creativeprocesssophielindsay

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ARTIST STATEMENT

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EVALUATION

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FINAL SUBMISSION FOLIO

DEVELOPMENT 1:

To make this piece, I began by using a mirrored reference image of myself to view myself the way others see me. Where I saw unfamiliar features and their positions, I drew them with an exaggerated approach. I saw my eyes as uneven, my top lip being small and my bottom lip being big whilst having a wonky mouth. I felt my nose appeared long and round, with these views of my features. I exaggerated my perception of them to convey the difficulties of viewing myself mirrored. I did tedious geometric line work within the hair with a fine liner.

Both the mirror stage and the uncanny are the concepts behind this work. I applied the mirror stage when viewing myself from a fresh perspective and I used the uncanny when incorporating the abstract geometric style which represents an unfamiliar reality. 

I chose this work as one of my final 10 images as I feel it translates my perception of myself when mirrored strongly, I really like the uncanny feeling of the work looking like me despite creating it in a way where my features are distorted an exaggerated. It explores the mirror stage and the uncanny very well and I feel that this can be easily picked up when viewing. 

DEVELOPMENT 2:

I did this painting on the studio wall space provided in the college building. I prepped the wall by removing nails and filling the holes, sanding down excessive bumps on the wall and giving the space two coats of paint to ensure a fresh surface to be working off of. This work was a development from working with drawing on paper, it was a challenge to work on a different surface with a contrasting texture to flat paper. I used red, blue and yellow acrylic paint with some black ink to paint with. Initially, I intended to work with black acrylic pens which didn’t work successfully because of the powder consistency that was transferring onto the pens, leading them to dry up. I drew out guidelines on the wall with a light pencil and did the line work with a small paintbrush.

I chose this work as part of my final folio as I feel this is the strongest development work that I created. I put myself out of my comfort zone of working small and meticulously. My experience of working on large surfaces isn’t the greatest, so this was a significant experience for me to develop my way of approaching a large blank canvas the way I did. This work presents problem solving along with the many complications I had making this. It shows a splendid example of a learning process through the change I made to the different textured surface and behaviour of the medium. 

DEVELOPMENT 3:

Using the wall painting, I quick selected the facial features in photoshop and moved them around the face silhouette to achieve abstract compositions. 

I was highly inspired by Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon, 1907. Where the features of the women do not represent the reality of them. Keeping the uncanny in mind, I wanted to convey a drastically distorted reality of my appearance to put the viewer in the mind frame of myself how I see my features as disproportionate. I used the same techniques and inspirations from this development through to development 8. 

I chose these development works as they are the works I used in both of my final pieces, the gallery view and the animation. They represent the mirror stage and the uncanny and represent a great progression of my project. 

DEVELOPMENT 4:

DEVELOPMENT 5:

DEVELOPMENT 6:

DEVELOPMENT 7:

DEVELOPMENT 8:

FINAL PIECE 1:

The images in this final piece were initially my wall painting. I took the original photograph of my painting into photoshop and created dramatically distorted portraits of myself. The first row of portraits are of the way I view myself in the mirror, although I maintained the abstract arrangement of the features. The second row is the same as the first row, though they are mirrored so that I see them the way others see me. The next two rows are a repeat of the first two rows. It may not be immediately noticeable to the viewer that I have only used six distorted edits, but it is the use of them being mirrored that shows an example of the power that being mirrored has. 

“involuntary repetitions” 

I was inspired by The Uncanny article I researched as within it the phrase “involuntary repetitions” was discussed. This made me think of the idea to create duplicated portraits. I feel the phrase is then affecting the viewer through this work. 

I chose this work as my final piece as it summarises my work very well. It includes the large painting I did and the distorted edits I did. It strongly conveys the mirror stage through the visual of mirroring my works along with conveying the uncanny because of the familiar yet unfamiliar aspect of the work.

