Digital Collage
Title : calamity & commencement
Size : 60.90 cm x 91.44 cm
Medium : Digital Manipulation using Photoshop
Completion : September 2018
Exhibition Text
Through the inspiration of Antonio Canova's ''Venus of Canova'' and Helena Almeida's ''Pintura Habitada'', I was able to create my digital collage using photographs that represented my identity. The piece symbolizes the struggles of femininity and loss in modern day time through various floral segments and a reproduction of ''Venus of Canova''.
Inspiration
Helena Almeida
Pintura Habitada (Inhabited Painting), 1976 |
One of the artists I wanted to incorporate into one of my pieces was Helena Almeida. Helena is a contemporary portuguese artist, often known for her 'cobalt blue' paint over her photographs. I grew more and more inspiration from her 'For study for inner improvement' series from 1977. The bold cobalt blue over the mouth was something I wanted within my digital collage to help relate to my once reserved self, to communicate the sense of shyness and quiet, or inability to speak. Helena creates bold, eye catching, unique flashes of blue over photographs using acrylic paint, and so I decided to use the concept, except in digital form, using photoshop. Upon my investigation, I researched the symbolism behind the color blue in order to gain greater meaning and depth, making sure that everything had a purpose for being within the collage. Blue symbolizes unity, tranquility, and stability. All of which are very important values to my being, which I strive to represent in my daily life, and so I felt that blue was an appropriate color to incorporate.
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The second inspiration was the greek art movement and the neoclassical period, to use in my digital collage. I have always been fascinated by the greek sculptures and concept of gods and goddesses. Aphrodite and Venus have particularly sparked my interest in their importance and symbolism within both greek and roman art. My grandma has a lawn ornament replica of Antonio Canova’s ‘Venus of Canova’ that she had received from a gift from an artist in Chicago, which I decided to photograph and use this in my piece. Antonio was a neoclassical sculptor known for his marble sculptures. Many of the replica's are often in what they call a 'orlandi staturing' with Venus’s head turned to the side with one hand concealing her breasts with a draped cloth. Aphrodite and Venus alike symbolized beauty, power, and love. I wanted to incorporate one of them into my digital collage because of how important they are to me, and how inspirational they can be to young women to be powerful and see their beauty both inside and out, which I feel most girls and women struggle with in their lives.
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Canova Antonio, Venus Italica, 1804 - 1812, 19th Century, marble, full relief, Italy, Tuscany, Florence, Palazzo Pitti (236713) Everett CollectionMondadori Portfolio
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Planning
Planning Sketches and Ideas Initially, I wanted to use a similar style that photographer Cal Redback did, however he is a fairly new, modern photographer, with little to no information regarding his technique and style. However, starting off, I knew I was going to use Antonio Canova, a neoclassical and greek inspired addition to my collage, but I wanted a more modern twist, allowing both modern art inspiration and classical art inspiration as a balance. I began sketching and planning how I was going to organize this collage, and how I was going to incorporate everything. Flowers and Nature have always been therapeutic for me, especially through hardships in my life. Spending time in nature and admiring flowers makes me happy, and so I felt it was important to have these floral segments in the piece. I took several photographs of my favorite flowers, and began sketching where I would place the flowers, and how they would look with the statue. I knew I wanted facial features on the statue, to represent my struggle with self image and confidence. After a couple of days of experimenting and playing around with organization, I produced a final sketch, or idea, of what I wanted the collage to look like. Each piece that I put into the collage had symbolism, and importance to me, in my life. The impatiens symbolize ‘motherly love’, which represent how important my mother is to me, and how much she has helped me in my life. The New England Aster plant symbolize ‘love and patients’ which is very important to me, bringing love into people’s lives and kindness is what I strive for daily. The Black Eyed Susan symbolizes justice and motivation. The Petunias symbolize a loss or longing of someone, which in my piece, resembles the loss of loved ones in my life. The coneflower symbolizes strength and health. The Arrowroot plant, or the ‘prayer plant’ is also incorporated into my collage to represent my faith, and hope in my daily life. |
Process and Experimentation
