Project 3
Exhibition Text
Through the inspiration of Francis Bacon's "Painting" (1946), I was able to create a digital collage using photographs of flowers and a pig carcass. The piece symbolizes the unconventional beguiling beauty in gore and what others may perceive as disturbing.
Inspiration
Pre-treatment image of Francis Bacon’s Painting. 1946. Oil and pastel on linen, 6′ 5 7/8″ x 52″ (197.8 x 132.1 cm). Purchase. © 2015 Estate of Francis Bacon/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/DACS, London. Photo: The Museum of Modern Art, Department of Conservation
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I was inspired by Bacon's painting (1946), in particular his authentic style and depiction of beauty and gore in most of his pieces. I was most intrigued by the pig carcasses which appear in a lot of his paintings, surrounding this dark theme. I find beauty in all of his paintings, although some people may consider it disturbing or unconventional, however, he is able to formulate such deep emotions and communicate those feelings through color, and line, and shape on a canvas. There are various pink and red tones in the painting, which is something I wanted in my piece as well. This painting is a well known painting of Bacon's, mainly for the male figure with the umbrella, which is what intrigues many people when looking at this piece. I knew that I had wanted to use a photograph I took over the summer for my summer project, in order to begin my project using digital manipulation. |
Planning and Process
I had taken all of my summer photos using the Google Pixel 2 camera. The 12 megapixel rear camera offers 1080 HDR+ offering great dynamic range when shooting. This allows the photo to be balanced in exposure, making sure the lightness and darkness in the photo are adjusted properly. It also has an aperture of f/1.8 (expressed in fractions), which is on the larger spectrum of the scale (as you increase in number, you decrease the size of aperture. Aperture affects the depth, light, and overall exposure of the photograph. The smaller the fraction of aperture, the less depth is then offered in the photograph. Smaller apertures are normally on phones because these are considered "fast" lenses, it allows more light to pass through more quickly than that of a smaller aperture. A f/1.8 aperture offers adequate depth and low-light qualities, while offering decent bokeh (quality background highlights). The Google Pixel's aperture is fixed, so it does all the work for you without you having to adjust it yourself manually. It does this by controlling the camera's light sensitivity, and shutter speed.
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When I had initially taken my photograph, the quality was great, and I was pleased with the depth and clarity. However, the colors were dull and weren't as popping as I wanted them to be. So, I had gone to my app, called Google Photos. This is where I had stored all of my photographs. Google Photos has an editing feature available to all photographs. This includes three categories with bars that pop up on the right side of your photograph. The three categories include Light, Color, and and Pop. There is a drop-down by the light category that allows you to adjust features in the photograph by a distinct breakdown so that you can get the result or adjustment you need. I adjusted the light and warmth in the photograph in order to counteract the dullness in the original photograph, this made the juices inside the pig carcass pop, especially around the heart and in the chest cavity. I adjusted the color by upping the saturation and the warmth slightly so that the more pink and red tones would be more apparent and lively in the photograph. I then also adjusted the pop which is used to provide local contrast in the photograph. These all gave the photograph an extra something through photo editing. It made not only the colors pop more, but the depth and contrast more apparent so that the highlights can appear more lively. This shows detail on the heart and spine in the carcass and allows the light and shadows to work together to create a clear clean photograph.
I had decided to use the photographs I had used originally in my digital collage project. I took some photographs of beautiful plants and flowers in the garden. These would be added around the carcass of the pig, surrounding the heart, and some of the liver. I wanted to showcase how captivating and refined gore can become when one investigates its features more clearly and attentively. I used the quick selection tool to carefully trace out the flowers and the leaves, as well as the bee that is placed on the flower near the heart in the carcass, and towards the liver. The crepe pink flower is known as the Catharanthus Roseus, or the Madagascar Periwinkle. Madagascar Periwinkles are said to symbolize calmness and serenity, which is why I included them in the carcass. Bacon found comfort in the disturbed because it made him feel less alone. His rough childhood and upbringing led him to create pieces from his mind that some found troubling, or captivating. There often was no in between, viewers either loved or hated his work, but he never strayed from painting what he knew. The lavender purple flower by the heart is known as the Symphyotrichum Sericeum or the Silky Aster. This is said to represent coming together. The unification of gore and beauty is one of the central themes I wanted to communicate in this piece, and so I chose to add two major symbols that I felt would best provide context to the piece, and relate to how I perceive Bacon's work.
Experimentation
While editing in the Madagascar Periwinkle and the Silky Aster with the bee and leaves in the carcass, I had to overlay and position some of the organs in a way that would make the flowers seem as if they were originally part of the photograph, rather than photoshopped. The marked shapes lined with red in the photo to the left is where I had to edit and use the quick selection and copy and paste tool to then place the fat walls, or the heart over the flower using the layers in photoshop. When you use photoshop there are various layers that appear when you copy in a new item onto the original background or image that you are editing. These layers can be moved around in numerical order so that certain pasted items appear in the foreground or background of the piece, or over, under other items that were added and pasted in. My technique that I used was to take the circled piece of the background (in the photo to the left) and use the quick selection tool to then paste it back into the canvas as a layer. I then placed the flower above the layer of the piece of the carcass in order to have it appear behind it. If you wanted something to appear in the foreground of it, you would have to place the layer before the desired item to be covered. This was difficult, especially trying to position the flowers and the light in a way that would look realistic. I was originally going to put the Silky Aster where the Madagascar Periwinkle was, but I realized the light coming in from the front of the pig carcass made the illusion that the leaves and Silky Aster was being hit by the light, which gives the affect that it was there in the original shot.
Comparing and Contrasting
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Reflection and Meaning
Francis Bacon liked to push the boundaries of art, and be unconventional. He painted what he knew, and he painted with feeling, emotion with every stroke of his paintbrush. I had the rare opportunity of photographing a pig carcass. Before Junior year ended, I had to choose the two artists for my comparative study, and so I chose Bacon and Picasso because they were my two favorite artists. I loved how they depicted and executed their work, full of emotion and artistic elements that were very intriguing and meaningful. I took inspiration not only from Bacon's painting but from his vision and depiction of art as well. At first I was hesitant turning in these photographs for my summer art project, however, I realized that these photographs had taken me so long to execute and edit, that they had to be included in the 100 photos, as well as this current project. Overall, I feel good with the execution of this project, however I am a slightly unhappy with the flowers because they don't look as original or realistic to the photo as I had hoped.
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