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Lush
For this initial drawing on object challenge I was very interested in painting on a small object with traditional oil paint. I was intrigued by an artist that Nathan presented to us who painted landscapes on tiny coins. I looked around my room for something that I wouldn’t mind painting on and I saw this old deck of cards and I thought it would be fun to paint on the joker because it is probably the least used card. I wasn’t sure what to paint at first, but then I thought it would be funny to use the concept of the joker and paint the DC comic character as the representative of this card.
For this next project I was wanting to do something that involved time passing and I was interested in drawing on something that would only be temporary. I used expo markers to create vines as if emerging from the shower head. I took photos after each shower that me and my roommates would take during 24 hours, seeing how much of the drawing would come off. The theme I wanted to touch on was environmental issues this concept of water as life giving and yet humans excessive use of water and in turn killing our planet we were supposed to be caretakers of. The end result of this project was much more satisfying as I thought because much of the vines washed away with just a couple showers, representing how much impact we have on this earth without even being aware of it.
This drawing was made after I moved into the GLC because as I moved in I noticed this large cork-board above my bed and I had a ton of these old paper clips and rubber bands that I had never used. I looked at the theme of portraiture and tried to create a self portrait from memory with these tools that are more rigid that a pen and paper. It was fun and almost childlike as my mobility was limited. The primary colors that I had also added to that nostalgia feeling of being a kid using basic shapes to create a picture.
Continuing with the theme of portraiture and self image I thought using a mirror was appropriate. A lot of times our self worth and self image is tied to how we view our selves through mirrors. This exercise that I used to in beginning art courses would be to draw on a small mirror a self portrait with a sharpie. I used this idea but I drew with lipstick making the drawing temporary. I did this to show that the way we view our selves isn’t permanent and also can be inaccurate to how we really are. The way we view ourselves is not equivalent to our worth. In the first image I drew with the lipstick an outline of my self, in the second I push and move the lipstick to move the areas that were inaccurate to my face to where I thought they should be. In the next two I erase the drawing revealing a reflection of myself.
This last drawing challenge I looped back to the concept of environmental issues. I have been learning about humans role as caretakers in Christian Doctrine and it has stuck with me. The power that we each have to give and to take away is critical to the order of this world. I was thinking about how watering my plants and caring for them is not that difficult, but I can easily forget to do so and they will die. I showed this through painting a plant on the back of a mason jar with acrylic paint and using varying levels of water to represent the give and take that influence our environment and the health of our planet.
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