Spectrum

What is the subject of your image?

The title of this series is called "Spectrum", each of these selfies are their own pieces that can be seen individually. Each of the colors represents an emotion, and like the color wheel where there are primary colors (Red, Blue, Yellow) and secondary colors (Purple, Green Orange), there are the “primary” and “secondary” emotions.

Color Meanings:

Red: "R is for Passion"

This selfie is supposed to represent passion and just a drive to want something or to do something. It is messy dominant, and acts on what it wants.

Yellow: "Y is for Anxie-Tea"

Whenever I am stressed out or anxious i tend to drink tea and lots of it. It's more of a safety feature that I do to calm myself down.

Blue: "B is for Tired"

This emotion is just being tired, whether it is physically or mentally, or emotionally about something.

Green: "G is for Sick"

This could either be taken literally, so physically being sick or being fed up about a situation. (think of the phrase "I'm sick or this")

Orange: "O is for Imploding"

This is to represent the feeling of holding back. There’s a lot of energy, however it cannot be expressed.

Purple: “P is for Longing”

It’s somewhat similar to red, however instead of being active on the want, you are being inactive. You want things, you long for something however you do nothing about it.

What is the content of your image?

My project is a series of small selfies that each convey an emotion. I drew each one based off of selfies that I have either taken for this class, put on my social media, or as painting references for later. Each one is its own piece with its own title and each color represents a different emotion.  The Secondary emotions are combinations of the Primary ones. So just how Red and Yellow make Orange, the Imploding emotion is a combination of the Passion and Anxiety emotions.

Why did you make the choices that led to the composition?

I chose the small size and having them be six separate drawings because I wanted them to feel a little more like the selfies that we have. The selfies that we take are small, personal, and can fit in the palm of our hand because they are on our phones. Even though I did not want to go digital for this piece I did want to include the small and personal aspect of them. I also like that you can flip through and they can still stand alone as drawings (or selfies) or you can put them together like how you view your pictures on your phone. I also like how they almost feel like playing cards, you can put them on the table in whichever order that you want and they still mean something.

Explain the process and steps you went through and why you made those decisions.

I wanted the colors of each selfie and the eyes to be the main focus of each of the drawings. So I kept all of the color palettes simple for each of them, black, white, grey, and the color they were showing. The hypno eyes were to draw the focus in and bring drama to each of the selfies. I also thought about old nude paintings and how they will look at the viewer. I wanted this to be in my work to be kind of like a staring contest. I saw it in one of the filters on my snap chat and thought they would look good for them. I cut my watercolor paper into 4in x 6in rectangles and started to draw on them. after that I used my ink to draw the lines and make the greys, then I used watercolor. I wanted to work with a limited palette rather than a bigger spectrum because I like the challenge it brings. I feel it helps me narrow my focus on what I want the artwork to say rather than how pretty it is going to look. The challenge was really associating the colors with the feelings they represent. It is easier to assign a color like red to the emotion "Passion" because they are already related. A color like yellow has another meaning other than joy which is actually fear. So it's like the drawing has to work harder to relate to the emotion.  

How would you categorize your work?

I would categorize them as ink and watercolor paintings. They are mini self portraits.

What artists or works are appropriate to compare your work to?

While making these self portraits I was thinking about the comic Sin City and how the artist, Frank Miller, carefully chose where to put color. The entire comic is in black and white, except certain objects or people in the panels that are colored in. The idea is to bring attention to these things and set the mood of the story. While I really did not care for its story, the way the artist told it was interesting so I wanted to use that for these selfies, except with a bit more color. I also thought about old nude paintings and how they will look at the viewer. I wanted this to be in my work to be kind of like a staring contest.

What do you think this image conveys to the audience?

I wanted to show subtle moods that are somewhat relatable to everybody. I feel that when the viewer looks at these emotions they can say that they’ve felt them at some point of another. The eye contact is to establish a relationship with the audience.

What are the differences between the midterm self-portrait and your final self-portrait?

Throughout the semester I have been experimenting with new materials, one of which was clay. So in my midterm I wanted to use that and make the piece more sculptural. I wanted to play with a clay figure and fake flowers and any technique I could think of using, I used it. However, I typically work with ink and watercolor, so for this assignment I wanted to use something that I knew well. The midterm was about approaching raw emotions and feelings that don't quite have a name. The final continue to talk about emotions, something other than feeling happy, sad, or angry. I wanted to approach emotions that aren't easy to pinpoint but you know them well enough. They are the ones with no names and are a little more complicated than joy or anger in a 2-D format. I wanted these emotions to have an actual figure rather than an abstract image left to interpretation. So, there is a more concrete message in this work than the last one.

What influenced these changes (events, readings, information, artists)?

Like I mentioned before, I typically work in watercolor and ink. The reason i picked these mediums is because they are really my favorite and I haven't really gotten to work with them all semester. So I used this project as a chance to get back into using them. There was something about doing a sculpture that had a "in your face" feeling. I wanted something more subtle so I did facial expressions to show that subtlety. Whether it was in the eyebrows, the mouths or even the placement of the hands, I wanted there to be this quiet message, but always staring at the viewer. John Berger wrote how no matter what women are feeling, they are always being watched. Even at the moment of their fathers funeral they are still being watched. He explained how in nude paintings the women are always staring at the viewer to establish that their relationship is with the one who owned the painting. I wanted to have the eyes looking at the viewer to establish a relationship, but not one of lust, more of acknowledgement that they are being watched and it becoming a staring contest