Title: Hiding Blood
Medium: Digital collage Size: 107.95 cm x 154.19 cm September 13, 2018
Exhibition Text: In Society today, people are more focused on Beauty than Health. Blood and bruises are covered in foundation and concealed with sleeves, hidden in red lipsticks and Sweet Perfume. Even the prettiest flowers can have piercing thorns underneath their pretty petals. But sometimes we need a smell of bitter reality. The photos I've taken put together try and convey this message. This piece was inspired by Cindy Sherman and Pablo Picasso. |
| Critical Investigation |
Hiding Blood was thematically inspired by the Media's influence on our Identities, and how society can force on (mainly) women those contradictory but toxic messages on how to live. This inspired me to research artists who focused on this theme, and one stood out; Cindy Sherman. Her photography highlighted these struggles and used herself as her model and visual focus of her work, which I admire. She wasn't afraid to get in front of the camera and show what her stance was. In her earlier works she had most of her photos in black and white, but in more recent years she has embraced the full spectrum of color. In Hiding Blood, most of the colors are warm toned or a saturated to unsaturated Pink-Peach color. An Artist that mostly inspired this was Pablo Picasso - who had Color Periods where he used mostly one colors and its multiple shades throughout the works - his most notable being his Blue Period.
| Inspiration |
Untitled #92 was taken by Cindy Sherman, an American photographer from Huntington, Long Island. What drew me to her was her focus of Social issues like the view of women and feminism. Her focuses in her work really caught my eye. A lot of her photography has her as the main focus, and is simplistic but can have major impacts. A lot of her photos have her in poses you'd see from day to day life, and others in poses that are hard to look at. In these photos she hardly uses makeup or special effects, but when she does, she isn't afraid to get down and dirty with her work, such as in Untitled #140.
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What interests me in Untitled #140 (shown on the right) is how she was able to make the blood and dirt seep seamlessly into the pigskin, and the makeup makes the mouth and snout of the pig almost look like it is a part of her face. I also drew these aspects from her work; how women are seen as pigs if they do not wear makeup or cover up their imperfections. Or that they are seen as pigs if they are just themselves. This relates back to Hiding Blood because I wanted to embrace that women must cover up those imperfections and wounds with makeup or perfume whether by their own hands or the ghostly ones of others. Which is very similar to a lot of messages one can draw from Cindy Sherman's work.
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Pablo Picasso was an abstract painter from Spain, and throughout his life he experimented with many things in his paintings. One of his more interesting phases, were when he would take a specific color and mainly paint in shades of that color chosen. These were called his 'color periods'. One of his most famous was his Blue Period. This inspired me because he took care into these paintings, and making sure these had a sad or somber feel to them, and keeping to these cooler tones, even while encountering warmer toned colors like brown in his painting "The Old Guitarist". It made it feel like it was in a photo filter, which changed the colors completely.
This Color is inspiring and shows in Hiding Blood with the use of more warm toned colors, and trying to give all colors hitting the eye a warm false sense of contempt to the viewer. |
| Planning Sketches |
My Sketches mainly focused on the posing and Basic or more noticeable parts of the piece, rather than focusing on the smaller details in my sketches.
In my first Sketch, I played with the ideas and meanings behind the photos, most of which stayed through most of the other sketches and through to the final product, such as the nice but frizzy hair, Beauty products, basic pose, and the bloody face and bruises. In my second sketch, I introduced the idea of multiple arms, and a different basic pose to build off of. In the Third sketch, the Multiple arms have now migrated to the back, and flowers and the water background have also been introduced, to bring forth more of the beauty focus in the artwork. In my Final Sketch, I played with a different area of where the arms are connected, and more of the flowers are in the frame. In the final product, aspects from all these sketches found their place in the image. |
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| Process |
(Experimentation)
Prior to the project, I took multiple photos of myself from the waist up, and used photos from my trip to New York and Milwaukee's waterfront, as well as other miscellaneous ones and put them in my drive to use in the project. I took many photos of myself for the project, nearly 100 and went through them all to narrow them down into the best resolution and the best angle and pose for my project. Being a perfectionist when it comes to art, even ones with the slightest blur or incorrect lighting had to go.
