ARTWORK (painting) Influence on identity , painting series

1. How does your painting project address Self-initiated Portfolio?

Project outline

You are invited to design your own painting project with the intention of producing a Self-initiated portfolio. You will need to produce a minimum of four resolved paintings for the Self-Initiated Portfolio. You are required to gather resource material, from which to select and develop appropriate materials and processes to make a body of work.

The portfolio should show evidence of a sophisticated use of materials and processes. It is thesefore necessary that your investigation of a range of materials and processes should be completed prior to commencing the portfolio.

Produce a body of painting work that consists of a minimum of four paintings.

my concept

People throughout your life can influence the development of your identity.

The formation of a persons identity is a life long process and comes from an abundant amount of sources. The areas I am focusing on in the development of my identity are Relational , Scolastic and sociocultural . The sociocultural aspect is important in reflecting current society as it is now common for individuals to be greatly influenced by popular culture.

Through a series of paintings I focused on “people” who have directly and profoundly changed and guided my life. And by people I am using the term loosely , some that I am focusing on I have never met in real life... Some are not real at all.

The purpose of this project is to explore the development of my current identity through the 'people' who have had a great impact on my life.

my execution

The following is the list of paintings:

Goku ( culture shock) – Cartoon character from Dragonball Z

color multi-layered glass oil painting of the cartoons starting logo

Ian Adams (enlightenment) – year 4 school teacher

cubist inspired jigsaw portrait in oil paint

Marija (maturity) - wife

miniature color oil painting portrait inside a real pocket watch

Zatoichi (hope) – Japanese film character

timber cutouts of animation sequence , painted in monocrome

Gamehacker ( avatar) – Computer game character

contemporary take on still life painting to create illusion of figurine in display box made from plastic,glass and timber

titles for artworks based on what they mean to me:

ian adams childhood enlightenment

goku early 20's culture shock

gamehacker cyber , avatar , cyberlife avatar

zatoichi disabled , recovery , hope hope

marija adulthood,settling down,responsibility maturity

avatar = an embodiment or personification, as of a principle, attitude, or view of life.

2. What research did you engage with ? Artist contemporary or traditional

what did I look at when brainstorming ?

Conceptual brainstorming revolved around people who have had a great impact on my life. I broke the list down to 6 eventually , to people who had had a profound impact on the development of my identity throughout my life.

I had started Visual brainstorming for different methods of cross discipline forms as early as july , so I had a lot of ideas to chose from. Choices for imagery were made to best support the importance that each person had in my life.

research focus

Most of the research and experimentation which lead to this project came from research into hyper realism artists , cubism , tromp loiel and the essays by Alan Kaprow on total art and experimental art . Upon seeing Ron Mueck's giant head sculptural construction I decided to not limit my 2D studio research and experimentation to the regular canvas/2D plane . I instead decided to explore painting on surfaces and forms which relate to and strengthen the concept of the piece and looking at paintings which have the ability to be displayed on plinths.

image

image research was specific for each artwork as they are aesthectically very different .

(see journal for each paintings image research)

artist

Other contemporary artists Emil Alzamora ( beyond rodin exhibition , frosted glass/blurred face ) and Kathy Temin ( cube shape) influenced visual experiment choices.

Damien Hurst – essentially gave permission for total exploration and to focus on using techniques that best support my concepts.

3. Discuss the planning of your project , including experimentation , technique selection, overcoming technical problems and determining limitations and constraints ( Refer to your journal)

experimentation,technique selection , why ?

painting experimentation .

Experiementation came out of my brainstorming over the july holiday break . Hobie had mentioned that we may be doing a portfolio which revolved around the “image multiple” , so I began experimenting with my self portraits to see what I could do with the same subject matter.

This experimentation then informed my final choices

I had to experiment and learn the nature of my materials because of my Technique selection

glass cutting

glass painting

glass glueing

timber cutting

puzzle piece designing etc

My experiementations with glass contributed greatly to my hand injury.

