring my creativity with the different aspects of the program that I used to produce my digital collage.(Include Elements of Art)(Limitations) (Goal) (Limitations)
Essay
My story begins on July 26, 2000, in Santa Ana, California. I was born to two Mexican immigrant parents who moved to America when they were young in hopes of greater opportunities. I no longer live with my father as he and my mom are no longer together. Today I live with my mother, my step-father, and my four sisters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Life so far has been a great adventure and my youth has been the funnest and scariest part of it so far. With adolescence, comes new emotions, new challenges and new responsibilities.With each day comes a new discovery about myself as I change, grow and try to develop into a fulfilled young person. But of course I come across obstacles that are a part of growing up. Obstacles such as feeling existential, lacking direction, and feeling overly confused about my desires. In order to overcome these obstacles, I must realize my goals and dreams and pursue them wholeheartedly. I’ve always been a rather passionate person, but the catch is that I only show passion for the things that I enjoy, one of these things being art. Art is one of the subjects that I enjoy the most in life and not only do I greatly enjoy observing art and artists, but I also enjoy creating art myself. Ever since I was a young child, I’ve had a fascination for cartoons and drawings so I started drawing cartoons myself. Like every kid, I loved cartoons and I still do to this day. Cartoons are an interest of mine that I would like to look into with more depth and possibly attempt to create myself to establish a career. I would like to work towards becoming an animator because I believe that cartoons and animation are forms of artistic representation that people can enjoy and engage in through sight, sound and emotion. The most sought after goal that I have for myself in my life is to create something that can make people think, feel, and be in touch with their humanity. I am greatly inspired by cartoons such as The Simpsons, Steven Universe, Clarence, Hey Arnold!, Over the Garden Wall, Adventure Time, Popeye, BoJack Horseman and Futurama and My future is always something that I worry a lot about and I get anxiety just thinking about it. I worry that I won’t get into a good college and I won’t find the right opportunities to pursue the path that I choose. Anxiety usually hinders me from being my best and from doing things that I plan to do. Anxiety along with insecurity and self-doubt, makes me an emotional train wreck. That is exactly what I am, especially at such a fragile age such as teenage-hood. I’m eager to grow, learn and move away from these issues that conceal my true identity, the one that I wish to present myself as to people. Creating visual art is the perfect way to express all the jumbled emotions and mixed feelings that reside within me. Through my art, I hope to relay the colors of my soul, the images in my brain and the feelings in my heart that make up this being known as Jennifer Saucedo.
Connecting to the ACT
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork
Salvador Dali was my inspiration for this piece and by observing his work, I was able to simplify the creative process for creating my work by attempting to emulation certain, key aspects that his works posses.
2.What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
What tended to be a popular opinion about Salvador Dali is that he was one of the most innovative for the surreal art movement.
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Salvador Dali, my inspiration for this piece, was an artist from the Surrealist art movement. What I discovered while looking into the art movement in itself is that many artists from this era tended to present art that captivated people with there bizarre and creative ideas. Their ideas were unlike the plain, traditional art that has been popular throughout the generations before them.
4.What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The key idea that I wanted to focus on when studying Dali's artworks closely was the idea that Dali presented very awe-inspiring and "new" pieces. By "new" I mean that it was unlike anything the public had seen before. His art was very grotesque and surreal at times which likely resulted in a lot of criticism.
5.What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research, I was able to infer that many of the great artists that people appraise for their talents, always brought something new to the table and had something very special and interesting about them that captivated people.
Salvador Dali was my inspiration for this piece and by observing his work, I was able to simplify the creative process for creating my work by attempting to emulation certain, key aspects that his works posses.
2.What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
What tended to be a popular opinion about Salvador Dali is that he was one of the most innovative for the surreal art movement.
3.What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
Salvador Dali, my inspiration for this piece, was an artist from the Surrealist art movement. What I discovered while looking into the art movement in itself is that many artists from this era tended to present art that captivated people with there bizarre and creative ideas. Their ideas were unlike the plain, traditional art that has been popular throughout the generations before them.
4.What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The key idea that I wanted to focus on when studying Dali's artworks closely was the idea that Dali presented very awe-inspiring and "new" pieces. By "new" I mean that it was unlike anything the public had seen before. His art was very grotesque and surreal at times which likely resulted in a lot of criticism.
5.What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While reading my research, I was able to infer that many of the great artists that people appraise for their talents, always brought something new to the table and had something very special and interesting about them that captivated people.
Sources
http://www.biography.com/people/salvador-dal-40389
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm
http://www.dalipaintings.com/rose-meditative.jsp
http://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD
http://www.theartstory.org/artist-dali-salvador.htm
http://www.dalipaintings.com/rose-meditative.jsp
http://www.wikiwand.com/fr/Salvador_Dal%C3%AD