FINAL PIECE 2:

I made this work with the distorted portraits I edited from my wall painting. On each frame I have one portrait with the mirrored version of it by its side. I laid them out in a way so that as each new portrait shows up; it appears as though the facial features are dancing around on the face. I used photoshop to put all the images together and slowed down the speed of the work in InShot. I ran into a lot of issues whilst making this work, the quality photoshop was saving the document as was very pixilated, when trying to do it in aftereffects it wouldn’t allow me to slow down the speed of the video without removing a large section of my work. 

This was inspired by an idea given to me by a fourth-year student, Tim K. He suggested making an animation and creating a video where different parts of the portrait changed colour. I liked his initial idea, but I was more excited by the idea of making the facial features dance around. He showed me the basics of animating a work in photoshop which benefited me. 

I chose this work as a second final piece as it is something so far out from my usual way of working and I feel it stands out drastically when compared to the rest of my work through this project. I strongly conveyed the subject of discomfort of my identity through the way the features race around the face, and I believe this is readable as a viewer. The uncanny element of my work is easily identifiable through the tedious line work, geometric patterns and overall abstract style. 

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ANIMATION SOLUTION

After many complications trying to fix the animation, I found a solution for it. I had a zoom with Andy about how to potentially fix the issues; he said to avoid using photoshop and to try after effects. I could change the pace of the video but it would remove an amount of the video. Unable to find a solution to do the animation in after effects, I saved the animation from after effects that was too fast and slowed it down on InShot which was the video editing app for phones that I have used before. This is the complete animation. I am glad I could get the issues resolved. The turnout is great as I feel it portrays the mirror stage and the uncanny through the abstract rearrangements of the facial features. 

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EVALUATION DRAFT

I am going to send my artist statement and evaluation drafts to Louise to get some feedback on them and to make any changes that she feels will improve them.

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ARTIST STATEMENT DRAFT

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AMEDEO MODIGLIANI

The Jewess (1908)

https://www.passionforpaintings.com/en/art-gallery/amedeo-modigliani-painter/the-jewess-1908-xx-private-collection-oil-painting-reproduction

The Jewess was the first painting Modigliani sold after settling in Paris in 1906. It was purchased by his friend and patron, Paul Alexandre, who was so taken with the work that he had Modigliani paint it into the background of three additional commissioned portraits. Although wearing a composed expression, the stark whiteness of the sitter's face contrasts harshly with her dark apparel, giving the composition and inner tension and suggesting strong emotions lying beneath the surface. The painting's melancholic overtones have invited comparison with the work of Picasso's Blue Period. The painting is also one of the few Jewish-themed works by Modigliani, who was of Sephardic Jewish descent and publically embraced his Jewish identity.

Head (1910-12)

https://www.meisterdrucke.uk/fine-art-prints/Amedeo-Modigliani/818313/Head,-1910-12.html

Although inspired by Brancusi's marble work, Modigliani's sculptures were often made from softer, less expensive limestone, as in this work. Head's graceful contours and abstracted features suggest Brancusi's influence, while the elongated proportions - specifically, the swan-like neck - is reminiscent of ancient Egyptian busts, among the non-Western art forms that influenced Modigliani's work. The subject's elongated neck and nose, and slit-like eyes also closely resemble the artist's handling of these features in his portraits and nudes, suggesting the close connection between his work in sculpture and two-dimensional media.

Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1915)

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/modigliani-amedeo/artworks/#nav

Althought insecure about his own work, Modigliani had mixed feelings about Picasso. Modigliani was envious of his rival's success, but drawn to his charismatic personality and artistic talent. These competing feelings emerge in this portrait: this ambivalence is suggested in the two-toned face, while the overall gestural, uneven application of paint hints at inner conflict. Yet, the round face and facial features resemble Southeast Asian depictions of Buddha, showing Modigliani's respect for Picasso's wisdom and experience. This is literally spelled out on the lower right side of the painting with the French word savoir ("to know").

Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz (1916)

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/modigliani-amedeo/artworks/#nav

This double portrait of Jacques Lipchitz and his wife, Berthe, exemplifies Modigliani's talent for eliciting the inner life of his subjects. Although his stylized method of painting presents two mask-like faces, they reveal subtle clues about the personality of each sitter. Berthe has an open, kindly face, conveyed by the brightness of the paint and downward tilting eyes. Jacques, with his small, compressed features sloping inward, appears calculating and suspicious. Wanting to pay his friend Modigliani as much as possible for his work, Jacques Lipchitz insisted on further changes after its completion; as a result, the painting took nearly two weeks to finish.

Standing Blonde Nude with Dropped Chemise (1917)

https://www.theartstory.org/artist/modigliani-amedeo/artworks/#nav

Modigliani's nudes are often frank depictions of sensuality that frequently reference the traditional handling of this theme, but without the mythological context of their artistic precursors. The present work, for example, suggests Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus - a painting with which Modigliani was undoubtedly familiar from his studies in Florence - through such features as the subject's long blonde hair, tilted head, and the figure's contrapposto. The classic composition, however, is skillfully subverted and heavily modernized. While Botticelli's subject artfully covers her genitals with her flowing locks and smiles placidly, Modigliani's sitter draws attention to this area with her dropped chemise and confronts the viewer with a slight smirk. Such features of the Modigliani painting likely contributed to the uproar generated by the artist's now legendary exhibition at Berthe Weill's gallery in 1917.

Biography

A central participant in the Ecole de Paris, Modigliani modernized two of the enduring themes of art history: the portrait and the nude. Characterized by a sense of melancholy, elongated proportions, and mask-like faces influenced by such sources as Constantin Brancusi and African art, Modigliani's portraits are both specific and highly stylized, each uniquely revealing its sitter's inner life, while at the same time unmistakably "Modiglianized," to use the words of one critic. Modigliani's nudes scandalized audiences with their depiction of features such as pubic hair and their frank, unadorned sexuality. The subject of three biographical movies, Modigliani's legacy is inextricably bound up with his tragic and bohemian life: his fragile health, which plagued him since childhood; his perpetual pennilessness; and - most famously - his over-the-top, self-destructive lifestyle, which included sexual debauchery and overuse of drugs and alcohol.

Modigliani upended the tradition of the nude. Modern in their candid sensuality, his works in this genre are noticeably devoid of the modesty and mythological subtext present in many earlier depictions of nude figures. Because of these qualities - along with the artist's notorious womanizing - Modigliani's nudes were scandalously received at the time they were created.

Modigliani's portraiture achieves a unique combination of specificity and generalization. His portraits convey his subjects' personalities, while his trademark stylization and use of recurring motifs - long necks and almond-shaped eyes - lends them uniformity. Modigliani's portraiture also serves as a vital art historic record, comprising a gallery of major figures of the Ecole de Paris circle, to which he belonged following his move to Paris in 1906.

The work of the Romanian sculptor Constantin Brancusi was perhaps the single most important influence on Modigliani's creative development. Although Modigliani is best known as a painter, he focused on sculpture early on in his career, and, some writers have argued, may have regarded his true calling as that of sculptor. The sculptures Modigliani created in 1909-14, of which twenty-five carvings and one woodcut survive, were highly influential on his work as a painter, helping him arrive at the abstracted and linear vocabulary of his painting.

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ANIMATION (1)

This is the first animation I done, I forgot to upload it here. This one went very well in comparison to the other one, there aren’t any noticeable pixels like animation 2. I really like the outcome of this one, it is simplistic but I feel that this animation isn’t as strong as the other animation as the concept is a lot more muted in this animation.

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ANIMATION (2)

This is the animation I made with the scattered facial features. You can see the quality is bad from the pixels on the screen. Someone suggested that the pixels may be caused by me taking the photographs on my phone, but I have a feeling that it is something else as I have another animation that seems to be working alright.

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ANIMATION

I have a zoom call arranged for tomorrow at 11:45 with Andy to discuss the issues I am having with the animation I made. I am hoping that there is a solution to the video quality being so bad. I will upload the original animation soon to keep documentation of my process. 