To cut glass you have to make one strong clean line , the cutting process makes a particular sound so you know that it is deep enough.

Research into books , videos and online aided in learning little tricks to get around the purchase of equipment needed , for example to bevel the edge of glass I used a river stone.

I glued the glass using a co-polymer glue .

For Ian Adams and zatoichi,s paintings I experiemented with painting with both hands at the same time. Zatoichi was first , Starting with the dark tone in my left hand and the light tone in my right.

This proved successful and a very fast way of painting which worked well with oils . That allowed me to push and pull the paint in a freer more expressive manner. For Ian Adams painting I took this experimentation futher by painting color with both hands , again using he dark tone in my left hand and the light tone in my right.

technical problems

glass painting

after the experimentation with oil paint and acrylic on glass I discovered that

• oil paint stuck well to the glass
• I could layer the oil paint
• drying time of oil paint was about 3 days per layer
• visually minor difference between oil paint and acrylic paint on glass , oil paint have greater vibrance/intensity than the acrylic
• acrylic laying was difficult as it flaked off easily BUT worked if thick application of paint was made and applied in on mark

the drying time of acrylic paint determined my choice to use it

miniature painting

limitations and constraints

• time, the technical difficulty of the works requires a reasonable amount of time to execute them at a professional level but the 4^th term was so short

drying time

• due to injury to right hand I am unable to use my thumb and limited mobility of fingers which will greatly slow my ability to paint and reduce my ability to refine detail in painting

4. What aesthetic decisions did you make? Eg working with particular equipment to achieve particular effects, establishing a key , determining a palette and deciding upon a format and a scale

goku

• glass slides = old animation techniques , since this is from a classic animation
• cell animation = linework on one side and coloring on the other . Transparent layers over the top of one another

• The upright display – retain some of the origins of the tv , by allowing light to pass through it and to conceptually experiement/express that this watching of TV/anime is something that has carried thru till this day.

ian adams

• cubes , extended from my cubism research and the 4^th dimension
• form was chosen because : the influence of quantum mechanics had on cubism and the 20/21^st century which aludes to the dramatic and underlying effect ian adams had on my life in the same way

marija

• pocket watch , keepsake , something that is precious to me ..
• pocket watch image orientation , normally same orientation as the clock face but I chose the current orientation and composition for display purposes , so that the watch could be sat on a plinth
• my original intention was to paint directly onto the inside of the pocket watch but I was unable to dismantle it to gain access ( injury to my hand meant tha ti was unable to work directly on the metal as I couldnt get my hand into certain positions) solution was to paint on a a piece of gesso'd paper and attach it to the pocket watch.

zatoichi

• 4 images which cover some of the aspects of zatoichi that I felt resonated with me.
• cutouts = black and white animation stills , the empty space to alude to the celuloid origins of film

gamehacker

• box – it is the momento that you can get from the game World of warcraft
• cutout is an extention of the bust I had made over the holiday break
• cutout is to emulate the figurine that would be inside the box and is an exploration of the still life in a contemporary manner.

6. How could you further develop your techniques in relation to you professional practice ? How might you build upon your ideas towards future work ?

The entire process of making these works was enjoyable and satisfying . I was reaching a point in my 2D studios where I had a very structured process for concepting and executing an image. I was finding it too restrictive to work on the wall and within the confines of the traditional formats.

This year ive been working on broadening and refining my artistic vocabulary so that I can choose a technique to best express the concept that I am exploring. Im looking forward to taking this aesthetic of cross disipline work even further , and incorporating more sculptural elements.

For example

Making use of the shadows cast by the forms , im thinking of those piles of grabage which cast shadows of crows etc which I could use to explore concepts of duality or by Drawing on both sides of the form.

Im still unsure as to the point that they wont be drawings anymore.

Also ive noticed that as my dominant hand healed I was able to draw and paint with both hands simultaneously .. this is something I want to refine in the future.