Process I began by placing the statue in the right hand corner, and flowers on the left to allow for a balance on both sides of the collage. I then took a photograph of myself, and cut only the eyes out to then place them on the statue accordingly. It was a little difficult trying to rotate and size the eyes appropriately and proportionately in order to make the face look symmetrical for appeal. I wanted to be able to show at least two or three pedals of every flower in order to make the piece look vibrant and life like, seeming that each flowers position made sense and looked engaging to the audience. The Black Eyed Susan overlaps the Coneflower to create a three dimensional effect, and bring an illusion of a verdant garden. Halfway through working on the collage, I decided to change the background from the green leaves to the photograph with the light source in the background on the left. I then added a darker blue background with a portion of tree leaves on the top right hand corner. I wanted to incorporate my paintings and my art that I have created, because it has helped me with expressing myself and giving me a therapeutic outlet for my emotions. So, I added some blue paint to blend into the blue sky behind the tree leaves in order to make a smooth transition into the background. Upon making the top blue background, it also made the source of light on the left stand out a bit more. Because of this, the pink impatiens on the left were drowning into the background, making the piece’s balance shift. I tried putting more Coneflowers on the left, however, this only made the left look sloppy, and made the floral segments look crowded. I then realized that I hadn’t used the Arrowroot plant. I had taken several photographs, both in light, with the flash, in a darker light and with shadow. Through trial and error, and rotating the image of the Arrowroot plant, I had placed it just perfectly beside the light source. The bigger leaf had a slight shadow and darkness, and the smaller leaf in front of it, was the one I took with the flash. This now created the illusion that the light source on the left, was shining onto the leaf, which gave the left side depth. This now balanced out the piece, having both equal images on the left and right, creating unity. Experimentation With the background settled, I now decided to move onto the blue streak of ‘paint’ that would be placed on the statue. This was a bit difficult. I had the idea of taking a blue marker on paper, cutting out the blue marker, and pasting it onto the statue. I then took the paint bucket tool, selected a bright blue that would make the statue pop and create contrast. I tested out to see how it would work by beginning with black. Originally I was going to use black instead of the blue, but after looking at it, I decided blue complimented the color scheme more and was less harsh. I zoomed in over the blue maker and took the paint bucket tool and applied the blue. I was sure not to cover all the image, I wanted it to look realistic, so I left the edges a bit rough and streaky to create the illusion of paint. Once I had done the blue streak, I wanted to make the light source stand out more, to get the glowing effect. I decided to take the photograph of an illuminated impatien with a leaf, and place it in the upper left hand corner. This helped balance the light source and add to the illusion of the highlight on the flower and leaves. |
Compare and Contrast
Differences
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Similarities
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Meaning
Beginning this project was tough for me. Primarily because I hate opening up to people, and putting my emotions in the open. This project is all about emotion, much like every art piece there is, except, this one, is just a bit more personal. I envy people who can write about personal experiences and not regret it or try to avoid it. However, this project is based on raw personal information about yourself, a collage representing who you are as a person. And so, here I am, pouring my heart out onto the keys of a computer. All my life, I have struggled with confidence, both mentally and physically. The more I get older, and wiser, the less I care about others perceptions, and the more I start to do things that make me better, happier, and healthier. Although, as a younger young woman, I didn’t always think the same way as I do now, nor did I have the confidence I own today. Ever since I was little, I was always a shy person, very much an introvert. Yes, I know, like every other typical child, here comes the sob story of -a young child with no friends and a sad life- type of tale. But, speaking truthfully, I really didn’t have much friends, I was bullied for reasons I can’t even remember, and I wasn’t ever invited to sleepovers or birthday parties. So, my greatest friend, became my paper and pencil, or occasionally, my canvas and paintbrush. This was my outlet, somewhere I could be loud, express myself and still not say a single word. Towards the end of my primary school days, I gained more confidence, more friends, and learned how to ‘get out of my shell’. Art was and still is, a consistency in my life, something I can always go for for expression, for an outlet.
The flowers represent all of my attributes I consider myself to have, or strive to have in my life, either in myself, or in others I surround myself with. The statue of Venus is how I like to see every woman, including myself be represented as, strong, kind, loving, and beautiful. There is a difference in self confidence, and vanity. Confidence within yourself is important and shouldn’t be frowned upon, unlike vanity, learn to recognize the difference when judging others before you reach a conclusion. I put my eyes in the eyes of venus, which can symbolize a ‘lens on the world’ if you will. I try to see the good in others, small or large, everyone has good in them, concealed or disclosed. I try to see what venus represents in others, beauty, mostly inside and occasionally outside. The blue streak of ‘paint’ represents my once shy silence as a young woman. The paint on the right side of the collage, around venus and the tree symbolizes my creativity and expression through art. The bumblebee symbolizes personal power, to remind myself to be the change I want to see in the world, and that kindness only brings more kindness.