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ACTION PLAN FOR ROUNDING UP

- Go through Tumblr and:

         - Ensure everything is there

        - Make sure documentation and annotation is up to the highest standard

        - Check grammar and punctuation

        - Reference all images sourced online

- Analyse work and consider 10 images and final work

        - Choose and justify choices

        - Annotate accordingly and upload chosen 10

- Produce artist statement 

        - Send to Louise for feedback

- Produce evaluation

        - Send to Louise for feedback

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CHAT WITH LOUISE

I had a chat with Louise in the studio and explained that I felt I was at a point where there wasn’t much more I could do with the project. She said that if I feel I am at that point, that now is maybe the time to refine everything and start bringing things to a close. We discussed which of my works feel the most appropriate, and Louise suggested I choose a work that portrays what I want to convey the most. My next step is to create a plan of action for bringing the project to a close.

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PHOTOS OF MUM AND DAD USED:

Below are the photos that I used for the works of combining my parents' facial features with my painting.

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PHOTOSHOP/ FAMILY

Metaperceptions: How do you see yourself? (article)

The results are strange; they don’t look 100% like me, but they definitely have similarities to the way I look. Through my life I have been frequently told that I look like my dad, which I can see how they think that, but now that I have grown more I feel like I look a lot more like my mum. I know for certain that I have my mum's eye shape with my dad's hooded lids. I have my mum's thin, long nose, her thick bottom lip and my dad’s thin top lip. I have my mum’s top row of tall teeth and my dad’s bottom set of crooked teeth. I got my blonde hair colour from my dad and the wavy texture from my mum. 

The pictures I used are not the best quality, but they are what I have at hand, I know I could source better quality photos if I were working at home. I really like the outcomes. They play strongly on the uncanny through the strange feeling you get from viewing them. These works also relate to the mirror stage as I am working with another form of reflection, this being working with people that reflect something of me.

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METAPERCEPTIONS: HOW DO YOU SEE YOURSELF?

(Article and text discussed is on my Tumblr)

The article discusses how as a child we will act the way our mother cared for us with peers. If someone had a neglectful mother, the child will act resentful to push others away, if the child had a caring mother the child will have an easier time engaging with peers. Further through the article it discusses how as adults we seek similarities in others of which we hold ourselves, which I find very interesting. During this period of my life I find I am identifying things about myself that I see in my mum and dad, even things in the people I meet and have no relation to. This article justifies my experience of associating my physical appearance and personality traits with people I know. I have an idea to take images of my mum and dad and place the facial features that we have in common on my face/ the painting to build a portrait of myself to see if it would still look like me, this would work well in relation to the uncanny.

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PHOTOSHOP

I researched Pablo Picasso for inspiration for developing my portraits. His work “The Musicians”, 1921, has rectangular and square silhouettes for facial and body features which appealed to me. From this work I took my facial features from a photograph and created a rectangular silhouette around them and placed them onto the painted portrait I did. “Les Demoiselles D’avignon”, 1907, incorporated unhuman like silhouettes and faces. A lot of peachy tones and varying faces that all look drastically different from each other. This work made me want to rotate all of my facial features in ways they don’t appear on me to create an abstract portrait. I really like the results and think that they would look good in a similar format to the gallery view work I did previously.

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GALLERY VIEW

I wanted to lay out all the distorted portraits in a photoshop document as a way of seeing how the work would look repeated on a blank wall. I really like the repetitive process, it portrays the journey I have made through this project to get to this point; by reshaping and distorting my face. It would be good to see me duplicate this document in the one edit and have an enormous bunch of them side by side. I made this work in response to an article I researched The Uncanny, in this it describes an aspect of the uncanny as “involuntary repetitions”. From this description I wanted to make a repetitive work using the reconfigured portraits of the painting I did. The video I sourced “The Psychology of the Uncanny” mentions how one person's experience of an uncanny feeling may not be an uncanny feeling to another. This point made me want to use the abstract portraits to convey the way I see myself when mirrored, as they would not notice the things I notice when looking at me.