In this assignment, I had to create a self-portrait. I wanted to use my style of nature related photos to communicate my need for tranquility, seeing that nature often symbolizes tranquility. In this piece, I created a collage using various magazine photos of nature along with a photo of myself that I printed, cut using an x-acto knife, and pasted in the lower part of my piece off center. I used multiple landscapes of nature to show a variety of value, texture, shape, and color from the way I cut and layered them while still relating the color scheme to the photo of myself. In addition, I desired to create some contrast within the piece, so I also added some magazine pieces of white values and didn't fill the whole paper with collage to not only balance the piece, but also to represent calmness in another way. I cut the photo of myself into several parts and pasted them equally separate to represent me currently being "apart" and not tranquil. Both the values in the photo of myself and the space I created between the different parts of myself brought emphasis to myself, the focal point. In addition, it developed more movement in the piece. Generally, I am satisfied with this piece and find it to be successful, although I wish the colors in the photo of myself did not come out as dull as they did. I also feel that my craftsmanship could be better. The process of creating this piece was a mixture of stressful but also fun! Although I tend to not really enjoy creating self-portraits, it was a new experience to create a collage that incorporated a printed photo that I cut. I believe that this assignment was quite challenging but also very rewarding for me to do. I definitely intend to include collage into more of my pieces in the future!
Artist Statement: The different aspects of nature have always been fascinating to me. Nature is often symbolic of tranquility and freedom. As a result, I wanted to represent myself by displaying not only my interest in nature, but also exhibiting my need for serenity and freedom at this time in my life.
Artist Statement: The different aspects of nature have always been fascinating to me. Nature is often symbolic of tranquility and freedom. As a result, I wanted to represent myself by displaying not only my interest in nature, but also exhibiting my need for serenity and freedom at this time in my life.