Among the images I decided to use, I decided to use the images of myself where my arms were closer to my body, like I was compressing them into myself. I also decided to use ones where my head was still looking upwards, but still somewhat facing the camera, to draw the eyes to that part of the image. I want the face to be seen. I started to mainly experiment with what my sketches had in them. I wanted to mainly focus on the positions of the arms and coloration of the photo itself, and I did play with the flowers crowning around the image as well. When starting this image out I struggled to blend my images together - the blending tool in photoshop was not doing enough for me, so my art had to keep more rough and crisp lines. Trying to make the most of it, I upped the contrast over the whole image to make it blend like that. My skills in blending after that improved when I worked around that minor block. |
While putting this image together I also struggled with the positions of the arms. I wanted them to stand out while also blending into my figure. After experimenting with trying to blur them into the arms in the photo, I eventually moved them to the back and lowered the opacity to soften their color. When I did this, I had an idea and rotated the arms so it looked like they were coming from my back. I had liked this so much I kept it in the final product, almost making a "throne" of arms.
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| Process |
1. I took fake blood and let it drip from my nostril down my lip. I also took makeup and used a mixture of purple, brown, blue and black eyeshadows to make fake bruises.
2. I took multiple photos of myself from the hip up holding makeup items to my face, and photos of my arm holding out makeup items. 3. Then, I opened up photoshop and set up the dimensions of my collage. 4. After, I opened up my pictures and copied the items needed with quick selection tool, cut the background and pasted it into the collage document. 5. Then, I moved the images around to put them in the rough areas of where they would be in the final product. 6. Afterwards, I used free transform to move my parts throughout the composition. |
7. Then, once I was done I began to blur some areas of the image and increased the contrast of the image, and reduced saturation.
8. Once that was done I began to play with photo filters and coloration - If I wanted a more warm toned piece or cool toned piece.
9. I then Played with the flowers around the borders of the picture, to see if I wanted to crown it off with a border of flowers.
10. After that I made last minute adjustments to photo filters and capacities to blend it together.
8. Once that was done I began to play with photo filters and coloration - If I wanted a more warm toned piece or cool toned piece.
9. I then Played with the flowers around the borders of the picture, to see if I wanted to crown it off with a border of flowers.
10. After that I made last minute adjustments to photo filters and capacities to blend it together.
Overall, I would say that I captured most of what my inspiration had conveyed; but in a different way than I had expected. Cindy Sherman had more of a dark or somber mood (so did Picasso) whilst mine feels more light-weight since it is warm-toned. Cindy Sherman also had less use of photoshop and was mostly - if not completely - makeup and special effects in real time and captured on film. Compared to Picasso's colored periods, I think I did alright as well, however I feel like the green is still a little too cool-toned in the flowers for it to be true to the colored periods, however photoshop did have its limitations and there wasn't much I could do. Overall, however, I feel that I have done well with what I could work with.
| Meaning |
In Society today, people are more focused on Beauty than Health. Blood and bruises are covered in foundation and concealed with sleeves, hidden in red lipsticks and Sweet Perfume. Even the prettiest flowers can have piercing thorns underneath their pretty petals. Mental wounds and scars are covered in a pretty white smile and breakdowns are confined to the privacy of our thoughts in the shower. And when these things start to show, we cover them up with more flowers. But sometimes we need a smell of bitter reality. Society in itself is toxic and cruel; you can't win. If you don't make yourself up, you're ugly. If you do, you're full of yourself. Society has rules, and rules that contradict those rules.
In my life I've been told these contradicting things, and it has caused a lot of discord within myself. I've tried many times - again and again to beat this system. This toxic and abusive cycle that never seemed to end. I've tried again and again, beating after beating, breakdown after breakdown to make people happy with how I looked; with who I was. Because society made me believe that if I needed others to thing I was worthy for me to think I was good enough to even be alive; to even exist. Because in society if you don't look good - if you don't make an impact - why do you even exist?
It wasn't until I had took a step back from this narrow lens that I realized life was nothing like that at all. To matter to someone wasn't dependent on what I had looked like, but who I had portrayed myself as. Someone who truly cares about you won't care what you look like - just who you are on the inside, as cheesy as it sounds. But to adjust to this truth after literal years of this message being shoved down my throat - by the media, television, literature, anything and everything -is hard and a bumpy road to travel. It was even forced on me by my parents, and looking back it's heartbreaking. It was hard to adjust to learning that I didn't need to be pretty for anyone, just for myself ONLY if I wanted to. Once I did adjust, it was one of the best feelings I could experience.
After years and years of being bullied by adults, peers, the media and society to be beautiful by their standards, I finally stopped listening and found my own path through life. I'm still going down it, sure, but at least I don't have to pretend to be pretty anymore. I embrace my imperfections - my ugly. I know some people will look at me and think "pig". But you know what? Oink oink.
In my life I've been told these contradicting things, and it has caused a lot of discord within myself. I've tried many times - again and again to beat this system. This toxic and abusive cycle that never seemed to end. I've tried again and again, beating after beating, breakdown after breakdown to make people happy with how I looked; with who I was. Because society made me believe that if I needed others to thing I was worthy for me to think I was good enough to even be alive; to even exist. Because in society if you don't look good - if you don't make an impact - why do you even exist?