Secondary school has helped me grow, volunteering and helping others makes me happy, maybe even just as much as art. Creating this collage was a difficult process, however I am happy with the outcome, because within each image, there is a piece of me.
The flowers represent all of my attributes I consider myself to have, or strive to have in my life, either in myself, or in others I surround myself with. The statue of Venus is how I like to see every woman, including myself be represented as, strong, kind, loving, and beautiful. There is a difference in self confidence, and vanity. Confidence within yourself is important and shouldn’t be frowned upon, unlike vanity, learn to recognize the difference when judging others before you reach a conclusion. I put my eyes in the eyes of venus, which can symbolize a ‘lens on the world’ if you will. I try to see the good in others, small or large, everyone has good in them, concealed or disclosed. I try to see what venus represents in others, beauty, mostly inside and occasionally outside. The blue streak of ‘paint’ represents my once shy silence as a young woman. The paint on the right side of the collage, around venus and the tree symbolizes my creativity and expression through art. The bumblebee symbolizes personal power, to remind myself to be the change I want to see in the world, and that kindness only brings more kindness.
Secondary school has helped me grow, volunteering and helping others makes me happy, maybe even just as much as art. Creating this collage was a difficult process, however I am happy with the outcome, because within each image, there is a piece of me.
Reflection
I am satisfied with the final product, however, as with all pieces, there could be room for improvement. I wish I would have added some more plants in order to balance out the flowers, because the collage does have a lot of floral segments which can make it look ‘busy’ or overwhelming. Which initially, I wanted to avoid. I am satisfied with the high quality images, I wanted to have the best quality in every image to make the collage look clean and vibrant. I made sure to use appropriate lighting in photographs and angles in order to get the best photograph. I wish I would have incorporated lavender on the side of the face, which I originally planned on doing, but I decided not to because it would have ruined the asymmetrical balance of the piece. There was a bit of difficulty in trying to position everything correctly, and trying to correlate everything together. I am pleased with the composition in the collage, having both the flowers and paint work together to create unity. I attempted to incorporate chiaroscuro with the leaves on the left of the piece, in hopes of creating an illusion of a three-dimensional feel. Like most artists, a work is never truly finished, and I could probably tweak and edit this piece for years and still not be satisfied. Overall, I think the collage is well executed and has a clean look, which is something I was striving for.
1) Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork.
Antonio Canova’s ‘Venus of Canova’ inspired me to use the replica of Venus in my digital collage, Almeida’s piece affected the way I visually represented and portrayed Venus according to my personal experiences and opinions of young women in society today.
2) What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors are presenting information from an art historian standpoint, giving information on the artists and their bodies of work.
3) What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered a contemporary portuguese artist named Helena Almeida, who uses mixed medias in her works to communicate introspection within herself and others. I also discovered neoclassicist artist Antonio Canova, even though we had covered neoclassicism, it was interesting to learn about another sculptor and his process in creating his work.
4) What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea I was aiming upon my research was the confidence gap between men and women, and the struggle of femininity growing up as a young girl in the modern day world.
5) What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I inferred through my research that unlike most artists, Canova had gained a rather large reputation in his early career as an artist, allowing his work to become very well known throughout the years.
Bibliography
Artnet Worldwide Corperation. “Helena Almeida.” Claudio Bravo Biography – Claudio Bravo on Artnet, Pace Gallery, 2018, www.artnet.com/artists/helena-almeida/.
Ferando, Christina. “Antonio Canova.” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The MET, July 2016, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nova/hd_nova.htm.
Shipman, Katty Kay and Claire. “The Confidence Gap.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Aug. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-confidence-gap/359815/.
Ferando, Christina. “Antonio Canova.” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The MET, July 2016, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/nova/hd_nova.htm.
Shipman, Katty Kay and Claire. “The Confidence Gap.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 26 Aug. 2015, www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/05/the-confidence-gap/359815/.