It wasn't until I had took a step back from this narrow lens that I realized life was nothing like that at all. To matter to someone wasn't dependent on what I had looked like, but who I had portrayed myself as. Someone who truly cares about you won't care what you look like - just who you are on the inside, as cheesy as it sounds. But to adjust to this truth after literal years of this message being shoved down my throat - by the media, television, literature, anything and everything -is hard and a bumpy road to travel. It was even forced on me by my parents, and looking back it's heartbreaking. It was hard to adjust to learning that I didn't need to be pretty for anyone, just for myself ONLY if I wanted to. Once I did adjust, it was one of the best feelings I could experience.
After years and years of being bullied by adults, peers, the media and society to be beautiful by their standards, I finally stopped listening and found my own path through life. I'm still going down it, sure, but at least I don't have to pretend to be pretty anymore. I embrace my imperfections - my ugly. I know some people will look at me and think "pig". But you know what? Oink oink.
| Reflection |
My main goal and theme of Hiding Blood was to make the audience understands the pressures of forced beauty. Because of that goal, I pushed to make my project as full of symbolism as it could be. Because of that, I think this project would be a success. While creating Hiding Blood I noticed many weaknesses as much as I did strengths. For example, selecting and transfering the images to the collage document was fairly simple to do overall. Another strength was placing the images (such as the arms) was fairly simple because I had patience and a keen eye for where and how I wanted things placed. There were also some complex or tougher things in the project such as getting the photo filters just right. The photo filters were tough and frustrating for me purely because of how photoshop works; where everything underneath the filter is affected by it instead of one single layer. But, I, overall feel that this project turned out better and exactly as I had hoped. I feel like I need to really get more comfortable with photoshop since I struggled with blending and brightening things in the image. But, again, I feel like I succeeded.
| ACT Questions |
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your art work?
My inspirations have affected my artwork by having a meaningful physical affect on my work. Sherman had affected my meaning with feminism and struggles of women and Picasso affected my work with the inspiration for a warm-peach period of my own.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author ( from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors really went in depth about the history of the artworks rather than the meaning of the works. With the author for Picasso for example, they focused a lot of the physical aspects and history of the works.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that many people - especially in the past - really focused on the physical attributes of a human, rather the internal attributes of them. That's why artists like Sherman focused a lot of their time on the society's views of beauty and the psychical body of a woman
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Mainly my theme was social issues and constructs. Not only because of Sherman's Feminism but Picasso's peace advocacy in his life as well. Truly artists with strong world views seem to inspire me.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Life is unforgiving and treacherous for anyone and everyone. War and Discourse is just part of society and not much can be done about it since it has been around for so long. Society wants to control us whether it be from controlling how we look or think of ourselves - or war and discord it wants to control with fear. And it works.
My inspirations have affected my artwork by having a meaningful physical affect on my work. Sherman had affected my meaning with feminism and struggles of women and Picasso affected my work with the inspiration for a warm-peach period of my own.
2. What is the overall approach (point of view) the author ( from your research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors really went in depth about the history of the artworks rather than the meaning of the works. With the author for Picasso for example, they focused a lot of the physical aspects and history of the works.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I have discovered that many people - especially in the past - really focused on the physical attributes of a human, rather the internal attributes of them. That's why artists like Sherman focused a lot of their time on the society's views of beauty and the psychical body of a woman
4. What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
Mainly my theme was social issues and constructs. Not only because of Sherman's Feminism but Picasso's peace advocacy in his life as well. Truly artists with strong world views seem to inspire me.
5. What kind of inferences (conclusions reached on the basis of evidence and reasoning) did you make while reading your research?
Life is unforgiving and treacherous for anyone and everyone. War and Discourse is just part of society and not much can be done about it since it has been around for so long. Society wants to control us whether it be from controlling how we look or think of ourselves - or war and discord it wants to control with fear. And it works.
Citations
- Freeman, Anna. “Your Ultimate Guide to Cindy Sherman.” Dazed, Dazed Digital, 3 Aug. 2016, www.dazeddigital.com/photography/article/32147/1/your-ultimate-guide-to-cindy-sherman.
- “Pablo Picasso's Blue Period - 1901 to 1904.” The Weeping Woman, 1937 by Pablo Picasso, 2009, www.pablopicasso.org/blue-period.jsp.
- “The Old Guitarist, 1903 by Pablo Picasso.” The Weeping Woman, 1937 by Pablo Picasso, 2009, www.pablopicasso.org/old-guitarist.jsp#prettyPhoto.